There are seven cases dealing with lost sin offerings. The first and the classic one was mentioned before: one designated an animal as a sin offering and it was lost, he offered another one in its stead, and then the first one was found – the first one is now left to die. A case parallel to this one: one designated coins for his sin offering, the coins were lost, he achieved atonement with another offering, and then the coins were found – he should take the coins to the Dead Sea and cast them into its waters.
Another case is when he found the money earlier: he designated money for his sin offering, then lost it, designated another set of coins, but before he could buy a new animal, the first money was found. If he now uses one of the piles of coins, he would have to throw the other one into the Dead Sea, as we just learned. Rather, he mixes the two piles, and uses some of that money for his sin offering. The remainder is now classified as a surplus remaining from a sin offering and, for reasons we will learn later, can be put into the Temple chest for voluntary communal offerings. Other cases are just as interesting, but there is no room for them in our short summary.
Art: John Singer Sargent - The Dead Sea
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