Kinnim 3:6-Keilim 1:1

Kinnim 3:6

If a woman vows to offer a pair of birds if she gives birth to a boy and she gives birth to a boy, then she must bring two sets of birds — one for the vow and one for giving birth. If she gave them to the kohein, he should offer three of these birds above the red line (because they’re burnt offerings) and one below the line (because it’s a sin offering). If he didn’t do this, but rather he offered two birds above the line and two birds below and he didn’t ask the reason for the offerings, then the woman must bring another bird to be offered above the line. This is the case when all the birds are the same species (i.e., either pigeons or doves). If the birds were of two different species, then she must bring two more birds (i.e., a new set). If she had explicitly vowed to bring a particular species, then she must bring three more birds if the birds she already brought were of one species, or four more birds if the ones she brought were of two species. If she specified at the time of her vow, then she must bring another five birds. If she gave them to the kohein and it is unknown what she gave him and he offered them but he doesn’t remember what exactly he did with them, then she must bring four more birds (two pigeons and two doves) for the vow, two more birds (a pigeon and a dove) for her obligation (the burnt offering), and one bird (of either species) for her sin offering. Ben Azzai says that she must bring two sin offerings (i.e., one of each species). Rabbi Yehoshua explains the saying that while it is alive, an animal has one voice but when it is dead, it has seven “voices”: its two horns are made into trumpets, the bones of its two legs are made into flutes, its hide is made into a drum, its entrails are made into strings for lyres, and its intestines are made into strings for harps; some add that its wool is used for the blue on the kohein’s uniform (which jingled from bells). Rabbi Shimon ben Akashya says that when unlearned people get older, their minds deteriorate as per Job 12:20, “He removes speech from men of trust and takes sense away from the elders.” Torah scholars are not this way. Quite the opposite! The older they get the more composed their minds become as per Job 12:12, “Wisdom is with aged men and understanding is in the length of days.”

Keilim 1:1

The major transmitters of ritual impurity are vermin, semen, a person who was rendered ritually unclean by a corpse, a metzora (“leper,” but not really) during the days that he must count (i.e., the seven days necessary to complete his purification) and the water of the red heifer (para adumah) when there isn’t enough of it to sprinkle. These things convey ritual impurity to people and to utensils through contact, and to earthenware vessels through their interior airspace, though they do not convey impurity by being carried.