- Why one cannot use one’s own wood to burn tamei before the Birah
It was taught in a Baraisa regarding one who came to dispose of the tamei meat of his offering, באו לשורפו בחצרותיהן ומעצי מערכה אין שומעין להן – If they came to burn it in their chatzeiros with wood from the ma’arachah, we do not listen to them, לפני הבירה ומעצי עצמן אין שומעין להן – if they came to burn it before the birah with their own wood we do not listen to them. Rather, they must use their own wood in their chatzeiros, and ma’arachah wood before the Birah. The Gemara says that it is understandable why they should not burn ma’arachah wood in their chatzeir, as they might take too much, have some left over, ואתי לידי תקלה – and come to the misdeed of me’ilah on the wood, but asks why there is a problem of burning one’s own wood before the birah? Rav Yosef said, שלא לבייש את מי שאין לו – In order not to embarrass those who do not have their own wood. Rava said, מפני החשד – because of the need to avoid suspicion. Rashi explains that people seeing them take excess wood home, might think they are taking from the ma’arachah. The difference between them, would be a case where the person brings his own reeds, or dry palm branches which are not fit for burning, on the ma’arachah.
- Burning all pesulim of kodesh is Halachah LiMoshe MiSinai
The next Mishnah states, הפסח שיצא או שנטמא ישרף מיד – A pesach that was taken out of Yerushalayim, or became tamei on the fourteenth of Nissan, should be burned at once. The Gemara asks for the source that meat taken out of its boundary is burned, as opposed to another method, such as burying, and suggests that it is learned from the incident when Aharon burned the mussaf of Rosh Chodesh on the day the Mishkan was completed, and Nadav and Avihu died. After rejecting this source as well as another source, the Gemara concludes that it is Halachah LeMoshe MiSinai that all pesulim of kodesh are burned, and that the Torah mentions the details around burning Aharon’s chatas, only because the incident occurred this way.
- Machlokes of when to burn the meat when owners became tamei or died
The Mishnah continues, נטמאו הבעלים או שמתו תעובר צורתו וישרף בששה עשר – If the owners became tamei or died, its appearance must first be changed, which means that the flesh must be left overnight so that it will become passul as nossar, and it is burned on the sixteenth. Rebbe Yochanan ben Berokah says, אף זה ישרף מיד לפי שאין לו בעלים – This one too, should be burned at once because it has nobody to eat it. Rav Yosef says the machlokes pertains to a case where the owners became tamei before the zerikas hadam, דלא איתחזי בשר לאכילה – where the meat was never fit to be eaten. Rebbe Yochanan ben Berokah considers it a פסול בגופו, whereas the Tanna Kamma does not. They would agree that if the owners became tamei after the zerikah, so that the meat became fit to eat before the pessul occurred, then פסולו מחמת דבר אחר ובעיא עיבור צורה – it became passul from an external factor, and requires a change of appearance before it is burned. Rebbe Yochanan understands that the machlokes applies even in a case where the owners became tamei after the zerikas hadam.