The mishnah on 79b discusses a case in which blood from two different sacrifices with slightly different ritual procedures are inadvertently mixed together. In the Temple, the altar was surrounded by a red line. The blood from a burnt offering, a guilt offering or a peace offering was to be placed below the red line as part of their respective sacrificial rituals. Blood from a sin offering was to be placed above the red line.
According to Rabbi Eliezer, if blood from a sacrifice that was supposed to be placed below the line was mixed with blood of an offering that was supposed to be placed above the line, the priest should first place the mixed blood above the line for the sin offering, at which time the blood from the other sacrifices is considered like nothing more than water. Then the priest should place the blood from the mixture below the red line. The rabbis disagree, insisting that all the blood should be poured down the drain. However, if the priest did not ask what to do and put the blood mixture above the line, the sacrifice is valid and the priest should then place the remaining blood below the red line.
On today’s daf, Abaye qualifies the rabbis’ opinion:
Abaye says: The mishnah taught only if the first portion of a sin offering and a burnt offering were mixed. But if the final portion of a sin offering and a burnt offering were mixed, everyone agrees: The place of a burnt offering is the same as the place of the remainder.
When a sin offering is sacrificed in the Temple, some portion of its blood is placed above the red line on the altar (the first portion) and the remainder of the blood is poured at the base of the altar (the final portion). According to Abaye, the rabbis held that the blood mixture should be discarded only in a case where the first portion of a sin offering is mixed with the blood of a burnt offering. But if the final portion of the blood of the sin offering is mixed with the blood of a burnt offering, everyone agrees the priest should place all the blood below the red line, since the blood of the burnt offering is supposed to be placed below the red line anyway as is the remainder of the blood from the sin offering.
However, Rav Yosef in the name of Rav Yehuda objects:
Rav Yosef said to Abaye: This is what Rav Yehuda says: The remainder needs (to be placed on) the bench.
Just because the remainder of the blood from a sin offering is poured below the red line does not mean it belongs in the same place as the blood from the burnt offering.
Apparently it wasn’t only Rav Yehuda and Abaye that disagreed on this point. The Gemara will next relate that rabbis in Israel also disagreed about it:
And likewise Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish says: The mishnah taught only if the first portion of a sin offering and a burnt offering were mixed. But if the final portion of a sin offering and a burnt offering were mixed, everyone agrees: The place of a burnt offering is the same as the place of the remainder.
Rabbi Yohanan says, and some say it was Rabbi Elazar: This is still in dispute.
The Gemara will go on to further examine the nature of the disagreements about the sacrifices and questions surrounding whether distinctions between sacrifices can ever be blurred or even erased when two have inadvertently been mixed together. Ultimately, the question of what to do and whether and how to distribute the sacrificial bloods of two separate sacrifices that have been mixed together touches on some of the most fundamental issues that the sages grapple with. Blood and water may both be thick enough to merit sugyas dealing with them, but the issues they raise are ultimately about the need to demarcate and classify the world, how solid those boundaries actually are, and what to do when those lines and categories suddenly become less clear.
Read all of Zevachim 81 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on December 4, 2025. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
