Pipeline Torah Gem #919 2026-04-01: Passover and the Temple Offerings

[Vaughn Seward]

Passover and the Temple Offerings

Each and every day, two offerings, known as tamid offerings, were brought in the Temple, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. In addition, on any given day numerous other offerings were brought, most of them by private individuals and some by the community as a whole. Generally, these offerings were required to be sandwiched between the two tamid offerings. No offering was permitted to be sacrificed before the morning tamid and none could be brought after the afternoon tamid. An exception to this rule was the pesach sacrifice, which was always offered after the afternoon tamid. The timing of the pesach sacrifice was therefore linked to that of the tamid.

The Mishnah, in Chapter 5, lists the times for the offering of the afternoon tamid at different occasions during the year: The afternoon tamid offering is, on an ordinary day, slaughtered at 8.5 hours into the day and is offered (i.e. burnt on the Alter) at 9.5 hours. On Erev Pesach, [the tamid] is slaughtered at 7.5 hours and offered at 8.5 hours, whether that day falls on a weekday or on the Sabbath. If Erev Pesach falls on a Friday, [the tamid] is slaughtered at 6.5 hours and is offered at 7.5 hours. In all cases, the pesach offering is brought after it, and the times adjusted to allow enough time for the [many] pesach offerings to be offered before sunset (Rashi).

Adapted from the ArtScroll Gemara, Talmud Bavli in Pesachim 58a1, Mishnah intro paragraph.
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Yiddish Corner

A koshern un freylikhen Pesakh.
A kosher and joyous Passover.