Today’s daf continues to discuss cases in which the original intended purpose of a sacrifice is not what ends up happening. These rather technical debates about mistakes in the process of bringing a sacrifice raise many points about the meaning of different sacrifices.
For example, the burnt offering (olah) is brought to atone for missed opportunities to do a positive commandment. Let’s say you designate an animal on Sunday to atone for missing Friday night Kiddush. Then on Tuesday, you forget to make a blessing on a cookie. On Wednesday when you finally bring the sacrifice, all these mistakes can be atoned for with the single burnt offering.
This flexibility is not present in the sin offering (hatat). This offering atones for a single transgression of a negative commandment by a single person. It can’t be transferred to a different person or a different sin. Why might the burnt offering be more flexible than the sin offering? Rava explains:
A burnt offering is a gift. What are the circumstances? If (one brings a burnt offering) without repentance, as “the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination” (Proverbs 21:27). And if there is repentance, isn’t it taught if one violates a positive mitzvah and repents, God forgives him before he even moves from his place. Rather, conclude from it that a burnt offering is a gift.
The burnt offering is often thought of as an offering to bring about atonement for lesser sins and missed opportunities to perform positive commandments; but if that’s the case it should be limited to a specific person and specific mistake like the sin offering. Rava says it is actually a present to God after a person undertakes an internal act of repentance. It is not the sacrifice which creates the atonement, but the internal work. For if one was not regretful and intended to sin again, what good would come from the external action of sacrifice? Moreover, as soon as one repents, God forgives a person immediately — not after the formal sacrifice is brought. So then what is the purpose of the sacrifice if not a gift?
Rabbi Shimon then asks about a case where you happen to be sacrificing an obligatory sin offering for the unintentional violation of negative commandment and a voluntary burnt offering for missing opportunities to do a positive commandment, both on the same day. Why is the sin offering always sacrificed before the burnt offering?
(The sin offering is comparable) to an advocate who enters (before the king). Once the advocate has appeased, the gift is brought in after him.
Rabbi Shimon compares the two offerings to the behavior of a lawyer who comes to argue before a king (or judge). The sin offering is a demonstration of the penitence of the sinner. The burnt offering is a present brought after the acquittal is complete. Similar to Rava’s statement, the burnt offering is a gift of thanks for the very opportunity of forgiveness.
The rabbis in this tractate spend much time discussing the power of sacrifice to atone and wipe away sins. Yet they lived in a world without sacrifices. Prayer, the internal work of repentance and deeds that show growth must replace the sacrifices. Today’s daf is one of those places where the rabbis allow their worldview on repentance and the importance of personal intention to explain the role played by animal sacrifice in an earlier era.
Read all of Zevachim 7 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on September 21, 2025. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
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