Introduction to the Laws of Korbanos - Rabbi Yaron Yitzchok Lederman shlita

00:02 Speaker 1 You’re listening to the “Lema’an Yishme’u” podcast from Machon Halacha Chabad.

00:09 Speaker 2 Hello and welcome. Today we’re going to talk about korbanos as an introduction. We’ll explain a little about the world of korbanos and the world of the Beis Hamikdash. People sometimes study the Beis Hamikdash as though it were a separate subject: its architecture, its layout, where everything was. But the fuller way that Seder Kodashim teaches us to study the Beis Hamikdash—Middos is one of its tractates—is to ask: How did people live there? What did they do there? How did it work? For that, we also need to know a little about the offerings themselves, the korbanos: what was brought, how, when, and by whom. So we’ll learn a little about the korbanos of the Beis Hamikdash and gain an initial understanding of the subject. Let’s begin with the world of the Beis Hamikdash itself. We know the phrase “And like smoke, You will cause them to vanish,” which we say on Rosh Hashanah. The Hebrew word for smoke, ashan, stands for olam, shanah, nefesh—world, year, and soul—and points to the nullification of all the limitations of existence. But olam, shanah, nefesh also tells us about place, time, and the people and living creatures in that place. So let’s learn a little about olam: first of all, the places, the physical space we’re in. We have the Temple Mount, the special place where everything holy connected with the Beis Hamikdash takes place. The Chasam Sofer says there will be a great many mikvaos on the Temple Mount. In the future, the Temple Mount will grow to thirty-six times its present size, in a truly wondrous way, as described in the book of Yechezkel. Now, most of the open space on the Temple Mount was on its southern side. That was where the pilgrims would bring their korbanos, their shelamim, since most of the offerings they brought were kodashim kalim, as we’ll learn later. The Mishnah in Middos describes, in general terms, how

02:13 Speaker 2 the Beis Hamikdash stood on the Temple Mount. If we look at a map, it was in what we might call the upper right-hand corner, to the northeast. Within the Beis Hamikdash itself, as we see in pictures, there were courtyards, areas accessible to particular groups of people. A shul is called a miniature Beis Hamikdash, and the Temple Mount was the original model from which shuls drew their layout. Before the Beis Hamikdash proper, before the main courtyard and the more sacred area, was the Women’s Courtyard. That was an area with broader activity for the whole community. The women were above, as they generally are today in large shuls, and the men were below. Then, as we go farther west—holiness keeps increasing as we move westward, toward the foundation—we connect and ascend. In the Second Beis Hamikdash, we went up the steps at the Gate of Nicanor; the Third Beis Hamikdash will be a little different. We ascend and reach the Israelites’ Courtyard. That was where the Israelites gathered, where all of them could see what was happening in the main courtyard. The Israelites’ Courtyard was where we stayed and carried out everything we were permitted to do in the Beis Hamikdash: bringing a korban and placing our hands on it. If we needed to slaughter it, knew how, and wanted to, we were permitted to go farther west for that purpose. But in principle, that was our area. Next came the Kohanim’s Courtyard, where the kohanim carried out their work. In practice, from the Israelites’ Courtyard onward was the area in which the kohanim worked, but most of their work took place in the Kohanim’s Courtyard. It was next to the Israelites’ Courtyard because the kohanim received the korbanos from the Israelites and worked

04:14 Speaker 2 on them together with them. The Israelites participated in parts of the shelamim and similar offerings. And as we said, they could also slaughter an offering: if an Israelite knew how to slaughter it, he did so. Kodashim kalim could be slaughtered anywhere in the main courtyard; kodshei kodashim had to be slaughtered in the north. What does “the north” mean? It means the entire northern strip of the main courtyard, where kodshei kodashim could be slaughtered. Moving on, let’s look at the altar. We see that it was a solid structure built in tiers, each level narrowing as it rose. Each time, it stepped inward one cubit on every side. At the base, including the foundation, it was thirty-two cubits across; then thirty cubits, then twenty-eight, then twenty-six. Each level was two cubits narrower because it receded one cubit on each side. Finally, at the top was the roof of the altar, with horns at its corners. The top was ten cubits above the floor, about five meters. The altar was a very large structure. At its bottom was a foundation that ran along its northern and western sides, with a little of it extending along the east and south, but north and west were the main parts. Attached to the altar was the ramp. The Torah says, “You shall not ascend My altar by steps,” so it was forbidden to go up by stairs. There was an issue of modesty: although the kohanim wore trousers, taking such a stride would not be respectful in the Beis Hamikdash. So they ascended the ramp in a dignified way. The altar’s ramp was divided into areas, so it would be clear which kind of korban was being offered that day. On Rosh Chodesh, for example, the additional offerings had their place toward the top of the ramp, on its two upper sides, and there were places for the daily offerings. The arrangement on the altar determined what was done. So those were the places in the Beis Hamikdash. The Beis Hamikdash has its places: we have the Temple Mount, where we gather. If

