 The lamb is one of the animals that was used as a sacrificial animal prior to 70 CE.
(larger image)Passover in 2009 will start on Thursday, the 9th of April and will continue for 7 days until Wednesday, the 15th of April. OriginsThe blood of this sacrifice sprinkled on the door-posts of the Israelites was to be a sign to the angel of death, when passing through the land to slay the first-born of the Egyptians that night, that he should pass by the houses of the Israelites. This is called in the Mishnah the "Egyptian Passover sacrifice" ("Pesaḥ Miẓrayim"; Pes. ix. 5). It was ordained, furthermore 24 You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever. 25 And when you come to the land that the LORD will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service. 26 And when your children say to you, 'What do you mean by this service?' 27 you shall say, 'It is the sacrifice of the LORD’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.'" And the people bowed their heads and worshiped. (Exodus 12:24-27) that this observance should be repeated annually for all time. This so-called "Pesaḥ Dorot," the Passover of succeeding generations (Pes. l.c.), differs in many respects from the Pesaḥ Miẓrayim. In the pre-exilic period, however, Pesaḥ was rarely sacrificed in accordance with the legal prescriptions (comp. II Chron. xxxv. 18). According to Rashi, only once during their forty years of wandering in the wilderness, one year after the Exodus, was the sacrifice offered.1 And the LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, 2 "Let the people of Israel keep the Passover at its appointed time. 3 On the fourteenth day of this month, at twilight, you shall keep it at its appointed time; according to all its statutes and all its rules you shall keep it." (Numbers 9:1–3, ESV) For the next 39 years there was no offering, according to Rashi, as God stipulated that it could only be offered after the Children of Israel had entered the Land of Israel. In fact, the bringing of the Pesach sacrifice resumed only after the Israelites had taken possession of the land, and then the sacrifice was made annually until during the times when Solomon's Temple and the Second Temple stood and functioned. During this time there was a definite ritual for the offering, in addition to the regulations prescribed by the Halakha (the collective corpus of Jewish religious law). The following is a brief summary of the principal ordinances and of the ritual accompanying the sacrifice:The SacrificeThe sacrificial animal, which was either a lamb or kid, was necessarily a male, one year old, and without blemish. Each family or society offered one animal together, which did not require the "semikah" (laying on of hands), although it was obligatory to determine who were to take part in the sacrifice that the killing might take place with the proper intentions. Only those who were circumcised and clean before the Law might participate, and they were forbidden to have leavened food in their possession during the act of killing the paschal lamb. The animal was slain on the eve of the Passover, on the afternoon of the 14th of Nisan, after the Tamid sacrifice had been killed, i.e., at three o'clock, or, in case the eve of the Passover fell on Friday, at two.The killing took place in the court of the Temple at Jerusalem, and might be performed by a layman, although the blood had to be caught by a priest, and rows of priests with gold or silver cups in their hands stood in line from the Temple court to the altar, where the blood was sprinkled. These cups were rounded on the bottom, so that they could not be set down; for in that case the blood might coagulate. The priest who caught the blood as it dropped from the victim then handed the cup to the priest next to him, receiving from him an empty one, and the full cup was passed along the line until it reached the last priest, who sprinkled its contents on the altar. The lamb was then hung upon special hooks or sticks and skinned; but if the eve of the Passover fell on a Sabbath, the skin was removed down to the breast only. The abdomen was then cut open, and the fatty portions intended for the altar were taken out, placed in a vessel, salted, and offered by the priest on the altar, while the remaining entrails likewise were taken out and cleansed.While the required quorum for most activities requiring a quorum is usually ten, the Korban Pesach must be offered before a quorum of 30. (It must be performed in front of kahal adat yisrael, the assembly of the congregation of Israel. Ten are needed for the assembly, ten for the congregation, and ten for Israel.) According to some Talmudic authorities, women counted in the minyan for offering the Korban Pesach.Passover Eve on the SabbathEven if the eve of the Passover fell on a Sabbath, the paschal lamb was killed in the manner described above, the blood was sprinkled on the altar, the entrails removed and cleansed, and the fat offered on the altar; for these four ceremonies in the case of the paschal lamb, and these alone, were exempt from the prohibition against working on the Sabbath. This regulation, that the Sabbath yielded the precedence to the Passover, was not definitely determined until the time of Hillel, who established it as a law and was in return elevated to the dignity of nasi by the Bene Bathyra.The Three Groups of LaityThe people taking part