יחזקאל, פרק מ״ד, פסוק כ״ז

The Temple service demands strict purity and formal preparation, particularly when a priest crosses the threshold into the sacred grounds to perform his duties. Before taking part in the holy work, specific requirements must be met, focusing heavily on the exact sacrifice the priest must bring upon entering the inner courtyard where the altar is located.

The primary approach among commentators is that this situation involves a regular priest stepping into his official role for the very first time. On the day he begins his service and enters the priests' courtyard [מצודת דוד], he is obligated to bring a special dedication offering consisting of a tenth of an ephah. This offering serves to purify him and validate his readiness for a lifetime of holy work [רש״י, מצודת דוד, ביאור שטיינזלץ, צאינה וראינה].

In contrast, another perspective connects this requirement to the aftermath of ritual impurity. Rather than an initiation, the entry marks the return of a priest who had become impure due to contact with a deceased family member. After completing his mandatory seven-day purification period, he must bring a specific sin offering upon his return to the Temple. Commentators who follow this line of thought emphasize that this is not a current practice, but rather an entirely new law that will only take effect in the future Temple [רד״ק, אברבנאל].

To support this conclusion, these scholars reject alternative theories that attempt to explain the requirement without introducing a new future law. Some ideas suggested that the rule might apply to a High Priest making up for a missed daily offering after a period of impurity, or that it simply reinforces the known rule that an impure priest cannot send offerings to the Temple through an intermediary. However, a High Priest is strictly forbidden from becoming impure even for close relatives, proving that the subject must be a regular priest. Furthermore, a regular priest only brings the tenth of an ephah offering once in his life during his initial dedication, and the restriction against an impure person sending sacrifices is already widely established. Therefore, the straightforward understanding is that a new law is being introduced for the future era, mandating that a regular priest bring a special sacrifice when resuming his duties after the impurity of mourning [רד״ק, אברבנאל].