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Keritot 8 for kids: When Is It Time?

כריתות ח׳

🐦 This daf asks when a new offering is needed. It also tells how the price of offering birds fell and lists people who must bring an offering to complete their purification.

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Stories from Keritot 8

Words to know

Rashi and Tosafot on Keritot 8 in simple English

Rashi on Keritot 8a, in English Tab translation (37)
  1. He left him — Rabbi Hoshaya left bar Kappara.
  2. He asked him — Rabbi Hoshaya asked bar Kappara.
  3. On the night before the eighth day — after his first bout of ziva; the next day he would be eligible to bring its offering.
  4. What do Beit Hillel say? — Must he bring two offerings or not?
  5. The Babylonian — Rabbi Hiyya came from Babylonia. As the Talmud says elsewhere: When Torah learning was first forgotten in Israel, Hillel the Babylonian came and restored it. When it was forgotten again, the exiles came and restored it—namely, Yehuda and Hezekiah, the sons of Rabbi Hiyya.
  6. Iyya — He meant Rabbi Hiyya, using a disparaging form of his name.
  7. He later asked him — Rabbi Hoshaya again asked bar Kappara.
  8. Let us review the earlier teaching — This introduces a return to the teaching above, beginning “The verse states.” Rabbi Hoshaya was asking whether Beit Hillel’s reason was the words “or for a daughter,” or their view that the preceding night is not too early for an offering.
  9. He does not bring an offering — This baraita holds that the preceding night is too early for an offering, and that Beit Hillel’s ruling rests on the words “or for a daughter.”
  10. A zav who had two sightings — His first bout of ziva consisted of two sightings.
  11. One who had three — Since the time when he could bring his offering had not yet arrived, it is all one prolonged bout of ziva.
  12. Let him include it — In the next chapter’s list of five who bring one offering for multiple occurrences, just as it lists a nazirite who became impure many times.
  13. He could not state it as an absolute rule — Sometimes the nighttime sightings do obligate him to bring another offering: for example, if he saw one discharge on the night before the eighth day and two the next day.
  14. It is merely like a seminal emission — A single sighting makes him impure only until evening. The verse “This is the law of the zav and of one from whom semen is discharged” compares a zav’s first sighting to a seminal emission, as taught in tractate Niddah. Tractate Megillah likewise teaches that two sightings establish ziva impurity, and three also obligate an offering.
  15. But did Rabbi Yoḥanan say this? — This questions his ruling about two sightings at night and one during the day.
  16. He became impure — If a nazirite became impure on the eighth day, when he was eligible to bring his offering, he brings two offerings.
  17. On the night before the eighth day — He does not bring another offering. For purposes of an offering, it is one prolonged period of impurity, because that night is too early.
  18. Mishna: Uncertain ziva — For example, a woman saw blood for three days but does not know whether they fell during her menstrual period or her days of ziva. She brings an offering, but it is not eaten.
  19. Uncertain childbirth — For example, she miscarried but does not know what she delivered.
  20. A woman with five cases of uncertain childbirth or five of uncertain ziva brings one offering — A bird sin offering brought in a case of doubt.
  21. And she may eat sacrificial meat — This offering restores her purity, like immersion: one immersion suffices after several instances of impurity, and so does this offering.
  22. She is not obligated to bring the rest — The Sages did not require the other offerings. They permitted even the one only with difficulty, since it might mean offering a non-sacred bird at the altar. Without that allowance, she would have no way to become permitted to eat sacrificial food.
  23. Five definite childbirths or five definite cases of ziva: she brings one offering and may eat sacrificial meat — As explained above.
  24. She remains obligated to bring the rest — As taught in the next chapter: Can one offering cover both a birth before the end of the purification period and a birth after it? The verse says “This,” requiring separate offerings.
  25. Bird pairs — Two pairs, totaling four turtledoves.
  26. At gold dinars — Two gold dinars for two pairs of birds: one gold dinar per pair.
  27. By this dwelling — This is an oath.
  28. He entered the court to study, etc. — Although he reduced what the Torah required, it was a time to act for the Lord: otherwise, people unable to find the birds would stop bringing even one pair and would eat sacred food while ritually impure.
  29. Pairs of birds at two quarters — Two pairs for two quarters of a silver dinar. Alternatively, the word “riva’atayim” means a half.
  30. Gemara: This is the reading in the Tosefta: Five definite births and five doubtful births, etc.; Rabbi Yohanan ben Nuri says, ‘For the definite births’ — He is concerned that people may become negligent. If you say she may bring an offering for any one of them, a woman who has one definite birth might refuse to bring an offering, saying, ‘Last year I had five definite births and brought no offering for four of them, so why should I bring one now?’ Rabbi Akiva holds that since she did not eat sacred food last year without bringing any offering, she will not become negligent.
  31. She must say, ‘For the last one’ — She says, ‘I am bringing this for the last birth,’ and is released from the others. Rabbi Akiva says she may designate it for any one of them, without specifying the last, and be released from the others.
  32. And for the definite births she must say, ‘For the last one,’ and be released — She is now released from the obligation to bring the other offerings and may eat sacrificial food today; tomorrow she will bring the remaining offerings.
  33. If there is a definite one among them — Of the same kind as the doubtful one, she designates the offering for the definite one. That makes it a definite offering, so it may be eaten, and she is fully released from her obligation. As I explained in the mishna, offering a sacrifice for a doubtful obligation was permitted only reluctantly.
  34. For any one of them — Even for the first.
  35. Whether definite, etc. — She need not say, ‘I am bringing this for the last one.’ In Rabbi Akiva’s statement, omit the words ‘and be released.’
