Commento su Pesahim 8:6

האונן – all the time that the dead is not buried he is called an Onen (during the period between death of one’s loved one and burial), and after he is buried, all the day of the death he is called an Onen. And the night afterwards he is an Onen from the Rabbis. But they did not let their words stand in place of extirpation concerning the Passover offering. Therefore, we slaughter for him for in evening it is fitting.

Introduction This mishnah discusses slaughtering the pesah on behalf of various categories of people who may not be able to eat it.

והמפקח בגל – that fell on a a person and it is unknown if they would find him alive or dead, we slaughter [the Passover offering] for him as he is presumed to be ritually pure until he knows that he has become defiled.

[As to] an onen, and one who is removing a heap [of stones], and likewise one whom they promised to take out of prison, and a sick or an old person who can eat as much as an olive, they slaughter on their behalf. This is a list of people who may be able to eat the pesah offering in the evening even though they are currently (i.e. on the 14th of Pesah) in a state in which they cannot eat it. A person whose close relative (one of the seven for whom he must mourn: mother, father, brother, sister, daughter, son or spouse) has died is an onen on the day of the death. He is forbidden to eat sacred food. However, the following evening he is no longer an onen and he may eat his pesah. They sacrifice the pesah on his behalf even though there is a chance that while burying his dead he may contract corpse impurity and not be able to eat the pesah. “One who is removing a heap of stones” refers to a person clearing out a heap of stones which may have fallen upon and killed a person. If it turns out that there is a dead body under the heap then he will be impure and will not be able to eat his pesah that evening. Nevertheless, until a dead body is found the remover is assumed to be pure and they do slaughter the pesah on his behalf. One who is stuck in prison on the fourteenth of Nisan may not be able to eat his pesah. Evidently the pesah is not part of the prison meal plan. If they promised to let him out they do slaughter the pesah on his behalf even though it is not certain that he will actually be let out in time. An old or sick person may not be able to eat an olive’s worth of the pesah, even though it seems like they will be able to. In any case, since it seems likely that these people will be able to eat the pesah, they do slaughter it on their behalf. Note that if we know that the old or sick person will not be able to eat even an olive’s worth of the pesah they do not slaughter on his behalf.

שוחטין עליהם – in the group of others.

[Yet in the case of] all these, they may not slaughter for them alone, lest they bring the pesah to disqualification. They should not slaughter the pesah on behalf of a group which is entirely made up of the above categories of people. The problem is that if an entire group cannot eat the pesah then the pesah itself becomes disqualified. It is best to avoid this situation and therefore the entire group should not consist of people who are in a “risky” category.

שמא יביאוהו לידי פסול – lest he become defiled as an Onen for his dead in the midst of his being busily engaged, and opening up a heap of debris, lest we find him dead, and it is found that he formed a tent (i.e., spread himself) on the defilement [of the corpse]. And the imprisoned, lest he not leave, and we are speaking of someone imprisoned in a jail of idolaters. For even though that they promised him lest they not free him, as their mouths spoke falsehoods, but if he was imprisoned by an Israelite, such as case where they force him to divorce an invalid woman, or to pay money, we slaughter for them [a Passover offering] , even by themselves, if they promised to set them free, for the Remnant of Israel does not speak falsehoods. And if the prison was in the midst of Jerusalem, even in the hands of idolaters, we slaughter [a Passover offering] for them by themselves, for it is possible that they are entering for Passover to the prison and eating it there. But for a sick person and an elder, we don’t slaughter [the Passover offering] for them by themselves, lest the illness become heavy upon them and they are not able to eat even an olive’s bulk.

Therefore if a disqualification occurs to them, they are exempt from keeping the second pesah, except for one who was removing the heap, because he was unclean from the beginning. If they slaughter the pesah on behalf of one of the people in this category and then it they become impure or become otherwise unable to eat the pesah (stuck in jail or sick), they do not need to observe the second pesah. This is because at the moment that the blood of the first pesah was sprinkled on the altar they looked like they were going to be able to eat the pesah at night. The only exception is the one who was uncovering the heap of stones because he was impure at the outset, when the blood was sprinkled. If it turns out that there was a body under the heap, then he was already impure when they slaughtered the pesah on his behalf and sprinkled its blood. To put it another way, concerning this person what is unclear is not whether he will become impure, as it is with the onen, but rather whether he has already been made impure.

לפיכך – since at the time of the slaughtering they were appropriate and the blood is tossed upon them if a defilement befell them, like that which we said that they are exempt from performing the Second Passover.

חוץ מן המפקח הגל – and it is found that he died underneath it one needs to do the Second Passover , for he was ritually impure from the beginning prior to the slaughtering it formed a tent on the defilement from the time that he began to open up the heap of debris, and if the heap was round it certainly formed a tent upon him from the beginning, but if the heap was long, perhaps at the time of the slaughter [of the Passover offering], it had not formed a tent on the defilement, and he is exempt from making the Second Passover.