06:33 Speaker 2 we go farther in, we enter through the Women’s Courtyard. In the future, the Women’s Courtyard will surround the whole building, as the women’s section generally does in shuls today, and it will also be above. It will have both advantages: space below and a higher level above. The woman will encompass both aspects—“A woman of valor is the crown of her husband.” That is its great quality. We have the Israelites’ Courtyard, the Kohanim’s Courtyard, the entire main courtyard, and of course the Holy and the Holy of Holies. But those are less relevant to today’s introduction to korbanos, because less of the work involving korbanos takes place there. They are more connected with special forms of service on particular days, such as Yom Kippur, or with offerings that are burned. So we said olam, shanah, nefesh. We’ve discussed olam; now let’s turn to nefesh. What living creatures, what kinds of animals and other things, do we bring to the Beis Hamikdash? Broadly speaking, they fall into the animal category—cattle, sheep and goats, and birds—and the plant category: flour offerings, oil, olives, frankincense, all of which come from plants. There was also something mineral: salt. Salt has a special significance, and there are many sichos about it. It’s a preservative: we need to preserve every good experience; we want it to last. Today we want to photograph everything, but salt preserves—it actually does something. The offering made in the Beis Hamikdash had to be preserved with salt, because salt is a preservative. That is the idea of the foundation. So we have animals, birds, and flour offerings. What animals do we have? What animals do we bring to the Beis Hamikdash? We’re not talking yet about what kind of korban it is, only what kind of animal. The animals there are cattle and sheep or goats. Cattle means bulls, calves, and cows. We bring all of these kinds to the Beis Hamikdash. We’ll soon learn how that

08:39 Speaker 2 It works. I won’t go into detail; this is just an introduction. It gives us a general picture of how things work. Then there are birds: turtledoves and young doves. Turtledoves are larger birds, and young doves are smaller birds. It isn’t that a young dove grows up and becomes a turtledove. Young doves are one kind, while turtledoves are fit for offerings when they are older. The stage at which they are unfit is when they have yellow feathers. If there is yellow on the neck, they are unfit in either case. Both are unfit, both are unfit. If we take young doves and they have yellow feathers, they are unfit. If we have turtledoves whose yellow feathers have not yet gone, they too are unfit. So those are the birds. What comes next? We bring meal offerings. And what do we do with the meal offerings? First of all, there are many kinds of meal offerings, but the basic ingredient in all of them is fine flour. It isn’t the flour we’re used to today, but a finer, choicer flour. The wheat in the time of our Sages was very, very rich, according to experts today. That explains how they used such small amounts of oil in the meal offerings and still produced tasty bread. They had full, good wheat kernels, and barley kernels too. The vast majority of meal offerings are made from wheat. Two kinds of meal offerings are made from barley: the omer, brought immediately after the festival—on the first day of Chol Hamoed Pesach—and the barley offering brought by a sotah, a woman whose husband has become jealous of her. We know that every act of adultery comes from a spirit of folly that leads us astray. Of course, barley is animal food, while wheat is human food. So the meal offerings allude to the matter of intellect: what kind of thinking a person is operating with. So, as we said, among the animals there are sheep and cattle; among the birds, young

