Karetot 14: Issur Chal al Issur and Issur Motif

Yesterday's Mishna noted that a person can eat a single olive bulk of meat and be liable for four separate chatat, sin offerings, in addition to an asham, guilt offering.  These are because if a person was ritually impure and ate chelev, forbidden fat that was notar, left over from a sacrifice past the time that it could be eaten, so it was from an animal that was sanctified for the altar on Yom Kippur.

The separate offerings would account for:

• eating forbidden fats
• eating meat from a sacrifice after the time that it was permitted
• eating sanctified meat while ritually impure
• eating on Yom Kippur

This person must also bring a guilt offering for me'ila, having taken from the sanctified animal.

Rabbi Meir shares that if it was Shabbat and this person walked into the public domain with the meat in his/her mouth, s/he would be obliged to bring a fifth chatat for carrying into the public domain on Shabbat.  

Our daf seems to be a case of issur chal al issur, prohibitions that are piled on top of each other.  Rabbi Meir rejects this.  The Rambam responds: the Gemara assumes that the whole anonymous Mishna is the opinion of Rabbi Meir.  The Gemara goes on to explain that while Rabbi Meir does not believe that issur hal al issur, yet he agrees with the idea of issur motif, prohibitions that add just an element of additional limitation.

In the case presented to us, the basic prohibition is that we are not permitted to eat forbidden fat.  When a person becomes ritually impure, s/he cannot eat sanctified meat.  Thought the forbidden fat was first only forbidden for eating, once the animal was consecrated it became forbidden to derive any benefit from the meat.  And when the meat was not eaten within the proper time from, it became forbidden to everyone.  Because each of these prohibitions includes more than the previous one, all of the prohibitions take effect.