By Rabbi Shmuel Wise

 

Question: What is the status of nonspecific intention?

Answer: Welcome to the last major order of Talmud Bavli, Seder Kodshim, which contains the laws of sacrifices. This week, we began the first masechta of Seder Kodshim, Zevachim, which discusses animal and bird sacrifices.

The masechta begins by teaching the halachah of “lishma,” for its sake. As the Mishnah says, if an offering was brought for the sake of a different offering (e.g. someone slaughtered his olah for the sake of a shelamim), he has not fulfilled his obligation.

The Gemara (bottom of 2b) brings a surprising teaching. The rabbis enacted that the kohen should specifically avoid declaring that he is bringing his olah for the sake of an olah (for example). Why? Perhaps he will mistakenly mention the wrong sacrifice and thereby invalidate his offering. The rabbis therefore concluded that it is preferable to have no intention at all. From this teaching we learn a fundamental point: if someone brings a sacrifice with zero intention, somehow the lishma requirement is fulfilled. How does this work?

Rava explains that a sacrifice brought with zero intention is perfectly fine because of what happens prior to the actual bringing of the sacrifice. When someone decides to bring an olah, let’s say, he must first consecrate the animal as an olah. Since this animal already stands to be offered as an olah, the halachah of lishma does not require the kohen to specifically perform the service for the sake of an olah. As long as the kohen does not repurpose the sacrifice for, say, a shelamim, the lishma requirement is satisfied.

Rava there notes that there is another instance where the halachah of lishma applies — gittin, divorce documents. That is, the scribe writing the get must write it for the sake of the woman being divorced. So if, for example, the get had been written for a different couple who happened to have the same names as the couple who ended up using the get, the get is invalid and does not effectuate a divorce. However, with regard to divorce documents, zero intention would not satisfy the lishma requirement.

This is readily understandable in light of Rava’s explanation of the law regarding sacrifices. A consecrated animal, we can argue, already stands to be brought as whatever it’s been consecrated as; a married woman, by contrast, cannot reasonably be regarded as standing for divorce (marriage problems notwithstanding). Hence, it is crucial that the scribe write the get for the correct couple upon being authorized by the husband to draft it.

In the beginning of the discussion, Rava states as a given that this is the way it works with divorce documents. The Gemara seeks Rava’s source for this assertion, suggesting and rejecting several possibilities. One attempted proof is from the Mishnah in Gittin (24a) which discusses many examples of gittin that are invalid because they are not considered to have been written lishma. One of the examples is where a man who is married to two wives who have the same name has resolved to divorce one of them — he just doesn’t know which one. So he tells the scribe, “Draft a get for me and I’ll decide later which wife to divorce with it.”

The Mishnah rules that this is a get that was not written lishma and is therefore invalid. So the Mishnah calls this a get that isn’t lishma, even though the intention was rather open ended, for the scribe left open the possibility that the get could be intended for either wife! So, evidently, avoiding an intention for the wrong woman is not sufficient; rather, the scribe must specifically write the get for the correct woman, which proves Rava’s claim.

But the Gemara deflects this proof by explaining that what is actually going on in this case is that the scribe is attempting to make the get lishma through a principle called “breira.” Breira is a legal mechanism whereby a person, uncertain as to which of two or more possible items to designate, has one of the items retroactively designated once he ultimately makes his selection. The Tanna of this Mishnah rejects breira, and therefore this get is not lishma. The point is that an attempt to use breira means the scribe is actually making a designation at the time of the writing — for either this wife or that wife — and we will never know which one was chosen if we cannot utilize breira. So even if zero intention were good enough, this get cannot be considered lishma because it was possibly intended specifically for the other wife!

The Gemara does end up finding a source which clearly indicates that a get, unlike with sacrifices, has to be written specifically for the woman being divorced (see 3a). In the process of getting there, we got a chance to explore some interesting ideas.

Rabbi Wise is maggid shiur of Real Clear Daf (realcleardaf.com), a website and mobile app that offers free audio shiurim and other resources to assist your journey through Shas. He is also the director of Tehillim Together (tehillimtogether.com), a mobile app (for iOS and Android) that offers a translated sefer Tehillim and facilitates Tehillim groups. To be a sponsor or to reach Rabbi Wise, please write to rabbiwise@realcleardaf.com or call 855-ASK-RCD-1 (275-7231).

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