10:58 Speaker 2 doves and turtledoves. For meal offerings, we would use fine wheat flour or fine barley flour. The fine flour is sifted. You take the grain and grind it, crush the kernels after removing all the outer parts, and sift it. The fine barley flour for the omer offering is sifted through thirteen sieves. That is why so much is needed: three se’ah for that one tenth of an ephah, a very large ratio, one to thirty. In any case, they would take it and sift it until it became fine flour, without the coarser flour. The flour we use today is different, but this was the fine flour used in the Beis Hamikdash to bake the meal offerings. It makes a richer bread. They would use oil pressed from olives. It wasn’t the oil for the menorah, which had to be “crushed for lighting,” using only the first oil from the best olives. Rather, most oils are fit for meal offerings. Of course, they still had to be of good quality, free of dirt, and cleaned and strained. But it still wasn’t the oil for the menorah; it was the oil for the meal offerings. And frankincense—frankincense, as you can see in the pictures, is a substance that seeps from a tree and hardens. That substance is called frankincense. It is a very fragrant spice, with a very pleasant smell. It appears as a separate, distinct ingredient among the spices of the ketores, and it also accompanies the meal offerings. So those are the raw ingredients for the meal offerings. Now we understand the meal offerings. There is the fine-flour offering, the pan offering, and the deep-pan offering, as you can see. Each is a distinct meal offering, but all are made from the ingredients we mentioned: fine wheat flour, oil—whether used for frying, anointing, mixing, or baking—and frankincense. From most meal offerings brought by Jews, they take a handful. Yes, they take a handful: they perform the act of taking a handful, grasping it like this. They take the handful like this and clean it

13:13 Speaker 2 with their fingers. This is a very difficult service in the Beis Hamikdash. Then they place that handful in a sacred vessel, where it becomes consecrated. They gather the frankincense, and that and the handful are burned on the altar; the remainder of the meal offering is eaten by the kohanim. That covers the beginning of the offerings. But what is each offering used for? We spoke about sheep and cattle, and we know about turtledoves. What do I do with a cow? What do I do with a goat? What do I use them for? For that, we were given categories. There are types of offerings—not types of animals used for offerings, but types of offerings themselves. What are the offerings used for? The offerings are part of serving Hashem. Broadly speaking, there are four types of offerings: the sin offering, the burnt offering, the guilt offering, and the peace offering. The sin offering, guilt offering, and burnt offering are all called offerings of the highest sanctity. That means their level is higher and their service more exacting. I’ll mention again the world of the soul: the more precise something is, the more precisely defined are the places where the rites of offerings of the highest sanctity are performed, and the people who partake of them, if anyone does. The kohanim eat the sin offerings and guilt offerings, but a burnt offering goes entirely to Hashem. So both the rites and the people involved are more precisely defined. In other words, everything has tighter boundaries because it is holier, more set apart, more elevated. Then there are offerings of lesser sanctity, a broader category. There are the tithes that most Jews would bring, and the firstborn animals that most Jews would bring. The Jewish people were shepherds—“Your servants have been shepherds.” Yes, so sheep figure prominently for us, because we want to find that quiet, kosher animal and contemplate it there in the meadow. Well, who knows? 770 isn’t exactly a meadow. But someone who takes a bit of a look at the world and steps back for perspective is, in effect, contemplating it. That is

15:18 Speaker 2 called being a shepherd. He develops this idea of going out; the word for sheep, tzon, is connected with going out. And the point of a burnt offering is that it is consumed entirely. So, as we said, offerings of the highest sanctity are more particular, while offerings of lesser sanctity are broader. That is why there are many tithes, many firstborn animals, and also many voluntary peace offerings, festive peace offerings, and obligatory peace offerings. Those are peace offerings. The Hebrew word for them, shelamim, is related to completeness: everyone receives something from them. With a guilt offering, the altar receives certain portions and the kohanim receive its meat, but the owners receive only atonement. The kohanim eat, and the owners gain atonement. The same is true of a sin offering. From a burnt offering, the kohanim who perform the service receive only its hide. There are many opinions about exactly how the hides are divided; they were part of the kohanim’s livelihood. So they receive only the hide, while the rest is burned entirely on the altar. With peace offerings, everyone receives something. The altar receives its portions and the fats. The kohanim receive the breast and thigh. With a thanksgiving peace offering and a nazirite’s peace offering, the kohen also receives bread—one loaf of each kind. The owners receive most of the offering and eat it. One reason so much bread is brought with a thanksgiving offering—who can eat all that bread? There are forty loaves. Each loaf is two kilos; that is a lot of bread. There are ten leavened loaves, each two kilos, and other kinds of bread—matzos, wafers. So there is a great deal of bread here. Why bring so much bread? The Gemara asks, and answers: because you need to publicize that something good was done for you. Hakadosh Boruch Hu was good to you; He gave you something good. So give some away, share it with people. Invite many people to partake of your offering. That is the idea of the peace offerings. So

