In the last Mishnah, in the last Mishnah, we mentioned that if certain korbanot (offerings) that were invalid were placed on the Mizbeach (altar), we do not take them down. Here we’ll elaborate on what happens if you took them down anyway. The Mishnah says that just as the halakha (Jewish law) is that they’re not allowed to go up, they’re not allowed to come down. So, likewise, once you took them down, they’re not allowed to go up. If these types of invalid korbanot were taken down for whatever reason, you’re not allowed to bring them back up.
We’re talking about an invalid korban. So it doesn’t become valid because it’s brought up to the Mizbeach. It simply becomes something that has a low degree of holiness, of sanctity, and therefore we allow it to remain on top of the Mizbeach. But once it was removed, any sanctity that it had is not there anymore, and therefore we do not put it back on the Mizbeach.
All of that is talking about before the fire grabbed onto the piece of meat, or whatever we’re talking about. Then, even if you did remove it, it’s put back because the item, the invalid korban, is called the food of the Mizbeach, and it has to be left there. If you took it down, you have to bring it back up.
Rebbe Akiva said that if a korban was lightly blemished and it went up on the Mizbeach, we don’t take it down, but we leave it there. Here’s an exception to the rule. Any blemished korban that went up to the top of the Mizbeach, but it was bechayim, it was living, then Rebbe Akiva would agree that it comes down in that case. Likewise, if a valid olah offering went up to the Mizbeach and it was alive when it went up there, it should come down to be slaughtered and offered in the usual way.
Korbanot are usually offered on the floor of the chatzer of the courtyard, or slaughtered on the floor of the courtyard. If a person slaughtered it on top of the Mizbeach, we’re going to say over here, it’s valid. If you slaughtered it on top of the Mizbeach, you skin it and cut it into pieces where it is, and then you put it onto the Mizbeach. You don’t have to bring it down to slaughter and then bring it back up.
We’re learning from here that it’s not disrespectful to the holiness of the Mizbeach to slaughter the animal up there, but to bring it down to slaughter, to wash the innards of the animal, we do not do that on top of the Mizbeach. Rather, we bring it down to wash it out, to get all the dirt out of its system, and then we bring it back up to the Mizbeach to burn with the rest of the korban.