in the sacrifice were divided into three groups. The first of these filled the court of the Temple, so that the gates had to be closed, and while they were killing and offering their paschal lambs the Levites on the platform ("dukan") recited the "Hallel" (Psalms 113-118), accompanied by instruments of brass. If the Levites finished their recitation before the priests had completed the sacrifice, they repeated the "Hallel," although it never happened that they had to repeat it twice. As soon as the first group had offered their sacrifice, the gates were opened to let them out, and their places were taken by the second and third groups successively.All three groups offered their sacrifice in the manner described, while the "Hallel" was recited; but the third group was so small that it had always finished before the Levites reached Psalm 116. It was called the "group of the lazy" because it came last. Even if the majority of the people were ritually unclean on the eve of the Passover, the sacrifice was offered on the 14th of Nisan. Other sacrifices, on the contrary, called "ḥagigah," which were offered together with the paschal lamb, were omitted if the eve of the Passover fell on a Sabbath, or if the sacrifice was offered in a state of uncleanness, or if the number of participants was so small that they could not consume all the meat. When the sacrifice was completed and the animal was ready for roasting, each one present carried his lamb home, except when the eve of the Passover fell on a Sabbath, in which case it might not be taken away.The Home CeremonyThe first group stationed itself on The Temple Mount of the Temple in Jerusalem, the second group in the "ḥel," the space between the Temple wall and the Temple hall, while the third group remained in the Temple court, thus awaiting the evening, when they took their lambs home and roasted them on a spit of pomegranate-wood. No bones might be broken either during the cooking or during the eating. The lamb was set on the table at the evening banquet (see Passover Seder), and was eaten by the assembled company after all had satisfied their appetites with the ḥagigah or other food. The sacrifice had to be consumed entirely that same evening, nothing being allowed to remain overnight. While eating it, the entire company of those who partook was obliged to remain together, and every participant had to take a piece of the lamb at least as large as an olive. Women and girls also might take part in the banquet and eat of the sacrifice. The following benediction was pronounced before eating the lamb: "Blessed be Thou, the Eternal, our God, the King of the world, who hast sanctified us by Thy commands, and hast ordained that we should eat the Passover." The "Hallel" was recited during the meal, and when the lamb had been eaten the meaning of the custom was explained, and the story of the Exodus was told (see Passover Seder).The paschal sacrifice belongs to the "shelamim," thus forming one of the sacrifices in which the meal is the principal part and indicates the community between God and man. It is really a house or family sacrifice, and each household is regarded as constituting a small community in itself, not only because the lamb is eaten at home, but also because every member of the family is obliged to partake of the meal, on pain of karet (ritual excommunication), although each man must be circumcised and all must be ritually clean. The fact that the paschal lamb might be killed only at the central sanctuary of Jerusalem, on the other hand, implies that each household was but a member of the larger community; this is indicated also by the national character of the sacrifice, which kept alive in the memory of the nation the preservation and liberation of the entire people.Contemporary efforts to reviveIn 2007, a group of rabbis led by Adin Steinsalz and supported by the Temple Mount Faithful and the New Sanhedrin Council identified a Kohen who was a butcher, made plans for conducting a passover sacrifice on the Temple Mount, and petitioned the Israeli High Court of Justice for permission. The Court sided with the government and rejected the request, holding that such an event would inflame religious tensions and would threaten security. The incident was a successor to a series of earlier attempts by various groups to perform such a sacrifice, either openly or by subterfuge.In 2008 animal rights group Tnoo Lachayot Lichyot ("Let the Animals Live") sued the Temple Institute, claiming its conduct of a practice passover sacrifice demonstration would constitute animal cruelty. An Israeli court rejected the claim. References - Exodus 3:1-23
- Rashi to Bamidbar 9:1
- This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia article "Passover Sacrifice" by Executive Committee of the Editorial Board, Jacob Zallel Lauterbach, a publication now in the public domain.
- e.g. Rav, Rav Kahana, Talmud Bavli, Pesachim, 79b
- Talmud Bavli, Pesachim, 68a
- Shargai, Nadav & Barkat, Amiram (2007-02-04), "Court prevents groups from sacrificing live animals at Temple Mount", Haaretz, . Retrieved on 7 October 2008
- "Rabbis aim to renew animal sacrifices", Jerusalem Post, 2007-02-28, . Retrieved on 7 October 2008
- "Judge Rules Paschal Sacrifice Practice 'Proper,' Appeal Filed", Israeli National News (2008-04-08). Retrieved on 2008-10-07.
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