This Mishnah will talk about a certain place called Beit Honyo, which was the temple of Honyo, who was the son of Shimon HaTzadik. Shimon HaTzadik, the great Kohen Gadol (High Priest), had two sons. Those sons were Shimi and Honyo. Honyo is also known as Onias. Shimon HaTzadik chose Honyo to succeed him as the Kohen Gadol because Honyo was more familiar with the Avodah (service). But Honyo didn't want to take the job. He wanted to give it to his older brother. Later on, Honyo became a little bit regretful that he had given it up, became jealous, and came up with a plot to remove Shimi from the position of Kohen Gadol. He told his brother that the way the Kohen Gadol began performing the Avodah for the first time was by wearing women's clothing. He would wear a blouse and a belt that were worn by women. So Honyo went and told the other Kohanim (priests) that Shimi was wearing this clothing because he had promised his wife that on the day he began the Avodah as Kohen Gadol, he would wear some of her clothing out of respect for her. When the Kohanim heard about what was going on, they wanted to kill Shimi because of this tremendous disgrace to the Beit HaMikdash (Temple). But Shimi managed to stop the whole plan and revealed that Honyo was the one who had made him dress like this. So they wanted to kill Honyo for mocking the office of the Kohen Gadol and the service of the Beit HaMikdash. But he escaped to Alexandria, Egypt, and opened a large temple there. There was a large Jewish community there, and he had a Mizbeach (altar) dedicated to HaKadosh Baruch Hu (the Holy One, blessed be He). But the temple there stood for 200 years and was not run in a very proper way.
It's prohibited to offer a korban (offering) outside of the Beit HaMikdash, and somebody who does this is liable to karet (excision). So when Honyo did this, he transgressed the prohibition against offering korbanot outside of the Beit HaMikdash in Yerushalayim (Jerusalem). A Pasuk (verse) in Yeshayahu tells us that there will be an altar dedicated to Hashem in the midst of the land of Egypt. That Pasuk is a prophecy that one day people will worship Hashem in Egypt, but that Pasuk is talking about non-Jews. So Honyo used this Pasuk and convinced other Jews to bring their korbanot to this temple, which is a violation of the halakha (Jewish law).
The Mishnah says: Somebody says, “I accept upon myself the obligation to bring an olah (offering).” He has to offer that olah in the Beit HaMikdash in Yerushalayim. He offered it in the temple of Honyo in Alexandria, Egypt. He did not fulfill his obligation. He has to bring another olah because a korban offered outside of the Beit HaMikdash is invalid. But not only is it invalid; he is liable to karet for bringing a korban outside of the Beit HaMikdash. But if he said, “I accept upon myself the obligation to bring an olah on the condition that I bring it to the temple of Honyo,” he has to offer it in the Beit HaMikdash, since he's not allowed to offer it anywhere else. He's not allowed to offer it anywhere outside the Beit HaMikdash. But if he offered it in the temple of Honyo, he fulfilled his obligation. The idea is that once he accepts upon himself the obligation to bring an olah, he has to bring it in Yerushalayim. But if he adds that he's going to offer it in the temple of Honyo, knowing that he can't really bring it there, we understand his sevara (reasoning) to be that he's trying to consecrate the olah on the condition that he wouldn't be responsible for replacing it if it's killed without proper shechita (ritual slaughter), like it was brought as a korban somewhere else where it was not accepted. So when he's offering it on the condition that it should be offered in the temple of Honyo, he basically means that he's not going to bring another olah if it's not done properly. But it's still designated as an olah, so if he brings it, he has to bring it in the Beit HaMikdash.
Rabbi Shimon omer, ein zo olah. Says Rabbi Shimon, “This is not an olah offering,” since he vowed to bring it outside the Beit HaMikdash. The whole vow is invalid, and therefore the animal is not sanctified whatsoever. Rabbi Shimon takes the vow very straightforwardly, at face value: he's trying to consecrate something in the temple of Honyo. That's an impossibility. You can't consecrate something for that temple, so the vow does not take effect and the animal is not consecrated whatsoever.
