Commentary for Pesachim 156:22

אי בציבור אמאי אין הבשר נאכל בטומאה גזירה שמא יטמאו הבעלים לאחר זריקה ויאמרו אשתקד לא נטמאנו ואכלנו השתא נמי ניכול ולא ידעי דאשתקד כי איזדריק דם בעלים טמאים הוו השתא בעלים טהורין הוו

With whom [does this agree]? Shall we say [that] it is [according to] the Rabbis but not R'Nathan? - You may even say [that it agrees with] R'Nathan: we require a man who is capable of eating [to be registered for it]. Who is the author of the following which our Rabbis taught: If he slaughtered it in cleanness and then its owners became unclean, he must sprinkle the blood in cleanness,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' I.e., by ritually clean priests and with clean service vessels.');">¹⁹</span> but the flesh must not be eaten in uncleanness? With whom [does this agree]? - Said R'Eleazar: This was taught as a controversy, and it is [the view of] R'Nathan.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Who maintains that the eating is not indispensable. R. Eleazar holds that he does not require those registered for it even to be fit to eat. Consequently he explains the previous Baraitha as the view of the Rabbis only');">²⁰</span> But R'Johanan said: You may even say [that] it is [the view of] the Rabbis: we treat here of the community,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' I.e., the whole or the majority of the community became unclean between the killing and the sprinkling, e.g., if the nasi died just then.');">²¹</span> who may even sacrifice in [a state of] uncleanness. If it refers to the community, why may the flesh not be eaten in uncleanness? - As a preventive measure, lest the owners<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' I.e., the community, cf. n. 1.');">²²</span> become unclean [in a subsequent year] after the sprinkling and they argue: Were we not unclean last year, and yet we ate; then now too we will eat! But they will not know that in the previous year the owners were unclean when the blood was sprinkled,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' So that it was a Passover-offering sacrificed in uncleanness, which is eaten in uncleanness too.');">²³</span> whereas this year the owners were clean [when the blood was sprinkled].<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Hence the sacrifice came in a state of cleanness, and may therefore not be eaten now that the owners are unclean.');">²⁴</span>

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