One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
פְּסוּלֵי הַמֻּקְדָּשִׁין
Sacrifices Rendered Unfit 14–16
Sefer Avodah · The borders of disqualifying intention - whose mind, aimed at what, about how much
1
Mind that counts - only the officiating priest's
2
Offerings a wrong purpose disqualifies - chatat and Pesach
3
Conditions before any intention has force
4
Essential services where intent operates
Ch 14Whose intent, and when it counts
- Only the one serving. The sole significant intent is that of the priest performing the service; the intent of the person who brought the sacrifice is of no consequence. (14:1)
- Three conditions. An intent counts only when the server is fit to serve, the entity is fit for service, and it is done in a place fit for service. (14:2)
- A damaged altar nullifies it. If the altar is damaged and the priest forms a disqualifying time- or place-intent, the sacrifice is not disqualified - the same thought now does nothing. (14:4)
- Fit to offer, fit to eat, or neither. Blood, eimurim, and the handful are fit only to be offered; the remnant and showbread only to be eaten; burnt sin-offering meat and the hide, neither. (14:5-7)
RememberA thought disqualifies only from the one serving, and only in a place fit to serve.
Ch 15The wrong purpose that usually does no harm
- Wrong purpose, still valid. A sacrifice offered shelo lishmah, for a different purpose than intended, is acceptable and offered, but the owner has not fulfilled his obligation. (15:1)
- The two exceptions. A sin-offering and the Paschal sacrifice offered for the wrong purpose are disqualified, because the Torah singled them out. (15:1, 15:4)
- Holy intent bites, mundane intent does not. An intent for a sacrificial purpose can disqualify; an intent for an ordinary, non-sacred purpose does not. (15:6)
- One service can spoil another. An intent formed during one service concerning a different service is significant and can disqualify. (15:12)
RememberA wrong name leaves almost every offering standing - only two demand their own name.
Ch 16The measure a thought must have
- Piggul needs an olive. A wrong-time intent renders piggul only when, during the four services, one intends to eat or offer at least an olive-sized portion beyond its time. (16:2)
- Halves do not combine. An intent to eat half an olive and to offer half an olive do not join into a single disqualifying measure. (16:3-4)
- Below an olive, nothing applies. The concept of eating, and of offering on the pyre, simply does not apply to a substance smaller than an olive. (14:10)
- The handful, too. A disqualifying time-intent formed while taking the handful of a meal-offering renders it piggul. (16:7)
RememberBelow an olive's measure, the most improper intention cannot reach.