TalmuDigest

For the week ending 19 March 2011 / 12 Adar II 5771

Menachot 9 - 15

by Rabbi Mendel Weinbach zt'l
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  • When the meal content of a mincha became reduced before kemitzah or the contents of the remainder after kemitzah
  • Can the left-handed performance of kemitzah be repaired
  • Why a Torah chapter is sometimes repeated
  • When a foreign object enters the amount taken for kemitzah
  • How kemitzah is performed
  • Increasing the prescribed amount of oil in a mincha or decreasing it
  • How much frankincense must remain for a mincha to be kosher
  • Pigul in the case of improper thought regarding eating or offering the kometz or its remnants
  • When someone who is not a valid kohen collects the frankincense
  • Pigul in regard to the lechem hapanim showbreads
  • The breads which accompany the thanksgiving sacrifices and the two sheep in the Shavuot offering
  • Pigul in regard to the sacrifice and the wine libation accompanying it

Animals and Breads

  • Menachot 15a

When a korban todah — a thanksgiving offering — is brought as a sacrifice, the Torah orders that it be accompanied with loaves of unleavened wafers and loaves of leavened bread, all referred to as lachmei todah. (Vayikra7:11-13)

On Shavuot the Torah commanded that we bring two loaves of leavened bread as first offerings of wheat flour and instructed that they be accompanied by a sacrifice of two lambs in their first year as shelamim– feast peace offerings. (Vayikra 13:16-19)

What is the relationship between the animal sacrifices and the breads in both cases?

The mishneh rules that in both cases if the kohen, during the course of the service, had in mind to eat the bread beyond the proscribed time, he would render the bread pigul, but the meat of the animal would be unaffected. But if he had such an improper thought in regard to the animal meat, both it and the accompanying bread would be rendered pigul.

The reason given in the gemara is that in both cases the bread comes as an adjunct to the animal and not vice versa. The proof of this is that the breads can only be consumed after the animals have been sacrificed, thus indicating that they are subservient to the animal and cannot impact their status.

What the Sages Say

"Any chapter in the Torah which is written and repeated is repeated only because it has some additional information."

  • The Yeshiva of Rabbi Yishmael - Menachot 10a

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