So, here we’ll talk about cases where a korban (offering) became mixed in with other animals, and you don’t have the ability to tell which animal is which. We’ll start with a case of a korban that got mixed in with forbidden animals. The Mishnah says that if a korban became mixed in with one of the chatat (sin offering) offerings that have to be left to die, there are five different types of chatat that you’re not allowed to bring on the Mizbeach (altar), but have to allow to die by putting them in a closed place without any food. Or, if you have a korban mixed in with an animal that has to be stoned—a Shor HaNiskal, an ox that has to be stoned. If an ox killed a person or was involved in bestiality, meaning relations with a person, it has to be put to death by stoning. So if your korban became mixed in with one of these, even if it’s one chatat offering or one ox mixed in with 10,000 korbanot, all of them have to be left to die. Since one animal in this group is prohibited, and you’re not allowed to offer that one on the Mizbeach, all of them become forbidden. Even though you may think there’s bitul, we say that a living animal is too significant to become nullified. Leaving them where they are and letting them graze and live their normal lives also becomes a problem, because somebody may benefit from one of them. And if you benefit from one of the korbanot, it’s forbidden to have any benefit. So we put them in a very closed place. We don’t give them food, and we allow them—or have them—die.
The Mishnah continues: If a korban got mixed in with an ox with which a sin was committed—we’ll list all the different sins in the continuation of the Mishnah—or if the korban got mixed in with an ox that killed a person, with one witness seeing it, or with an ox whose owner said that it happened, or with an animal that had relations with a person, or an animal that a person had relations with, or an animal that was designated as an offering for an idol, or one that was worshipped as an idol, or a korban that became mixed in with an animal that was used as an etnan, as a wage, as a payment for a prostitute, or an animal that was used as an exchange to purchase a dog, or with a kilayim (mixed species) animal, or with a terefa (fatally injured) animal, or an animal that was born by C-section—in every one of these cases, the animals that became mixed in with each other should all be left to graze until they eventually develop a blemish. When they develop a blemish, you can sell them. Selling the korban is a way to redeem it. The sanctity of the korban is then transferred to the money, and the animal becomes regular Chulin, a regular animal.
The owner then has to replace the korban with a new one using that money. The money must be worth at least as much as the most expensive of the mixed-in animals, since you don’t know which is which. You spend an amount equal to the value of the most expensive animal on a new korban of the same type as the korban that was among them. The korban may have been the most expensive animal in the group, so that amount of money becomes sanctified. The owner therefore has to buy another animal, designate it as the same korban as the original one, and pay at least a similar price.
If a korban became mixed in with a group of unblemished animals that were Chulin, that were not dedicated to the Beit HaMikdash (Holy Temple), but were technically fit to be korbanot, what do we do now? I have all these different animals. One of them is a korban, already designated, and the others could be designated but aren’t; they’re just regular animals. So we say that the unconsecrated animals, the ones that were not yet dedicated to the Beit HaMikdash for korbanot, are subject to a tenai (stipulation). We say that all of those that are not already sanctified should become sanctified, and that they go exactly to that type of korban. We sell them to somebody for that purpose. We bring everything to the Beit HaMikdash. They’re all offered, and there’s no confusion anymore because everything now has that status.