Commentary for Zevachim 204:27

והיכי עביד הכי והאמר רבה בר בר חנה א"ר יוחנן בכל מקום מותר להרהר חוץ ממרחץ ומבית הכסא לאונסו שאני:

come, offer, and eat.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' But as you cannot offer, being a tebul yom, you cannot eat either.');">¹⁴</span> [If the tebul yom demands:] Give me [a share] of an Israelite's sin-offering, that I may eat, he can reply: can repulse you from an Israelite's meal-offering, though I have no privileges in my own meal-offering, surely I can repulse you from an Israelite's sin-offering, seeing that I have great privileges in my own sin-offering. He can retort: If you can repulse me from an Israelite's meal-offering, where just as you have no privileges so have I no privileges: will you repulse me from an Israelite's sin-offering, where just as you have great privileges, so have I great privileges? He can answer: Lo, it says, The priest that offereth it for s shall eat it:<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Ibid. VI, 19.');">¹⁵</span> come, offer it for sin, and eat! If [the tebul yom] demands Give me [a share] of the breast and the thigh, that I may eat, he can reply: If I can repulse you from an Israelite's sin-offering, though you have great privileges in your own sin-offering, surely I can repulse you from a peace-offering, where your privileges are weak, since you have rights only to the breast and thigh thereof. He can retort: If you can repulse me from a sin-offering, where my rights are weak in respect of my wives and servants,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Even when I am clean and receive a share, my wives and slaves may not eat thereof.');">¹⁶</span> will you repulse me from the breast and thigh, where my rights are strong in respect of my wives and my slaves?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' They may eat of my share.');">¹⁷</span> He can answer: Lo, it says, It shall be the priest's that sprinkleth the blood of the peace-offerings against the altar:<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Ibid. VII, 14.');">¹⁸</span> Come, sprinkle and eat. Thus the tebul yom departs, bearing his arguments on his head,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lit., 'with his leniencies and stringencies on his head' - his arguments have availed him nought, and he retires crestfallen.');">¹⁹</span> with an onen on his right and one who lacks atonement on his left.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' They too can be similarly repulsed.');">²⁰</span> R'Ahai raised a difficulty: Let him [the tebul yom] demand:<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' I.e., why did R. Eleazar b. R. Simeon not discuss the case where a tebul yom demands a share in a firstling?');">²¹</span> Give me [a share] of a firstling, that I may eat. Because he [the clean priest] can answer: If I can repulse you from an Israelite's sin-offering, though my own privileges in a sin-offering are weak in respect to my wives and slaves, surely I can repulse you from a firstling, where I enjoy great privileges, as it is altogether mine. [He can answer:] If you have repulsed me from a sin-offering, where just as your privileges are weak so are my privileges weak, will you repulse me from a firstling, where just as your privileges are great, so are mine great? [He can retort:] Lo, it says, Thou shalt sprinkle their blood against the altar, and shalt make their fat smoke for an offering made by fire. and the flesh of them shall be thine:<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Num. XVIII, 17, 18. This refers to firstlings.');">²²</span> come, sprinkle, and eat.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Why then did R. Eleazar b. R. Simeon omit this? Actually a firstling was not given to the ward but to any individual priest, to whom the whole of it belonged. R. Ahai nevertheless suggests that the above argument shews that it cannot be given to a priest (e.g. a tebul yom) who at the time of giving is not fit to officiate. Since R. Eleazar b. R. Simeon omits this, it follows that he does not accept this view.');">²³</span> And the other?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' R. Eleazar b. R. Simeon: why does he reject this argument?');">²⁴</span> - Refute it [thus]: Is it then written, And the flesh of them shall be the priest's who sprinkleth? Surely it is written, And the flesh of them shall be thine, which means even another priest's.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' 'Thine' meaning the priesthood's in general.');">²⁵</span> Now, how might he [R'Eleazar son of R'Simeon] do this?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Sc. think of all this in a privy.');">²⁶</span> Surely Rabbah B'Bar Hanah said in R'Johanan's name: One may meditate [on learning] in all places, except in a bath-house and a privy? - It is different [when it is done] involuntarily.

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