Pesachim 88 - February 17, 5 Adar

Study Guide Pesachim 88

Today's Daf is sponsored by Dr. Stu and Ellen Shaffren to commemorate the 14th yahrtzeit of Stu’s mother Henneyeh bat Moshe Binyamin. "She very much valued learning and would have been extremely proud of her granddaughter learning daf yomi for her second cycle and her daughter in law being inspired to start as well." And by Elana Riback Rand in memory of her grandfather, Harvey Riback (Yechiel Yaakov ben Moshe HaLevi) on the occasion of his shloshim. "Zaidy showed us what it means to live life to the fullest and to be a true mensch. May his neshama have an aliyah."

Ulla brings a different reason why the Jews were exiled to Babylonia and brings a story to support it. Other drashot are brought regarding the temple being referred to as the house of the God of Jacob – why not the other fathers? And also about the significance of the day of the ingathering of the exiles. The gemara discusses different types of people - who is automatically included in the Passover sacrifice of the head of the household and who is not? How is a woman different? In which cases and why? Who else has the same status? The gemara explains why in the mishnah a slave who works for two masters is not counted in either master’s sacrifice. What does one who is half a slave and half a free man do? There is a contradiction between the mishnah and braita and the gemara resolves the contradiction by bringing a famous dispute between Beit Hillel and Beit Shamai regarding a slave of this kind. Because he can not marry in such a situation, what do we do to rectify the situation. In the end, Beit Hillel agrees with Beit Shamai that we force the master to release him so that he can fulfill the commandment of procreation. To answer the contradiction, the gemara distinguishes between before Beit Hillel changed their minds to after. The mishnah describes different situations in which someone tells his servant to slaughter Pesach and then something is unclear, such as, what kind of animal? If there are two animals slaughtered, how do you know which animal was slaughtered for whom? In which cases is the sacrifice considered valid, but no one can eat the meat? The gemara raises several questions about the mishna.