Meilah, Chapter 2, Mishnah 6. This chapter has been tracing, korban by korban, the two moments that matter for the laws of me'ilah: the point at which an offering first becomes subject to me'ilah, and the point at which it ceases to be subject to it. Until now the mishnayot have dealt with animals and with birds. Our mishnah turns to a different kind of offering entirely, the shtei halechem, the two loaves brought on Shavuot, which belong to the category of the minchah.
The loaves and the lambs
The mishnah cannot be followed without first knowing what stands beside these loaves. Shavuot is the one occasion on which the tzibbur brings shelamim, two lambs offered in the name of the whole nation, and no other communal shelamim exist anywhere in the korbanot. Those lambs and the loaves are brought as a single unit, and in the ritual of tenufah the bread and the animals are lifted and waved as one.
From the shechitah of the lambs onward, the bread's status rides on theirs. Whatever happens in the four avodot of the blood decides the fate of the loaves exactly as it decides the fate of the flesh. Zerikah, the sprinkling of the blood on the mizbe'ach, is what renders the meat of the lambs permitted food for the kohanim, and that very act is what makes the loaves permitted to them as well. The dependence works in reverse too: should the blood service be done in a manner that invalidates the lambs, the bread falls with them. Halachically speaking, these lambs and this lechem are a single package.
"Shtei halechem mo'alin bahen mishehukdeshu"
Of the loaves the mishnah says "mo'alin bahen mishehukdeshu": once they have been sanctified, one who derives benefit from them has transgressed me'ilah. In this case sanctification is not something done to a living animal but a statement made about raw material. Someone sets aside flour and declares that it is for the baking of the shtei halechem, and that spoken designation by itself pulls the flour into the sanctity of the korban, so that any benefit taken from it is already a misappropriation of hekdesh.
"Karmu batanur"
"Karmu batanur, hukhsheru lehipasel bitvul yom uvimchusar kippurim": once the loaves have formed a crust in the oven, they rise to a higher level of sanctity, and from that point they can be disqualified by the touch of a tevul yom or of a mechusar kippurim.
The crusting of the bread in the oven plays the role that shechitah plays for an animal offering. Just as a korban animal, once it is slaughtered, has entered a more advanced stage of kedushah and can now be rendered unfit by contact with a tevul yom or a mechusar kippurim, so too the loaves, once the fire has set their surface, have crossed that same threshold.
"Velishchot aleihem et hazavach"
"Velishchot aleihem et hazavach": at that same moment the loaves become fit to have the offering slaughtered on their account. Since the shelamim lambs of Shavuot are bound to the shtei halechem, the lambs may not be slaughtered until the loaves have formed their crust. In other words, the bread must actually be bread, and not merely dough, before the shechitah of the lambs can take place.
"Nizrak daman shel kevasim"
"Nizrak daman shel kevasim": with the sprinkling of the lambs' blood upon the mizbe'ach, a new severity attaches to the bread. One who now eats of the loaves can incur karet, for he is "chayavin aleihem," held liable, "mishum pigul, notar vetameh," according to whichever of these three disqualifications is present in the case.
Here too it is the bond with the lambs that produces the ruling. Should the kohen, while slaughtering, intend that the meat be eaten past the hour when eating it is permitted, the korban turns into pigul, and the loaves are swept into that same invalidation. Consequently, whoever eats the bread once the blood has been sprinkled bears the identical karet he would bear for eating the flesh itself.
"Ve'ein bahen me'ilah"
"Ve'ein bahen me'ilah": from this stage onward the law of me'ilah has no application to the loaves. Zerikah hands the meat of the lambs over to the kohanim, and an offering that has been transferred to them is no longer kodshei Hashem, no longer property reserved for the service of Heaven, so misappropriation is no longer possible with it. Since it is that same sprinkling which releases the bread for the kohanim's table, the loaves too pass out of the reach of me'ilah.