Parshas Tazriah-Metzorah 5786
- Torah Tavlin
- Apr 17
- 2 min read
מנחות דף צג: "תנו רבנן ידו ולא יד אשתו - סמיכה בנשים"
The braisa says: from the word "ידו" we learn that a man must do the סמיכה on his קרבן and excludes using a שליח, עבד and אשתו. The braisa says, I could not learn out that אשתו is פסול to do her husband’s סמיכה from עבד and שלוחו because since we say אשתו כגופו, I might think she is permitted - קמ"ל that אשתו may not do סמיכה for her husband. [ד"ה ידו] תוס' says: Although we learn from the words "דבר אל בני ישראל" to exclude women from סמיכה altogether, we still need the limud of "ידו" to teach us a wife may not perform the סמיכה for her husband’s קרבן. This is because although a wife may not do סמיכה on her own קרבן but since she is כיד בעלה, I would think it should be ok - קמ"ל that it is not.
Tosfos asks further: why do we even need a pasuk to exempt נשים from סמיכה? They should automatically be exempt because it is a מצות עשה שהזמן גרמא because תיכף לשחיטה סמיכה and שחיטה is only permitted by day. רע"א wonders why סמיכה should even be considered a מצות עשה שהזמן גרמא. After all, סמיכה may be done anytime; it’s just that since we say תיכף לשחיטה סמיכה, we do the סמיכה by day so the שחיטה may be done right after. But this is not a function of סמיכה, rather, it is a דין in שחיטה. ע"ש.
The ברכת הזבח explains: if נשים would be exempt because of זמן גרמא, it would remain optional and they could do it if they wanted, similarly to lulav where the Rama says they may even make a beracha even though it is a זמן גרמא and they are פטורות. But now that we have the limud from the pasuk of בני ישראל, it does not remain an option.
The מנחת חינוך [קטו] klers: what is the דין if a man inherits a קרבן from his wife or mother? Do we say that since this קרבן originated from a אשה it is excluded from סמיכה or not?
The answer is - it depends. If we say that נשים פטורות because of the rule of מצות עשה שהזמן גרמא, that would only be a פטור in the גברא and not the חפצא, so now that the גברא is the woman’s husband, he would have to do סמיכה. Also, does the opposite hold true as well? If a אשה inherits a קרבן from her father, do we say that the קרבן requires סמיכה since it originated from a man? ע"ש