Avodah Zarah, Daf Kaf Daled, Part 4
Introduction
The sugya continues to discuss the issue of offering sacrifices bought or received from non-Jews.
ת"ש (שמואל ב כד, כב) ויאמר ארונה אל דוד יקח ויעל אדוני המלך (את) הטוב בעיניו (ואת) [ראה] הבקר לעולה והמוריגים וכלי הבקר לעצים
אמר רב נחמן ארונה גר תושב היה.
Come and hear: And Araunah said to David, Let my lord the King take and offer up what seems good unto him: behold the oxen for the burnt offering and morigim and the furniture of the oxen for the wood (II Samuel 24:22).
R. Nahman said: Araunah was a resident alien.
Again, we have a verse that seems to prove that sacrifices can be taken from non-Jews.
This is resolved by R. Nahman who posits that Araunah was a resident alien, a special category of people who are not included in the general category of non-Jews. Evidently such people can offer sacrifices.
מאי מוריגים? אמר עולא מטה של טורביל
מאי מטה של טורביל עיזא דקורקסא דדיישן
אמר רב יוסף מאי קרא (ישעיהו מא, טו) הנה שמתיך למורג חרוץ חדש בעל פיפיות תדוש הרים ותדוק וגבעות כמוץ תשים
What are morigim?
Ulla said: A turbil bed.
And what is a turbil bed ?
A goat with hooks which is used for threshing.
R. Joseph said: What verse shows this? Behold I will make you a new sharp threshing instrument [morag] having teeth; you shall thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shall make the hills as chaff (Isaiah 41:15).
The Talmud digresses to figure out what the word morigim means in the verse from II Samuel. The conclusion is that it refers to a tool used for threshing.
מיתיבי (שמואל א ו, יד) ואת הפרות העלו עולה לה’
הוראת שעה היתה
ה"נ מסתברא דאי לא תימא הכי עולה נקבה מי איכא
They raised an objection: And they sacrificed the cattle as a burnt-offering to the Lord (I Samuel 6:14)!
This was a temporary ruling.
This also makes sense, for had not that been the case, how could a female be used as a burnt offering?
Here the Jews offer as sacrifices cattle they took from the Philistines during a war. Again, this is proof that animals can be taken from non-Jews. Here, these are obviously non-Jews and obviously this was after the giving of the Torah.
They resolve the difficulty by saying that it was a temporary ruling, in which the rules were suspended for the needs of that specific moment. They prove that this was indeed a temporary ruling by noting that these are female cattle, and normally female cattle cannot be used as burned offerings. Thus this must have been a special ruling.
ומאי קושיא דלמא בבמת יחיד וכדרב אדא בר אהבה דאמר רב אדא בר אהבה מנין לעולה נקבה שהיא כשרה בבמת יחיד שנאמר (שמואל א ז, ט) ויקח שמואל טלה חלב אחד ויעלהו עולה
ויעלהו זכר משמע אמר רב נחמן בר יצחק ויעלה כתיב
What is the difficulty? Perhaps this was a private high place, and it accords with the opinion of R. Adda b. Ahava; for R. Adda b. Ahava said: How do we know that a female sacrifice is fit as a burnt offering on a private high-place? As it is said, And Shmuel took a suckling lamb and offered it for a burnt offering (I Samuel 7:9).
But he offered him implies that it was a male!
R. Nahman b. Yitzchak said: It is written, and offered her.
The Talmud notes that it is indeed possible to offer a female burnt offering Shmuel does so on a high place, a place where an altar stood before the Temple was built. This rejects the proof above from I Samuel 6. However, we are still left with the resolution that this was a temporary ruling.