{"id":13776,"date":"2011-06-16T20:21:40","date_gmt":"2011-06-16T20:21:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/production.ou.org\/life\/other\/masechet_menahot_86a92b\/"},"modified":"2015-10-15T13:47:45","modified_gmt":"2015-10-15T18:47:45","slug":"masechet_menahot_86a92b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/torah\/masechet_menahot_86a92b\/","title":{"rendered":"Masechet Menachot 86a-92b"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Coming Week’s Daf Yomi by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz<\/em><\/p>\n

This essay is based upon the insights and chidushim (original ideas) of Talmudic scholar Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, as published in the Hebrew version of the Steinsaltz Edition of the Talmud.<\/em><\/p>\n

Menachot 86a-b: The finest olive oil<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Olive oil was used for different purposes in the Temple<\/a>, among them to mix into the meal-offerings and to light the Menorah. The Mishna<\/a> on today’s daf<\/em> teaches that there were different levels of quality of the olive oil, and while the Menorah needed the purest oil (see Shemot<\/a> 27:2<\/a>), the menachot<\/em> could use a second-level quality oil.<\/p>\n

The Mishna explains that there were three harvests of the olive crop: first the olives at the very top of the tree that ripen first, then the olives that are in the middle of the tree ripen, and finally the olives that are at the bottom ripen. Each harvest produces three levels of oil – the finest quality oil, where the olives are pounded in a mortar and simply left in a reed basket to drip; the second level oil, where they are pressed with a beam in an olive press<\/a>, and the lowest quality oil, which is produced by grinding up what is left of the olives. Only the first collection of each harvest could be used in the Menorah; the others could be used in the meal-offerings.<\/p>\n

The beam, or korah<\/a><\/em>, of the olive press forces the oil out of the olives by means of pressure applied by a weight. The basket with the olives is placed on a raised spot and a strong, heavy beam is placed across it with one side placed in a wall and the other with a heavy stone. The oil then runs into a quarried hole in the ground or into storage utensils arranged for this purpose.<\/p>\n

The lowest quality oil, which was produced by grinding up the olives, was done with the grindstones that were ordinarily used to process grain into flour. This was usually accomplished by means of a hand grinder<\/a>, which involved two stones, the bottom one set in the ground and the upper one that turned on the bottom one. The material to be ground was placed in between these two stones. The top stone had an indentation where a pole could be placed to allow it to be turned by hand.<\/p>\n

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Menachot 87a-b: Conversations during work<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Much as the oil had to be brought from the finest ingredients, similarly the wine for the libations also needed to be of the highest quality. The Mishna<\/a> on today’s daf<\/em> includes information about where the grapes for this wine were, ideally, harvested, how they were to be grown, and how the wine was to be produced and stored. Finally, the Mishna teaches that the libation wine should not come from the top of the barrel, where there was “flour” (white dust that was produced during the fermentation process) nor from the bottom of the barrel where the sediment settled, but only from the middle. In order to assure this, the appointed official would sit next to the barrel of wine with a stick in his hand as it was being poured. As soon as he saw that there was refuse being poured out with the wine, he would bang on the barrel with his stick indicating that no more wine should be drawn from this barrel.<\/p>\n

The Gemara<\/a> discusses this situation and asks why the official needed to bang on the barrel. Would it not have been simpler for him to shout out his instructions? In response the Gemara quotes the teaching of Rabbi Yochanan<\/a> who said that although speech was good for preparing the incense, it was bad for the preparation of wine.<\/p>\n

Many explanations have been suggested to explain Rabbi Yochanan’s teaching. According to some, the sound waves produced by speech help the mixing process of preparing the ingredients for the incense; others say that a metered sing-song or recitation allowed the workers to work at an even pace. One further explanation is that large volumes of ingredients were worked on at one time, so there were two workers grasping the mortar together and it was essential that they worked in tandem. Speech was what allowed them to do that. According to these last approaches, rather than saying that speech was good for the incense, the statement should be understood as teaching that the sound of their voices was good for the people working at preparing the incense.<\/p>\n

Tosafot<\/a> point out that there is a parallel statement that appears in Masechet<\/a> Keritot<\/a><\/em> (daf<\/em> 6b) where Rabbi Yochanan suggests that the workers should chant together “pound well, well pound!” as they work with the mortar, since that is good for the incense – even though it is bad for wine.<\/p>\n

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\nMenachot 88a-b: Sacrificial measuring cups<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

The tenth perek <\/em>of Masechet<\/a> Menachot<\/a><\/em> began on yesterday’s daf<\/em><\/a>, and it focuses on issues of measurements in the Temple<\/a>. According to the Mishna<\/a>, there were seven liquid measurements that were used in the Temple:<\/p>\n