Eles não colocavam [o vinho] em barris grandes, mas em pequenos barris. E não se encheu os barris até a borda, para que seu perfume pudesse fluir. Não se pode levar o vinho à beira do barril por causa da escória, nem ao fundo por causa das borras. Em vez disso, deve-se retirá-lo apenas do terço médio do barril. Como ele testou? O tesoureiro do templo costumava sentar-se com uma cana na mão; quando disparava [durante o vazamento] borras, ele batia com o junco [como um sinal para parar de vazar]. O rabino Yose bar Judá diz: o vinho em que houver escumalha é inválido, como é dito: "Eles serão para você sem mancha e sua oferta de cereais" e "Eles serão para você sem mancha e suas libações" (Números 28: 19-20, 31).
Bartenura on Mishnah Menachot
בחצבים גדולים (large stone pitchers/earthenware jugs) – that these large utensils damage the flavor of the wine.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Menachot
Introduction
This mishnah continues to deal with the quality of the wine used in the libations.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Menachot
כדי שיהא ריחו נודף – when the wine jug/vessel is full, the smell/odor goes outside and does not spread.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Menachot
They did not put [the wine] in large casks but in small barrels. Larger caskets would distort the taste of the wine, and therefore they were not used.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Menachot
קמחין – like small, thin, white berries that ascend over the face of the wine that are similar to flour.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Menachot
And one did not fill the barrels to the brim so that its scent might spread. If the jug is filled all the way to the brim, the scent escapes and dissipates. Therefore, so that the scent would spread directly from the barrel, they would not fill it to the brim.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Menachot
ומאמצעה – he places a bung in the middle of the (earthen) wine jug .
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English Explanation of Mishnah Menachot
One may not take the wine at the mouth of the barrel because of the scum, nor that at the bottom because of the lees; but one should take it only from the third or the middle of the barrel. The wine at the top of the jug had frothy scum and the wine at the bottom of the jug had the sediments. The best wine was that found in the middle of the jug, or at least between the top third and the bottom third.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Menachot
קנה – the cubit of measurement was regularly in the hand of the treasurer.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Menachot
How was it tested? The temple-treasurer used to sit nearby with his stick in his hand; when the froth burst forth he would knock with his stick. This is how the temple-treasurer would make sure that the wine they were taking from the jug was not from the top or the bottom of the jug. While they were drawing out the wine, he would sit near by with his stick. When froth started to come out from the jug, he would strike it with his stick, as a sign that they should not take any more wine from that jug.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Menachot
זרק את הגיד והקיש בקנה – that is to say, when he tossed the wine, the froth of the sediment when the sediment begins to leave, the treasurer struck with a reed that was in his hand and pushed up away that he should not enter with a utensil that has wine in it. But my Rabbis/teachers explained that he struck with the reed that was in his hand to hint to the one pulling the wine from the (earthen) wine jug, that he should close the jug with a bung, and he would not say to him, ‘close it,” because the speech was difficult (i.e., injurious/bad) for the wine. And this is what it explains in the Gemara (Tractate Menahot 87a).
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English Explanation of Mishnah Menachot
Rabbi Yose bar Judah says: wine on which there is a scum is invalid, for it is written, “They shall be for you without blemish, and their minhah,” and “They shall be for you without blemish, and their libations” (Numbers 28:19-20, 31). Rabbi Yose bar Judah gives the scriptural basis for why wine with scum cannot be used for sacrificial purposes. This is derived by the juxtaposition of the word “without blemish” which in its simple sense refers to the animals, with the beginnings of the next lines which refer to menahot and libations. Through this midrash the rabbis learn that just as the animals must be without blemish, so too the menahot cannot be wormy (see mishnah two) and the wine cannot be smoky (mishnah six) or frothy (our mishnah).
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Bartenura on Mishnah Menachot
רבי יוסי בר' יהודה אומר יין שעלו בו קמחין פסול – But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yosi b’Rabbi Yehuda. And all of those that we have stated in our Mishnah that are invalid, whether with choice flour, whether with oil or whether with wine, if he transgressed and sanctified them, we flog him with the floggings of rebelliousness according to the Rabbis, for it is like the law of someone who sanctifies [an animal] with a blemish to the altar, for he is flogged according to the Torah, as it is written regarding something with a blemish (Leviticus 22:20): “You shall not offer any that has a defect, [for it will not be accepted in your favor],” and they (i.e., the Rabbis) stated in the Sifra, that the words, לא תקריבו/you shall not offer, means nothing other than do not sanctify. And just as they would bring the choice flour and the wine and the oil from known choice places, as it is taught in our Mishnah, so they would bring the sacrifices from known places, rams from Moab, lambs from Hebron, calves from Sharon, and pigeons, that is turtle-doves and young pigeons from the Mount of the King.
