Speak to Aharon and to his sons, saying, This is the Tora of the sin offering: In the place where the burnt offering is killed shall the sin offering be killed before the Lord: it is most holy. (Leviticus 6:18)

Whatever shall touch its flesh shall be holy: and when there is sprinkled of its blood upon any garment, thou shalt wash that on which it was sprinkled in the holy place. But the earthen vessel in which it is boiled shall be broken: and if it be boiled in a brass pot, it shall be both scoured, and rinsed in water. (Leviticus 6:20-21)

The Torah states that when an item absorbs matter from the flesh or the blood of a sin offering, it becomes sanctified and acquires characteristics of a sin offering. The Torah also explains how to treat items which have absorbed matter from a sin offering, as the matter absorbed must generally be expelled from the item in order to continue using it. The method for dealing with the matter absorbed differs according to the type of item that has absorbed it. A garment must be laundered to expel matter absorbed in it, and a metal vessel must be scoured and rinsed, but an earthenware vessel that cannot expel all that it has absorbed must be broken. The Sages also had a tradition that these halakhot apply, to a certain degree, to other offerings besides a sin offering.

In this chapter, the Gemara engages in the fundamental determination of which sacrificial items sanctify other items when those other items absorb substances from the sacrificial items. This determination also involves resolving which halakhot from the realm of a sin offering also apply to other consecrated items, and which halakhot are unique to the sin offering.

Details of the treatments applied to the absorbing items are also clarified in this chapter. These include the manner by which a garment is laundered; the materials used for this procedure; and what distinguishes scouring and rinsing.

Since the Torah states that when one cleanses the absorbed substances, this must be done within the Temple courtyard, the question arises as to the appropriate procedure for items that have been removed from the courtyard and rendered ritually impure before they have been properly cleansed. It is necessary to present a method of performing the cleansing that does not entail desecrating the Sanctuary by bringing impure items into it.

In this chapter, there are also a number of practical questions about vessels in which various types of sacrificial food were cooked, as well as questions about the status of food that was cooked in such vessels. There is also a discussion surrounding a vessel in which two or more offerings were cooked in close succession. What is the halakha if one cooked an offering, and during the period in which eating that offering is permitted, someone cooks another offering in the same vessel? Does the vessel gain the status of a vessel used for sacrificial meat whose time has expired from the end of the period during which the first meat may be eaten, or does this status set in only after the end of the period during which the last item cooked may be eaten?

Clarification of these questions of principle and practice constitutes the primary aim of this chapter.