The Lambs Held Four Days While Egypt Watched Helpless

"And it shall be for you in safekeeping" (Exodus 12:6). Ben Azzai says: that it should not go out and graze with the flock. Rabbi Yose the Galilean says: that they should be tied to the legs of the bed, and the Egyptians would come in and see them and their souls would expire, for they feared the lambs. So it says, "Behold, if we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, will they not stone us?" (Exodus 8:22). "For safekeeping" (Exodus 12:6). Rabbi Akiva says: "safekeeping" is stated here and "safekeeping" is stated elsewhere (Numbers 28:2). Just as the safekeeping stated here means they must be examined and standing ready three days before slaughter, so the safekeeping stated elsewhere means they must be examined and standing ready three days before slaughter. From here they said: one does not keep fewer than six examined lambs in the lamb chamber, enough for the Sabbath and the two festival days of the New Year. "Until the fourteenth day of this month" (Exodus 12:6). This is the basis for what they said: the second Passover is not acquired from the tenth. "And they shall slaughter it" (Exodus 12:6): that one should not slaughter ordinary meat with it, and not slaughter a festival offering with it. But in later generations one does slaughter a festival offering with it. When? When it comes on a weekday, in purity, and the company is small. "The whole assembly of the congregation of Israel" (Exodus 12:6). This teaches that the Passover of Egypt was slaughtered in three groups: "assembly," "congregation," and "Israel." "Between the evenings" (Exodus 12:6). One might think after dark; the verse says "day." Or one might think from the second hour; the verse says "between the evenings." How then? From the sixth hour onward. For the House of Shammai say: there is no "evening" except after the day has turned. Hanina ben Hakhinai says: "between the evenings" means between the two evenings, between the dawn of the fourteenth and the dawn of the fifteenth, with a day and a night in between. When it says "day," the night has already been excluded. One might think the morning is part of "between the evenings"; but just as "between the evenings" means after the day has turned, so when it says "day" it means after the day has turned, from the sixth hour onward. So it says, "Woe to us, for the day has turned, for the shadows of evening are stretched out" (Jeremiah 6:4). From here they said: if he slaughtered before noon it is invalid, since Scripture says of it "between the evenings." If he slaughtered it before the daily offering it is valid, provided someone keeps stirring its blood until the blood of the daily offering is poured; and if it was then sprinkled, it is valid.