Sefer HaChinuch ספר החינוך

To not eat from consecrated [animals] that have been disqualified: That we not eat from consecrated [animals] that have been disqualified. And [about] this negative commandment with the consecrated [animals] that have been disqualified, they, may their memory be blessed, explained in Tractate Bekhorot 34a that it is specifically when we make the blemish in the consecrated [animals], and that they are disqualified by our hand, and afterwards we ate from them — [that] then is there a negative commandment in their eating; and so too, if the sacrifice gets disqualified in any way after its being sacrificed — in this too is there a negative commandment. And about all of this is it stated (Deuteronomy 14:3), “You shall not eat any abomination.” And so does it say in Sifrei Devarim 99, “‘You shall not eat any abomination’ — the verse is speaking about consecrated [animals] that have been disqualified.” And there it says further, “Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov says, ‘From where [do I know] for one who slits the ear of a firstborn animal and eats from it, that he is transgressing a negative commandment? As it is stated, “You shall not eat any abomination.”’” And they, may their memory be blessed said further that included in the category of this negative commandment is the warning not to eat notar (remainder) and piggul (that disqualified by thought) — and I have written their content in the Order of Tsav (Sefer HaChinukh 144) — and so [too,] all forbidden foods. And [it is] like the matter that they, may their memory be blessed, expounded (Chullin 114b), “‘You shall not eat any abomination’ — anything that I have made abominable to you, behold it is [included] in ‘do not eat.’” And nonetheless, it is not called a general negative commandment, since its essence is only coming about the consecrated [animals] that have been disqualified, and the rest of the prohibitions are derived by its implications. [This is] meaning to say that from that which Scripture brought out this warning in a general expression — since it stated, “any abomination,” and it did not explicitly state, “You shall not eat the consecrated [animals] that have been disqualified” — because of that, we consider it a specific negative commandment in its essence, that we can learn from its warning to other matters. And accept the truth from the one that says it.

I have already written many times that it is from the roots of the commandments that the Torah [instructs] to prevent us from approaching the holy from touching its edge, [that] it is in order to give awe of these matters to our hearts and to make them precious in our eyes, in order that our spirit be aroused, our thoughts yearn, our hearts be afraid and that a proper spirit be renewed in us, when we come to request forgiveness for our iniquities. And from this, God, blessed be He, will listen to our prayers and save us from all our troubles and we will be good. And we will also explain the root of this one about this good.

And the laws of the commandment are in Tractate Bekhorot.

And this prohibition is practiced by males and females in every place and at all times. As even though they, may their memory be blessed, said (Avodah Zarah 13a) that at this time, we many not consecrate — as I have written at the beginning of the Order of Bechukotai (Sefer HaChinukh 350) — nonetheless, one who does consecrate his animal as a sacrifice, [has] holiness rest upon it; and [so] it has the law of consecrated things. And one who places a blemish on it and eats it transgresses this negative commandment and is liable for lashes because of this — when he eats a kazayit from it and there are witnesses and a warning.