Why is there m'ila until the ashes are removed?

Question

The Mishna in chapter 2 of M'ila outlines when the use of a sacrificial offering for one's own purposes, by accident, engenders the requirement to bring a sin-offering. Most kodshe kadashim ("most holy" offerings) can engender such a requirement if the use was before "they went out to the ash area", meaning that they were burnt on the altar and (the next morning as every morning) some ash was removed from the altar — or, some explain, that the altar was emptied of ashes, which occurred less often.

Why until the ash was removed from the altar? The standard is "until its command is fulfilled" but (1) taking ashes each morning from the altar is unrelated to, and may not even contain the ashes of, any particular offering, and (2) emptying the altar of ashes is no command at all and was done when convenient.

Answer 1

The gemara in Me'ilah 9a records a debate regarding the point after which me'ilah can no longer occur to sacrificial items burnt on the altar.

Rav holds that the boundary point is termumat hadeshen (the daily removal of some ash from the altar and its placement on the floor near the altar) and Rav Yochanan holds that it is after all the ash has been removed outside of the city.

To answer your first question (on Rav's position), I believe (although I have no source) that the logic runs as follows:

The command of an individual sacrifice is "fulfilled" once it is burnt, but immediately afterwards there is another command to fulfill with all of the ashes atop the altar, namely the removal of some of them from the altar to the floor. Once that takes place, we can indeed now say that the command (of all of the ashes atop the altar) has been fulfilled, and me'ilah is no longer relevant.

To answer your second question (on Rav Yochanan's view) the gemara (ibid.) records that Rav Yochanan believes that since the removal of all of the ashes outside of city must be done by a priest wearing the priestly clothes, it indicates that indeed the ashes still retain some sanctity, and, presumably, their command cannot be said to have been fulfilled, until that has been carried out.