A mishnah on Zevachim 66 stated that when bird offerings have been improperly sacrificed but slaughtered correctly — for example, a bird burnt offering whose neck was nipped with a fingernail (correct slaughter), but whose blood was sprinkled on the wrong part of the altar (improper sacrifice) — the carcass does not convey impurity to one who eats it in the way an improperly slaughtered bird carcass would.
The mishnah on today’s daf continues to list other scenarios in which some aspect of a ritual has gone wrong but the carcass does not convey impurity:
Any people disqualified (from performing the Temple service) who pinched (the nape of a bird offering), their pinching is not valid, but (the meat) does not render one who swallows it ritually impure when it is in the throat.
If a priest pinched it with his left hand, or at night, or if he slaughtered a non-sacred bird inside (the Temple courtyard) or a sacrificial bird outside, they do not render one ritually impure when they are in the throat.
In earlier chapters, we discussed various factors that render a priest unfit to perform the Temple service — for example, having various physical blemishes, or having not yet atoned for a sin, or being in an acute state of mourning. While any service such a priest performs is invalid for ritual purposes, the mishnah here teaches that their slaughter, if performed correctly, does not render the bird offering impure like an improperly slaughtered animal. In all of the other examples given above, something has been done abnormally: the bird’s neck was pinched with the left thumbnail and not the right, during the night and not during the day, or it was slaughtered in the wrong place. In all these cases, while the bird is no longer valid to be sacrificed, the slaughter itself has been performed correctly enough that its carcass does not convey impurity.
There’s a crucial reason we might have thought otherwise: Pinching the neck is not normally a valid form of slaughter, which generally must be done with a knife. However, for a bird that has been designated as an offering, pinching the neck is a valid form of slaughter. Therefore, even though the bird in these cases is no longer fit to be sacrificed, the pinching is still treated as a correct form of slaughter and it does not convey impurity.
The mishnah proceeds to list scenarios where this is not the case:
If he pinched with a knife; or if he pinched a non-sacred bird inside (the Temple courtyard) or a sacrificial bird outside; or if he pinched doves whose time (of fitness for sacrifice) has not yet arrived; or if he pinched pigeons whose time of fitness has passed; or (the nape of a fledgling) whose wing was withered, or whose eye was blinded, or whose leg was severed — in all these cases, it renders one who swallows it ritually impure when it is in the throat.
In all of these cases, the slaughter itself was done improperly. If the bird is an offering, then pinching with a thumbnail is valid, but pinching with a knife is not — if using a knife when slaughtering a bird, one must slit its throat. Since pinching is only a valid form of slaughter for bird offerings, any other bird whose neck is pinched rather than slit with a knife has been slaughtered improperly, regardless of location. In the other scenarios listed in the mishnah, though the birds were either destined to be or already were designated as offerings, if they are not yet or no longer fit to be sacrificed, pinching is also not a valid form of slaughter; they should be treated like non-sacred birds and slaughtered with a knife. Since in these scenarios, it’s not that the birds were slaughtered in the wrong location or with a slight deviation, but rather with the wrong method of slaughter, they are rendered impure carcasses and can transmit impurity to those who eat them.
Finally, the mishnah articulates a unifying logic behind all these rulings:
This is the principle: Any bird whose disqualification occurred in the sacred area (Temple courtyard) does not render one who swallows it ritually impure when it is in the throat. Any bird whose disqualification did not occur in the sacred area renders one ritually impure when it is in the throat.
If a bird was an otherwise fit offering, and part of the ritual service was performed incorrectly, the bird is an invalid offering but it hasn’t been rendered impure. However, if a bird was disqualified from being offered prior to any ritual action, and then slaughtered as though it were an offering, it is considered to be a completely invalid action and the bird is rendered carrion that can transmit impurity. Often, a mishnah will give us rules and leave us (or the Gemara) to clarify the unifying logic. But occasionally, in cases such as this, the mishnah itself provides not only its ruling but also its rationale.
Read all of Zevachim 68 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on November 21, 2025. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
