The Torah tells us that when somebody slaughters a chulin animal, he has to give gifts to the Kohen (priest): the leg, the jaws, and the stomach. But again, these gifts are specifically for chulin, unconsecrated animals; you do not have to give them from korbanot (offerings) to the Kohen. Here we'll talk about whether gifts have to be given from a korban that has a permanent blemish that disqualifies it from being offered on the Mizbeach (altar). When a korban is free of blemishes, it can be offered as a korban. If there's a permanent blemish, then the animal can never be offered on the Mizbeach. It's redeemed for money, and the money is used to buy another korban. If a blemish is temporary, then we wait until the animal no longer has the blemish, and then we offer it. But here in the Mishnah, we're talking about a permanent blemish. Whether we have to give the gifts from this type of korban will depend on whether it was designated as a korban before or after it had this blemish. When somebody dedicates an unblemished animal that's fit for the Mizbeach, it automatically attains a certain Kedushat ha-guf, a physical holiness to it. If it develops a blemish later on, it cannot be offered on the Mizbeach, because that holiness has to be redeemed in exchange for money. The holiness is transferred onto the money, and that money is used to buy a new korban. But even after this redemption, the animal still has some sort of holiness and certain restrictions, like we'll learn about. But if the animal had the blemish first and was then dedicated, it doesn't have the Kedushat ha-guf; it only has Kedushat damim. The animal does not have that high level of holiness, the holiness of a korban, but its monetary value is sacred. This means that when it's redeemed, the money is holy and has to be used to buy a korban. But once that redemption takes place, the holiness is transferred onto the money, and this type of blemished animal has no holiness whatsoever; it's a regular chulin animal.
Here we'll talk about an animal that had a permanent blemish when it was already dedicated. So, at the point that it was dedicated, it already had a blemish. In the next Mishnah, we'll talk about whether it was unblemished when it was dedicated and then developed a permanent blemish later on.
The Mishnah says: All korbanot that had a permanent blemish before they were dedicated, and were then redeemed after they were dedicated, we treat like regular chulin. Therefore, they're subject to the laws of Bechor, and if the firstborn is male, it has the status of a Bechor. They're also subject to the laws of gifts: after slaughtering the animal, the owner has to give the leg, jaws, and stomach to the Kohen. Once they're redeemed, they leave their holy state and become completely unconsecrated, and you're allowed to shear off their wool and put them to work. Their offspring and their milk after they're redeemed are permitted.
The korban here had a permanent blemish the whole time before it was consecrated. So, the moment it was consecrated, it never received the Kedushat ha-guf, only Kedushat damim. It received only monetary sanctity. So when it was redeemed and the holiness was put onto the money, it lost even that Kedushat damim; it lost that lower level of holiness, and it's a chulin animal. It's a completely chulin animal. So therefore, we treat it like a regular unconsecrated animal, and the laws of Bechor apply to it, the gifts to a Kohen apply to it, and you're also allowed to benefit from it by using its wool, putting it to work, and using its offspring and its milk as well.
Here we're talking about the animal after it was redeemed, when the holiness was transferred onto the money and it has no holiness whatsoever. Now we'll talk about how we treat this animal before the redemption. So we're talking about the redemption while the animal has the Kedushat damim. Someone who slaughters this type of animal outside the courtyard of the Beit HaMikdash is not subject to karet (spiritual excision). Usually, if someone slaughters a korban outside the courtyard, they're subject to karet. Here, since it had a blemish beforehand, it never acquired Kedushat ha-guf, so the individual who slaughtered it would not receive karet. They don't make a temurah. If somebody had an animal that was designated, they're not allowed to try and replace it with another animal for no reason. That would be a problem of temurah. It's a violation on a Torah level, but if they try to do it, the second animal receives that sanctity as well. But we say in this case there's no idea of temurah, because if it was blemished before it was designated, it doesn't have the holiness of Kedushat ha-guf. Therefore, if someone tries to do temurah, it doesn't really activate. If the animals die without shechitah (slaughtering), they can still be redeemed. A blemished korban is redeemable only if it could be eaten. So therefore, in this scenario, if a blemished korban dies without shechitah, you're not allowed to eat it anymore, so it can't be redeemed. But that's only talking about a korban that was first dedicated and then became blemished later on, not a korban that became... Like our case, which only has monetary holiness, not Kedushat ha-guf. In this case, even if the korban died without shechitah, it can still be redeemed.
All of what we just spoke about is based on the fact that korbanot that have a blemish at the time of their dedication only have Kedushat damim. Here we'll talk about two exceptions to this rule: Chutz min ha-bechor, min ha-ma'aser. All of these laws apply to korbanot, except for the bechor and the ma'aser offerings. If a bechor or a ma'aser offering was blemished when it was dedicated, which is very relevant to what we're talking about now, it doesn't only have Kedushat damim, monetary sanctity; it has some level of Kedushat ha-guf as well. Therefore, its laws are similar to those of korbanot that became blemished after they were dedicated and were then redeemed, which we'll talk about in the next Mishnah. So we're sort of bringing this up as an introduction to the next Mishnah. If the owner of a cow, sheep, or goat had an animal that was a bechor, usually we would think, just to correspond with the rest of the Mishnayot, or the rest of the korbanot, that since it had a blemish before it was dedicated, it doesn't have Kedushat ha-guf. But we're saying no: a bechor is an exception to everything we just said. A bechor does have a certain level of Kedushat ha-guf, and therefore it keeps that sanctity forever, even after the redemption. We'll mention that it can't be brought on the Mizbeach, of course, but it still keeps that holiness, that sanctity, even after the holiness is transitioned and transferred over to a coin.