17:27 Speaker 2 A thanksgiving offering is a type of shelamim. So now let’s learn a little more about the different kinds of offerings in detail. We have chata’os, sin offerings. What kinds of chata’os are there? Broadly speaking, there are communal offerings and individual offerings. Communal offerings are brought on behalf of the entire community. Usually, these are the goats brought on Rosh Chodesh and the festivals; a goat was brought, and that is called a communal chatas. So a communal chatas belongs to the whole community. An individual chatas is brought when a person sins—he transgresses a commandment for which deliberate violation carries the penalty of kares, and if he did it unintentionally, he must bring a chatas. An individual’s chatas can be a ewe or a goat, while a communal chatas is usually a male goat. The goats we mention in our prayers are communal chata’os. Above these are the chata’os called “inner chata’os.” The other chata’os I mentioned a moment ago are offered entirely on the outer altar, but with the inner chata’os, their blood is brought into the Heichal, or even into the Holy of Holies. Which inner chata’os are there? There are two: the bull of Yom Kippur, which the Kohen Gadol brings, and the goat chosen by lot from the two goats—one of them becomes a chatas whose blood is brought inside. These are the two innermost chata’os, because their blood is sprinkled in the Holy of Holies. There are sixteen applications in all, and this is the holiest blood, the innermost chatas. Then there are inner chata’os whose blood is sprinkled in the Heichal but not in the Holy of Holies—in the Heichal, on the golden altar and toward the curtain. Yes, on Yom Kippur it is brought into the innermost place, the Holy of Holies, as well as toward the curtain and onto the golden altar. The less inward chata’os, though

19:52 Speaker 2 they are still inner offerings, are the ones brought only into the Heichal, where their blood is applied toward the curtain and on the golden altar. They are called inner chata’os, and they are burned, not eaten. They are burned outside the three camps, in a pure place. The Tosefta relates that on Yom Kippur, people became so uplifted, almost ecstatic, that they wanted to throw themselves onto the fire where the offering was being burned. That’s what it says. The kohanim had to watch over them, the Tosefta says, to keep them from getting too carried away. Rabbeinu Yonah is one of the later authorities, and he composed a special prayer for entering the Beis Hamikdash: a prayer that he would manage not to throw himself onto the altar fire out of sheer fervor, out of the fire of his love for Hashem. That is the kind of love he felt when he was in the Beis Hamikdash. He was filled with fervor because he saw Hashem; that is where Hakadosh Boruch Hu reveals Himself. He does not reveal Himself throughout the world, but there He does. So we said there are inner chata’os, and we mentioned the outer chata’os. There are ten chata’os for the festivals. An individual chatas can be brought for a sin, as we said, but it can also be a nazir’s chatas—he deprived himself of wine, so he has to bring a chatas. A metzora also has to bring a chatas. There are chata’os brought by individuals, and these are offered within the courtyard. The blood of all the outer chata’os is placed on the four corners of the altar. They are slaughtered in the north, as we said, on the northern side of the courtyard; that is the only place they may be slaughtered. Then their blood is taken and, rather than being applied to the lower part of the altar, one must go up the side ramp to the ledge. Once there, each application is made on a corner—specifically on a corner of the altar. After that, we have ashamos, guilt offerings. There are six kinds of asham in all, as

