Comentario sobre Levítico 7:17

AND THAT WHICH REMAINETH OF THE FLESH OF THE OFFERING ON THE THIRD DAY SHALL BE BURNT WITH FIRE. The verse does not mean to say that that which is left over on the third day must be burnt, but it may be eaten during the preceding night, for our Rabbis have already derived from the verse in the section of Kedoshim Tih’yu — and if aught remain until the third day, it shall be burnt with fire,¹²⁹Further, 19:6. that whatever remains after any part of the two days, must be burnt [and thus may not be eaten on the night preceding the third day]. But the expression, on the third day, is not connected with that which remaineth, but with shall be burnt with fire [the sense of the verse thus being as follows: “and that which remaineth of the flesh of the offering, shall be burnt with fire on the third day”]. The verse thus states that that which was left over of the flesh of the offering which was not eaten on the day when it was offered nor on the morrow, shall be burnt with fire on the third day in the morning. It is this which the Rabbis intended when saying [of the peace-offerings]¹³⁰Zebachim 55 a. that “they are eaten for two days and the one intervening night,” for on the second night [preceding the third day] they are neither eaten nor burnt, for Scripture required that the burning of invalidated hallowed offerings should be at daytime, just as the offering of the valid ones can only be at daytime.

והנותר מבשר הזבח ביום השלישי באש ישרף. “And what is left over of the meat of the sacrifice on the third day must be burned.” This does not mean that this meat is permitted to be eaten during the night between the second and the third day, seeing that the Torah had already said that it must be eaten during the day on which it was slaughtered or the day following. (verse 16) The meaning of the directive is simply that any sacrificial meat from that offering which has not been consumed during the permitted time must be burned on the third day. The reason the Torah had to be so specific is to teach us that the burning of sacred meats that have not been consumed must only take place by day, not by night. This is so, in spite of the fact, that those remains no longer are fit to be eaten.

ביום השלישי באש ישרף, “anything remaining of it on the morning of the third day must be burned.” Our sages derive from the apparently superfluous words: “it (the leftover) has to be burned on the third day,” that any leftovers of any sacrificial meat must be burned by day after it may no longer be eaten. (Sifra).

That is that He commanded to burn leftovers (notar). And that is His, may He be blessed, saying, "What is left over of the meat of the sacrifice shall be burned" (Leviticus 7:17). And in explanation of His [also] saying about the Pesach lamb, "You shall not leave over from it" (Exodus 12:10), they said in the Mekhilta (Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Bar Yochai 12:10), "It comes to give a positive commandment and a negative commandment." And in many places in Pesachim and Makkot and other places besides them, it says in explanation, that it is a negative commandment that is rectified by a positive commandment; and therefore we do not receive lashes for it. And the positive commandment is that which we mentioned, "What is left over from it, you shall burn" (Exodus 12:10). And the law of leftovers and improper (pigul) [sacrifices] is the same, as I will explain in the Negative Commandments (Sefer HaMitzvot, Negative Commandments 132). For the improper has already been referred to by the expression, "leftovers." And the laws of this commandment have already been explained in Tractate Pesachim and at the end of Temurah. (See Parashat Tzav; Mishneh Torah, Things Forbidden on the Altar.)