Offerings Are Accepted from the Sinners of Israel to Bring Them Back

It was taught: "of you" and not all of you, to exclude the apostates. "Of you": among you I have made a distinction, and not among the nations. "From the animal": to include people who resemble an animal. From here the sages said: we accept offerings from the transgressors of Israel so that they may return in repentance, except for the apostate, the one who pours a libation of wine [to idols], and the one who desecrates the Sabbath in public. This very passage poses a difficulty: you said "of you" and not all of you, to exclude the apostate, and then you taught that we accept offerings from the transgressors of Israel. This is not a difficulty: the first clause speaks of one who is an apostate against the entire Torah, the middle clause of one who is an apostate regarding a single matter. But consider the last clause: "except for the apostate, the one who pours a libation of wine, and the one who desecrates the Sabbath in public." What sort of apostate is this? If an apostate against the entire Torah, that is the first clause; if an apostate regarding a single matter, it contradicts the middle clause. Rather, this is what it means: except for one who is an apostate so as to pour libations [to idols] and to desecrate the Sabbath in public; and one who is an apostate to idolatry is regarded as an apostate against the entire Torah.