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Chagigah Chapter 2, Mishnah 3: Semikhah and Korbanot on Yom Tov

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Chagigah, Chapter Two, Mishnah 3. The previous mishnah dealt with the ongoing dispute over whether semichah on a korban - pressing one's hands with full force on the animal's head - is permitted on Yom Tov, and we learned that Beis Shammai held that semichah is not permitted. Our mishnah follows from that.

The view of Beis Shammai:

  • "Meviin shelamim" - on Yom Tov one may bring a shelamim offering: the shelamim of chagigah and the shelamim of simchah.

  • "V'ein somchin aleihem" - but one does not perform semichah, following the view of Shammai in the previous mishnah, since one who performs semichah leans on the animal with all his strength and is thereby making use of a living creature on Yom Tov, which is forbidden. According to Beis Shammai there is also no requirement that the semichah be performed immediately before the slaughtering, unlike the view of Beis Hillel.

  • "Aval lo olos" - one does not bring the olas re'iyah on Yom Tov. Although it is an obligation of Yom Tov, it has a period of makeup days and can be brought after Yom Tov. It does not qualify as ochel nefesh, since it is burned entirely to Hashem and does not come to be eaten by a person; and since the labors involved in it are performed for an offering that can be brought after Yom Tov, they should not be performed now.

The view of Beis Hillel:

  • "Meviin shelamim v'olos" - shelamim, as even Beis Shammai conceded, because they are eaten; and olos as well, since the Torah itself prescribes bringing the olah offering on Yom Tov.

  • "V'somchin aleihem" - semichah is performed as well, following the view of Hillel in the previous mishnah, who holds "teichef lismichah shechitah" - that the semichah must be done immediately before the slaughtering. Therefore semichah is performed both on the shelamim and on the olos.

It is worth noting that the Gemara clarifies that even according to Beis Hillel one does not bring offerings of nedarim and nedavos on Yom Tov, since these are voluntary offerings, and this is true even of shelamim.

In summary: in this mishnah Beis Shammai and Beis Hillel disagree about the offerings of Yom Tov: according to Beis Shammai one brings only shelamim and does not perform semichah on them, while according to Beis Hillel one brings both shelamim and olos and performs semichah on both - and even so, according to their view as well there is no place for voluntary offerings on Yom Tov.