Eighteen Treatises from the Mishna, by D. A. Sola and M. J. Raphall, [1843], at sacred-texts.com

CHAPTER VIII.

§ 1. When a paschal sacrifice had been slaughtered for a woman living in her husband's house, by her husband, and another by her father [also reckoning on her], 1 she must eat of that of her husband. If she went to pass the first festival after her marriage at her father's house, and her father and husband have each slaughtered a paschal sacrifice for her, she may eat it at either place she prefers. When several guardians of an orphan have slaughtered paschal sacrifices for him, the orphan may go and eat it at the house he prefers. A slave belonging to two masters may not eat of the sacrifice of both masters.

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[paragraph continues] One who is partly a slave and partly free, may not eat of the paschal sacrifice of his master.

§ 2. If a person order his slave to go and slaughter for him the paschal sacrifice, and the slave go and slaughter a kid or a lamb, he may eat it; if the slaughter a kid and a lamb, he may only eat that which has been slaughtered first. How is he to act when he has forgotten the [exact words] of the order of his master? He must kill a lamb and a kid, and say [at the time of the killing and sprinkling of the blood], if my master said [I should take] "a kid," then be the kid for him, and the lamb for me; but if he said "a lamb," then be the kid for me, and the lamb for him. If the master also had forgotten the precise terms of the order he gave, both animals must be burned, and neither master nor slave is bound to bring a second paschal sacrifice.

§ 3. If a person say to his sons, "I slaughter the paschal sacrifice for whichever of you shall arrive first in Jerusalem," then the first of them whose head and greatest part of his body has [first] entered [the city gate] has thereby acquired a right to his own share, and acquires the same for his brethren, who were also invited. As many people may partake of a paschal sacrifice as can obtain therefrom the quantity of meat of the size of an olive. Those that were numbered to eat it may withdraw [from the company] before the paschal sacrifice is slaughtered. R. Simeon says, "[They may do so], until the blood thereof is sprinkled."

§ 4. When a person has appointed others to partake with him of his share of the paschal sacrifice, his company are at liberty to give him his share to eat it separately with his own guests; and they may eat their own share [apart from him and his guests].

§ 5. A person subject to a running issue, who has twice in the same day experienced that issue, 2 and whose seventh day happened on the 14th of Nissan, may have the paschal sacrifice slaughtered for him thereon; but if he has experienced it thrice [in the same day], it may be slaughtered for him only in case his eighth day should happen [on the 14th of Nissan]. For a woman who has menstruated a day beyond her regular period, it may be slaughtered on her second day, 3 and when she has done so for two consecutive days, after her regular

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period, it may be slaughtered for her on her third day; but for a woman subject to a flow of menses [three days beyond her regular period], it may be slaughtered on her eighth day only.

§ 6. For an ‏אונן‎ [a mourner who has lost on the 14th of Nissan a relative for whom he is obliged to mourn]; for a person employed in digging out of a heap of fallen ruins [persons therein overwhelmed 4]; for a prisoner who had a promise of being released; 5 and for aged and sick persons it is lawful to slaughter a paschal sacrifice, while they can eat thereof the minimum quantity of meat the size of an olive. But it may not be slaughtered for either on their own account alone, because they may cause the paschal offering to become desecrated and useless; 6 therefore, when either of these becomes disqualified to eat it, he needs not bring a second Passover sacrifice: except the person who has dug out [a dead body] from under the ruins, since such a one is unclean from the very outset.

§ 7. A paschal sacrifice may not be slaughtered for a single individual only, according to the opinion of R. Jehudah: but R. José allows it. It may not be slaughtered even for a party of a hundred individuals, if each of them cannot eat thereof the minimum quantity of the size of an olive. Neither may a company to eat it be formed of women, with slaves and minors.

§ 8. An ‏אונן‎ may eat of the paschal sacrifice at even, after he has bathed himself, but not of other holy [sacrifices]; but one who has only received the information of the decease of a near relative, or one who has the bones of a deceased person gathered for him, may eat of other holy sacrifices, after he has bathed himself. 7 A heathen proselyte, who was circumcised on the day before the Passover festival, may, according to Beth Shammai, "bathe himself, and eat in the evening of the paschal sacrifice." But Beth Hillel say, "One

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who has just parted from the uncircumcised must be considered like one who has just parted from the grave." 8

Footnotes

116:1 To form one of the persons "appointed and numbered" to eat it.

117:2 Such a person is unclean for seven days, without being bound to bring a sacrifice; but if he had experienced it three times in the same day, he is not considered clean before he has sacrificed.

117:3 This can only be properly understood on reference to Treatise Niddah.

118:4 When it is unknown whether they are alive or not, in the latter case the person who digs them out contracts pollution.

118:5 In time to eat of the paschal sacrifice.

118:6 The mourner, through grief which may prevent his eating any thing. The person who digs to deliver the overwhelmed from the fallen ruins, in case any dead body is found. The prisoner, lest he be detained in the [heathen] prison; and the aged and sick, lest a sudden increase of illness or weakness might happen to them, so as to prevent their eating the paschal sacrifice.

118:7 Since the prohibitions in these cases are only of Rabbinical origin, they do not prevent the eating of the paschal sacrifice—a direct command of the Holy Law, the neglect of which is punished with excision [‏כרת‎].

119:8 And, therefore, this proselyte may not eat of the paschal lamb on that evening, because one who has just left a grave or dead body, becomes unclean for seven days, and requires the prescribed sprinklings on the third and seventh day of his purification, as mentioned in Leviticus.