Sukkah, Daf Kaf Heh, Part 3
Introduction
Today’s section continues to discuss the concept that while one is performing a mitzvah he is exempt from performing another mitzvah.
והעוסק במצוה פטור מן המצוה מהכא נפקא מהתם נפקא דתניא (במדבר ט) ויהי אנשים אשר היו טמאים לנפש אדם וגו‘ אותם אנשים מי היו נושאי ארונו של יוסף היו דברי ר‘ יוסי הגליל ר"ע אומר מישאל ואלצפן היו שהיו עוסקין בנדב ואביהוא ר‘ יצחק אומר אם נושאי ארונו של יוסף היו כבר היו יכולין ליטהר אם מישאל ואלצפן היו יכולין היו ליטהר אלא עוסקין במת מצוה היו שחל שביעי שלהן להיות בערב פסח שנאמר (במדבר ט) ולא יכלו לעשות הפסח ביום ההוא ביום ההוא אין יכולין לעשות הא למחר יכולין לעשות .
But is the concept that one who is engaged in a mitzvah is exempt from another mitzvah derived from here? Is it not derived from elsewhere, As it has been taught: "And there were certain men who were unclean by the dead body of a man." Who were these men?
They were those who carried Joseph’s coffin of Joseph, the words of R. Yose the Galilean.
R. Akiva said: They were Mishael and Elzaphan who were occupied with [the remains of] Nadav and Avihu.
R. Yitzchak said, If they were those who bore the coffin of Joseph, they had time to cleanse themselves [before Pesah] and if they were Mishael and Elzaphan they could [also] have cleansed themselves [before Pesah]. Rather they had occupied with a dead body that one is commanded to bury, whose the seventh day [of purification] fell on the eve of Pesah, as it is said, "They could not keep the Passover on that day," on that day they could not keep the Passover, but the next day they could.
The Talmud brings a baraita that can be used to teach that one who is occupied with a mitzvah is exempt from performing another mitzvah. Number 9:6 tells of some men who were impure and therefore couldn’t offer the Pesah sacrifice in its proper time. The rabbis, as they frequently do, wanted to identify these men. Who were they and why had they had contact with a dead body? Was this some special circumstance?
The first answer is that these are the men who were carrying Joseph’s coffin up from Egypt. The second answer is that these were Mishael and Eltzaphan who buried Nadav and Avihu (Leviticus 10:4). These answers are not related to the use of this baraita in this context. However, they are part of a general tendency among the rabbis to identify unnamed characters in the Bible with named characters from elsewhere.
R. Yitzchak says that if the impure men had been any of these characters they could have arranged it so that they would have become pure before Pesah. The people in this story obviously could not have become pure. Therefore, this person must have been person who had been occupied with what is known in rabbinic literature as a "met mitzvah." This is the idea that if a person encounters a dead body that has no one to take care of its burial, one is obligated to provide the body with a proper burial. This is a mitzvah. R. Yitzchak implies that these people would have known that if they occupied themselves with the body, they would not have been able to offer the Pesah sacrifice, for their seventh day of purification would fall on the eve of Pesah, the day on which the Pesah is slaughtered. Nevertheless, they did not avoid one mitzvah (burying the dead body) in favor of another mitzvah (the pesah).
Our Talmud asks why we can’t use this source as proof for the general concept that one who is engaged in a mitzvah is exempt from performing another mitzvah.
We shall see the answer in tomorrow’s section.