Two Talleisim
‘The Residue Of The Blood He Spills…’
(Zevachim 51a)
Our daf cites a scriptural source (Vayikra 4:7) for the halacha (cited in the mishnah, 47b) that after the sprinkling of the blood of the bulls and goats burnt inside the heichal, the remaining blood should be poured at the western base of the outer altar.
‘Ein Ma’avirin’
Tosafos (s.v. “asher pesach…”) questions the necessity for a scriptural source for this law considering that we already know that “ein ma’avirin al ha mitzvos” – it is prohibited to postpone or pass up the opportunity to perform a mitzvah (Megilla 6b, Yoma 33a). It should thus be obvious even without a scriptural source that the first place (the western base of the outer altar) that the kohen gadol encounters upon exiting the heichal is where he should pour the blood.
Tosafos answers that this principle only applies when one encounters two different mitzvos and must determine which to do first. It does not apply in the context of a single mitzvah. Thus, we would not now that the kohen gadol must pour the remaining blood at the altar’s western base without a verse from the Torah.
Tallis Worn First
A practical application of “ei ma’avirin” is the following: The Mechaber (Orach Chayim 25:1) states that a person should not place his tefillin above his tallis in his tallis bag. Why? Because if he does, and he touches his tefillin first, he is required to don them first even though, generally speaking, the proper order is tallis first, then tefillin.
The Shabbos Tallis
Ri Malcho (siman 83, cited by Birkei Yosef, O.C. ad loc.) was asked whether a person who has a tallis designated for Shabbos and another one for weekdays is obligated to don whichever his hand touches first regardless of whether it is a weekday or Shabbos.
He answered with the following scenario. If a person picked up his tefillin accidentally at home before he leaves to shul, he is not required to don them immediately because his intention is to don them in shul. So too, a person who touches his Shabbos tallis first need not put it on since he has mentally designated it for Shabbos.
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