Kinnim, Chapter 3, Mishnah 4. This chapter continues to deal with the kohen who went ahead and offered birds without first asking how they ought to be brought. Until now the confusion was between the pairs themselves, so that we did not know which pair belonged to which woman. Here the situation is different: we know exactly which pair is which, and the only doubt is internal, that is, within a pair we do not know which bird is the chatat and which is the olah.
The mishnah opens with a compressed heading of four words: "Chatat ve'olah, stumah umeforeshet", a chatat and an olah, one pair left unspecified and one pair spelled out. Three pairs, six birds altogether, stand before the kohen. Of these six, one pair carries the name chatat, a second pair carries the name olah, and the last two were never given any name at all.
Setting up the case
Two women are before us, and the debt of each one comes to two pairs of birds. For the first, an olah has already been brought, so that what still stands against her is a chatat. For the second, a chatat has already been brought, so that what still stands against her is an olah. To settle what remains, the two of them bring three further pairs between them, designated in the following way.
- Regarding the opening pair they stated explicitly: this bird is a chatat for one of them, and that bird is an olah for her companion.
- Regarding the next pair they stated which bird was a chatat and which was an olah, but never said whose pair it was.
- Regarding the last pair they stated nothing whatsoever, neither the identity of the birds nor the identity of the owner.
If he offered them all above
The kohen consulted no one. He performed the service of all six birds above the crimson line that encircles the middle of the mizbe'ach, the height that marks a bird as an olah: "Asah kulan lema'alan". The ruling is "mechetza kasher umechetza pasul", one half emerges fit and one half emerges unfit.
Fit are the two birds that carried the name olah, for they were served in the spot that suits them. Fit as well is one bird from the nameless pair, for having been served above it acquires the identity of an olah. Unfit are the two birds that carried the name chatat, since a chatat served above the line is ruined, and unfit too is the remaining bird of the nameless pair: the instant its companion became the pair's olah, this one became the pair's chatat, and it was served in the very spot that ruins it.
If all of them were served below
Suppose instead that the whole service was performed beneath the line, the height that marks a bird as a chatat: "Kulan lematan", and here too "mechetza kasher umechetza pasul".
Fit are the two birds that carried the name chatat, and joining them one bird of the nameless pair, which is thereby brought as a chatat. Unfit are the two birds that carried the name olah, and with them the remaining bird of the nameless pair, which turned into the pair's olah the moment its companion was brought beneath the line as its chatat.
If he split them, part above and part below
Now suppose that three of the birds were served above and three beneath: "Chetzyan lema'alan vechetzyan lematan". The ruling is that only the pair brought without designation holds good, "ein kasher ela stumah".
Why do the two named pairs go to waste? Each of them held one bird called a chatat and one bird called an olah, and there is no telling which of the two was taken up and which was taken down. Since it is entirely possible that each bird landed at the height that ruins it, both pairs remain under doubt and nothing can be reckoned from them.
The nameless pair, by contrast, worked out perfectly. Whichever of its birds was served above thereby became the pair's olah, and whichever was served beneath thereby became its chatat. That is exactly how a pair brought without designation is meant to be offered: the place of the service is what fixes each bird's identity.
Dividing the surviving pair
"Vehi mitchaleket beinehem", and it is split between them. The single pair that held good is shared by both women, since the two of them had taken it jointly: one bird counts toward the chatat that one of them still owed, and the second bird counts toward the olah that her companion still owed.
At this point each of them has covered only half of her obligation. So the two of them take one further pair together. From it, a chatat is brought for the woman whose credit in the previous pair was the olah, and an olah is brought for the woman whose credit there was the chatat. In this manner each of them arrives at a complete korban.