At the bottom of yesterday’s daf, we learned a general principle: A priest who is unfit to serve in the Temple on a particular day does not receive a share of the permitted sacrificial meat from that day. As it often does at the start of a conversation about a new mishnah, the Gemara asks about the biblical source for this rule. Reish Lakish points us to Leviticus 6:19: “The priest who effects atonement shall eat it.”
Then he explains:
This teaches that only a priest who effects atonement shall partake, but a priest who does not effect atonement does not partake.
The Gemara is quick to object:
But all the priestly watch do not effect atonement and partake.
Reish Lakish understands Leviticus 6:19 to teach that only the priest who offers the atoning sacrifice gets to partake of the meat. But the Gemara objects, noting that there are other priests in the Temple, members of the priestly watch, who do not personally offer sacrifices and yet still get to eat the meat. How is that possible? The Gemara answers that when the Torah says that only the priest who effects atonement can eat the sacrificial meat, it means any priest who is fit to effect atonement can eat it.
This explanation aligns the principle of the mishnah with the Torah verse, but it leads to a further problem. The rabbis know that children of priests are allowed to eat from the sacrificial meat, although they are ineligible to offer sacrifices because they are under the age of majority, a fact not reflected in the above reading of the verse.
In response, the Gemara adjusts its reading: When the Torah says the priest who offers the sacrifice shall eat it, it really means he shall receive a share of it. This suggests that the verse is talking about who receives the meat (fit priests), but it allows them to share it with those (like minors) who are allowed to eat the meat even though they are ineligible to offer sacrifices.
Does the same apply to a blemished priest who is unfit to serve in the Temple but is still allowed to consume sacrificial meat? Here, the Gemara turns to a new verse (Leviticus 6:22), which states: “Every male among the priests shall eat it.” This phrasing would appear to include every priest.
The word “every” here is a signal that the group of priests who are eligible to eat the sacrificial meat includes some categories of priests that we might not expect to be included. The Gemara first suggests that priests who are blemished are included, in line with the mishnah which says that they are. Another voice suggests that “every” comes to include those who are temporarily ineligible to serve in the Temple and are on their their way to being reinstated — that is, priests who purified themselves in a ritual bath after becoming impure and who are waiting for nightfall, the time at which they can be again called to active duty.
At this point, Rav Yosef jumps in, with an objection:
Now what is “shall eat it”? He shall receive a share of it. But if so, let the Merciful One write: Shall receive a share of it.
What led us down this winding talmudic path is the assumption that when the Torah talks about eating the meat, it really means receiving the meat. Given that, why wouldn’t the Torah have simply just said outright that the priest should receive a share of it?
Rather, says Rav Yosef, there’s a specific lesson the Torah is trying to impart with this language:
Learn from it (that only a priest who is) fit for partaking receives a share; but (a priest who is not fit for) partaking does not share.
Who gets to eat from the sacrificial meat? Not only those who are fit to offer the sacrifice, but also those who are fit to eat of it. This includes those who are blemished, but not those who have taken a ritual bath and are waiting for sunset to restore their purity. In other words, those who are blemished and can never serve are allowed to enjoy the priestly benefit of consuming sacrificial meat, while those who are temporarily impure cannot until the purity rituals are complete.
So to summarize, in searching for a verse in which to ground a principle from a mishnah, the Gemara finds two: One says that it is the priest who performs the sacrifice who gets to eat it, and another that says every priest gets to eat it. The rabbis are aware that neither statement is exactly true. They know that more than one priest gets to eat the meat and they know that there are categories of priests who are prohibited from doing so.
The conversation starts in the typical fashion, with a search for a Torah source for the mishnah’s teaching, as if there is a straightforward link between the verses of the Torah and the rules in the mishnah. After reading this sugya, however, it appears that the real question was: How can we interpret the verses of the Torah so that they align with our understanding of the rules that actually govern life in the Temple? The answer, as we have seen, is anything but straightforward.
Read all of Zevachim 99 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on December 22, 2025. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
