If there were sin-offering [birds] on one side and burnt-offering [birds] on another side and [an] unspecified [pair] in the middle, and then from the middle [pair] one bird flew to one side and one bird to the other, he [the ownwe] has not lost anything, rather he should say, the one [bird] that flew to the sin-offering should be a sin offering and the one [bird] that flew to the burnt offering should be a burnt-offering. If they then returned to the middle, the birds in the middle must be left to die, and these [the sin-offering birds] are to be brought as sin-offerings and these [the burnt offering birds] are to be brought as burn-offerings. If once again it [a bird] flew from the the middle [back] to the sides, they must all be left to die. One may not bring turtledoves paired with pigeons or pigeons paired with turtledoves. How so? A woman who brought as her sin-offering a turtledove and as her burnt-offering a pigeon, she must do it over and bring as her burnt-offering a turtledove. If she brought as her burnt-offering a turtledove and as her sin offering a pigeon she must do it over and bring for her burnt-offering a pigeon. Ben Azzai said we follow whichever bird is offered first. A woman who brought her sin-offering and died, her heirs must bring her burnt-offering. [If she brought] her burnt-offering and died, her heirs do not have to bring her sin offering.
Bartenura on Mishnah Kinnim
חטאת מכאן – an individual pigeon that was designated/specified for a sin-offering to one side, and an individual pigeon that was designated/specified for a burnt-offering to the second side, and two individual pigeons of an undesignated/unspecified nature (i.e., either for a sin-offering or for a burnt-offering) in the center.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Kinnim
Hatat [birds] are on one side, and olot [birds] are on the other and an unassigned [pair] is in the middle: If from the middle pair one bird flew to this side, and one bird flew to this side, then he has not lost anything, because he [the priest] says that the bird that flew [from the middle] towards the hataot is a hatat and the bird that flew towards the olot is a burnt-offering. If one [from each side] returns to the middle, then [all] those in the middle must be left to die, but those [left on either side] can be offered up as hataot or as olot respectively. If again a bird [from the middle] returned and flew away to the sides, then all must be left to die. This section discusses a case where a person has three groups of birds. On one side are a group of birds designated to be hataot. On the other side are a group of birds designated to be olot. In between the two groups is an unassigned pair of birds, one in which it has not yet been determined which will be a hatat and which will be an olah. The mishnah describes three scenarios. A) If one of the unassigned birds flies to each of the other groups, there is no problem, because these birds can be either a hatat or an olah. B) If one of the birds from the hataot and one of the birds from the olot flies back to the middle, then they must be left to die because we don't know which one is a hatat and which is an olah. The birds left on the side remain hataot and olot. C) If the middle birds now fly back one to each side and become mixed up with the birds there, then the ones on the side must die as well because we don't know which are hataot and which are olot.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Kinnim
פרח מן האמצע – one individual pigeon to the right and one individual pigeon to the left.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Kinnim
One cannot pair turtle-doves with pigeons or pigeons with turtle-doves. How is this so? If a woman has brought a turtle-dove as her hatat and a pigeon as her olah, she must then bring another turtle-dove as her burnt-offering; If her olah had been a turtle-dove and her hatat a pigeon, then she must bring another pigeon as her olah. Ben Azzai says: we go after the first [offering]. When a woman brings a pair of birds for sacrifices she must either bring two turtle-doves (and a partridge in a pear tree) or two pigeons. She cannot bring one of each type of bird. According to the first opinion, the hatat is the bird that determines what the other bird must be. So if the hatat is a turtle-dove, she must bring a turtle-dove as an olah, and if the hatat is a pigeon, she must bring a pigeon as an olah. The order in which the birds are brought does not matter. Ben Azzai says that the first bird that she brings determines what the second bird is. Therefore if she first brings a turtle-dove as an olah, and then tries to bring a pigeon as a hatat, she must bring a turtle-dove as an olah.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Kinnim
לא הפסיד כלום – that the one that is combined with the sin-offerings will be made for a sin-offering, and the one that is with the burnt-offerings will be made a burnt-offering, but not for a sin-offering, for perhaps he (i.e., the Kohen) will make it from the designated/specified [ones] for a burnt-offering.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Kinnim
If a woman brought her hatat and then died, her heirs must bring her olah; [But if she first brought] her olah and then died, her heirs need not bring her hatat. If a woman sets aside birds as sacrifices and then dies, her heirs can offer the olah but they cannot offer the hatat, because a hatat whose owners have died must be left to die. This is the standard rule with regard to the hatat (see Temurah 2:2).
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Bartenura on Mishnah Kinnim
חזר לאמצע – they (i.e., the pigeons) returned from the sides, one from here and the other from there and combined together, they are left to die, for they are a [designated] sin-offering and a [designated] burnt-offering that were combined/mixed together. But those which remained, each one alone, each are offered according to their respective law.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Kinnim
חזר מן האמצעיים לצדדין – those [designated] for sin-offerings and/or burnt-offerings are combined/mixed, and all are left to die.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Kinnim
אין מביאים תורים כנגד בני יונה – but rather either both of them are turtle-doves or both of them are pigeons.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Kinnim
תכפול ותביא עולתה בן יונה – as according to the law for the sin-offering. For the sin-offering is the essence/main object, whether he (i.e., the Kohen) set it aside first or whether he set it aside at the end.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Kinnim
הולכין אחר הראשון – but she does not bring the second, but rather from the species that she set aside/designated first, whether it was a sin-offering first or whether it was a bunt-offering. And the Halakha is according to the first Tanna/teacher (i.e., that both the sin-offering and burnt-offering shojld come from the same species).
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Bartenura on Mishnah Kinnim
לא יביאו היורשים חטאתה – for it is a sin-offering where its owners had died. But if it is not for this reason, we bring a sin-offering even though she offered a burnt-offering first. But even thought that in every case/place the sin-offering precedes the burnt-offering, this is especially for the Mitzvah, but not to be indispensable/to invalidate an act by omission.
