On today’s daf, we learn the following:
Rabbi Yohanan says: Peace offerings that one slaughtered in the Sanctuary are valid, as it is stated: “And he shall slaughter it at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting” (Leviticus 3:2), and the place of secondary sanctity should not be weightier than the place of primary sanctity.
We learned in the previous chapter that individual peace offerings are normally slaughtered anywhere in the Temple courtyard, in contrast to offerings of the most holy order, which can only be slaughtered in the north of the courtyard. As we’ve seen previously, the rabbis routinely endeavor to derive laws about where sacrificial rites must be performed in the Temple based on Torah laws that were given with respect to the Tabernacle. In this case, the Tent of Meeting in the Tabernacle is the equivalent of the Sanctuary of the Temple, and the “entrance of the Tent of Meeting” is equivalent to the Temple courtyard. Rabbi Yohanan reasons that if the verse in Leviticus specifies that the slaughter must be performed “at the entrance” to the Tent of Meeting — that is, adjacent to the primary place of sanctity — then surely an offering made in the place of sanctity (the Sanctuary) should be valid as well.
The Gemara proceeds to challenge this logic:
Rabbi Yohanan ben Beteira says: From where is it derived that if gentiles surrounded the entire Temple courtyard, the priests may enter that area and eat the offerings of the most sacred order there? The verse states: “In a most holy place shall you eat it” (Numbers 18:10).
Rashi clarifies that the context of this teaching is that gentiles are besieging the Temple, shooting arrows and catapulting stones into the Temple courtyard. In such a scenario, Rabbi Yohanan ben Beteira (a different figure than the Rabbi Yohanan cited at the top) says the priests may eat the offerings inside the Sanctuary, and cites a line from the Torah to legitimize this practice.
The Gemara spells out its challenge to Rabbi Yohanan:
But why? Let us say: “In the court of the Tent of Meeting they shall eat it” (Leviticus 6:9), and the place of secondary sanctity should not be weightier than the place of primary sanctity.
Rabbi Yohanan ben Beteira shouldn’t need to derive his teaching from the verse stating “in the holiest of holy places you shall eat it.” Rather, since Leviticus 6:9 tells us that the normal place of eating is the court of the Tent of Meeting, we should apply the same logic from above: If the court of the Tent of Meeting is kosher for the priests’ consumption, how much more so the tent itself, a place of greater sanctity? From the fact that Rabbi Yohanan ben Beteira felt the need to cite a separate verse, it’s implied that such a logical derivation would not have worked.
One way to resolve a challenge like this is to point out disparities between the two cases such that the ruling in one scenario has no bearing on the other. So the Gemara proceeds to argue that slaughter and consumption are fundamentally different acts. Since slaughter is for God, a place of greater sanctity is surely as suitable for it as a place of lesser sanctity, because the act is meant to be done in God’s presence. This is why, according to Rabbi Yohanan, individual peace offerings can be slaughtered not only in the Temple courtyard but in the Sanctuary itself.
However, humans don’t consume offerings for God’s sake. And since, as the Gemara puts it, it’s not normal for servants to take care of their own needs in the presence of their master, it does not follow logically that a place of greater sanctity would necessarily be as appropriate as a place of lesser sanctity. That’s why, with regard to the question of priests consuming their offerings, Rabbi Yohanan ben Beteira needed a separate verse (rather than a logical derivation) to demonstrate that this could be done, at times of great need, even within the Sanctuary.
Read all of Zevachim 63 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on November 16, 2025. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
