Todas as ofertas de grãos preparadas em um vaso devem ser quebradas em pedaços. A oferta de cereais de um israelita foi dobrada em duas e as duas foram dobradas em quatro, e ele a separou em cada curva. A oferta de cereais dos sacerdotes foi dobrada em duas e as duas foram dobradas em quatro, mas ele não se separa. A oferta de cereais do sumo sacerdote ungido não foi dobrada. O rabino Shimon diz: nem a oferta de cereais dos sacerdotes nem a oferta de cereais do sumo sacerdote ungido foram quebradas em pedaços, uma vez que o punhado não lhes foi tirado, e sempre que o punhado não é tomado [de uma oferta de cereais], não é ser quebrado em pedaços. E todos eram a granel de uma azeitona.
Bartenura on Mishnah Menachot
כל המנחות הנעשות בכלי – here it does not come to include the meal-offering that is baked in an oven, as it is written (Leviticus 2:6): “Break it into bits and pour oil on it; it is a grain offering,” but to include all the meal offerings for breaking into bits, but rather to exclude the two loaves and the shewbread which do not require breaking into bits/crumbling.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Menachot
Introduction
Today’s mishnah teaches how menahot were broken into pieces once they were baked. This process is referred to in Leviticus 2:6, “Break it into bits and pour oil on it; it is a meal offereing.” Although this verse is stated specifically in reference to a minhah prepared on a griddle, the rabbis extend it to other menahot as well.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Menachot
כופל אחת לשנים – as it is written (Leviticus 2:6): “Break it into bits,” breaking them (i.e., plural) which is two, for since it was broken, that is two pieces, “bits,” we extend the scope that each piece is broken into two, which is four. It is possible that he can make them crumbs, the inference teaches us, “into bits,” but not its bits into bits. And all of them are broken pieces like olives, that the concluding clause of the Mishnah is not Rabbi Shimon who states, but rather the words of all, for after he made the broken pieces like olives, he folds each olive into two and two into four.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Menachot
All menahot prepared in a vessel must be broken into pieces. As stated in the introduction, the rabbis derive from Leviticus 2:6 that all menahot that are prepared in a vessel must be broken into pieces. The remainder of the mishnah describes how this is done.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Menachot
מכפלה – he does not fold them up into four, but rather only into two, for it is not written concerning it other than the meal-offering of broken pieces but not [whole] pieces.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Menachot
The minhah of an Israelite was folded into two and the two were folded into four, and it was severed [at each bend]. First he takes the flat loaf and folds it into two and then into four. He then severs the loaf at all of the folds. He would take a handful from these pieces (there would be forty of them, since there are ten loaves) and he would throw the handful onto the fires of the altar.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
Bartenura on Mishnah Menachot
רבי שמעון אומר כו' – But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Shimon.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Menachot
The minhah of priests was folded into two and the two were folded into four, but it was not severed. According to the first opinion in the mishnah, a minhah brought by a priest was folded, but it was not severed into pieces. Since the entire minhah was burned, it wasn’t necessary to take out a handful and put it on the altar. It seems that the folding was sufficient to count as having broken it into pieces.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Menachot
The minhah of the anointed high priest was not folded. The Torah does not say that the minhah brought by the high priest has to be broken into pieces, although it is called a “minhah of pieces” (Leviticus 6:14). According to the mishnah, this minhah is not even folded, for it too is totally burned.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Menachot
Rabbi Shimon says: neither the minhah of the priests nor the minhah of the anointed high priest was broken in pieces, since the handful was not taken from them, and whenever the handful is not taken [from a minhah] it is not to be broken in pieces. Rabbi Shimon holds that there is no process of breaking into pieces for any minhah brought by a priest since these menahot are completely burned. There is no need to break them into pieces because the purpose of doing so was to throw some of them pieces onto the altar.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Menachot
The pieces were the size of an olive. When they break the minhah into pieces, each piece should be no smaller than an olive’s worth. Commentators on the mishnah debate whether this is the opinion of Rabbi Shimon or whether everyone agrees.
