Today, we pick up in the middle of a conversation about the status of a sacrifice when the ritual of offering is somehow interrupted. The rabbis want to know in which cases the animal remains holy and can be eaten by the priests, in which cases it remains holy but must be disposed of, and in which cases it returns to its original mundane status.
Within this larger discussion, one interesting kind of sacrifice becomes the object of discussion: the asham talui, the provisional (literally: hanging) guilt offering. This sacrifice is brought when a person is uncertain if they have committed a sin. The classic example is a case in which kosher and unkosher pieces of fat are mixed up. If a person ate what they thought was the kosher piece, but then realized it might have been the unkosher one, they are now uncertain about their guilt. The solution to this maybe-mistake is to bring an asham talui.
Because of the uncertainty of the situation, the asham talui is, as one might imagine, a sacrifice likely to be interrupted mid-process. A person might set an animal aside for this offering and then discover that they had, after all, eaten the kosher fat. Knowing now that there was no sin, there is then a question of what becomes of the animal. The Talmud presents a beraita with several opinions:
One who brings a provisional guilt offering and later it becomes known that he has not sinned: If it became known to him before the offering was slaughtered, it should go out and graze in the flock — this is the statement of Rabbi Meir.
And the rabbis say it should graze until it becomes blemished, and then it is sold, and its money is allocated for communal gift offerings.
Rabbi Eliezer says: It should be sacrificed, since if it does not come to atone for this sin, it will come for a different sin.
The first opinion, from Rabbi Meir, is that the animal retains no holiness and can return to the herd as normal. The majority opinion of the rabbis, on the other hand, is that the animal’s consecrated status cannot be revoked. Since this animal was designated to be a sacrifice, it can no longer be used for mundane purposes. However, it also cannot be offered. Therefore, the animal is allowed to graze freely until, eventually, it develops a blemish and becomes unfit as a sacrifice. This frees it up for sale, and the money it brings is then donated to the Temple for communal sacrifices. One way to think of this complicated procedure is that the original intention toward the animal created holiness, but that holiness was transferable — first to money and then to other sacrifices.
Rabbi Eliezer presents the most extreme perspective in this beraita: Once the animal is designated as a provisional sacrifice, there is no turning back, even if it is later discovered that no sin was committed. How can a person justify making a guilt offering when they are not guilty? Rabbi Eliezer explains: Likely, they committed some other sin that they are unaware of, and so this sacrifice will address that unknown transgression.
The three opinions presented here deal in the nitty-gritty of sacrificial law, but they also touch on a much larger question about how we hold uncertainty in our lives. Rabbi Meir and the rabbis, in their own ways, place great stock in our ability to ascertain objective reality. Though their solutions to the problem differ, both accept that once it is discovered that the person did not eat the unkosher fat, there is no more need for an asham talui. But for Rabbi Eliezer, the discovery that one has eaten only kosher fat does not mean the sacrifice is no longer required. In his view, the sacrifice nonetheless moves forward, marking the abundance of uncertainty in our world.
When we find ourselves in moments of ambiguity or indecisiveness, we often search for clarity and, ultimately, certainty. Perhaps Rabbi Eliezer’s wisdom is that sometimes we need to stick to our plans despite the unknown, while modestly embracing our inability to know everything.
Read all of Menachot 102 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on April 23, 2026. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
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