UNACCREDITED

This only applies to pesachim for sacrifices brought by an individual are not brought in tum'a (ritual impurity), while sacrifices brought by the tsibbur have to be paid for out of shekalim given for this purpose by Jews when this comes about in the responsa of the Ya'abetz #89.

Yours faithfully,

Akiva ben Rabbi Moshe Ginzel

My most recent response to my learned friend after I received the aforesaid letter from Pressburg:

The opinion of his learned son-in-law, that even if we are allowed to, this will apply only to pesachim and not to other sacrifices brought by the tsibbur for these have to be paid for out of the shekalim given by all Jews, is not clear to me. In my opinion, it will be possible to offer up all the sacrifices of the tsibbur, korbanot tamid, korbanot musaf as halakha requires, as long as they are paid for out of the shekalim given by even those few Jews who are there and which are sent there because a person can be accredited even in his absence (Eiruvin 81b), and the rabbinical court there with those few Jews are to be considered representatives of the entire Jewish people even without their awareness. Proof of this can be learned from the fact that in the days of Ezra the Scribe there were only a small part of the two and a half tribes there for it is said (in Arachin 32b) that "now, since the tribes of Reuven and Gad and half of the tribe of Menashe went into exile, and the jubilee years were no longer observed, Ezra still writes 'the whole people, altogether forty thousand three hundred and sixty' (Ezra 2:64). What does this mean? That in Ezra's day there were only forty-two thousand Jews there, and the jubilee years were no longer counted, and even so he offered up all the sacrifices of the tsibbur." This applies today as well, for besides those Jews in the Holy Land there are also many living in the Diaspora who will happily send their shekalim in order to be accredited with the mitzva of the Temple worship, while the others will be satisfied with the accrediting of their brethren. At any rate we have shown that the shekalim of just a small number of Jews suffice.

[This teaching was forwarded to us and we do not have the source from which it was provided. If anyone can help accredit this teaching, we would appreciate it.]

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