or the intestines. Here, we’ll talk about cases where the Kohen (priest) did not follow the correct procedure with a bird offering: what is still okay and what invalidates the korban (bird offering). The Mishnah says that if a person brought a bird olah (burnt offering) and did not remove the crop or the feathers that come with the crop, but burned them on the Mizbeach (altar) instead, or never dipped the head or the body into the salt before burning it, or made any other change to the normal way, the korban is still valid after he has already squeezed out the blood.
Any change from the squeezing of the blood onward is considered to be—of course, it has to be done—but if it is not done, it is considered non-essential. It is not me’akev (non-essential), and the korban is still valid. We learn this all from animal korbanot. What we’re seeing here is that the avodot (sacrificial rites) of melikah (bird slaughter), which is analogous to shechita (slaughter), and then squeezing out the blood, which is analogous to zerikah, the throwing of the blood of a regular animal korban onto the Mizbeach, are comparable. With a regular animal korban, once the shechita, the slaughter, the kabbalah, the catching of the blood, the holacha, the walking of the blood to the Mizbeach, and then the zerikah, the throwing on the Mizbeach, are done properly, the korban is permitted to be eaten and burned on the Mizbeach no matter what. Nothing could disqualify it. If anything afterward is done incorrectly or not done at all, the korban is still valid, and that is what we say here with the bird.
The melikah is like shechita, so that is done okay. Then the squeezing out of the blood, the mitzui (squeezing out the blood), is like zerikah. We don’t have a kabbalah and holacha when it comes to a bird olah, because right after the melikah, the mitzui—the squeezing—is done directly from the bird onto the Mizbeach. So as long as the melikah and the mitzui were done properly, the bird olah is considered valid, and nothing afterward could disqualify it. But that is only talking about the bird olah, which requires only mitzui, only squeezing. The bird chatat (sin offering), which, as we said, also needs hazayah (sprinkling), mitzui, squeezing, and hazayah, has two avodot that are considered essential; if they are not done properly, they would invalidate the bird chatat.
But the following changes would disqualify the korban. If he separated the head from the body when we were talking about a bird chatat—if he cut both the windpipe and the foodpipe, which we said is a problem, because he is only supposed to cut one of them—or if he did not separate the head from the body in the case of the bird olah, then he only cut one of the pipes when he is supposed to do both. When we’re talking about olah, it is pasul—in this case, the korban is invalid because these changes happened before the avodah of mitzui, before you squeeze out the blood. Melikah is one of the essential avodot of a bird offering. So if it was done incorrectly, if the cutting happens incorrectly, the korban is considered invalidated.
The Mishnah will now focus on the avodah of mitzui, of squeezing out the blood of a bird olah, which we mentioned has two different components: squeezing out the blood of the body and squeezing out the blood of the head. Mitzah dam ha-rosh velo mitzah dam ha-guf pesulah. If a person squeezed out the blood of the head but did not squeeze out the blood of the body, the korban is invalid because the avodah of mitzui, of squeezing, is an essential avodah for the korban to be accepted. Squeezing out only the head but not the guf, but not the body, is a problem because squeezing out the body of the bird is a critical part of the avodah. Mitzah dam ha-guf velo mitzah dam ha-rosh kesherah. But if he squeezed out the blood of the bird but did not squeeze out the blood of the head of the bird, the korban is still kesherah, still valid, because squeezing out the blood of the head is not considered essential. The body contains most of the blood, so if the squeezing of the body was done correctly, that is enough after the fact. Squeezing of the head would not be bediavad (after the fact) enough.