On the night of the Passover seder, after fulfilling the central mitzvah of telling the story of the Exodus, there are a few additional rituals that stand between you and your dinner. The last of these is the custom of eating the Hillel sandwich. On Pesachim 115, we are told:
They said about Hillel that he would wrap (matzah and bitter herbs) together and eat them, as it is stated: “They shall eat it with matzot and bitter herbs.” (Numbers 9:11)
Why are we discussing the Hillel sandwich, a staple of the Passover seder, in the middle of Zevachim? The answer is that there’s a parallel text on today’s daf. It uses Hillel’s example, whereby one sandwich fulfills two mitzvot at the same time, to explore whether two sins done at the same time should be punished separately or whether they cancel each other out.
Discussing improper sacrifices in this context, the Gemara today notes:
And Reish Lakish disagrees with the statement of Rabbi Elazar, as Rabbi Elazar says: Just as (items used in the performance of) mitzvot do not nullify one another, so too items to which prohibitions apply do not nullify one another.
Yesterday, on Zevachim 78, Reish Lakish ruled that prohibited sacrifices — such as those that are offered with improper intent (piggul), those that are consumed after the time allotted (notar) and other types using ritually impure meat — cancel one another out with regard to punishment when consumed together. This ruling would mean that a priest who eats two different kinds of prohibited sacrifices, each of which would be punished with lashes if committed alone, would not be whipped at all because the two sins cancel each other out.
Rabbi Elazar disagrees with Reish Lakish, and explains his reasoning: Two mitzvot don’t nullify one another, so why should two sins? To prove his point, he cites the example of the Hillel sandwich:
(When eating the Paschal offering, matzah, and bitter herbs on the first night of Passover) he (Hillel) would wrap them all at once and eat them together, as it is stated: “They shall eat it with matzot and bitter herbs” (Numbers 9:11).
Eating matzah and bitter herbs on seder night are each Torah commandments, as noted in Numbers 9:11. In assembling his sandwich, Hillel ate the matzah and bitter herbs at the same time, seemingly with the view that both commandments can be fulfilled by eating the items together in one sandwich, with neither canceling the other out. There’s a problem, though, as those who recall the order of operations in the Passover seder will recognize. Prior to the Hillel sandwich, we fulfill the two commandments of eating matzah and bitter herbs individually and say separate blessings on each. We don’t say any blessing at all upon eating the Hillel sandwich. How then can eating the Hillel sandwich prove either Reish Lakish’s view (that sins cancel one another out) or Rabbi Elazar’s view (that they don’t)?
Although we do not say a blessing on the Hillel sandwich, that step is nevertheless considered to be its own rabbinic commandment, as evidenced by the discussion on Pesachim 120. While we eat matzah and bitter herbs individually, followed by the sandwich, Hillel ate them all together, fulfilling both mitzvot at once. The Gemara cites Numbers 9:11 to prove that neither mitzvah — the matzah or the bitter herbs — cancels the other out (even though, practically speaking, the bitter herbs certainly have a strong enough taste to overpower the bland matzah).
Now, we can loop back to the original discussion and understand Rabbi Elazar’s ruling that if mitzvot don’t cancel each other out (meaning that a person who fulfills two commandments at the same time gets credit for both), neither do sins. Therefore, a priest who eats two types of forbidden sacrificial meat together would be punished separately for each violation, a ruling that Maimonides, writing a millennium later, upholds (Mishneh Torah, Sacrifices Rendered Unfit 18:20).
Read all of Zevachim 79 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on December 2, 2025. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
