Kommentar zu Pesachim 8:2

שחט גדי יאכל – his master [should eat] from him [the kid] and even though all of the other Passover offerings are regular, the frequent is nullified since he didn’t express to him that he relied on it.

Introduction A pesah can be either a kid (a goat) or a lamb (a sheep) (see Exodus 12:5). This mishnah deals with a slave who slaughters a pesah on behalf of his master, who may or not have cared whether the pesah was a kid or a lamb. The mishnah resolves how to deal with potential confusions.

יאכל מן הראשון – and the second one should be burned. And in the Gemara (Pesahim 88b) maintains that this is specifically with a king and a queen; there are those who say that it is because of the peace of the kingdom, and there are those who say that because they rely on their servants and they are not exacting about their [Passover] meal, whether with kids or lambs. Therefore, he should eat from the first, since there is no intimation that you care for a thing to be exactly as you want it, for with the first, they have fulfilled their religious obligations. But the people of the world that are particular, he should not either from the first nor the second, for we hold that they are not registered with two Passover offerings as one, to eat from whichever of them that he wants, for there is no retrospective designation. For when he wanted to eat from this one, perhaps at the time of slaughtering, mind was not upon it.

One who says to his slave, “Go out and slaughter the pesah on my behalf”, if he slaughtered a kid, he may eat it; if he slaughtered a lamb, he may eat it; if he slaughtered a kid and a lamb, he eats the first. In this case his master did not tell him what type of animal, a kid (a goat) or a lamb (sheep), to slaughter for his pesah. Therefore, the slave may slaughter either of them, even though he knows that his master generally prefers one type or the other, or perhaps generally makes his pesah from a certain type and not the other. If the slave slaughters both a kid and a lamb the first counts as the master’s pesah, whichever that one may be, and the second does not.

שכח מה שאמר – that he expressed to him a kid or a lamb.

If he forgot what his master told him, how should he act? He should slaughter a lamb and a kid and declare, “If my master told me [to slaughter] a kid, the kid is his and the lamb is mine; and if my master told me [to slaughter] a lamb, the lamb is his and the kid is mine.” In this case the master did tell him which animal to slaughter but the slave forgot. The solution is for the slave to make stipulations when he slaughters both animals. He slaughters them both and makes a stipulation that if the lamb is what his master wanted, then the lamb is the master’s pesah and the goat is his and vice versa.

וטלה שלי – In the Gemara (Pesahim 88b) maintains it such as the case where the servant when to the shepherd where his master is accustomed and who wants his remedy (i.e., that things go right for the master), and he (i.e., the shepherd) said to him: “If it is a kid,” your master would tell you that the kid is his and that the lam is your on the condition that your master will not have possession of it,” and in such a manner, the servant acquires itr, for it had not been like this, what the servant acquired, the master acquired and it would be that both of them belong to the master.

If his master [also] forgot what he told him, both animals go to the place of burning, but they [the master and the slave] are exempt from sacrificing the second pesah. In this case when the slave returns to the master it turns out that even the master has forgotten what he told his slave to do. The stipulation will not avail because the master doesn’t know which is his and which the slave’s is. Therefore, neither animal can be eaten; both must be burned. However, the mishnah states that neither the slave nor the master has to offer a second pesah a month later because when the blood was sprinkled upon the altar, the master still knew which one was his (assuming that this is true). He only forgot later when the slave returned with the two slaughtered animals.

ופטורים מלעשות פסח שני – and even though both of them go out to the place of burning and are not eaten because their registration was not known. However, the slaughtering and sprinkling [of the blood] are valid, one for this one and one for the other one, for before Heaven it is revealed.