On yesterday’s daf, the Gemara began considering the laws of bird sacrifices, which both parallel and differ from their livestock counterparts. Today, the Gemara demonstrates how some of these laws are derived.
The Torah verse describing the burnt offering of birds states: “If your offering to God is a burnt offering of birds, you shall choose your offering from turtledoves or pigeons. The priest shall bring it to the altar, pinch off its head, and turn it into smoke on the altar; and its blood shall be drained out against the side of the altar.” (Leviticus 1:14-15). The Gemara then brings a beraita which asks:
What is the meaning when the verse states that “the priest shall bring it to the altar” (Leviticus 1:15)? It is to establish that only a priest (may pinch its nape), as one might have (incorrectly) thought: Could this not be derived through logical inference: And if with regard to a sheep burnt offering, with regard to which the verse established that it must be slaughtered in the north (see Leviticus 1:11), it did not establish that it must be slaughtered by a priest (see 32a), then in the case of a bird burnt offering, with regard to which the verse did not establish that its nape must be pinched in the north, is it not logical that the verse does not establish that its nape must be pinched by a priest? To counter this, the verse states “the priest” in order to establish that its nape must be pinched by a priest.
According to this teaching, when the verse in Leviticus specifies that a priest must bring the bird to the altar, it is also teaching that the priest must be the one to kill it by pinching its neck. The beraita is picking up on the fact that while offerings discussed in prior verses mention the priests sprinkling blood, arranging pieces on the altar, and setting them on fire, this is the first offering that explicitly states a priest must bring it to the altar.
Why must the verse specify this? Because it isn’t necessarily intuitive. There are ways in which a burnt offering of sheep has stricter rules: the verses specify that a sheep offering must be slaughtered on the north side of the altar, whereas a bird offering has no specified location. And yet, despite the strictness of a sheep burnt offering with respect to location, we learned earlier that the slaughtering itself can be performed by anyone, even a non-priest. If this is true for the sheep offering, which is stricter in other respects (e.g. location), we might have assumed that a bird offering can also be killed by anyone, even non-priests. Thus, the verse explicitly states that the priest must be the one to bring the bird.
In the beraita’s next section, which specifies that pinching must be done with a priest’s hands and not a knife, Rabbi Akiva then gives another explanation for the verse specifying that a priest brings the bird offering to the altar:
Rabbi Akiva said: Could it enter your mind that a non-priest may approach the altar? Rather, what is the meaning when the verse states: “The priest”? It means that the pinching must be performed with the very (body of) the priest.
The Hebrew phrase vehikrivo hakohen (“and the priest brings it to the altar”) suggests bringing something to the altar to sacrifice it. Rabbi Akiva points out that it should never have crossed our minds that anyone but a priest could bring an offering to the altar. Rather, the verse’s naming of the priest is to teach not only that a priest must be the one to kill the bird, but that the pinching must be done with his fingernails, and not a knife.
For most offerings, the killing of a sacrifice is the most egalitarian aspect of the process, since anyone can do it. But for the bird offerings, the complex process of pinching the nape — which yesterday’s daf described as “one of the most difficult sacrificial rites in the Temple” — is ultimately reserved only for the sacrificial experts, the priests.
Read all of Zevachim 65 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on November 18, 2025. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