21:51 Speaker 2 we say in the Mishnah every morning: the asham for robbery, the asham for misuse of consecrated property, and the asham for a designated maidservant. There is also an asham talui, a special kind of asham. The holy Or HaChaim explains that chata’os and ashamos correspond to two different kinds of spiritual refinement connected with the state of Adam Harishon’s sin—when it took place, and with souls connected to before or after it. We won’t go into the details, because it’s a very beautiful and lengthy explanation. But that is one way of explaining the distinction: at first glance, both are brought for sin, so why separate them? They could all be chata’os. But an asham has a more inward dimension. Another distinctive thing about ashamos is that an asham is brought even for a deliberate transgression, unlike a chatas. With a chatas, if someone deliberately committed the sin for which a chatas would be brought—he ate forbidden fat, for example, or did something else of that kind—the deliberate violation carries kares, and he has no atonement through the offering. With an asham, even if he acted deliberately—he stole or misused consecrated property—he still brings this offering. So those were the first two types of offerings associated with sins: the inner and outer chata’os, and the asham. Next come the shelamim. We have communal shelamim offerings. What are communal shelamim offerings? When do we bring them? Even before the ashamos? These are called kodshei kodashim, offerings of the highest sanctity. There is only one communal shelamim offering: the two lambs brought on Shavuos, which is called Atzeres. They come together with bread, the two loaves. They are waved both alive and after slaughter—yes, there is a whole subject of waving the offerings—and these are the offerings called communal shelamim. All the other shelamim are personal offerings brought by individuals. There is an obligatory shelamim offering called, as its name suggests, shalmei chagigah, the festival shelamim. What are shalmei chagigah? On each of the pilgrimage festivals—Pesach, Shavuos and Sukkos—we have to bring obligatory shelamim. We bring them on a Yom Tov

24:07 Speaker 2 that does not fall on Shabbos; shelamim do not override Shabbos. They are brought along with the olas re’iyah, the offering brought when appearing at the Beis Hamikdash, and these shelamim are obligatory. Why are they obligatory? Because we are to appear before Hashem and rejoice before Hashem. The meat—rejoicing in Hashem is an obligation, a mitzvah we must fulfill. True, sometimes the children run wild and so on, and it’s a bit hard to rejoice. But the main joy comes from connecting with Hashem, sitting with the family and coming together. Preparing food—food preparation is permitted, so there is a bit more leeway in preparing the meal. You’re less stressed about the hotplate, and things are a little easier. That is the idea of obligatory shelamim, shalmei chagigah. Then there are shalmei simchah, offerings for rejoicing. With these, too, the first olive-sized portion is obligatory. There is also a mitzvah to bring shelamim for rejoicing. With these shelamim, as we said, we come to the courtyard with our offering and bring it to the kohen: “Please slaughter this offering for me.” “Have you consecrated it?” “Yes, I have. This is a shelamim.” Before I enter the courtyard, I have to consecrate the offering; otherwise I would be bringing unconsecrated food into the courtyard. So I consecrate it, saying, “This is for my obligatory shelamim,” or “for my voluntary shelamim,” and by saying that, the offering itself becomes consecrated. Then the kohen takes it. We check it—the offering—to make sure it has no blemish and is fit to be offered. After that, the offering is slaughtered, its blood is collected, and two applications are made that count as four. These offerings have their blood applied to the lower part of the altar: two applications that count as four, one at the northeastern corner and one at the southwestern corner, so that the blood reaches all four sides of the altar. And now this offering—I have to cut it up myself if I know how, because if it’s a busy day in the Beis Hamikdash, the kohanim don’t have time to cut it up. They only have time for the tasks connected

26:09 Speaker 2 for the offerings alone—that is, receiving the blood, carrying it, sprinkling it, and burning the choice portions on the altar. They don’t have time to deal with all the hundreds of thousands of offerings brought on Sukkos or Shavuos, and we need to cut up the offering. If we can’t do it, someone from our group will cut it up and remove the choice portions. These are the choicest parts of the animal, right? The word is associated with prominence and distinction. That’s how they explain it: these parts are more dominant in the animal, and that’s why we offer them. “All the fat belongs to Hashem”—it’s mainly the fat. All the fat of our desires should be given over to Hashem, transformed into serving Hashem in truth. Once the choice portions have been burned, the meat becomes permitted to eat. The kohanim receive the breast and the thigh. Either they cut those up, or we cut them up for them respectfully, as a portion from the table on high. They eat it anywhere in Jerusalem, and we also eat it anywhere in Jerusalem. That’s the peace offering. Then there’s the burnt offering. As we said, a burnt offering is burned in its entirety; it all goes up to Hashem. But it has to be cut into portions. There are parts—six parts, twelve parts—divided among six kohanim who carry them, and the division of those parts is very detailed. So we bring a burnt offering. Usually it’s either a voluntary burnt offering or an obligatory one. When do we have an obligatory burnt offering? There’s the offering brought when appearing before Hashem on the festivals. As we said, on the festivals we have to bring peace offerings, the festival offerings, but we also have to bring something else when we come to appear before Hashem. To appear before Hashem, we need bittul, self-nullification. The burnt offering symbolizes bittul: it belongs entirely to Hashem, so all of it goes on the altar and is burned on the large fire. The portions are placed on that fire. We cut up the offering, of course removing its hide first, as with all the offerings, and give the kohanim the

