Zevachim 6 – Can There Be Forgiveness In Advance?

A burnt offering (olah) achieves forgiveness for positive commandments, for example, when one missed saying the “Shema Israel!” prayer in the morning or in the evening, or did not put on teffilin throughout the day. It can atone even for multiple such transgression.

A question was asked, can it atone for those transgressions that happened after it was designated by the owner? Since it can atone for multiple prior violations, maybe it can also atone for future ones? Or should we compare it to the sin offering? The sin offering is brought for a specific occurrences of a violation, for example, for violating Shabbat by mistake. It cannot atone for multiple transgressions, and of course it cannot it atone for future ones. If the burnt offering is like the sin offering, then it cannot atone for what happened after it was designated.

The Talmud tries to prove that the burnt offering indeed atones for the future, by comparing it to various other slight offenses, but in each attempt there is possibly another mechanism of how the atonement for this offense works, so in the end the Talmud does not resolve the question.

Art: Lasar Segall - Praying Jew