The blood is sprinkled with a hyssop bundle on the lintel and two doorposts — the sign that saved the firstborn.
Distinction 3 — The Eating
נֶאֱכָל בְּחִפָּזוֹן בְּלַיְלָה אֶחָד
Eaten in haste, in a single night — reflecting the urgency of imminent departure from Egypt.
Distinction 1 — No Fixed Date
אֵין מִקָּחוֹ מִבֶּעָשׂוֹר
The lamb may be acquired any time before 14 Nissan. No requirement to set it aside on the 10th.
Distinction 2 — The Blood
הַדָּם נִזְרָק עַל הַמִּזְבֵּחַ
The blood is dashed on the altar — not on doorposts. No hyssop bundle required for Pesach Dorot.
Distinction 3 — Seven Days
נוֹהֵג כָּל שִׁבְעָה
The laws of Pesach govern all seven days — not just the first night. The festival, not the emergency, defines the practice.
✦ The First Distinction — מִקָּחוֹ מִבֶּעָשׂוֹר
מִבֶּעָשׂוֹר לַחֹדֶשׁ — י׳ נִיסָן
The lamb is taken on the 10th of Nissan — four days before it is slaughtered on 14 Nissan. This requirement applies only to Pesach Mitzrayim; Pesach Dorot has no such rule. Yet the four-day interval between selection and slaughter left a deep imprint on how the Temple understood animal inspection — as the mishnayot that follow in this series will show.
Pesachim 9:5 is a mishnah about abolition — three practices that were commanded once and then discontinued. The 10 Nissan selection rule is the first and most calendar-specific of them. Once the generation of Egypt passed, no halacha required setting the lamb aside four days early. Yet the principle embedded in that requirement — that an animal destined for the altar must be examined and held before it is offered — did not disappear. It was absorbed into the Temple's daily practice, into the Chamber of Lambs, into the torchlight inspection of the Tamid. The law was abolished; the principle survived.