Kinnim, Chapter 3, Mishnah 1. The first two perakim of the masechet asked a practical question: when a kohen is holding a mixture of pairs of birds and no longer knows which bird belongs to which woman, or which bird of a pair is meant as an olah and which as a chatat, what is the best course of action? Those mishnayot gave guidance in advance, how to offer the birds so as to salvage as much as possible and limit the loss. Our chapter turns to a different scenario entirely: the kohen never brought the case to anyone. He simply went ahead and offered the birds on his own. Now we are no longer advising, we are assessing the damage.
The mishnah opens by drawing the line between the two situations: "bameh devarim amurim, bekohen nimlach" - everything taught until now applies to a kohen who took counsel, who came before the chachamim and asked what should be done with this mixture of birds.
"Aval bekohen she'eino nimlach" - but a kohen who did not ask, who offered the mixed pairs according to his own judgment, produces the results that the mishnah now lists.
The cases of the mixture
The mishnah presents three parallel situations, each one a mixture between two women:
- "achat lazo ve'achat lazo" - a single pair belonging to the first woman and a single pair belonging to the second.
- "shtayim lazo ushtayim lazo" - two pairs from the one and two from the other.
- "shalosh lazo veshalosh lazo" - three pairs from each of the two.
In each of these, every pair consists of one bird that is to be brought as a chatat and one bird that is to be brought as an olah, and the identities have become confused.
All of them above
The opening case: "asa kulan lemala" - the kohen performed the service of every one of the birds above the red line encircling the mizbe'ach, the height at which an olah is brought. The verdict is "mechetza kasher umechetza pasul." In each pair there was indeed one bird whose designation was an olah, and that bird received precisely the service it required, so it stands. Its partner, set aside as a chatat, needed the lower position; a bird chatat carried out at the upper station has been done in the wrong location, and it is disqualified. The tally therefore comes out evenly, fit and unfit in equal measure.
All of them below
Reverse the situation and the arithmetic reverses with it. "Kulan lemata" - the entire lot was brought beneath the line, the station belonging to the bird chatat. Here too the ruling reads "mechetza kasher umechetza pasul." Whichever bird of each pair had been set aside as a chatat found itself in exactly the right spot and is fit, while its partner, whose designation was an olah, was brought where an olah has no place and is therefore ruled out. Once again the birds end up split down the middle.
Half above and half below
"Chetzyan lemala vechetzyan lemata." Now the kohen divided his labor: part of the birds he brought up, as olot are brought, and part he brought down, as chata'ot are brought. One would naturally suppose that such a division rescues the whole batch. It does not. Of the upper group, "et shelemala," the mishnah rules that it comes out an even split, some fit and some disqualified; and of the lower group, "ve'et shelemata," the identical result, "mechetza kasher umechetza pasul," the fit ones being those whose true designation had been a chatat and the rest being unfit.
The reason is in how he divided them. He did not split each individual pair, sending one bird up and one bird down. He divided by pairs: he took whole pairs and brought all of them above the line, and took other whole pairs and brought all of them below. Since he had no way of knowing, within any given pair, which bird was the olah and which was the chatat, every pair he sent above contained one bird whose place was above (offered correctly) and one bird whose place was below (offered incorrectly), and the same in reverse for every pair he sent below. So in each group we split the difference: half of the service was done in its proper place and half was not.
The point is worth underlining. This is not a case where the kohen took the mixed birds and thoughtfully distributed them one above and one below within each pair. He simply took pair by pair, this pair entirely above and that pair entirely below, and the outcome is that in every direction, half is kasher and half is pasul.