Let’s start with a mishnah from two pages ago, Zevachim 106a:
One who slaughters an offering outside the Temple courtyard and one who offers it up outside the Temple courtyard is liable for the slaughter and liable for the offering up.
Rabbi Yosei HaGelili says: If he slaughtered an offering inside the courtyard and then offered it up outside the courtyard, he is liable. But if he slaughtered it outside, and then he offered it up outside, he is exempt for the offering up, as he offered up only an item that is unfit.
Sacrifices are supposed to take place in the Temple courtyard — both slaughtering them and burning them. The anonymous first opinion in the mishnah holds that doing either intentionally outside of the courtyard is an offense, and someone who does both is liable twice.
Rabbi Yosei HaGelili, however, asserts that it is impossible for one to become liable for both of these things in the course of one sacrifice. By slaughtering an animal outside the Temple courtyard, one renders it unfit. And offering up an unfit animal outside the Temple is not the same level of offense. According to his logic, the only way to become liable for the sacrifice of an animal outside of the courtyard is if one first slaughtered it inside the courtyard. In that case, one would be liable for the burning, but not the slaughtering — which is only one count of liability.
In the mishnah, the rabbis reject Rabbi Yosei HaGelili’s argument. Here is their reply to him:
The rabbis said to him: According to your reasoning, even in a case where he slaughters it inside and offers it up outside, he should be exempt, since the moment that he took it outside the courtyard, he thereby rendered it unfit.
If we were to follow his logic, they say, no one would ever be accountable for making a sacrifice outside of the Temple courtyard. How so? Because any animal that is offered outside the courtyard is by definition unfit. If slaughtered outside, it becomes unfit at the time of slaughter. If slaughtered inside, it becomes unfit the moment it is removed. In other words, Rabbi Yosei’s view makes it impossible to violate the prohibition of making a sacrifice outside of the Temple courtyard!
The mishnah ends here, giving the strong impression that Rabbi Yosei’s argument is flawed and therefore rejected by his colleagues. But the story of this debate doesn’t end with the mishnah. On today’s daf, we read a beraita in which Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi comes to Rabbi Yosei’s defense:
Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi responded to this challenge on behalf of Rabbi Yosei HaGelili: What is notable about slaughtering an offering inside the courtyard and then offering it up outside? It is notable in that the offering had a period of fitness. Can you say the same about slaughtering an offering outside and then offering it up outside, where the offering never had a period of fitness?
In other words, says Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, the rabbis’ rejection of Rabbi Yosei on the grounds that his reasoning would let everyone off the hook for making a sacrifice outside of the Temple courtyard is faulty. What is the difference between an animal that is slaughtered in the courtyard, and one that is slaughtered outside of the courtyard? The former has a moment of fitness, i.e. the time between its slaughter and its removal from the courtyard; the latter has none. Given that an animal slaughtered in the courtyard has a period of fitness, Rabbi Yosei would hold a person liable for removing it and then offering it as a sacrifice outside of the courtyard. In other words, the logical flaw is in the reasoning of the rabbis and not that of Rabbi Yosei.
It’s worth mentioning here the rabbinic tradition that Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi edited and compiled the entire Mishnah. If that’s the case, this would mean that he is the one who left Rabbi Yosei HaGelili exposed by leaving his own rebuttal out of the final version of the text. An oversight, perhaps. Fortunately for Rabbi Yosei, the Gemara corrected this oversight before the argument in his defense faded into the fog of time.
Read all of Zevachim 108 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on December 31, 2025. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