28:08 Speaker 2 portions, and they are the ones who burn our burnt offering on the altar. The hide goes to the kohen who performed the service. That is generally the ruling of most halachic authorities, and the Rambam rules that way: the hide goes to the kohen who performed the service of the offering. In other words, he carried out the services involved in the offering—received the blood and burned the limbs—so he gets the hide. We receive nothing from it apart from the atonement itself and the joy of having merited to nullify ourselves before Hashem, whether the offering was obligatory or voluntary. There’s also a voluntary burnt offering, which a person chooses to bring. Some halachic authorities also say that a burnt offering brings atonement for a particular thing. What does that mean? It atones for failing to fulfill a positive mitzvah. A burnt offering atones for that because a positive mitzvah is something a person is commanded to do. As we learn in Tanya, Igeres Hateshuvah, if he failed to fulfill a positive mitzvah, he can no longer make up that act. From now on he needs to draw down the light, but until now he has not drawn down enough. So the burnt offering an individual brings atones for failing to fulfill a positive mitzvah. Until now we’ve spoken about the Beis Hamikdash and the inner world of the person. Now let’s talk about the services. Who performs them? Mainly the kohanim. Slaughter is valid when performed by a non-kohen, but all the other services—most of the services, the overwhelming majority of services in the Beis Hamikdash—are performed by kohanim. What services are there? We’ll now look at the services involved in an animal offering and compare them with those of a bird offering and a meal offering, to understand the connection between them. An animal offering has four services: slaughtering, receiving the blood, carrying it, and sprinkling it. Slaughter is valid when performed by a non-kohen. That means a Yisroel who knows how to do it properly and wants to slaughter his own offering may do so. It’s a very elevated thing: this isn’t ordinary slaughter, but the slaughter of an offering to Hashem. So he wants to take part in it,

30:19 Speaker 2 and he may enter the place where he needs to go and slaughter the offering. A kohen must be right beside the place where he slaughters it to receive the blood, because from the receiving of the blood onward, the services must be performed by a kohen. The kohen receives all the animal’s blood in a basin. That’s what the verse says: all the blood. It could be a great deal of blood—a large bull might have more than ten liters. He has to hold it in his hands. Strong kohanim! Or he receives all the blood of a sheep or goat. Once the blood has been received in the basin, a consecrated service vessel anointed with the anointing oil of Moshe Rabbeinu, the kohen carries it to the altar. Then, according to the type of offering—whether it’s a sin offering, a guilt offering, a burnt offering, a peace offering, or another offering—he applies the blood as prescribed. With a sin offering, as we said, it goes on the horns of the altar, above; the blood of all the other offerings is applied below. For a guilt offering, a burnt offering, and a peace offering, it is applied below, with two applications that count as four. The remaining blood was poured onto the southern base of the altar. That’s the order for an animal offering. We’ve now gone through its first stage: slaughtering, receiving the blood, carrying it, and sprinkling it. For a peace offering, we then burn the choice portions; for a burnt offering, we burn all its limbs. With a guilt offering, too, the choice portions are burned. For a burnt offering, all the limbs except the hide are burned. For guilt offerings and peace offerings, burning the choice portions permits the meat to be eaten. With a sin offering too—sorry—the choice portions are burned in addition to the application of the blood. The choice portions of sin offerings, guilt offerings, and peace offerings are burned, and afterward the meat is permitted to eat. Who eats it? As we said, the owners eat the meat of a peace offering, while the breast and thigh go to the kohanim. The kohanim eat the meat of sin offerings and guilt offerings, and this brings atonement for the owners. What corresponds to

