This Mishnah discusses a bird Olah (burnt offering). We spoke about the bird Chatat (sin offering) in the previous Mishnah. Here we’ll get into the Olah. We specified in Mishnah Bet the situations in which a bird Olah could be offered. It could also be offered on a voluntary basis, as opposed to a bird Chatat, which cannot be offered on a voluntary basis.
The Mishnah says, “That was the Avodah (service) of the bird Olah.” The Kohen (priest) went up the ramp of the Mizbeach (altar) and turned to the ledge to the left that surrounded the Mizbeach. He went to the southeast corner and performed Melikah, pushing his nail into the back of the bird’s neck. He separated the head from the body, which means he cut both the windpipe and the foodpipe, as opposed to what he did with the Korban (offering) Chatat: the Chatat of the Of (bird), which we said he was not allowed to separate the head from the body. He could only cut either the windpipe or the foodpipe. Here, he does both.
He squeezes the bird’s blood onto the wall of the Mizbeach by pressing the bird’s body against it. He takes the bird’s head and presses the place where he cut it against the Mizbeach, squeezing the blood of the head onto it. Here, when talking about the Olah, there is Mitzui, the squeezing, but there’s no Hazaa. There’s no sprinkling of the blood when we’re talking about the Olah. With the Chatat, we had both: Hazaa and then Mitzui.
Then he takes the bird’s head and dips it in salt. It’s salted. Anything that goes on the Mizbeach has to have salt on it. He first salts the head and then throws it onto the fire of the Mizbeach. The Kohen goes from the ledge at the top of the Mizbeach to salt the bird’s head, and then throws it onto the fire.
After he throws it onto the fire, he comes back to the body of the bird. The Kohen goes back to the top of the Mizbeach and to the ledge where he left the bird’s body. He removes the crop first. The bird’s crop is a spot within the foodpipe of the bird. Birds usually swallow food whole. They don’t have the ability to digest it. Later on, when the food goes into the bird’s stomach, it breaks the food down, but only slowly. All the undigested food is stored in the crop until it can be broken down.
The Kohen cuts a hole below the bird’s neck and takes the crop together with the skin and all the feathers that cover it. He also takes out all of the digestive tract that comes out with the crop, and throws them onto the place of ashes. The Beit HaDeshen was a spot near the eastern side of the ramp. A Kohen would take a small amount of ashes from the Mizbeach every single day and put them on that spot. So we see here that everything that comes from the digestive tract of the bird is not burned directly on the Mizbeach, but is put onto the ground. It’s put onto the Beit HaDeshen, the place of burning, because a bird normally feeds on other people’s food. It steals food. It flies around, goes onto stolen property, and takes food. Therefore, it’s not considered fit to be put on the Mizbeach. So it’s burned in the Beit HaDeshen.
“Shisa ve'lo hivdil”: He takes the body and opens it between the two wings. He cuts along the spine, but still leaves it flat as one part. He doesn’t separate it into two different parts. “Ve'im hivdil kasher”: But if he separated it into two parts, it’s still considered to be a valid korban.
“U'sefago ba'melach uzerako al gabei ha'ishim”: Then he also takes the body, dips it in salt, actually saturates it in salt, and then throws it onto the fire of the Mizbeach. Just as he did with the head of the bird, the Kohen takes the body, goes up to the top of the Mizbeach, salts it, and throws it onto the fire.