“When a man [adam] among you sacrifices” – why is “man [ish]” not stated, as it is stated elsewhere: Speak to the entire congregation of the children of Israel: When a man [ish] sacrifices.24There is no verse with this precise formulation. It appears that the text is corrupted or that the midrash is paraphrasing, and the reference is to a similar verse: “Speak to the entire congregation of Israel, saying: On the tenth of this month, each man [ish] shall take a lamb…” (Exodus 12:3).
Here, too, the verse should say: Each man [ish] shall take from the herd or the flock. Why does it say adam? It is to include the proselyte.25Since the less common term adam is employed, it must have been employed to teach something, and the midrash interprets it to teach that a proselyte is included. “Among you,” to exclude the gentile, who may bring [only] a burnt offering.
Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel said: The Great Court instituted seven matters and this is one of them: A gentile who brings his burnt offering from overseas, if he brought libations with it, the libations are brought from what is his, and if not, they are brought from public funds. And it is a stipulation of the court that if the High Priest dies, his meal offering is brought from public funds.26The High Priest brings a meal offering each day, half of which is sacrificed in the morning and half in the evening.
If he dies and a replacement has not yet been appointed, the meal offering is still brought each day, from public funds. Rabbi Yehuda says: From the funds of the heirs. But it would be brought whole.27In this case it was not divided in half. And there is a stipulation regarding salt and wood.28Salt and wood were purchased with public funds to be used with sacrificial offerings.
However, the court stipulated that it was permitted for priests to benefit from these items in preparing to eat the offerings, and they would not be liable for misuse of consecrated property. Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel29Several commentaries note that the source of this passage is Tanna d’Vei Eliyahu, and the text there indicates that this is stated by Elijah the Prophet, not Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel (see Etz Yosef; Rabbi David Luria). said: Once I was walking on the way.
A person found me and was approaching me like one approaching another aggressively. He said to me: ‘You say that seven prophets stood for the nations of the world. They warned them and [yet] they descend to Gehenna.’30The nations did not heed the warnings of these prophets and therefore descend to Gehenna. I said to him: ‘That is so, my son.’ [He said]: ‘From [those] seven generations onward, the nations of the world can say: The Torah was not given to us and we have not been warned.
Why are we descending to Gehenna?’ I said to him: ‘My son, the Sages taught in the Mishna: If a proselyte comes to convert, one extends a hand to him to bring him under the wings of the Divine Presence. From that point onward, the proselytes of that generation warn that generation.’ “From animals, from the herd…” – if “from the animals” is stated, why is “from the herd or from the flock” stated?
From here they said: One accepts the various offerings from the wicked of Israel in order to bring them under the wings of the Divine Presence, with the exception of the apostate, one who pours wine libations [in an idolatrous service], and one who publicly desecrates Shabbat.