- Machlokes on how to roast the korban pesach
There is a machlokes in the opening Mishnah of the seventh perek regarding the method of roasting the pesach. Rebbe Yose HaGlili says, מביאין שפוד של רמון ותוחבו לתוך פיו עד בית נקובתו – We bring a spit of pomegranate wood and thrust it into the mouth of the carcass until it passes through its bottom, ונותן את כרעיו ואת בני מעיו לתוכו – and one places its (severed) legs and its entrails inside it. Rashi explains that this is done to comply with the passuk, צלי אש ראשו על כרעיו ועל קרבו – fire-roasted, its head with its legs and its entrails, which implies that these parts are to be roasted together with the body. Rebbe Akiva says, כמין בשול הוא זה – This is considered a form of cooking, אלא תולין חוצה לה – rather, we hang the legs and entrails from the outside of the carcass.
The Gemara brings a Baraisa where it was taught, Rebbe Yishmael would call the roasted pesach, תוך תוך, “tuch tuch.” He held like Rebbe Yose HaGlili, that the entrails were roasted inside the body cavity, and they would make the sound of “tuch, tuch” like food boiling in a covered pot. Rebbe Tarfon called the korban pesach, גדי מקולס – “a helmeted kid.” He held like Rebbe Akiva, that the legs and entrails were placed on the spit above the head of the animal, resembling a helmet on the head of a warrior.
- Why a שפוד של רמון was used and not a metal spit
The Mishnah stated that one uses a שפוד של רמון – a spit of pomegranate wood for the roasting of the pesach. The Gemara asks why a metal spit is not used, and answers, איידי דחם מקצתו חם כולו – since a part of the spit becomes hot through exposure to the fire, all of it, including that which is covered by the carcass, will become hot, וקמטוי מחמת השפוד – and the carcass will be partly roasted on account of the heat of the spit rather than the fire itself, ורחמנא אמר "צלי אש" ולא צלי מחמת דבר אחר – and the Torah states that the pesach must be roasted by fire and not roasted on account of something else.
The Gemara continues to explain that the reason why the spit cannot be brought from other woods, such as palm wood, fig wood, oak, carob, or sycamore, is that they secrete liquid והוה ליה כמבושל – and it is as though the pesach is cooked.
- Roasting a piece of reddened meat over coals
The Gemara teaches that whenever Rav Acha and Ravina disagreed, Rav Acha was the one with the more machmir opinion and Ravina was the one with the more meikal view, and the halachah always follows Ravina לקולא, except for three disputes where Rav Acha is more lenient and the halachah follows his opinion. The first dispute was regarding אומצא דאסמיק – a piece of meat that turned red on account of blood oozing from a vein. If one cut and salted it, it is permitted even for cooking in a pot. The cutting helps the collected blood escape more readily. If one roasted it on a spit, it is permitted for consumption because the blood flows out during the roasting. If one placed it on hot coals for roasting, one of them forbids it because the heat of the coals מצמית צמית, makes it shrivel, causing it to retain the collected blood. The other permits it because מישאב שאיב, the heat draws out the blood. The halachah is that the heat draws out the blood.