The Gemara says that if the Asham Vadai that one offers after sinning with
a Shifchah Charufah may be brought without a Yedi'ah (i.e., the person does
not know for sure that he sinned), then a Yedi'ah is not Mechalek between
five sins with a Shifchah Charufah. (That is, even though he found out
about his sin immediately each time, the sins are all considered to have
been done b'He'elem Echad and he is Chayav to bring only one Korban.) The
logic for this ruling is that since a Yedi'ah is not necessary for the
Asham Vadai to be effective, Yedi'os are not significant as far as this
Korban is concerned and Yedi'os do not serve to divide between two such
sins. Therefore, one Korban suffices for all five sins with the Shifchah
Charufah.
(This can be understood logically as follows. A Yedi'ah serves as a
separation between two sins when the Chiyuv Korban takes effect only as a
result of the Yedi'ah. When the Chiyuv Korban takes effect even without the
Yedi'ah, such as in the case of Shifchah Charufah, the Yedi'ah is rendered
meaningless. One might ask that since the sin itself makes the Chiyuv
Korban take effect, the sin itself should divide it from a second sin. The
answer is that an act of sinning alone can never divide an act from a later
act, even if it creates a Chiyuv Korban.)
The Rishonim ask, even if we say that one does not need definite knowledge
that he sinned with a Shifchah Charufah in order to bring a Korban, he
still must have at least a *doubt* that he sinned. If he has a doubt
whether or not he is obligated in the Korban, he may bring the Korban
conditionally ("Al Tenai..."), as Rashi explained at the end of 71b (DH
l'Man d'Amar Asham Vadai).
How can one bring a Korban conditionally for the sin of Shifchah Charufah
when he is in doubt if he sinned? In the case of Shifchah Charufah, he
cannot make a Tenai (condition)! (In the case of Me'ilah, cited by Rashi
earlier (loc cit.), one can make a Tenai, because if he *did* sin with
Me'ilah, he must bring an Asham Vadai, and even if he is not sure that he
sinned, he must still bring an Asham Taluy because of his doubt. But in the
case of Shifchah Charufah one does not bring *any* Korban for a doubtful
sin (since it is not punishable with Kares when done intentionally)! And
one may not make a condition that if he sinned, the Korban is an Asham
Vadai, and if he did not sin, it is a Nedavah, because an Asham and a
Nedavah are two completely different types of Korbanos with different
Halachos.) If so, one needs definite knowledge that he sinned with a
Shifchah Charufah in order to be Chayav to bring a Korban! (Yedi'ah is not
necessary only when the Korban can be brough Al Tenai. But here, where it
cannot be brought Al Tenai, a Yedi'ah is necessary in order to be able to
bring the Korban!)
ANSWERS:
(a) TOSFOS (DH Ba'al) answers that even though it is true that one may not
separate a Korban stipulating that it should either be an Asham Shifchah
Charufah (if he sinned) or a Nedavah (if he did not), nevertheless if one
does make such a Tenai it is effective b'Di'eved. Therefore, it can be said
that a Yedi'ah is not necessary in order to bring a Korban.
(b) The RAMBAN explains that if two men lived with two women, one of whom
was a Shifchah Charufah, but it was not known which one, in such a case the
two men could make a Tenai and bring a Korban Asham Al Tenai -- since one
of the two is certainly obligated to bring the Korban. That case shows that
a Yedi'ah is not necessary to be Chayav to bring the Korban Asham, and
therefore a Yedi'ah is also not Mechalek between sins.
(c) REBBI AKIVA EIGER in Gilyon ha'Shas explains that it is true that after
the first doubtful sin with a Shifchah Charufah that he commits, one may
not bring a Korban, because he needs a Yedi'ah Vadai (that is, it is not
possible to bring a Korban Asham for Shifchah Charufah conditionally, as we
stated in our question). However, once he finds out for sure that he sinned
that first time, from then on he does not need a Yedi'ah for any subsequent
sins with a Shifchah Charufah in order to bring a Korban for those sins.
Once he is Chayav to bring that first Korban, every subsequent Be'ilah does
not need a Yedi'ah, because when he later brings the Korban for the *first*
sin, it covers all the subsequent Be'ilos about which he has no definite
knowledge.
This is a straightforward solution. It could be that the Rishonim disagreed
on this point and understood that if a person designates an animal to be
brought as an Asham specifically for one Be'ilah, it cannot cover any other
Be'ilah which he did not have in mind at the time that he designated the
Korban.
(d) One would think that there is an obvious answer to this question. It is
true that a person cannot designate a Korban for a doubtful sin of Shifchah
Charufah through a Tenai, and he may only designate a Korban once he knows
for certain that he sinned. However, if a person has absolutely no
knowledge that he sinned with a Shifchah Charufah, if he designates an
animal as a Korban and says, "If I ever happened to have sinned with a
Shifchah Charufah, then this animal is hereby a Korban Asham," it will be
an Asham when he finds out that he sinned. This shows that Yed'iah is not
necessary for the Korban to be effective, and thus it will not be Mechalek
between sins!
The Rishonim, though, apparently rejected this answer because there is no
such thing as designating a Korban for a sin which one does not know that
he committed. One only designates a Korban for something that he knows
about (or at least something which he is in doubt about). (M. Kornfeld)