They must slaughter the guilt-offering in the same place where they slaughter the ascent-offering, i.e. north of the Outer Altar. Also like the ascent-offering, its blood must be dashed upon the lower half of the northwest and southeast corners of the Altar such that the blood can be considered to be encircling the Altar. The guilt-offering is not disqualified if it is not slaughtered with the intention that it be considered a guilt-offering—unlike the sin-offering, which is disqualified if it is not slaughtered with the intention that it be a considered a sin-offering.
Although the guilt-offering is slaughtered in the same location as the ascent-offering and its blood is applied to the Altar in the same way as that of the ascent-offering, it is not offered up in its entirety as is an ascent-offering; rather, the priest must offer up from it only all of its prescribed fat-portions: the tail; the fat covering the innards, i.e., on the omasum and the reticulum; the two kidneys; the fat that is on them; and the fat that is on the flanks. He must also remove the diaphragm, along with the kidneys—as stated—along with part of the liver. The priest must burn up these fats on the Altar, with the intention that they be a fire-offering to God, i.e., destined to be consumed by fire.
It can sometimes happen that an animal designated as a guilt-offering cannot be sacrificed—for example, if its owner died before sacrificing it, or if it was lost and another animal was offered up in its stead and then the original animal was found. In such cases, the consecrated animal that now cannot be sacrificed must be put out to pasture until it becomes blemished, rendering it unfit to be sacrificed. The procedure described above is then carried out on this animal: it is sold, and other, unconsecrated animals are purchased with the proceeds from its sale. In this way, the sacred status of the original animal is transferred to the purchased animals, which are then offered-up as communal voluntary ascent-offerings when there are insufficient obligatory sacrifices to keep the Altar occupied. The original animal retains the status of a guilt-offering until it has been put out to pasture: until that time, if the priest slaughters it without any particular intention, it may not be offered up as an ascent-offering to keep the Altar active, even though its value was destined for this purpose, since it is still considered a guilt-offering. If, however, the priest slaughters the animal without any particular intention after it had been put out to pasture but before it became blemished, the animal can be offered up as an ascent-offering to keep the Altar active, for that is what was destined to happen to its value in any case.
Every male among the priests may eat it, and it must be eaten in a holy place, i.e., within the Tabernacle precincts, for it is a sacrifice of superior holiness, and such sacrifices may be eaten only by priests, not by their families, and only within the Tabernacle precincts during the day the animal is offered up and/or the following night. It may not be eaten before its blood has been applied to the Altar.
The guilt-offering is like the sin-offering in that they have this same regulation: the parts of it designated as the priests’ portions belong to any priest to eat who is fit to effect atonement through it. This excludes not only priests who have contracted ritual impurity and are still fully in that state, but also any priest (a) who has contracted ritual impurity and has immersed himself in a mikveh but is awaiting nightfall to become rid of his impurity; or (b) who has contracted ritual impurity and has both immersed himself in a mikveh and awaited nightfall but is still required to bring a sacrifice in order to rid himself entirely of his impurity, or (c) whose father, mother, sister, brother, son, daughter, or wife died that day.
