ויקרא, פרק ח׳, פסוק כ׳

The process of offering the ram of the burnt offering during the days of ordination required great precision in both preparation and burning on the altar, with careful attention paid to every part of the animal. Moses is the one who performs the initial act of cutting the sacrifice into pieces [הופמן]. However, a curious detail arises regarding this preparation: the act of skinning the animal, which typically precedes cutting it, is absent from the account. The primary approach among commentators is that an animal is never cut without first being skinned. The record simply omits this step for brevity, as the requirement to remove the skin was already explicitly commanded in the general laws of burnt offerings [רמב״ן, הטור הארוך]. Conversely, another perspective suggests that in this unique instance, the ram was indeed left unskinned and placed in the fire with its hide. According to this view, had the animal been skinned, it would have been noted that Moses kept the hide for himself, just as he was given other specific portions of the offerings [הופמן].

Following the cutting, specific parts are prepared for the fire: the head, the severed pieces, and the fat. This sequence is intentional, as the head is always offered before the rest of the animal. The fat is mentioned immediately after the head because its specific purpose was to cover the severed head [מלבי״ם, הופמן].

A question arises regarding the actual burning of these parts, as a subsequent step involving the washing of the entrails and another burning is mentioned right afterward. One approach explains that Moses actually burned all the parts of the ram at the exact same time, waiting until the entrails were fully washed. The reason the preparation of the head and pieces is recorded as a separate burning is to teach a specific rule: unlike the entrails and legs, the severed pieces do not need to be washed in water before being placed on the altar [רמב״ן, הטור הארוך, מלבי״ם].

On the other hand, a different view maintains that there were, in fact, two separate burnings. Normally, when many priests work together in the sanctuary, all the animal parts are prepared simultaneously and placed on the fire as one. However, when individuals personally handle the cutting and washing, the process takes much longer due to the time required to clean the entrails. To avoid leaving the initially prepared pieces sitting idle for an extended period—which would show a lack of respect for the offering—those ready pieces are burned first, followed by the entrails later. Because the work during the days of ordination was done personally, the burning was split into these distinct stages [העמק דבר].