When do the Rabbis suspend a Torah law?
Apr. 5th, 2006 03:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhu(I'm about two weeks behind on Daf Yomi, so this is inspired by Pesachim 66.)
The Talmud questions whether one may bring the korban Pesach (the Paschal lamb sacrifice) when erev Pesach falls on Shabbat. The conclusion is yes, because the Torah specifically says to bring this sacrifice on this day, even though there's a concern that someone may carry his korban meat home outside the eruv to eat it that night at his seder.
Yet the Torah also specifically says to blow shofar on Rosh ha-Shanah, and the rabbis added a "fence law" to prohibit that when Rosh ha-Shanah falls on Shabbat. Same for waving the arba minim on Sukkot. (Those rabbinic prohibitions didn't apply in the Temple because there were enough knowledgeable people there that inadvertent Shabbat violations wouldn't happen.)
You could argue that there is no difference, that the rabbis only prohibited shofar and lulav outside the Temple, and the korban Pesach by definition is always prohibited outside the Temple. But the reason that the Talmud gives differs in these two cases: the permissibility of the korban is based on "We can't prohibit what the Torah mandates" and the prohibition/permissibility of the others is based on "We can prohibit what the Torah mandates, and we will for shofar and lulav, but in one particular sub-case we don't find it necessary."
The Talmud questions whether one may bring the korban Pesach (the Paschal lamb sacrifice) when erev Pesach falls on Shabbat. The conclusion is yes, because the Torah specifically says to bring this sacrifice on this day, even though there's a concern that someone may carry his korban meat home outside the eruv to eat it that night at his seder.
Yet the Torah also specifically says to blow shofar on Rosh ha-Shanah, and the rabbis added a "fence law" to prohibit that when Rosh ha-Shanah falls on Shabbat. Same for waving the arba minim on Sukkot. (Those rabbinic prohibitions didn't apply in the Temple because there were enough knowledgeable people there that inadvertent Shabbat violations wouldn't happen.)
You could argue that there is no difference, that the rabbis only prohibited shofar and lulav outside the Temple, and the korban Pesach by definition is always prohibited outside the Temple. But the reason that the Talmud gives differs in these two cases: the permissibility of the korban is based on "We can't prohibit what the Torah mandates" and the prohibition/permissibility of the others is based on "We can prohibit what the Torah mandates, and we will for shofar and lulav, but in one particular sub-case we don't find it necessary."