Fulfilling some mitzvot is dependent on having already completed other mitzvot. Observing Passover is dependent on having fulfilled the mitzvah of getting rid of all of your hametz. If you don’t build a sukkah, you can’t fulfill the mitzvah of sitting in one. But how about sacrifices? Is the ability to offer certain kinds of sacrifices dependent on having already offered other sacrifices?
The mishnah on today’s daf offers an answer:
Failure to sacrifice the daily offerings does not prevent the sacrifice of the additional offerings, and failure to sacrifice the additional offerings does not prevent the daily offerings from being sacrificed. And the additional offerings do not prevent others. If they did not sacrifice a lamb in the morning, they should sacrifice in the afternoon.
On Shabbat, when both daily and additional offerings are required, one should offer the additional offerings even if for some reason the daily offerings were not sacrificed. And if the daily morning offerings were never sacrificed, the priests should still sacrifice the daily afternoon offerings. The mishnah’s anonymous first opinion doesn’t explain why these sacrifices weren’t offered — whether it was a question of time management, cost, a crisis of faith or simple forgetfulness. Regardless of why certain offerings were not brought, all the other mitzvot around animal sacrifice can be fulfilled. But Rabbi Shimon disagrees.
Rabbi Shimon said: When? At a time when they were prevented by circumstances beyond their control or unwittingly. But if they acted intentionally and did not sacrifice a lamb in the morning, they should not sacrifice a lamb in the afternoon.
For Rabbi Shimon, offering sacrifices is a privilege that comes with certain conditions. If the priests intentionally decided not to offer morning sacrifices when they could have, they don’t get to offer the afternoon sacrifices that make up the second half of the daily offerings. The mishnah next returns to the first anonymous speaker.
If they did not burn incense in the morning, they should burn it in the afternoon.
Based on the previous exchange, we might expect Rabbi Shimon to jump in and say that this ruling only applies if the morning omission was an accident or due to circumstances beyond their control. But instead, he goes in a different direction:
Rabbi Shimon said: And in such a case, the entire measure was sacrificed in the afternoon.
If you forget to sacrifice one lamb in the morning, the rabbis of the mishnah debate whether you are even permitted to sacrifice another in the afternoon. But here, Rabbi Shimon agrees that you can burn incense in the afternoon, regardless of why it wasn’t burned in the morning. Indeed, he goes even further and says you can essentially make-up the morning omission by burning twice as much in the afternoon!What explains the difference in his approach to animal sacrifice and his approach to the burning of incense? Why does failure to sacrifice an animal lead to a standstill in offerings, while failure to sacrifice incense is easily corrected by offering a double dose later?
For the golden altar is initiated only with the incense of the spices. And the altar of the burnt offering only with the daily morning offering. And the Table only with the showbread on Shabbat, and the menorah only with the lighting of its seven lamps in the afternoon.
Rabbi Shimon notes that, if for some reason the Temple brings in a new altar or a new menorah, it must be formally dedicated to the Temple by being used for a specific ritual. Rabbi Shimon extrapolates from these specific rituals to broader sources of sacrificial law. For him, since the altar for animal sacrifices can only be dedicated to the Temple in the morning, if there’s a new altar, and you don’t do the morning sacrifices, you can’t do the afternoon sacrifices because the altar is not (yet) appropriately dedicated to the Temple. Unless circumstances beyond your control force the issue, you have to wait until the next morning to appropriately dedicate the altar with the daily sacrifices.
There’s a lot we can say about this rich debate between early rabbis. But let me highlight here the powerful idea with which the mishnah ends: Ritual objects only become sacred through use. Judaism and all the trappings that facilitate Jewish life aren’t meant to sit in a museum and be admired, but to be used in crafting our Jewish identities by performing Jewish rituals — regularly. We can create the most beautiful altars, menorahs, candlesticks, etc., but if we don’t use them, they are just objects. It is only when individuals use ritual items regularly that true holiness is found.
Read all of Menachot 49 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on March 1, 2026. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
