Or HaChaim on Leviticus 1:3/אור החיים על ויקרא א׳:ג׳

1 אם עולה קרבנו, if his offering consists of a burnt-offering, etc. Why is the wording of the Torah different here from the verses in which the burnt-offerings consisting of either sheep or fowl are described? In both those instances the Torah writes: ואם מן הצאן קרבנו, or ואם מן העוף קרבנו, whereas here the Torah writes: אם עולה קרבנו? If the Torah wanted to be consistent it should have written: אם מן הבקר עולה. We may understand this in conjunction with an idea mentioned in Torat Kohanim (3,20) in connection with the word את קרבנכם at the end of the last verse. We are told there that the Torah speaks of communal burnt-offerings. This would account for the plural ending in the word קרבנכם. In the other two instances we have mentioned the Torah uses the singular ending, i.e. קרבנו, making it plain that the Torah speaks of sacrifices offered by individuals. Moreover, the Torah uses the conditional אם, if, when introducing the burnt-offering to tell us that the only kind of communal burnt-offering acceptable is the one which consists of בקר, a male member of the cattle category. Peace-offerings may not be offered as communal offerings. [Peace-offerings are offerings which are eaten in the main by the owners, whereas the burnt-offering is completely consumed by the altar except for the skin and the hair. Ed.] Furthermore, the sequence קרבנכם אם עולה suggests that only burnt-offerings are acceptable as communal offerings and not peace-offerings as stated in Torat Kohanim.

2Furthermore, if the Torah had been consistent and written: אם מן הבקר עולה, we would have concluded that only animals which belong to the category of בקר, cattle, are acceptable as burnt-offerings and that sheep, etc., would be unacceptable as burnt-offerings. As a result of such considerations the Torah wrote the words אם עולה in that order to make it plain that there are other alternatives. Both cattle and sheep are acceptable as burnt-offerings, albeit communal burnt-offerings have to be of the בקר variety. Individual burnt-offerings on the other hand, may consist of either cattle or sheep. In order that we should not err concerning the acceptability of burnt-offerings consisting of certain kinds of fowl, the Torah added the word קרבנו once more (1,14) although this was not strictly necessary as pointed out in Torat Kohanim which understands the word as precluding communal burnt-offerings consisting of birds even when these communal offerings are in the nature of נדבה, voluntary offerings.

3The wording of the Torat Kohanim (3,21) is: "Why did the Torah have to repeat the word עולה, burnt-offering, once more?" Answer: "I could have concluded that all the exclusions we have learned from the previous verses apply only to burnt-offerings which are voluntary offerings but that in the case of mandatory offerings they do not apply; hence the Torah repeats the word אם עולה to teach that the restrictions which we have learned about do not distinguish between voluntary and mandatory burnt-offerings." This concludes our quote from Torat Kohanim. It appears that the author of the Torat Kohanim thought that the Torah should have written: אם קרבנו עולה, "if his sacrifice is a burnt-offering." They answered that if the Torah had written the words in that sequence we would have assumed that the Torah spoke of a voluntary offering, an עולת נדבה, seeing that the words כי יקריב, definitely imply that the owner of that animal has a choice in the matter. The words אם עולה then mean any kind of עולה, any kind of burnt-offering be it a mandatory one or a voluntary one. The ראב"ד argues that the word עולה here was superfluous as the Torah could have relied on the next appearance of that word in the next verse. I consider this very forced.

4קרבנו, his offering. Torat Kohanim views this word as including the above-mentioned restrictions as applicable also to peace-offerings. If not for the word קרבנו I would have understood that the peace-offering is not subject to the same restrictions as the burnt-offering. Therefore this word is meant to include peace-offerings in the restrictions applicable to the burnt-offerings. There was never any reason to assume that peace-offerings should be subject to such restrictions in the first place so that the Torah had to counter that impression. [The fact that female animals are acceptable as peace-offerings as opposed to burnt-offerings which are restricted to male animals, lends substance to that assumption. Ed.] The author of Torat Kohanim did not use the pronoun ending קרבנו instead of קרבן as the basis for its exegetical comment as he did so already in verse 10 when the Torah speaks about the burnt-offering consisting of sheep or goats.