The mishnah on yesterday’s daf taught us that the slaughter of at least some sacrificial animals, and the ritual acts that accompany that slaughter, must take place in the area of the Temple that is to the north of the altar. On today’s daf, the Talmud discusses this ruling, and over the course of the discussion, offers us some big ideas to think about.
“The bull and the goat of Yom Kippur” — since “north” is written with regard to a burnt offering, let them teach a burnt offering first.
The Talmud starts by asking why the mishnah began its rules about where particular sacrifices can be performed with the Yom Kippur sacrifices and not a different kind of sacrifice. The rabbis assume that we know that the biblical source for the idea that animal sacrifices should be slaughtered in the north is Leviticus 1, which lays out the biblical laws of the burnt offering. Verse 1:11 specifies that “it shall be slaughtered before God on the north side of the altar.” The Yom Kippur sacrifices are only described later in Leviticus 16, which does not specify a location for the slaughter and the collection of the blood.
Given the linguistic evidence of the Bible, the mishnah is asking why it wouldn’t make more sense to start the discussion with the burnt offering and not the Yom Kippur sacrifice?
Since (the location of the) sin offering is derived through interpretation, it is dear to him.
The Talmud responds by connecting the sin offerings on Yom Kippur to sin offerings more generally. In Leviticus 6: 18, God commands Moses: “Speak to Aaron and his sons thus: This is the ritual of the sin offering: the sin offering shall be slaughtered before God, at the spot where the burnt offering is slaughtered: it is most holy.” Leviticus doesn’t tell us that this is the north side of the altar, but requires the reader to connect this text to Leviticus 1 and use our powers of deduction to draw the appropriate conclusion. The Talmud suggests that our ability to do this kind of reasoning is more beloved by God than our ability to listen and obey explicit commands.
The Talmud here answers a very talmudic question about the order in which the mishnah addresses the locations of different sacrifices. But in thinking about which sacrifices are offered in the north, I think we should also be asking a slightly higher order question: Why the north? What is it about the north side of the altar that makes it so important to the sacrificial rite?
Rabbi Hezekiah ben Manoah, the 13th century commentator known as Hizkuni, explains that the ramp to the altar was built on the altar’s south side. Sacrifices on the north side, thus, would give those gathered in the Temple unobstructed views of the sacrificial acts and the Sanctuary. So too, it would allow the sacrifice to take place “before God” unimpeded by other Temple architecture. Hizkuni’s answer emphasizes sacrifice as performance — with important attention paid to choreography and sight lines.
Rabbi Bahya ben Asher ibn Halawa (known as Rabbeinu Bachya), who lived from the mid-13th to the mid-14th centuries, offers a more mystical answer. He notes a fascinating midrash found in Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer:
Four quarters have been created in the world; the quarter facing the east, that facing the south, that facing the west and that facing the north.
From the quarter facing the east the light goes forth to the world.
From the quarter facing south the dews of blessing and the rains of blessing go forth to the world.
From the quarter facing west where are the treasuries of snow and the treasuries of hail, and thence come forth into the world cold and heat and rains.
From the quarter facing north darkness goes forth into the world. The quarter facing north He created, but He did not complete it, for He said, “Anyone who says: I am a God, let him come and complete this quarter which I have left incomplete and all will know that he is a God.”
Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer suggests that three of the four quadrants of the world are the sources of natural phenomena. God leaves the north empty, however, to create an opportunity for others claiming to be divine to prove their divinity. To be clear, God knows that no one is going to pass that test, and so the north remains empty as an eternal testament to God’s unique power. But Rabbenu Bahya reads this midrash and concludes: “It is just like a three-legged stool which cannot stand properly and requires a fourth leg. The sacrifices may be viewed as if they supplied the fourth leg for the stool called the universe.”
If only three quadrants of the world are engaged in sustaining the world, the world is unbalanced and precarious. By performing sacrifices in the north side, he suggests, Jews stabilize the universe and provide their own take on a natural phenomenon — a sustained relationship with its Creator.
Read all of Zevachim 48 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on November 1, 2025. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
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