The Hyssop Bunch and the Blood Upon the Doorposts

"And you shall take" (Exodus 12:22). Rabbi Yehudah says: "Taking" is stated here, and "taking" is stated regarding the red heifer, and "taking" is stated regarding the palm-branch [lulav], and "taking" is stated regarding the leper. Just as the "taking" stated here means a bound bunch, so too the "taking" stated in those places means a bound bunch. But the Sages say: "this" — if it is not bound, it is invalid; "that" [the leper's] — even though it is not bound, it is valid. "Hyssop" (Exodus 12:22) — not Greek hyssop, nor blue hyssop, nor wild hyssop, nor any hyssop that bears a qualifying name. "And dip it in the blood" — that there be enough blood for dipping. "That is in the basin" — I might understand this to mean a vessel's basin or a doorpost's socket [also called sap in Hebrew], since a vessel is called sap and a doorpost is called sap. And whence is it that a vessel is called sap? As it is said, "and the basins and the snuffers" (1 Kings 7:50). And whence is it that the doorpost is called sap? As it is said, "in their setting of their threshold by my threshold, and their doorpost beside my doorpost" (Ezekiel 43:8). Therefore Scripture says, "and you shall reach to the lintel and to the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin" — meaning a basin one can reach into. Say from now on: a vessel's basin, and not a doorpost's socket. Rabbi Akiva says: Since two verses stand, let one place blood both in a vessel's basin and on a doorpost's socket; the remainder of the blood he pours out upon the threshold. "And you" (Exodus 12:22). I have only you yourselves. Converts, women, and slaves — whence are they included? Scripture teaches, "And as for you, none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning."