EXTRA 8 — Vayikra 3:7 · Sifra

Extra Credit · Toras Kohanim

The Complete Passuk

אִם־כֶּ֥שֶׂב הֽוּא־מַקְרִ֖יב אֶת־קָרְבָּנ֑וֹ וְהִקְרִ֥יב אֹת֖וֹ לִפְנֵ֥י יְהֹוָֽה׃

If he is offering a sheep as his offering, he shall bring it before Hashem.

Source

Sifra, Vayikra Dibbura deNedavah, on 3:7 (keshev).

Sefaria — Sifra / Toras Kohanim

The Midrash (longer context)

Core Text
״אִם כֶּשֶׂב״ — לָמָּה נֶאֱמַר? לְרַבּוֹת אֶת הַפֶּסַח לָאַלְיָה. ״אִם כֶּשֶׂב״ — לְרַבּוֹת פֶּסַח שֶׁעָבַר זְמַנּוֹ וּשְׁלָמִים הַבָּאִים מִכֹּחַ פֶּסַח לְכָל מִצְוֹת שְׁלָמִים: לִסְמִיכָה, לִנְסָכִים, וּלְתְנוּפַת חָזֶה וָשׁוֹק.

English: “If a sheep” — why is this said (after “flock”)? To include the pesach for the fat-tail. “If a sheep” — to include a pesach whose time has passed, and shelamim that come by force of a pesach, for all the mitzvos of shelamim: semichah, libations, and waving of breast and thigh.

In Sifra: The specific word keshev (sheep), after the general “flock,” is not redundant. It pulls the pesach offering into the alyah rule and extends full shelamim ritual (leaning, libations, tenufah) to late or substitute pesach animals treated as shelamim.

Type of Learning

R’ Eliezer #1 (ריבוי) — “keshev” expands beyond ordinary flock shelamim.

What Is Learned

The pesach receives the sheep’s fat-tail treatment; a pesach past its time (and related shelamim) takes on the full shelamim suite of rites.