Mishnah 3 in Chapter 5. Now we will move on to the standard chatas. Chatas offerings come in two basic types: communal chatas offerings, brought on behalf of the entire community, and the individual chatas - the offering of a private person.
Communal Chatas Offerings:
Communal chatas offerings essentially amount to the mussaf offerings brought on every Rosh Chodesh, and the mussaf offerings of the festivals: Pesach, Shavuos, and Succos, as well as Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. These chatas offerings are brought for bringing tumah into the Temple, or for offering kodashim in a state of tumah. Since they are paid for from communal funds, they are communal chatas offerings.
The Individual Chatas:
Fixed chatas - This is the standard chatas, and this is what people generally mean when they speak of a chatas. It is brought in any case where a person committed a transgression whose punishment for an intentional violation is kares, and he did it unintentionally. The Rambam specifically lists forty-three transgressions that obligate one to bring a fixed chatas.
Sliding-scale chatas - The first chatas is called 'fixed' because there is another type, a variable offering: there are four transgressions for which, if a person cannot afford to bring a chatas, he brings two birds instead; and if he cannot even afford two birds, he brings only a minchah offering in their place.
The four transgressions for which a sliding-scale offering is brought are:
Eating kodashim in a state of tumah.
Entering the Temple while tamei.
Withholding testimony - someone who was able to testify and help his friend win a monetary case in beis din, and he swore that he had no testimony, when in fact he did. When he comes to do teshuvah, he must bring this chatas.
A false oath, or someone who fails to fulfill his oath.
In addition to these, there are two exceptional types of chatas:
The chatas brought by a metzora as part of his purification process.
The chatas brought by a nazir who contracted tumas meis during his period of nezirus, and must begin his nezirus anew - and part of the process of starting over is bringing a chatas.
The Text of the Mishnah:
"Hachatas: chatas hatzibur vehayachid" - All these chatas offerings, whether communal or individual, have the same law. "Eilu hen chatas hatzibur: se'irei rashei chodashim veshel moados" - Communal chatas offerings are those brought as mussaf on Rosh Chodesh and the festivals.
"Shechitasan batzafon vekibul daman bichli shares batzafon" - Their slaughter is in the north of the Azarah, since they are kodshei kodashim, and their blood is received in a service vessel in the north, as explained in Mishnah 1. "Vedaman ta'un arba matanos al arba keranos" - Four applications of blood, on the four corners, which are the protrusions at the corners of the outer Altar.
The Order of Circling and Applying the Blood:
The ramp is located on the southern side of the altar. The kohen ascends the ramp and circles the altar, and since he comes from the south and turns right, the first corner he encounters is the southeastern one. He dips his finger into the vessel containing the blood and wipes his finger on the horn, and similarly for all four horns. He begins from the top and moves downward along the horn, until the blood is wiped from his finger.
The horns are located at the upper part of the altar, and therefore the kohen stands on the sovev - a sort of ledge surrounding the entire altar, at a height of six cubits from the ground. Above it are another three cubits, followed by the horn: the height of the surface of the altar from the ground is nine cubits, and the four horns add a tenth cubit. The kohen therefore stands at a height of six cubits, reaches his hand upward, and at a distance of three to four cubits above his feet are the four horns on which he places the blood.
"Keitzad? Alah bakavesh ufanah lasovev" - How is this done? The kohen ascends the ramp, and from there takes a side ramp leading not to the top of the altar but to the sovev. Sovev means surrounding - named after the ledge that surrounds the entire altar. From there he approaches the horns in this order:
"Keren deromis mizrachis" - The southeastern horn.
"Mizrachis tzefonis" - The northeastern horn.
"Tzefonis maaravis" - The northwestern horn.
"Maaravis deromis" - The southwestern horn.
According to Rashi, he then goes back the same way, turning back and descending from the ramp in the same manner that he ascended. According to Tosafos, there was an additional ramp on the western side of the main ramp, and he could descend on that.
"Veshirei hadam hayah shofech al yesod deromi" - The remaining blood that was not used is poured by the kohen onto the base, and in our Mishnah: onto the southern base. As recalled, there was no base along the entire southern wall, only for the measure of one cubit of it. In the southwestern corner there were a sort of two holes: the blood of the inner sin offerings is placed in the western hole, and right next to it, on its southern side, is the hole where the blood of the outer sin offerings is placed. This is what is called pouring onto the southern base - on the southern part of the base.
"Vene'echal lifnim min hakla'im" - The eimurim, which are the inner parts, are burned on the altar as usual, while the meat is eaten. The meaning here is simple: during the time of the Mishkan, the portable Temple, it was surrounded by curtains, and they defined the courtyard corresponding to the Azarah, and within them was the place for eating. In the First Temple as well as the Second Temple there were walls surrounding the Azarah, and one must eat within them.
"Lezichrei kehunah" - Specifically kohanim who are male, and not their wives. Their wives eat Terumah, but they never eat the most holy offerings. And their eating is within the Azarah. "Bechol ma'achal" - In any way they wish: roasted, fried or cooked, and it makes no difference. This is in contrast to the Pesach offering, which specifically must be eaten fire-roasted.
"Leyom valailah ad chatzos" - The meat is eaten for one day and night: the day on which it is brought, and the night following it, until midnight. This definition is rabbinic; by Torah law, the time for eating extends until dawn of the following morning. That is, if the offering was slaughtered on Tuesday afternoon, its time for eating is the rest of Tuesday until sunset, and the entire night following it until dawn of Wednesday.
Nevertheless, the Sages said that everything must be eaten by midnight, due to the concern that people will lose track of time - they did not have clocks, and they had no way of knowing what time it was, and they might mistakenly eat after the final deadline, which is dawn, and there is no prior warning before it. And if the meat remains after its time, it becomes nosar, and the punishment for eating it is kareis - a very severe punishment. Therefore, the Sages established a protective fence: to eat until midnight.
In summary: In this Mishnah we learned the laws of the outer sin offering - the communal sin offering, which is the goats of Rosh Chodesh and the festivals brought from communal funds, and the individual sin offering in its various types: a fixed sin offering, an adjustable offering (oleh veyored) for its four transgressions, and the sin offerings of the metzora and the nazir. We discussed its slaughter and the receiving of its blood in the north, the four applications in the order of circling on the sovev, the pouring of the remaining blood onto the southern base, and the laws of eating it: within the curtains, for male kohanim, prepared in any manner, for a day and a night until midnight.