  36. Until he brings all of them — The offerings do not atone for everything: if he brings a sin offering for the first sin, the other sins remain. Likewise here, if she brings an offering for the earlier births, the impurity from the last birth remains, and she is not yet purified to eat sacred food. She must therefore designate the offering for the last birth; then she is purified and may bring the earlier offerings later.
  37. The one who requires five immersions — Even if he says, ‘I am immersing for the first impurity,’ he becomes purified from all impurity.
Tosafot on Keritot 8a, in English Tab translation (3)
  1. Let him list it with the five who bring one offering — How could he list it there? This tanna holds that the night before the eighth day is too early, so all the zav’s discharges are one prolonged period of impurity. For this reason, the Gemara later says that the case of a nazirite who became impure several times cannot follow Rabbi, who says that a new period of naziriteship in purity does not begin until the eighth day, if the nazirite became impure on the preceding night: if that night is too early, it is all one prolonged period of impurity. Rabbi answers that the cases differ. A zav who has counted seven clean days becomes pure immediately, so a discharge on the following night begins a new period of impurity. But a nazirite’s new period of naziriteship in purity does not begin until the next day. That night is too early, and the impurity is continuous, since the nazirite has not yet been purified from the first impurity.
  2. He entered the court and taught — It seems he did not relax a Torah law. Rather, he treated this entirely like immersion: if a person owes five immersions, one immersion is enough.
  3. Rabbi Yohanan ben Nuri compares it to a sin offering — If so, why distinguish between the first and the last? On the contrary, she should have to bring all the offerings; one pair of birds should not suffice.
Rashi on Keritot 8b, in English Tab translation (25)
  1. Five provisional guilt offerings; concerned about negligence — If she need not say, “I bring this for my last obligation,” she may think this offering discharges all her obligations and neglect the rest. Requiring that declaration reminds her that the others remain due. For uncertain obligations, the others are not binding, so no such declaration is required.
  2. Rabbi Akiva is not concerned about negligence — I have also heard this explained as a concern that she might bring no offering at all and eat sacrificial meat while ritually impure. But I find this difficult: if she is already bringing an offering, why fear that she will change her mind merely because she need not specify the last obligation? And if that is the concern, it should apply all the more to an uncertain obligation, yet no such declaration is required there.
  3. Four who lack atonement — They bring a sin offering not for a sin, but to become permitted to eat sacrificial food.
  4. Until the blood is sprinkled on his behalf — A convert must bring an offering, as explained below.
  5. A nazirite regarding wine, cutting his hair, and impurity — Until he brings his offerings, a nazirite remains forbidden to drink wine, cut his hair, or become impure through contact with the dead.
  6. Why count them as two — Why are the zav and zava counted separately among those who lack atonement?
  7. From his flesh — The discharge must come from within his organ, through the force of his own bodily drive.
  8. A zava becomes impure even through an accidental cause — As stated in tractate Niddah: “If her flow of blood flows” includes a flow caused by accident.
  9. And becomes impure through sightings — A zav does so even if he has three sightings in one day.
  10. As through days — A zav also becomes impure if he has sightings on three consecutive days. A zava, by contrast, requires separate days.
  11. There are two here — The term “leper” includes both a man and a woman with leprous marks.
  12. The correct reading is: If so, why does it say “man”? For what follows — It cannot be needed to establish who becomes impure through leprosy, since the verse already says “the leper.”
  13. Man — The word in the earlier verse applies to the later requirement to leave hair wild and rend garments: a man does these things.
  14. Their basic forms of impurity differ — A zav becomes impure through either three sightings or three days; a zava becomes impure through three days, but not through three sightings in one day.
  15. The size of a split bean — That is the minimum size of a leprous mark: half a bean.
  16. But ultimately, why not list the nazirite? — His offering does permit him to do things previously forbidden. The answer is that it permits him to drink ordinary wine, whereas this list concerns offerings that are required before one may eat sacrificial food.
  17. A convert is barred from eating sacrificial food — Even the other Sages agree with Rabbi Eliezer ben Ya’akov that the convert brings an offering to become permitted to eat it. He is not listed because he is not termed one who lacks atonement.
  18. He brought one bird — He brought one fledgling in the morning.
  19. He may eat sacrificial food that evening — Provided he brings the second bird, as the Gemara later says he cannot bring only one.
  20. Here both are burnt offerings — As the Gemara says below concerning the generation in the wilderness.
  21. He brought his required animal offering — One burnt offering fulfills his obligation.
  22. A burnt offering and a peace offering — This wording is not exact; it is used to set up the teaching that a meal offering and a peace offering do not fulfill the obligation.
  23. Just as you brought a burnt offering and a peace offering — As it is written, “He sent the young men of the children of Israel,” and so on (Exodus 24:5).
  24. It will not suffice for him — Not until he brings a peace offering.
  25. Entirely for God — Priests receive none of a bird burnt offering, whereas they receive the hide of an animal burnt offering.
Tosafot on Keritot 8b, in English Tab translation (2)
  1. Both require a lesion the size of a split bean — The Gemara could also have said that a zav and a zava differ in this respect: his discharge is white, while hers is red.
  2. A bird offering was included — But why not use a zav and a zava as a counterexample? They were included for bird offerings, but not for animal offerings.

Sources

Kid summary and story cards written by Tab from the William Davidson Edition English (Sefaria, CC BY-NC 4.0).

Tab translation (machine-assisted) of Rashi and Tosafot, from the Vilna Edition Hebrew (public domain) on Sefaria. May contain mistakes.

In the app, the Gemara text comes from Sefaria (William Davidson Edition, CC BY-NC 4.0; Hebrew/Aramaic Vilna Edition). Rashi and Tosafot Hebrew: Vilna Edition (public domain) via Sefaria.

Also spelled: Kerisus, Kritot, Kerithoth 8.