Menachos 13:9-10
Menachos 13:9
If a person specified a particular ox for a burnt offering but it developed a blemish, he has the option to bring two oxen collectively worth the same amount in its place. If he specified two oxen for a burnt offering and they developed a blemish, he has the option to bring one ox worth the same amount in their place, though Rebbi prohibits this. If he specified a ram for a burnt offering and it developed a blemish, he has the option to bring a lamb worth the same amount in its place; if he specified a lamb and it developed a blemish, he may bring a ram in its place, though Rebbi prohibits this. If a person says that one of his sheep or one of his oxen will be consecrated and he had two, then the larger one is consecrated; if he had three, then the middle one is consecrated. If he knows that he specified one but he doesn’t remember which one, or he said that his father told him that he consecrated one of them but he doesn’t know which one, then the largest one is consecrated.
Menachos 13:10
If a person obligated himself to bring a burnt offering, he must do so in the Temple; if he offered it in the House of Onias, he does not fulfill his obligation. (The House of Onias was a Jewish temple in Alexandria. While not idolatrous, offering there was prohibited as an altar outside the Temple.) If he committed to offer it in the House of Onias, he must nevertheless offer it in the Temple, though if he did so in the House of Onias, he fulfills his obligation (i.e., it’s not valid as a sacrifice but he fulfills the vow that he made). Rabbi Shimon said that if one obligates himself to bring a burnt offering at the House of Onias, it’s self-contradictory and not a burnt offering at all. If a person commits to be a nazir (nazirite), he must shave his hair at the conclusion of his nazir period in the Temple; if he shaved in the House of Onias, he does not fulfill his obligation. If he vows to shave in the House of Onias, he must nevertheless do so in the Temple but if he shaved in the House of Onias, he fulfills his obligation. Rabbi Shimon says that committing to be a nazir and shave in the House of Onias is self-contradictory and nazirite status is not effected. Kohanim who served in the House of Onias may no longer serve in the Temple in Jerusalem; it goes without saying that the same is true of kohanim who served idols. This is derived from II Kings 23:9, “… the kohanim who served at the private altars did not come to the altar of God in Jerusalem but they did eat of the unleavened bread alongside their brothers.” They are therefore like kohanim who have a blemish in that they may share in the sacrifices but they may not perform the service.