Sefer HaChinuch ספר החינוך

The commandment of eating the meat of sin-offerings and guilt-offerings: That the priests were commanded to eat the meat of some of the sacrifices — such as the guilt-offering and the sin-offering, as it is stated about them (Exodus 29:33), “They shall eat that with which atonement was done.” And they, may their memory be blessed, said (Pesachim 59b), “The priests eat, and the owners are atoned.” And with God’s help, we will write about the matter of the procedure of the sin-offering and the guilt-offering, how they would do it, and the time of its eating in their Order (Sefer HaChinukh 138, 140). And the principle of the matter is that all the meat of the sacrifices of the sin-offering and the guilt-offering was eaten by the males of the priesthood in the [Temple] yard, except for their entrails; and the owners do not have any [part] in it. And there it will also be explained what are the parts that are to be burned. And also included in this positive commandment is that they eat the portion that is coming to them from the group of sacrifices called lightly consecrated. And the eating of the priestly tithe is also included in the commandment. However, the eating of the lightly consecrated, and so [too,] the priestly tithe, is not like the eating of the meat of a sin-offering and a guilt-offering. As with the eating of a sin-offering and a guilt-offering, the atonement of the penitent is accomplished — as they, may their memory be blessed, said, “The priests eat, and the owners are atoned.” But the eating of the lightly consecrated and the priestly tithe does not add or subtract from the commandment of the one who brings [the sacrifice] or gives the [tithe].

It is from the roots of the commandment [that] the fundamental principle for us is that all of the acts of the sacrifices are to prepare our thoughts and our intentions for the good, to submerge the spirit of desire within us and to enlarge and strengthen the intellectual spirit towards the commandments. And hence we were commanded to behave in all matters of the [Temple] and the sacrifices in the manner of loftiness and greatness and honor, so that awe and humility and lowliness of spirit descend upon our hearts when we are there, and also when we remember it in our places. And in truth it is from acting with honor towards the sacrifice upon which atonement is dependent that it be eaten by the servants, themselves, and that they not give it to their slaves and dogs or sell it to all buyers. And so [too,] it is from [its] honor that he eats [it] in a holy place; and also that he not leave its eating [for a long time] so that it not smell bad and the soul [then] be disgusted by it. Does all of this not show the matter of greatness and importance?

The laws of the commandment: We will write at a bit of length about them in their place, as is our custom.

And this commandment is practiced at the time of the [Temple] by the males of the priesthood. And one who transgresses it and does not eat his portion that is coming to him from them in the limited time for it, has violated a positive commandment. And he is also punished from the side of the atonement of the owners that is dependent upon it, as we have said. And Ramban (on Sefer HaMitzvot, Shoresh 12), may his memory be blessed, does not count this commandment [separately]. As he said that who eats them and for whom they should be is a part of the [various] parts of the commandment of sacrifices, that God, may He be blessed, commanded about them; and the truth is that atonement is dependent upon this.