The Torah commands regarding the Passover sacrifice that "there shall not remain the fat of My festival offering until morning." The Mekhilta takes this verse and extracts from it a principle that extends far beyond the Passover offering itself — a rule about what happens to sacrificial fats that are not placed on the altar in time.
The fats of a sacrifice were among the most sacred portions. They were burned on the altar as an offering to God, producing what the Torah calls a "pleasing aroma." But what happens if the fats are not placed on the altar before morning? According to the Mekhilta, they become disqualified. Remaining on the floor overnight — rather than being placed on the altar — renders them unfit for sacred use.
This is a law about time and holiness. The sacrificial system operated on precise schedules. Each offering had a window during which its components had to be handled, and missing that window was not a minor procedural error. It changed the fundamental status of the offering from sacred to disqualified. The fats did not spoil in the physical sense. They became spiritually invalid because the appointed time had passed.
The Mekhilta notes that at this point in the text, there is a discrepancy in the manuscript readings, referencing the Yalkut Shimoni for variant versions. This kind of editorial honesty is characteristic of the Mekhilta — the rabbis preserved disagreements and textual uncertainties rather than smoothing them over, trusting future generations to engage with the full complexity of the tradition.
The underlying message is clear: in the Temple service, timing was not secondary to intention. Both had to align for the offering to be acceptable.