Today’s daf continues our extensive examination of the laws of the sheep and loaves offered on Shavuot:
The sages taught in a beraita: If one offered two sheep accompanied by four loaves, he draws two of the loaves and waves them together with the sheep, and the rest of the loaves are permitted to be eaten through redemption.
The two sheep are meant to be offered with only two loaves. Therefore, the sages of this beraita teach that if one mistakenly provided twice as many loaves as needed, the sacrificial process can proceed with two of them, and the other two can be redeemed (so that their sanctity is transferred onto money) and then consumed as ordinary bread.
This is not, as we see, an uncontested position:
The sages said the following before Rav Hisda: This beraita is not in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi.
Rashi explains that we’re referring to a dispute between Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi and Rabbi Eleazar bar Rebbe Shimon. Rabbi Eleazar believes that the loaves do not assume inherent sanctity (kedushat haguf) until the blood of the sheep is sprinkled on them. Before that, the loaves merely have kedushat damim, sanctity that inheres in their value. Something that has the status of kedushat damim can be redeemed by paying its value plus a fifth — and then it is no longer sacred. Since Rabbi Eleazar believes all four loaves only have kedushat damim, even after the sheep’s slaughter, one can select two of them to be offered with the sheep, and the other two can be desacralized and consumed.
By contrast, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi believes that the act of slaughter imparts kedushat haguf, inherent sanctity, to the loaves of the Shavuot offering. Once this happens, redemption to desacralize the loaves is no longer an option. Only two of these four loaves have assumed inherent sanctity once the sheep are slaughtered, but we cannot know which these are.
The Gemara builds on the sages’ suggestion that the beraita above does not accord with Rabbi’ Yehuda HaNasi’s opinion:
If the beraita is in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, when the beraita states that he redeems the loaves, where does he do so? If he redeems them outside of the Temple courtyard, since it is written: “And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the first fruits for a wave offering before the Lord, with the two lambs” (Leviticus 23:20), he disqualifies the two loaves that possess inherent sanctity by causing them to leave the courtyard. If he redeems them inside the courtyard, he violates the prohibition against bringing non-sacred items into the Temple courtyard.
According to Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi’s position, if two of the four loaves already possess inherent sanctity, but we don’t know which, any place we attempt to perform the subsequent redemption of the other two presents a dilemma. If it’s done outside of the Temple premises, then one has brought a consecrated item outside the courtyard and thereby disqualified it — so it can’t be brought back inside to complete the Shavuot sacrifice. But if the redemption is done inside the Temple courtyard, then two of the loaves, after being redeemed, become non-sacred items, and this violates the prohibition on bringing non-sacred food onto the Temple premises.
Since within the scope of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi’s position there appears to be no permissible way that one could redeem two of the loaves and sacrifice the remaining two, the sages initially assume that the beraita must accord with Rabbi Eleazar’s position instead. But Rav Hisda suggests otherwise:
Rav Hisda said to them: Actually the beraita is in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, and one redeems the loaves inside the courtyard, because the non-sacred loaves came into the courtyard by themselves.
Rav Hisda points out a loophole in one of the above prohibitions: While one is not permitted to bring non-sacred food onto the Temple premises, these loaves were initially brought into the Temple courtyard when they possessed a sanctity of value. Therefore, merely turning them into non-sacred food while already on Temple premises does not violate this prohibition. Consequently, our beraita above can indeed be reconciled with Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi’s opinion.
Read all of Menachot 48 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on February 28, 2026. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
