The mishnah on today’s daf concerns the blood of the chatat, the sin offering — specifically the one offered in the outer courtyard (as opposed to the chatat whose blood is used only in the sanctuary and the Holy of Holies). To understand it, let’s look at Leviticus 6:20: “Anything that touches its flesh shall become holy; and if any of its blood is spattered upon a garment, you shall wash the spattered part in the sacred precinct.”
The blood of the chatat is a purgative that removes ritual impurity from an object by absorbing that impurity. If its blood is spattered on a priest’s garment, the discolored part of the garment becomes contaminated with the absorbed impurity. Also, the garment-spattered blood, which is sacred, might be removed from the sacred precincts of the sanctuary when the owner of the garment leaves the Temple. Since this is forbidden, the blood must be washed out.
The mishnah expands the application of this law to include spattered blood of all chatat offerings:
Although the verse is speaking only of (sin offerings) that are eaten (and whose blood is presented on the outer altar), as it is stated: “In a sacred place shall it be eaten” (Leviticus 6:19), both the sin offerings that are eaten and the (sin offerings that are wholly burned and not eaten and whose blood is presented on the) inner altar, garments sprayed with blood from each of these offerings require laundering. As it is stated: “This is the law of the sin offering.” (Leviticus 6:18) This is understood as one law for all the sin offerings.
The Gemara begins its discussion of the mishnah by examining whether and why the blood spattering rule only refers to chatat offerings of livestock and not to chatat offerings of birds. We then read this exchange between Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi and his student Levi:
Levi asked: If the blood spattered from one garment to another garment, what is the law? By contact with the first garment, is the blood dismissed of laundering? Or perhaps not.
According to Rashi, Levi is asking about the moment the chatat blood is no longer fit to be sprinkled on the altar. When the first garment was spattered, the blood came directly from the vessel holding it and could theoretically have still been used ritually. But once it spatters from the first garment on to a second garment, is it still ritually usable (and thus requiring that second piece of clothing to be laundered)? Or is it no longer ritually usable and therefore there’s no need to launder the second garment?
Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi then explains that a second blood-spattered garment always requires laundering. If you say that blood that has spattered on a garment can be squeezed out and sprinkled on the altar, then the blood that landed on the second garment is still ritually usable and must be laundered. And if you say that blood that has spattered on a garment is no longer fit to be sprinkled on the altar, then you could rule like Rabbi Akiva, who says that if blood was ever fit to be sprinkled, even if it subsequently becomes unfit, the fact that it once was means it is still a ritual medium and needs to be laundered. Either way, the garment must be cleaned.
But before Rabbi Yehuda explains any of this, he responds to Levi’s question in an interesting way:
Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi said to him: That is a (great) question!
His complimentary response to Levi is so significant that even Rashi, who is often silent on non-halachic matters, notes it. The fact that Rashi emphasizes the genuinely positive nature of Rabbi Yehuda’s response may be because he is aware of the complicated relationship between Rabbi Yehuda and Levi. Levi was a top student of Rabbi Yehuda, and part of the transitional generation that assisted him in compiling the Mishnah. He was also at odds with Rabbi Yehuda’s son, Rabbi Shimon, and his relationship with his teacher was a fraught mix of genuine mutual respect and acrimony.
Rashi might be taking a moment away from the abstruse technical arguments of Zevachim to remind us that, given the imbalance of power between teacher and student, teachers should always follow the wisdom of Avot 4:12: “Let the honor of your student be as dear to you as your own.”
Read all of Zevachim 92 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on December 15, 2025. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