32:28 Speaker 2 these four services in bird offerings? With a bird, instead of slaughtering, we have melikah, performed at the back of its neck. If a person performs melikah on an ordinary bird outside the Temple courtyard, the bird becomes a neveilah. He has rendered the bird unfit; it’s no good for anything and must be thrown to the dogs. It can’t be eaten—certainly not by a Jew. A non-Jew can eat it if he wants, but a Jew may not eat a bird on which melikah was performed. In the Temple courtyard, that is the required service, and it makes the bird fit for the services that follow. Next, since the bird’s blood isn’t received in a vessel, we carry the bird to the altar and then sprinkle or squeeze out the blood from the bird or its head onto the wall of the altar, depending on whether it’s a burnt offering or a sin offering. This is generally done at a corner of the altar. There’s a mnemonic: “The bird burnt offering—above.” The bird burnt offering is performed at the corner on the right. You go up the small ramp beside the large ramp, turn right to go around, and reach the southeastern corner. That’s where the bird burnt offering is performed. If there were a great many bird offerings to be brought—many women after childbirth, many nazirites, many other cases—one could turn left. That was unusual in the Beis Hamikdash, because all turns were made to the right. Then we would perform the bird burnt offering on the left, so the bird wouldn’t die from the smoke of the large fire before it was offered and melikah was performed. There was heavy smoke there. For the wine and water libations too, they permitted turning left so they wouldn’t be spoiled by that smoke. So that’s the bird burnt offering. A bird sin offering is performed below, at the southwestern corner, right? It’s performed facing that corner, but specifically below. A bird sin offering is often brought because of uncertainty, because when a woman gives birth, if she

34:24 Speaker 2 She did not know whether she had given birth to an actual child or not, so she has to bring a sin offering because of the uncertainty, but it is not eaten. Its form must be allowed to lapse. There was a small hole in the altar called the revuvah. They would put there the bird sin offerings whose form had to lapse—that is, time would pass until they became unfit to be offered—and then burn them on the fire in the courtyard itself. These are called invalidated consecrated offerings. It was consecrated and brought as an offering, but became invalid for some reason; here, the reason is time. So that is the bird. What are the equivalents of these four actions—slaughtering, receiving, carrying, and sprinkling—in meal offerings? With a meal offering, instead of slaughtering, we have taking a handful. We take part of the offering. Most meal offerings brought by individual Jews require a handful to be taken. It is very difficult with a machavas offering: the meal offering has to be fried, making it hard, and then broken up. It is very hard to take a handful. Notice that this is an action that really takes considerable force, to take a handful of those little pieces of the... large flatbread. Yes, to distinguish between the holy and the mundane, this piece looks like part of a large pastry that has been fried, so it becomes very hard and it is difficult to take a handful. But the handful has to be placed in its vessel, and of course the frankincense is burned, and then it is carried. Where do we carry it? First we place it in a sacred vessel. That is the taking of the handful. Just as we receive the blood in a sacred vessel, so too we take the handful and place it in a sacred vessel. We put frankincense on it, go to the southwestern corner of the altar, and bring it up to the corner—the vessel has to be brought up to the corner. Then, after we bring the handful with the frankincense to the corner, we burn it on the main fire, and the remainder becomes permitted to eat. The remainder was generally eaten by the kohanim.

36:31 Speaker 2 After all, it is a meal offering. So taking the handful corresponds to slaughtering; receiving means putting the handful into a vessel. Carrying means taking it to the southwestern corner, below, and then comes burning the handful, which corresponds to sprinkling. So we see a parallel between all the actions in the Beis Hamikdash. There is always a process that begins with taking something from the offering—whether through slaughtering or taking a handful—and then receiving, which closely corresponds to Yud-Kei, as the sefarim explain. After that, the Vav is carrying, from the idea of bringing something down, and then burning it on the altar corresponds to Malchus. This is a parallel found throughout the offerings: a whole process through which we reveal Hashem’s name in our service, in our desire to connect with Him. What is the Beis Hamikdash? Korbanos comes from the word for drawing close, as is often explained in Chassidus. So this connection is what we are making. We connect with Hashem. Here in the table we see a summary for each type of animal: what can we do with it? Can we bring it as a sin offering? Can we bring it as a guilt offering? An ox, for example, can be brought as a sin offering—an ox brought by the Kohen Gadol, or an inner sin offering. There is no ox brought as a guilt offering, so it cannot be used for that. It can be brought as a burnt offering, either by an individual or by the community, and this ox can also be brought as a peace offering, with many people eating from it. The same applies to all the offerings, as you can see in the table. For each offering and each animal, what can be done with it? We said that some offerings are eaten: the meat of sin offerings and guilt offerings, peace offerings, and the thanksgiving offering, which is a type of peace offering. Where are they eaten, and who eats them? That is what Eizehu Mekoman details. Incidentally, the sefarim say that Eizehu Mekoman...

