Zevachim 37

Fungible blessings.

A key step in any sacrifice is sprinkling its blood on the altar. Today’s daf discusses different ways that is done. The mishnah opens with a disagreement between Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel. Beit Hillel argues that only one sprinkling is absolutely necessary for all sacrifices, so even though certain sacrifices stipulate multiple sprinklings, the basic requirement can be satisfied with one. Beit Shammai insists that for the sin offering two sprinklings are required to achieve atonement. 

This disagreement cues a search through biblical verses for proof of either position. One thing that emerges is that there are at least two distinct verbs used by the Torah to describe the action of applying sacrificial blood to the altar: sprinkling and pouring. The main difference may be proximity to the altar — sprinkling can be done at some distance; pouring cannot.

The appearance of these two verbs, in turn, leads to another disagreement: Rabbi Yishmael holds that if you were supposed to sprinkle the blood and instead you poured it, the basic requirement has been fulfilled. But not vice versa. If you were supposed to pour but instead sprinkled, you have not fulfilled your obligation. Essentially, pouring counts as sprinkling, but sprinkling does not count as pouring. On the other hand, Rabbi Akiva argues that sprinkling and pouring are entirely different actions and they cannot replace each other. Just as sprinkling does not satisfy the requirement to pour, pouring does not satisfy a requirement to sprinkle.

Now the Gemara pivots to an analogous debate about blessings said over Passover sacrifices. On Passover, two sacrifices were offered: a paschal lamb and a festival peace offering. The festival peace offering was given on all holidays and functioned as the main meal on Passover. The paschal lamb was eaten later, when the people had already partaken of the festival offering. (A lot of meat was consumed that night.) The reason may be that the paschal lamb is the unique sacrifice for Passover and so it was eaten in a celebratory and symbolic manner, rather than as the main dish. 

But what blessing do you make over these sacrifices? There is once again a debate between Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Yishmael:

As we learned (Pesachim 121a): If one recited the blessing over the paschal offering, he has also exempted himself from reciting a blessing over the festival peace offering. But if he recited the blessing over the festival offering, he has not exempted himself from reciting a blessing over the paschal offering. This is the statement of Rabbi Yishmael.

Rabbi Yishmael says that if you make the blessing on the specific Passover sacrifice it can include the festival offering. But if you make the generic blessing for the festival peace offering it cannot include the specific Passover sacrifice. It appears that Rabbi Yishmael believes that some categories are powerful enough to subsume or include others, though not all categories are fungible in this way. This is similar to his thinking in the case of pouring and sprinkling blood. Pouring is sprinkling, but sprinkling is not pouring. On the other hand:

Rabbi Akiva says: This blessing does not exempt one from reciting a blessing over that one, and that blessing does not exempt one from reciting a blessing over this one.

Rabbi Akiva sees the blessing over the paschal offering and the blessing over the festival peace offering made on Passover as distinct — neither covers the other sacrifice. Similarly, he saw sprinkling and pouring as distinct actions and was not willing to see pouring as a catch all. 

These two debates are perhaps more connected than is superficially apparent. Commentators suggest that this debate about blessings hinges on the very same debate about sprinkling: The paschal offering is poured and the peace offering is sprinkled. If one accepts that pouring counts as sprinkling, one might also accept that the blessing over the sacrifice whose blood is poured covers the other sacrifice as well. 

We don’t make or eat paschal offerings these days. But this concept of taxonomic organization arises in our modern blessings over food. There is one blessing for fruits that grow on perennial trees (Blessed are you, Lord our God who creates the fruit of the tree) and another another for vegetables and fruits that grow on bushes that regenerate year to year, like berries (Blessed are you, Lord our God, who created the fruit of the earth). But if you aren’t sure how the produce you are eating grows, you can always make the second blessing for fruit of the ground — because even trees grow out of the ground. But not vice versa. 

Read all of Zevachim 34 on Sefaria.

This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on October 21, 2025. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.