Zevachim 112 – When One is not Liable for Sacrificing Outside

A Red Heifer is a cow that is slaughtered east of Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives and is burned in a special pit excavated for this purpose. Its ashes, mixed with spring water, are used to purify people from ritual contamination caused by a corpse. If one sacrifices this cow as an offering outside the Temple, he is not liable, because the phrase “and to the entrance of the Tent of the Meeting he did not bring it” does not apply to it. In the same way the scapegoat that is sent away on Yom Kippur does not entail liability if sacrificed outside.

Other animals do not entail liability for sacrificing outside because they are cannot be brought “as an offering before God.” This list includes an animal that has sodomized a person or was sodomized by a man, one designated as idolatrous sacrifice or one that was worshipped, one that was used as dog's exchange or a harlot's payment, torn by a wild beast, or born by Caesarean section.

Art: Van Gogh - Cows after Jordaens