Tuesday 13 August 2019

Temura 25: Can We Change Our Minds Regarding Sacrifices?

Our Mishna teaches about Rabbi Meir's words: when the offspring of this animal shall be a burnt offering and the animal itself shall be a peace offering, his words hold.  But if he says first that the animal shall be a peace offering and then inadvertently its young shall be a burnt offering, its young are regarded as the young of a peace offering.   

Rabbi Yosei says that if he intended to say this at first, and since it is impossible to mention both kinds of sacrifices at the same time, his worlds would stand.  After he already said intentionally "this shall be a peace offering", he changes his mind and says "its young shall be a burnt offering", its young is regarded as the youth of a peace offering.

Rabbi Meir's teaching is clear.  Although she one has the ability to sanctify the embryo of a pregnant animal separately from its mother, that is only if he first sanctified the embryos.  If the mother is sancified first, the embryo automatically takes on its mother's sanctity and they must be sacrifice ed together.  Rabbi Yosei argues that if the person's intent was to state different sanctification for the motherland the embryo, it even the mother is mentioned first.  Once his makes his statement, however, it must hold.

Rav Pappa says that this teaching is important in a case where the statements were made tech k'dei kibbur, within the span of utterance.  Jewish laws generally allow one to change his/her mind and restate intentions within a short amount oaf time.  This would be the amount of time that it takes to welcome one's teacher - shalom alecheim, mori v'rabbi.  Sanctified objects cannot be returned, however.

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