Menachot 10: The Right Hand and the Meal Offering

The rabbis continue to discuss the kemitza, the handful of meal-offering.  The handful was taken with the priest's right hand.  The Gemara considers a number of examples that attempt to prove that we should emulate that valuing of the right hand in other contexts.  

• mezora, 'leprosy', is treated by the priest placing the sacrifice's blood and oil on the right ear, right thumb, and right big toe
• Rava suggests further cases: 
• because it is the right hand, we learn the law of kemitza
• because it is the right food we learn the laws of chalitza (when the brother of a deceased man with no children does not marry the man's widow, the two partake in these laws which include removing a shoe and spitting)
• because the right ear is mentioned, we learn about the experience of a slave choosing continued servitude after seven years

This preference of right over left in a number of contexts suggests a cultural preference for the one part of the body over the other.