כ״ג בניסן ה׳תשע״א (April 27, 2011)

Menahot 49a-b – Setting priorities in the Temple, and in our prayers

According to the Mishnah on today’s daf (=page), on Shabbat or a holiday when a special korban musaf – an additional sacrifice – was brought, the korban musaf and the korban tamid – the daily sacrifice – were independent of one-another, and if one was not brought, it did not keep the other one from being offered on the altar.

 

One of the issues raised in the Gemara regarding this ruling is the fact that the morning korban tamid is the sacrifice that opens the Temple service in the morning and that no other sacrifice can be brought before it. Thus it would certainly appear that if the korban tamid is not brought it will keep the korban musaf from being sacrificed, inasmuch as no sacrifice can precede the korban tamid.

 

Abayye rejects this question by arguing that the need to sacrifice the korban tamid prior to any other offering in the Temple is a mitzvah be-alma – it is meritorious to do so ab initio, but if it was not done in that order, the sacrifices that are brought are, nonetheless, valid.

 

Based on this explanation, the intent of the Mishnah in ruling that neglecting to bring the korban tamid does not preclude bringing the korban musaf is to teach that at least after-the-fact, if the korban musaf is brought first, it is acceptable. TheRashba suggests that we can derive from this a practical application. Since our daily prayers mirror the sacrifices brought in the Temple, we can learn from this that a person who prayed the musaf prayer on Shabbat or on a holiday before he prayed the morning service of shaharit, would fulfill his obligation and would not be required to repeat the prayer. TheArukh ha-Shulhan, however, questions this conclusion, pointing out that according to Tosafot the korban musaf is disqualified on a Rabbinic level and a second musaf sacrifice would be required.