Today we finish Tractate Zevachim, which has required us to think deeply about the bloody, messy, complicated reality of animal sacrifice. We’ve learned intricate details of when and where certain sacrifices were offered, as well as the import of proper intentions when performing sacred slaughter and the danger of leaving some sacrificial meat uneaten during its required time period. And along the way, we’ve thought about the nature of God as teacher and priest, the importance of prophecy, explored a surprising number of debates about the flood in the time of Noah, and learned about the remarkable accomplishments of one of the earliest havrutot, Jewish learning partnerships.
This tractate has been challenging for many — both for its visceral descriptions of, well, viscera, and for the challenge of intellectually bridging the distance between our own world and a world centered on animal sacrifice. Today’s daf is a final reminder that we’re not alone in feeling that way. For the talmudic rabbis, too, much of this was unfamiliar — a world of the past. And the last few pages have taken us even further into the past. The tractate concludes with this discussion:
It is taught in a beraita in accordance with Rabbi Yohanan: These are differences between a great (communal) altar and a small (private) altar: The corner, the ramp, the base, and the square shape are required in a great altar, but the corner, the base, the ramp, and the square shape are not required in a small altar. The basin and its base are required in a great altar, but the basin and its base are not in a small altar. The breast and thigh (of a peace offering) are waved at a great public altar, but the breast and thigh are not waved at a small private altar.
In some ways, all of Tractate Zevachim has been a retrospective, since the rabbis lived in a post-Temple world and did not perform these sacrifices themselves. But in these final pages, the rabbis have been going even further back in time, to a period before the Temple stood in Jerusalem, when the Israelites had a mix of large communal and small individual altars scattered throughout their territory. According to the Talmud, the communal altars had specific construction standards meant to make them appear monumental and function correctly in all cases; private altars could be more unique and location-specific. But, fundamentally, they served the same purpose:
The similarities between a great altar and a small altar: Slaughter at both a great altar and a small altar; flaying and cutting it at both a great altar and a small; sprinkling the blood permits the meat to be eaten, and (if priest thought of eating or sacrificing this offering outside its appropriate time) it renders it piggul, both at a great altar and at a small; blemishes and time at a great altar and a small altar.
At all altars, the sacrificial animals had to be unblemished, slaughtered and butchered correctly, the blood sprinkled appropriately, the priest’s intentions correct, and consumption completed in the correct time frame.
Today, we don’t offer animal sacrifices, but there are elements of our individual relationships to God and Judaism that are consistent regardless of where we are and how we’re enacting them. Jews around the world share a common scripture, sacred calendar, and history. There are also elements of our Jewish experiences that are deeply contextual, mediated by our families, countries, and individual values. The Talmud teaches that public altars were larger. Similarly, there are heights of Jewish experience which are only accessible within the framework of a broader community, and with the strength and monumentality that such a community provides. For those of us who have had difficulty with this tractate, perhaps this conclusion reminds us that there is power in having done it together.
Hadran Alach Massechet Zevachim! We will return to you, Tractate Zevachim!
Read all of Zevachim 120 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on January 12, 2026. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
