Why the Sin Offering Goes Before the Burnt Offering

"And he shall offer that which is for the sin offering first" (Leviticus 5:8). What does this come to teach us? If it teaches that the sin offering takes precedence over the burnt offering in all its rites, it has already been said, "and the second he shall make a burnt offering according to the ordinance" (Leviticus 5:10). If so, why does it say "and he shall offer that which is for the sin offering first"? It establishes a governing principle for all sin offerings that come together with burnt offerings: whether a bird sin offering with a bird burnt offering, or a bird sin offering with an animal burnt offering, the sin offerings precede the burnt offerings that come with them. Therefore the bird sin offering precedes the bird burnt offering from "and the second"; the animal sin offering precedes the animal burnt offering by rabbinic teaching; and the bird sin offering precedes the animal burnt offering by this governing principle built here. Come and hear: Rabbi Eliezer says, in every place the sin offering takes precedence, yet here the burnt offering is mentioned first; and in every place an offering that comes for a sin takes precedence, yet here the burnt offering is mentioned first; and in every place where two come, one a sin offering and one a burnt offering, the sin offering takes precedence, yet here the burnt offering is mentioned first. Rava said: Scripture gave the burnt offering precedence only in the reading, not in the performance. Come and hear: the bull for communal idolatry precedes the goats for idolatry, and this is so even though this one is a sin offering and that one a burnt offering. Say rather, in the opening case, the bull for an erroneous communal ruling precedes the bull for idolatry; within a single category we do not say the sin offering takes precedence - we say it only between two categories, and between two categories we have indeed found that the burnt offering precedes the sin offering. They say in the West, in the name of Rava bar Mari: the sin offering of idolatry is spelled defectively, missing an alef - "for a sin offering" it is written (Numbers 15:24). Ravina said: it is written there "according to the ordinance."