Talmud Bavli
Talmud Bavli

Musar for Pesachim 149:20

התם נמי כתיבא שריפה לבסוף דכתיב

Surely in respect of a priest's daughter [who committed adultery], though it is written, she shall be burnt with fire,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lev. XXI, 9.');"><sup>10</sup></span> R'Mattenah said: They made a lead wick for her?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' V. Sanh. 52a.');"><sup>11</sup></span> - There it is different, because the Divine Law said, 'she shall be burnt with fire': 'she shall be burnt' is to include all burnings which come from fire, then all the more fire itself! [If so] let us surround her with bundles of faggots and burn her? - The meaning of 'burning' is learnt from the children of Aaron: just as there it was a burning of the soul while the body remained intact, so here burning of the soul while the body remains intact [is meant].<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' V. Sanh. 52a.');"><sup>12</sup></span> Then let us prepare for her boiling water [heated] by the fire?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' I.e., let us execute her by scalding.');"><sup>13</sup></span> - [That is ruled out] on account of R'Nahman' [s dictum]. For R'Nahman said, Scripture saith, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself:<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lev. XIX, 18.');"><sup>14</sup></span> choose an easy death for him. Now, since there is R'Nahman['s deduction], what is the purpose of the gezerah shawah?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' V. Glos. I.e., the derivation from the sons of Aaron. it. Nahman's dictum in itself excludes also burning by faggots.');"><sup>15</sup></span> - I will tell you: But for the gezerah shawah, I would say [that] the burning of the soul while the body remains intact is not burning,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' So that the only alternative left is burning by faggots.');"><sup>16</sup></span> while as for R'Nahman's [teaching], let us use many bundles of faggots for her, so that she should die quickly. Therefore it [the gezerah shawah] informs us [that it is not so]. Then what is the purpose of '[she shall be burnt] with fire'?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Since after all the verse is taken to include all burnings which come from fire.');"><sup>17</sup></span> - It is to exclude [boiling] lead [drawn straight] from its source. R'Jeremiah said to R'Zera: Then wherever 'she shall be burnt with fire' is written, it is to include all burnings which are produced by fire? Surely in respect to the [sacrificial] bullocks which were burnt, though it is written, and the [the priest] shall burn it on wood with fire,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Ibid. IV, 12.');"><sup>18</sup></span> it was nevertheless taught: 'With fire,' but not with boiling lime or boiling gypsum? - Said he to him, How compare! There 'with fire' is written [first] and 'she shall be burnt' after: [hence] it is to include all burnings which are produced by fire;<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Since the addition of 'she shall be burnt', after 'with fire' has already been stated, it is superfluous.');"><sup>19</sup></span> [whereas] here is written, and he shall burn it on wood with fire,' 'with fire' being at the end, to intimate that fire on [is permitted], but not anything else. But there too burning is written at the end, for it is written,

Shenei Luchot HaBerit

To return to our main subject, that the person presenting the offering is in fact the real sacrifice, something we derived from the wording of Leviticus 1,2: אדם כי יקריב מכם. This has an additional mystical dimension. It can happen that man is "sacrificed" even in our world [not only when the soul is sacrificed by the archangel Michael on the Celestial Altar. Ed.]. This happens as a result of the transmigration of souls as we have explained earlier (Torah Ohr on Eikev). It is the reason why we are commanded to slaughter animals even when we consume them as חולין, non-consecrated meat. Extreme care has to be taken in the performance of ritual slaughter so that we do not wind up eating נבלה. When this happens the verse from Genesis 34,7: נבלה עשה בישראל, "he committed an outrage in Israel," would apply. No one knows whose soul the animal in question harbored. By not having been slaughtered in the most meticulous way a great injustice may have been done. According to the directive ואהבת לרעך כמוך, "Love your neighbor like yourself," the obligation to kill the animal in such a way that its death elevates it spiritually is included. Should the animal die of natural causes (any cause other than approved ritual slaughter) the spirit of impurity which was contained in that animal will not have been released but will suffuse it. On the other hand, if it is healthy and contains some spark of sanctity, and is killed by means of ritual slaughter the soul will exit in purity.
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