May 052016
 

The gemara quotes a mishna in Shekalim: a random animal found near Jerusalem is suspected to have been designated for a sacrifice and then ran away. Therefore one who finds it must bring it as a sacrifice – if the animal is male, a burnt offering and if female, a peace offering.  Rabbi Oshaya has trouble understanding the mishna as the male could also have been a peace offering.  Therefore he assumes that the mishna is referring to a case where the owner wants to redeem the animal.  The gemara concludes that according to this, in order to redeem, one must bring money for a burnt offering, a peace offering and a thanksgiving offering (including bringing 40 loaves of bread that are brought with a thanksgiving offering).  The gemara then shows that this fits in with Rabbi Meir’s statement that if one purposely used hekdesh for his own means, he could turn it into chulin.  A discussion is held about how one can do that with an animal whose body is sanctified.  Rabbi Yochanan is troubled by the problem of how can we tell someone to sin (use the animal for regular use) in order to fix something (the lost animal that was probably designated as a sacrifice).  He therefore says one must wait until the animal becomes blemished.

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