38:29 Speaker 2 ...was the chapter Moshe Rabbeinu was supposed to recite to the rock when he was told, “And you shall speak to the rock,” because it contains no disputes, as brought in the Gemara. True, there are a few differing opinions there about who eats what and so on, but anyone familiar with disputes in the Gemara knows that this is nothing in comparison. Eizehu Mekoman is relatively pure fine flour. That was the chapter Moshe Rabbeinu was supposed to say to the rock, and then we would all have merited to enter with Moshe Rabbeinu. With Hashem’s help, we will enter with our master Moshiach. So where are the offerings eaten? Eizehu Mekoman says, for example, of sin offerings and guilt offerings that their blood requires two applications that count as four. We sprinkled the blood on two corners, as we said, and they are eaten within the hangings. The hangings surrounded the courtyard. What we call the courtyard today was surrounded by the hangings of the courtyard of the Tent of Meeting. There was the Mishkan, the outer altar, and the washbasin. That is what there was in the desert. So the area enclosed by the courtyard hangings was the courtyard. “Within the hangings” reminds us that the hangings kept outside influences away. They were made of linen. What is distinctive about flax is that one seed produces one plant, revealing the idea of oneness. So the hangings allude to unity. The meat of sin offerings and guilt offerings is eaten within the hangings by male kohanim, for the day and the night, until midnight. In other words, the offering is slaughtered during the day—offerings are slaughtered only during the day. All offerings are brought only during the day, and this one is eaten during that day and night, until midnight. By the strict letter of the law, it may be eaten until dawn, but to keep a person from transgressing, the Sages said until midnight. And who eats it? Only male kohanim, inside the courtyard. They can eat it prepared in any way. In other words, they can fry it or cook it,

40:25 Speaker 2 or make a steak out of it. It is permitted. This was actually ruled in recent generations; we found it in a halachic ruling. It is permitted to bring in unconsecrated spices. That is not considered bringing unconsecrated food into the courtyard, because the spices are for the sacred offering and are consecrated for it. For example, one could bring mustard, which was once considered a special delicacy, and put it on the meat. [unclear] According to most opinions, they would eat this meat standing, because it is a form of service, and all service must be performed standing. So the kohanim would eat in the designated places in the courtyard, as it says. Of course, they would not eat it in public view. Many places with the sanctity of the courtyard, within the hangings, were set aside, and there they would eat the sin offerings and guilt offerings standing, after preparing them properly. Who eats the peace offerings? Both ordinary Jews and kohanim eat peace offerings in Jerusalem. Within the walls of Jerusalem—the area consecrated with the sanctity of Jerusalem. To this day, the sanctity of Jerusalem applies only to what is within the walls. The book of Nechemiah describes how they came up, and how Ezra came up around the time of the Second Beis Hamikdash. During the day they worked and at night they prayed. They would work from dawn until nightfall, working and building the Beis Hamikdash. Those walls were consecrated with the sanctity of Jerusalem, and that is where these offerings, called peace offerings, are eaten. Once the sacrificial portions of a peace offering have been burned, making the meat fit to eat, it may be taken and eaten in Jerusalem in any way we want—but within a set time. Thanksgiving peace offerings and a nazir’s peace offerings must be eaten, like offerings of the highest sanctity, during the day and the night. Other peace offerings are eaten for a day, a night, and another day. In other words, by sunset on the day after the offering was brought, the entire offering must be finished. That is the matter of eating the offerings. A bird burnt offering is burned in its entirety, while a bird sin offering

42:37 Speaker 2 is eaten by the kohanim, like an ordinary sin offering, where the kohanim eat and the owners achieve atonement. As we said, there are individual offerings, obligatory offerings, and communal offerings. We have brought a little order to the subject, and with Hashem’s help we will speak at greater length about the details and fine points of how each offering is brought in the Beis Hamikdash, speedily in our days, so that we will know and be ready for the Beis Hamikdash—to do it, to live it, to connect with it, and to know that “the matter is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it.” Speedily in our days, amen.