Passover sacrifice

The Passover sacrifice ( he, קרבן פסח, translit=Qorban Pesaḥ), also known as the Paschal lamb or the Passover lamb, is the sacrifice that the Torah mandates the Israelites to ritually slaughter on the evening of Passover, and eat on the first night of the holiday with bitter herbs and matzo. According to the Torah, it was first offered on the night of the Exodus from Egypt. Although practiced by Jews in ancient times, the sacrifice is today only part of Beta Israel, Karaite and Samaritan observance.

In the Torah

In the Torah, the blood of this sacrifice painted on the door-posts of the Israelites was to be a sign to God, when passing through the land to slay the first-born of the Egyptians that night, that he should pass by the houses of the Israelites (). In the Mishnah this is called the "Passover of Egypt" (''Pesaḥ Miẓrayim'' in M. Pesach ix. 5). It was ordained, furthermore (Exodus 12:24-27), that this observance should be repeated annually for all time once the Israelites entered into their promised land. Exodus 12:25 "It will come to pass when you come to the land which the Lord will give you, just as He promised, that you shall keep this service (NKJV). This so-called "Pesaḥ Dorot," the Passover of succeeding generations (Mishnah Pesach l.c.), differs in many respects from the Passover of Egypt (Pesaḥ Miẓrayim). In the pre-exilic period, however, Passover was rarely sacrificed in accordance with the legal prescriptions (comp. II Chron. xxxv. 18).

Rabbinical interpretation

According to Rashi, on Numbers 9:1, only once during their forty years of wandering in the wilderness, one year after the Exodus, was the sacrifice offered. For the next 39 years there was no offering, according to Rashi, as God stipulated that it could only be offered after the Children of Israel had entered the Land of Israel. In fact, the bringing of the Passover sacrifice resumed only after the Israelites had taken possession of the land, and then the sacrifice was made annually until during the times when Solomon's Temple and the Second Temple stood and functioned. During this time there was a definite ritual for the offering, in addition to the regulations prescribed by the Law. The following is a brief summary of the principal ordinances and of the ritual accompanying the sacrifice:

The sacrificial animal

The sacrificial animal, which was either a lamb or goat, had to be a male, one year old, and without blemish. Each family or society offered one animal together, which did not require the ''semikah'' (laying on of hands), although it was obligatory to determine who were to take part in the sacrifice that the slaughtering might take place with the proper intentions. Only those who were circumcised and clean before the Law might participate, and they were forbidden to have leavened food in their possession during the act of slaughtering the Passover lamb. The animal was slain on the eve of the Passover, on the afternoon of the 14th of Nisan, after the Tamid sacrifice had been slaughtered, i.e., at three o'clock, or, in case the eve of the Passover fell on Friday, at two.

The slaughtering took place in the courtyard of the Temple at Jerusalem. The slaughter could be performed by a layman, although the rituals dealing with the blood and fat had to be carried out by a priest. The blood had to be collected by a priest, and rows of priests with gold or silver cups in their hands stood in line from the Temple court to the altar, where the blood was sprinkled. These cups were rounded on the bottom, so that they could not be set down; for in that case the blood might coagulate. The priest who caught the blood as it dropped from the sacrificial animal then handed the cup to the priest next to him, receiving from him an empty one, and the full cup was passed along the line until it reached the last priest, who sprinkled its contents on the altar. The lamb was then hung upon special hooks or sticks and skinned; but if the eve of the Passover fell on a Sabbath, the skin was removed down to the breast only. The abdomen was then cut open, and the fatty portions intended for the altar were taken out, placed in a vessel, salted, and offered by the priest on the altar, while the remaining entrails likewise were taken out and cleansed.

While most services require a ''minyan'' of at least ten people, the Korban Pesach must be offered before a quorum of thirty — it must be performed in front of ''kahal adat yisrael'', the assembly of the congregation of Israel; ten are needed for the assembly, ten for the congregation, and ten for Israel. According to some Talmudic authorities, such as Rav Kahana IV, women counted in the ''minyan'' for offering the passover sacrifice (B.Pesachim 79b).

Timing: Passover Eve on the Sabbath

Even if the eve of the Passover fell on a Sabbath, the Passover lamb was killed in the manner described above, the blood was sprinkled on the altar, the entrails removed and cleansed, and the fat offered on the altar; for these four ceremonies in the case of the Passover lamb, and these alone, were exempt from the prohibition against working on the Sabbath. This regulation, that the Sabbath yielded the precedence to the Passover, was not definitely determined until the time of Hillel, who established it as a law and was in return elevated to the dignity of nasi by Judah ben Bathyra.(B.Pesachim 68a).

The three groups of lay people

The people taking part in the sacrifice were divided into three groups. The first of these filled the court of the Temple, so that the gates had to be closed, and while they were killing and offering their Passover lambs the Levites on the platform (''dukhan'') recited the Hallel (Psalms 113-118), accompanied by instruments of brass. If the Levites finished their recitation before the priests had completed the sacrifice, they repeated the Hallel, although it never happened that they had to repeat it twice. As soon as the first group had offered their sacrifice, the gates were opened to let them out, and their places were taken by the second and third groups successively.

All three groups offered their sacrifice in the manner described, while the Hallel was recited; but the third group was so small that it had always finished before the Levites reached Psalm 116. It was called the "group of the lazy" because it came last. Even if the majority of the people were ritually unclean on the eve of the Passover, the sacrifice was offered on the 14th of Nisan. Other sacrifices, on the contrary, called Hagigah, which were offered together with the Passover lamb, were omitted if the eve of the Passover fell on a Sabbath, or if the sacrifice was offered in a state of uncleanness, or if the number of participants was so small that they could not consume all the meat. When the sacrifice was completed and the animal was ready for roasting, each one present carried his lamb home, except when the eve of the Passover fell on a Sabbath, in which case it might not be taken away.

The Home Ceremony

If the 14th of Nissan fell on the Sabbath, the first group stationed itself on the mount of the Temple in Jerusalem, the second group in the ''ḥel'', the space between the Temple wall and the Temple hall, while the third group remained in the Temple court, thus awaiting the evening, when they took their lambs home and roasted them on a spit of pomegranate-wood, On all other days, they could do it before nightfall (and if the 15th of Nissan fell to be on the Sabbath they would have to). No bones might be broken either during the cooking or during the eating. The lamb was set on the table at the evening banquet (see Passover Seder''_that_are_eaten_by_the_owner_(similar_to_''Slaughter_offering">shelamim)'',_thus_forming_one_of_the_sacrifices_in_which_the_meal_is_the_principal_part_and_indicates_the_community_between_God_and_man._It_is_really_a_house_or_family_sacrifice,_and_each_household_is_regarded_as_constituting_a_small_community_in_itself,_not_only_because_the_lamb_is_eaten_at_home,_but_also_because_every_member_of_the_family_is_obliged_to_partake_of_the_meal,_although_each_male_must_be_circumcised_in_order_for_it_to_be_permissible_for_him_to_eat,_and_all_must_be_Tumah_and_taharah.html" ;"title="Slaughter_offering.html" ;"title="Slaughter_offering.html" "title="isan in the Hebrew ...