Chullin, Chapter 8, Mishnah 6. Our chapter has been occupied with the meeting of meat and milk and with the substances that a kosher animal carries within it even after a valid shechitah. This mishnah takes up two such substances and sets them side by side: chelev, the forbidden fats, and dam, the blood. Both remain prohibited no matter how proper the slaughter was. The question the mishnah asks is which of the two is treated more severely, and the answer is that each one carries laws that the other does not.
The mishnah opens with a double formula: "Chomer bachelev mibadam, vechomer badam shebachelev" - there is a stringency in chelev beyond blood, and a stringency in blood beyond chelev. Each has its own body of strict law that has no parallel in the other.
Where chelev is stricter
The first of the stringencies belonging to chelev: "Chomer bachelev shehachelev mo'alin bo" - where the fats belong to a korban, whoever draws benefit from them can be guilty of me'ilah, the misappropriation of what has been consecrated.
Consider what chelev is in each setting. In an ordinary animal, these fats are simply forbidden to eat, and one who eats them by mistake brings a korban chatat. (The same is true of blood: whether from an animal or from a bird, one who eats it inadvertently brings a korban.) But in a korban, the chelev is not discarded; it is burned on the mizbeach. It belongs to Hashem. Therefore anyone who takes benefit from it has laid hands on consecrated property, and the halachot of me'ilah attach to him.
A clarification about me'ilah is in order: the offense is defined as one committed without awareness. The person who enjoyed the sacred property repays its worth to hekdesh with an additional fifth, and he also brings a korban asham. Every one of these consequences can be triggered by the chelev of a korban.
"Vechayavin alav mishum pigul venotar vetamei" - eating the chelev of a korban also carries a chatat obligation under three additional headings.
- Pigul: if, while performing one of the essential services of the korban, such as the offering of the blood, the kohen held an improper intention, namely that the meat be eaten after its permitted time, the korban is thereby invalidated. One who later eats from it inadvertently brings a korban chatat. The mishnah teaches that pigul reaches the forbidden fats as well.
- Notar: if everything was done exactly as it should have been, but the deadline for eating the korban was allowed to pass, what remains is notar, and one who eats it afterward brings a korban chatat. This too applies to the chelev.
- Tamei: a person in a state of tum'ah who eats the meat of a korban brings a korban chatat, and here as well the chelev is included.
In all three cases the chelev of the korban is treated exactly like its meat.
"Ma she'ein ken badam" - with dam the picture is entirely different. Sacrificial blood is never subject to me'ilah, it is not disqualified as pigul, it does not become notar, and a person in a state of tum'ah who consumes it does not incur that liability either.
Where blood is stricter
"Vechomer badam, shehadam noheg bivehemah vechayah va'of, bein teme'im bein tehorim" - blood carries a stringency of its own, for the prohibition of blood applies to a domesticated animal, to a wild animal and to a bird, whether they are of the kosher species or of the non-kosher species. One who eats the blood of any of them has violated the Torah's prohibition against consuming blood.
"Vechelev eino noheg ela bivehemah tehorah bilvad" - the prohibition of chelev, by contrast, governs only the fats of a kosher domesticated animal. Birds are not included, wild animals are not included; the laws of chelev have no bearing on them at all.
One closing point
When the mishnah says that one brings a korban chatat in those cases of chelev, that obligation stands in addition to the ordinary korban chatat that eating chelev itself generates. So one who ate chelev that had become pigul brings two korbanot for that single act.