Meilah, Chapter 2, Mishnah 2. This chapter maps out, korban by korban, the exact window during which the laws of meilah apply: when does the sanctity of a given offering begin to carry liability for deriving benefit from it, and when does that liability end? The previous mishnah traced that window for the chatat ha'of, the bird sin offering. Now the mishnah turns to its counterpart, the olat ha'of, the bird burnt offering.
The olat ha'of is brought from a dove or a pigeon. It can come as a voluntary offering, brought purely out of a person's own desire to bring something to Hashem, and in certain circumstances it comes as an obligation, paired together with a chatat ha'of.
How the Bird Olah Is Offered
The blood service of the olat ha'of consists of two stages. First there is melikah, the kohen severing the bird's neck with his fingernail. Then comes the mitzuy, the squeezing of the blood out against the wall of the mizbeach, the same term we met in the previous mishnah. Notice the contrast with the chatat ha'of: there, a haza'ah, a sprinkling of blood, comes between the two stages. With the olah there is no sprinkling at all, only melikah followed directly by the squeezing of the blood.
Once the blood has been squeezed onto the mizbeach, the kohen removes the bird's inner pouch, its crop, and casts it onto the pile of ashes beside the mizbeach. Everything that remains, the flesh, the skin and even the feathers, goes up on the mizbeach and is burned completely. That is the nature of an olah, whether from an animal or a bird: it is oleh lashamayim, it rises entirely upward. Nothing whatsoever is left over to be eaten.
The Words of the Mishnah
The mishnah opens: "Olat ha'of mo'alin bah mishehukdeshah". From the instant the bird becomes hekdesh, meilah liability attaches to it. The moment its owner designates this dove or pigeon as his olah, anyone who takes benefit from it has already fallen into the prohibition of meilah.
"Nimlekah, huchsherah l'hipasel bitvul yom u'vimechusar kippurim", once the melikah has been performed, the bird has moved up to a higher plane of sanctity, exactly as we saw with the chatat. From that point it can become disqualified through contact with a tevul yom or with a mechusar kippurim, the two categories explained in the previous mishnah. "U'velinah", and it can likewise be disqualified through linah, the blood being left standing past its proper time instead of being squeezed onto the mizbeach at the right moment.
Next: "Mitzah damah", the kohen has pressed the blood out against the wall of the mizbeach, and with that act the blood service reaches its conclusion. From this point, the mishnah teaches, "chayavin aleha", one bears responsibility on three counts: "mishum pigul", if the avodah was carried out with a disqualifying intention; "notar", if a person eats from it once its permitted time has passed; and "v'tamei", if he eats it while he himself is in a state of tumah. The punishment in each of these three cases is karet. And none of it applies before the mitzuy, since only with that final squeezing does the korban stand as an offering properly brought and accepted.
When Does Meilah End?
"U'mo'alin bah ad shetetzei l'beit hadeshen", and meilah continues to apply to the bird olah until it goes out to the beit hadeshen, the designated place for the ashes outside Yerushalayim. In other words, even the ashes remain subject to meilah, until the kohen has carried out the hotza'at hadeshen in full.
The reason is straightforward. An olah is consumed entirely on the mizbeach, so it never reaches a stage at which it becomes permitted to the kohanim to eat. Since it never enters the realm of the permitted, meilah does not lift even after every obligation of the offering has been discharged. Its sanctity accompanies it right through to its ashes, and one can still violate meilah by benefiting from them. Only once the ashes have been completely removed to their place does the liability come to an end.