Sukkah, Daf Kaf Heh, Part 4

 

Introduction

The Talmud now resolves that we need both sources, the verse "when you walk on the path" and the story about the men who were occupied with a dead body (a met mitzvah) and therefore couldn’t offer the pesah, in order to fully derive that one who is occupied with a commandment is exempt from performing another commandment. If we didn’t have both sources, one would not have known the extent of this principle.

 

צריכא דאי אשמעינן התם משום דלא מטא זמן חיובא דפסח אבל הכא דמטא זמן ק"ש אימא לא צריכא

 

[Both texts] are necessary. For if he had only informed us of the former, I would have said [that they were free from the obligation there] because the time of the obligation of the pesah sacrifice had not yet come, but here where the time of the reading of the Shema had come, I would have said that he is obligated, [therefore] it was necessary [to have the latter].

 

If I only had the source about the men who buried the body, I would have said that one should not refrain from performing a mitzvah now just because it will prevent him from performing a mitzvah later. This is exactly what the men did when they buried the body. They buried the body even though that meant that they couldn’t offer the pesah on time. However, if I am currently occupied with one mitzvah and another one comes at the same time, I might have thought that I should fulfill both of them. Therefore, I need the verse in the Shema to tell me that if I am currently doing one mitzvah, I need not perform simultaneously another one.

 

 

ואי אשמעי‘ הכא משום דליכא כרת אבל התם דאיכא כרת אימא לא צריכא.

 

And if he had informed us of the case here only, I would have said [that one is exempt here] because this does not involve karet, but there where it involves karet, I would have said no. [Therefore the other was] necessary.

 

If the only verse I had was the case of the Shema, I would have said that if one is performing a mitzvah he need not perform another one at the same time, as long as the mitzvah he doesn’t perform is not punishable by "karet," a serious punishment, which is the consequence of not offering the Pesah. Therefore, we need the case of the impure men to teach us that even though they risk not being able to fulfill a mitzvah punishable by the serious punishment of karet, they still invoke the principle that one who is occupied with a mitzvah is exempt from performing another mitzvah.