Thursday 5 May 2016

Kiddushin 55: Using Consecrated Items - Types of Offerings

In their conversation about the use of consecrated items in kiddushin, the rabbis consider other circumstances where consecrated items are used for purposes other than their designated task.

What should be done if a person finds an animal walking on its own in the desert outside of Jerusalem?  A specific distance is specified.  We should assume that that animal was a consecrated animal intended for sacrifice.  But we don't know that the animal was consecrated to do.  A male might be a sin offering, but it could also be a guilt offering.  Different types of animals might suggest different types of offerings.  The halacha, we learn, is to redeem the animal if it is blemished (ie. wait until the animal is blemished to redeem it) for two animals which will be a peace offering and a sin offering.  Forty loaves will be sacrificed together with the peace offering, just in case the original animal was meant to be a thanks offering.  We can note here that the rabbis agreed that the lost animal would not be a Paschal offering (these are protected carefully), nor would it be a Nazirite's or leper's guilt-offerings, for these people are quite rare.

It seems that a chart would be useful here.

(my chart based on Steinsaltz text)



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