Now we'll talk about Nezirut (Nazirite status). A Nazir is somebody who accepts upon himself not to drink wine, not to eat any grape product, not to cut his hair, and not to become tameh lemetim (ritually impure from the dead). At the end of the Nezirut, which is stam Nezirut—it's 30 days—he has to bring a set of korbanot: an olah, a chatat (sin offering), and shelamim (peace offerings). He also has to shave his head. The hair is burned on the fire where the meat of the shelamim is cooked. The ceremony also has to be performed in the Beit HaMikdash. “Hareini nazir”: if somebody declares themselves to be a nazir, they have to shave in the Beit HaMikdash in Yerushalayim. If they shave in the Temple of Honyo, they have not fulfilled their obligation. If they declare that they're going to be a nazir on the condition that they're going to shave in the Temple of Honyo, they have to shave in the Beit HaMikdash. But if they shave in the Temple of Honyo, they have fulfilled their obligation.
We're talking about somebody who lives right near the Temple of Honyo and doesn't want to go all the way to Yerushalayim to bring his korbanot. So when he's saying that he's a nazir, he's not intending to become a full nazir, but is accepting upon himself restrictions similar to those of a nazir until he slaughters in the Temple of Honyo the animals that a nazir would have brought in the Beit HaMikdash. So what we basically say is that this person is accepting upon himself something very similar to Nezirut, and that if he's able to slaughter the animals in the Temple of Honyo, he'll do it, but he can't travel any further than that. So he fulfills his vow by slaughtering the animals in the Temple of Honyo. He wouldn't be liable to karet in this situation because he's not a real nazir, and therefore, if he's not a real nazir, the animals are not real korbanot. And the animals don't become consecrated as korbanot because he's not a nazir. But if he did bring them all the way to the Beit HaMikdash, they're considered valid korbanot because we see retroactively that he did mean to become a nazir. Therefore, the animals became korbanot, and the condition that he added afterwards is ignored. So the Mishnah means that he's allowed to bring the korbanot and shave in the Beit HaMikdash, and the korbanot would be valid, but we're not saying that he has to do it, since he doesn't have to do it because that would reveal that he wasn't taking upon himself a real, full Nezirut.
Rabbi Shimon says he's not a nazir. Here as well, Rabbi Shimon takes everything at face value: he swore to perform a ceremony to end his Nezirut outside the Beit HaMikdash, so the whole vow is invalid, and he's not a nazir whatsoever. He can never become a nazir from that type of vow.
Now that we've mentioned the Temple of Honyo, the Mishnah will talk about the Kohanim who worked there. The Kohanim who served and brought korbanot in the Temple of Honyo are not allowed to serve in the Beit HaMikdash in Jerusalem. Obviously, Kohanim who served in a temple of idol worship are not allowed to serve in the Beit HaMikdash. It's an embarrassment. These people who worked in the Temple of Honyo, even though it wasn't built for Avodah Zarah, knowingly committed an aveirah (transgression) by bringing korbanot outside the Beit HaMikdash. So there's a penalty here, and they're never allowed to work in the Beit HaMikdash again. Kal vachomer (a fortiori inference), a Kohen who did a serious Koran, a crime, or an aveirah involving an idol and a korban would be forbidden to serve in the Beit HaMikdash forever, and that's how we treat them. We learned this from a Pasuk. Shene'emar (as it is said): “The Kohanim of the Bamot (high places), of idol worship, are not allowed to come and serve on the altar of Hashem in Jerusalem. Rather, they would only eat Matzah (unleavened bread), the Menachot (meal offerings), as well as the korban. As well as the korban. As well as the korban. As well as other offerings. That's all they would do amongst the brothers.”
We learned from here that these Kohanim who served in the temples of idol worship are treated like blemished Kohanim. They're allowed to receive a share of the offerings with the other Kohanim and eat them, but they're not allowed to serve anything on the Mizbeach.