Illustration Credit: Elad Lifshitz, Dov Abramson Studio
Halakhah הֲלָכָה
How do you decide what to do first when you have a whole list of things to do?
Our parashah offers one way to decide. We read in Pinhas about lots of קָרְבָּנוֹת (korbanot, sacrifices). Specifically, we learn about two types of korban:
- תְּמִידִין (temidin): the regular sacrifices offered every day, twice a day.
- מוּסָפִין (musafin): the additional sacrifices offered on Shabbat, Rosh Hodesh, and other holidays.
On Pesah, the Torah tells us to bring a bunch of special korbanot. But every morning of Pesah, we also need to bring the daily korban tamid. Here’s how the Torah says it:
מִלְּבַד֙ עֹלַ֣ת הַבֹּ֔קֶר אֲשֶׁ֖ר לְעֹלַ֣ת הַתָּמִ֑יד תַּעֲשׂ֖וּ אֶת־אֵֽלֶּה׃
You must bring these [special Pesah offerings], besides the morning sacrifice, which is part of the regular, daily sacrifice.
Notice something repetitive? Why does the Torah need to say “the morning sacrifice, which is part of the regular, daily sacrifice”? We know that the morning sacrifice is part of the regular sacrifice!
The Mishnah (Zevahim 10:1) concludes from this:
כֹּל הַתָּדִיר מֵחֲבֵרוֹ, קוֹדֵם אֶת חֲבֵרוֹ.
Anything that happens more regularly comes first.
So, the Mishnah explains, the order of events on a special day should be:
(1) korban tamid
(2) korban musaf
When Rosh Hodesh falls on Shabbat it should be:
(1) korban tamid
(2) korban musaf for Shabbat
(3) korban musaf for Rosh Hodesh
This is because Shabbat occurs more regularly than Rosh Hodesh.
Even without a Beit Ha-Mikdash, this rule still comes up in a bunch of places:
- We put on tallit first before tefillin, because tallit is a mitzvah every day but there are some days when tefillin aren’t worn (Kitzur Shulhan Arukh 10:2).
- When you have to read from more than one Torah scroll, you start with the parashah of the week, because that is more common and frequent. Then you move on to the maftir reading for the special day.
- When we make Kiddush on Friday night, we say the blessing over wine before the blessing about Shabbat, because drinking wine is more common than making Kiddush on Shabbat. (At least for adults!)
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