by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on June 3, 2011
Can I use my ma’aser kesafim, tithes from my income, towards pre-existing mitzvah or tzedakah obligations, such as my synagogue dues, my children’s day school tuition, or pledges to charity that I have already made? A mishna from Menachot touches on an answer to this question. In the mishna in Menachot 81a, we learn that a korban todah cannot be purchased from ma’aser sheni money. …
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on May 27, 2011
The sixth chapter of Menachot is devoted to the topic of the bringing of the omer. In the middle of all the halakhic discussions of this chapter, a fascinating story is told about how, one time, they needed to bring the omer from wheat that grew far away from Jerusalem: Our Rabbis taught: When the Kings of the Hasmonean house fought one another, Hyrcanus was outside and Aristobulus within [the city wall].…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on May 20, 2011
The Mishna of Menachot 70a lists the five species of grain. These species are of central importance in many halakhot. Only bread made from these species of grains is considered bread, and gets the brakha of hamotzi. Only matzah made from these grains is considered matzah, and can be used on the seder night. …
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on May 13, 2011
Mesechet Menachot (53) addressed the prohibition to make menachot out of chametz. Menachot, grain sacrifices, are usually made as matzah, unleavened bread. There are some, notably the shetei ha’lechem, the two loaves that are brought on Shavuot, which are chametz. Nevertheless, such chametz offerings are never burned on the altar, and the Torah explicitly prohibits this: “For all leaven and all honey you shall not offer up as a burnt offering to God” (Vayikra 3:11).…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on April 29, 2011
The Gemara in Menachot discusses at length and over many pages the specific details relating to the laws of tzitzit. At the end of these discussions, the Gemara ends with a braitta which that declares that “all are obligated in the mitzvah of tzitzit: Kohanim, Levites, and Israelites; converts, women and slaves.” …
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on April 14, 2011
In Masechet Menachot, there is a very rich section that deals with the laws of tefillin and mezuzah. A particular theme of interest, especially in the context of the korban Pesach, is that of the mezuzah as an object that protects the house. …
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on April 1, 2011
One of the key Tosafots in Shas (Menachot 20b, s.v., ini) discusses the position of Rabbeinu Tam that there are two sunsets – the visible one, and then one occurring almost an hour later, when the sun – according to Rabbinic cosmology – exists the tunnel of the opaque dome of the rakiya, sky or firmament, and begins to travel above the rakiya from West to East so it can rise again the next morning. …
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on March 18, 2011
One of the major themes of Zevachim – and the one that opens mesekhet Menachot as well- is that of intent. The concepts of shelo li’shma, intending the wrong sacrifice, and pigul, intending to eat it at the wrong time, factor very heavily throughout the mesekhet. …
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on March 8, 2011
The last two chapters of Zevachim, 13 and 14, deal with the prohibition of bringing sacrifices outside of the Temple, even if they are brought to God. The first mishna in the beginning of the 14th perek (112a), opens with two exceptions: the seir ha’ mishtalayach, the goat sent over the cliff on Yom Kippur, and the parah Adumah, the red heifer which was slaughtered and burned outside the Temple, and whose ashes were used to make the mei chatat, the ritual water that would purify those who had become tamei due to contact with a corpse.…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on February 25, 2011
The Gemara Zevachim (102b) ends its discussion of the Kohanim who are not entitled to a portion of the daily sacrifices with an analysis of R. Elazar ben R. Shimon. We had learned that a Kohen who was tamei, and thus not able to do the avoda that day (or, according to another formulation, not able to eat the korbanot that day), was not entitled to a portion of the korbanot that evening. …
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on February 18, 2011
The end of Zevachim addresses the issue of personal versus collective responsibility. On 97b, the Gemara asks why a Kohen cannot eat the meat of a sacrifice that has absorbed the juices of an invalid sacrifice. While it is prohibited to eat an invalid sacrifice, i.e.,…
by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on November 5, 2010
Tractate Horiyot is the last tractate in Seder Nezikin and the smallest tractate in Shas. It presumably is part of Seder Nezikin as a type of an appendix to tractate Sanhedrin and Makkot, which deal with the power and authority of the Beit Din – to represent the people, the fix the calendar, to judge court cases and to inflict punishment – from monetary fines, to lashes, to the death penalty. …
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