Menachos Daf 92 מנחוס דַף 92

The next Mishnah states that all קרבנות הצבור do not require semichah, except for the פר הלם דבר של ציבור and שעיר המשתלח. Rebbe Shimon says that the שעיר עבודת כוכבים (for העלם דבר of idolatry) also requires סמיכה. In a Baraisa, Rebbe Shimon argues that סמיכה is always performed by a korban’s owners, whereas the semichah of the שעיר המשתלח is performed by the Kohen Gadol!? Rebbe Yehudah (our Tanna Kamma) replies: אף זה אהרן ובניו מתכפרין בו – even with this [שעיר המשתלח], Aharon and his sons are atoned (and are also “owners”). He says a hekesh compares the כפרה of כהנים, לוים, and ישראלים, teaching: הושוו כולן לכפרה אחת – they are all equated for one atonement, specifically, the כפרה of the שעיר המשתלח for all aveiros. But Rebbe Shimon says that just as the וידוי – confession recited over the שעיר המשתלח is מכפר for all (other) aveiros of non-Kohanim, so too the וידוי over the פר atones for the Kohanim for all other aveiros, and they are not included in the שעיר המשתלח’s atonement. Rather, they are only “equated” insofar as they are all atoned for all aveiros.

In the Mishnah, Rebbe Shimon disagreed with the Tanna Kamma and said that a שעיר עבודת כוכבים requires סמיכה. In a Baraisa, Rebbe Yehudah darshens: וסמכו זקני העדה את ידיהם על ראש הפר – the elders of the congregation shall lean their hands on the head of the bull, teaching that only the פר העלם דבר requires סמיכה, but not the שעירי עבודת כוכבים. In another Baraisa, Rebbe Yehudah says that the word "החי" – the live [goat] written about the שעיר המשתלח teaches that only this שעיר requires סמיכה, not שעירי עבודת כוכבים. Rebbe Shimon replies that "החי" teaches that שעירי עבודת כוכבים do not require semichah by Aharon (like the שעיר המשתלח), but they do require semichah by the זקנים, who are owners. [The Gemara will later present Rebbe Shimon’s source that שעירי ע"ז require semichah.] The Gemara asks why Rebbe Yehudah needs a passuk to exclude שעירי עבודת כוכבים from semichah, since Ravina taught above that גמירי שתי סמיכות בצבור – there is a tradition that there are two cases of semichah required for a communal korban, and this is not one of them!? It answers: גירסא בעלמא – it is merely an אסמכתא, but no passuk is actually necessary.

The Mishnah concluded that all קרבנות יחיד do not require semichah, except for bechor, maaser, and pesach. A Baraisa darshens the word "קרבנו" – his sacrifice written three times in the pesukim about שלמים to exclude these three korbanos from semichah. The Baraisa explains that without a derashah, they all should have required semichah based on a kal vachomer from שלמים: If a shelamim, שאין קדושתן מרחם – whose sanctity is not from the womb, requires semichah, then a bechor, which is קדוש from the womb, certainly should have required semichah. And if a shelamim, שאין מקדשין לפניהם ולאחריהם – which does not sanctify something before and after it, requires semichah, then maaser, which sanctifies the animal before and after it (if one mistakenly designated the ninth as “tenth,” the tenth as “ninth,” and the eleventh as “tenth,” they are all קדוש), certainly should have required semichah. Finally, if shelamim, which one is not required to bring, requires semichah, then pesach, which is a requirement to bring, certainly should have required semichah. The Gemara objects that none of these korbanos could have been derived from shelamim, which requires נסכים, and waving of the חזה ושוק!? It concludes that these derashos are a mere אסמכתא.