Commentaire sur Témoura 4:2

ואח"כ נמצאת הראשונה תמות – this sin-offering that its owners were expiated through another.

Introduction This mishnah deals with the case of someone who set aside an animal to be a hatat, and then it was lost.

ילכו לים המלח – whenever there would be a sin-offering, there would be a death, money/coins also go to the Dead Sea (literally: the Sea of Salt).

If one set aside a hatat and it was lost and he sacrificed another in its place, if then the first [animal] is found, it is left to die. As we explained in yesterday’s mishnah, once the owners received atonement from another animal, the original animal cannot be used as a hatat and rather must be left to die.

If one set aside money for his hatat and they were lost and he offered a hatat instead of it, if then the money was found, it goes to the Dead Sea. Similarly, one cannot use money set aside to purchase a hatat if he already received atonement from another hatat. Rather the money must be thrown into the Dead Sea, which is another way of saying that it must be put somewhere where he cannot derive any benefit from it.