We are now on our third consecutive daf exploring the question of what to do with a surplus of lambs designated for the daily sacrifice. Most of the conversation has taken place between Rav Hisda and Rabba. Rav Hisda holds the most expected position: that the lambs are put out to pasture until they develop a blemish and become unfit for the altar, then they are redeemed. This is expected because it is the usual procedure for animals that were once designated sacrifices but, for a variety of reasons, are no longer bound for the altar. But Rabba argues that a surplus of lambs for the daily offering can actually be redeemed before they develop a blemish — significantly expediting the process. Today, we encounter another take on this debate:
Rabbi Yohanan learned it through a tradition: According to the statement of Rabbi Shimon, they cannot be redeemed, according to the statement of the rabbis, they may be redeemed.
So far, this looks like the same two positions we saw with Rabba and Rab Hisda. The rabbis (like Rabba) think that if a consecrated lamb is fit for sacrifice but not needed, it can be sold and its price donated to the Temple instead. Rabbi Shimon, like Rav Hisda, believes that if a consecrated lamb is fit for sacrifice, it cannot be redeemed.
But whereas Rav Hisda’s solution to a surplus of lambs is to put them out to pasture until they develop a blemish and then redeem them, today’s daf offers a different solution:
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Rabbi Yitzhak says that Rabbi Yohanan says: One supplements the altar with them.
Though these extra lambs aren’t needed for the daily offerings, says Rabbi Yohanan, they should still be sacrificed — as extra offerings. How should we think about these daily offerings? The Gemara today offers us a beautiful image:
(The extra lambs are) dessert, like white figs, for the altar.
These extra offerings are not just a second daily offering, or a third, but dessert. Describing extra offerings as dessert — a special treat that punctuates a meal and leaves us with a sweet taste in our mouth — raises some serious questions. The first is textual:
But isn’t it written: “For any leavening or fruit honey you shall not cause to go up in smoke as a fire-offering to the Lord” (Leviticus 2:11)? Rav Hanina teaches: Like white figs for a person.
Leviticus prohibits offering fruit on the altar — so how could the rabbis dictate that something be offered like fruit? Not truly like fruit, says Rabbi Hanina, but metaphorically: Just as white figs are a delicious dessert for humans, the lamb is a delicious dessert for God.
Of course, this parallel raises a much larger theological question about the nature of the daily sacrifices. If extra sacrifices are dessert, then that means regular sacrifices are the main meal. Should we think about these sacrifices as actually feeding God? Does God need, or want, to eat? Or are we again in the land of metaphor?
The Talmud doesn’t address these questions directly on today’s daf. But in some ways, its focus on what humans should do may offer its own answer. After all, the questions of whether God eats and whether humans should offer food are actually quite different. Humans offer food not simply to feed but to show love and care, to make special time together and to solidify relationships — as well as to meet one another’s stated desire (after all, in the Torah, God tells us to worship through animal sacrifice because these sacrifices offer God “a pleasing odor”!). So although the rabbis may not imagine God actually eating the sacrifices, for all the reasons listed and more, they clearly see value in offering God food — and even “dessert.”
Read all of Shevuot 12 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on May 13, 2025. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
