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Numbers 29 commands seventy bulls across the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles. Rabbinic tradition interprets this as an offering for the seventy nations of the world, made to atone for them, with a single bull on the eighth day for Israel.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Numbers 29:13
Hebrew Bible
13 You must offer a burnt offering, an offering made by fire as a pleasing aroma to the Lord: thirteen young bulls, two rams, and fourteen lambs each one year old, all of them without blemish. 14 Their grain offerings must be of finely ground flour mixed with olive oil, three-tenths of an ephah for each of the thirteen bulls, two-tenths of an ephah for each of the two rams, 15 and one-tenth for each of the fourteen lambs, 16 along with one male goat for a purification offering, in addition to the continual burnt offering with its grain offering and its drink offering. 17 “‘On the second day you must offer twelve young bulls, two rams, fourteen lambs one year old, all without blemish, 18 and their grain offerings and their drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, according to their number as prescribed, 19 along with one male goat for a purification offering, in addition to the continual burnt offering with its grain offering and their drink offerings. 20 “‘On the third day you must offer eleven bulls, two rams, fourteen lambs one year old, all without blemish,
Sukkah 55b
Babylonian Talmud
Rabbinic
The Gemara asks: With regard to the bulls sacrificed on Sukkot, what does the baraita teach us? It is a simple calculation that seventy bulls divided by twenty-four watches leaves two watches that sacrificed only two bulls. The Gemara answers: This is what the baraita comes to teach us: One who sacrificed bulls today will not sacrifice bulls tomorrow; rather, they rotate. Therefore, each watch sacrifices at least two bulls, and most of them sacrifice three. Rabbi Elazar said: These seventy bulls that are sacrificed as additional offerings over the course of the seven days of Sukkot, to what do they correspond? They correspond to the seventy nations of the world, and are brought to atone for their sins and to hasten world peace. Why is a single bull sacrificed on the Eighth Day of Assembly? It corresponds to the singular nation, Israel. The Gemara cites a parable about a king of flesh and blood who said to his servants: Prepare me a great feast that will last for several days. When the feast concluded, on the last day, he said to his beloved servant: Prepare me a small feast so that I can derive pleasure from you alone. Rabbi Yoḥanan said: Woe unto the nations of the world that lost something and do not know what they lost. When the Temple is standing, the seventy bulls sacrificed on the altar during the festival of Sukkot atones for them. And now that the Temple is destroyed, who atones for them?
Date: 450-550 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
... R. Eleazar (circa 270, instead of R. Alexandrai) in Babylonian Talmud Sukkah 55b; anonymously and without the parable in Pesiqta Rabbati Addition 4 (202B); Pesiqta 195B. In the last passages, R. Berekhiah (circa 340) calculates the seventy bulls in Numbers 29:13–32 in the following way: 'On the first day 13 and on the seventh day 7. That makes 20. On the second day 12 and on the sixth day 8. That makes 20. On the third day 11 and on the fifth day 9. That makes 20. On the fourth day 10. That makes 70 altogether.'—The opinion that the seventy bulls were offered on the first seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles for the seventy nations of the world is expressed quite often. ...
Strack, Hermann L. and Billerbeck, Paul
A Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Midrash, Volume 2
(p. 1540) Lexham Press, 2022
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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