In the last Mishnah, we spoke about when the blood of the Korban Chatat (sin offering) splatters onto the garment of a Kohen (priest): we said that it has to be washed out. We’ll give more detail about that din (law).
The Mishnah says: If the blood of the Korban Chatat sprayed directly from the neck of the animal onto the garment without first having been received in the Kli Sharet, in the sacred vessel, you do not need to launder the garment, because the blood was not yet fit to be applied to the Mizbeach (altar). Only once it’s caught in the Kli Sharet is it acceptable to be applied to the Mizbeach. And here it wasn’t. Therefore, it’s a situation where you do not need to launder that garment.
If the blood splattered onto the garment after it was applied to the corner of the Mizbeach, or from the blood that was supposed to be poured onto the base of the Mizbeach after Zerikah (sprinkling), you do not need to launder the garment, because the Zerikah was already done at that point in time, before it was applied to the Mizbeach, when the blood eventually splattered onto the garment.
There’s another situation where the blood does not have to be washed out, even though it splatters onto the garment before Zerikah. The blood of the Korban Chatat spilled from the neck of the animal onto the floor. Then he gathered up that blood, put it in a Kli Sharet, in a sacred vessel, and it splattered onto the garment after that. He would not have to launder the garment, because no blood was received directly from the neck of the animal into a Kli Sharet, thereby making it acceptable to be sprinkled on the Mizbeach. Only that type of blood requires laundering if it splattered onto the garment. In this situation, the blood spilled onto the floor first, and therefore, even though it eventually was put into a Kli Sharet, a sacred vessel, it does not become fit for Zerikah. Therefore, if there was a garment onto which the blood went after it spilled onto the floor, it does not have to be laundered.
As we said earlier, the Pasuk (verse) tells us that the blood of the Korban Chatat needs to be washed out if it splatters onto a garment. Now we’ll talk about what is included in the word “garment” in terms of Halakha (Jewish law). If the blood of the Korban Chatat splattered onto the skin of an animal before it was removed from the dead animal, it would not require laundering, because the skin that’s attached to the carcass is not considered to be like a garment. It’s still part of that animal. But if the blood splattered onto the skin after it was removed from the animal, the skin would have to be laundered, because in that situation it is similar to a garment.
This is the opinion of Rabbi Yehuda. It says that even if blood fell onto the skin after it was removed from the animal, you do not need to launder that skin. You don’t have to take the blood off it, even if the blood got onto it after it was removed from the animal, because, bottom line, skin is not similar to a garment.
Now we’ll talk about a rule concerning the parts of the garment that did not have any blood fall onto them. The only thing that requires laundering is the actual spot where the blood fell, not the entire article of clothing. And the blood has to be on something that’s susceptible to receive tumah (ritual impurity) and is subject to laundering, like a garment is. The Torah tells us that it has to go onto a garment and that there has to be laundering, which tells us that it’s specifically a fabric-like material that has the ability to be flexed while it’s being washed in order to remove a stain. A solid material, let’s say wood, would not have the ability to be laundered; it would have to be rubbed out or scraped.