Monday 27 August 2018

Menachot 17: The Sharp Ones of Pumbedita

Can one meal-offering make another meal-offering unfit through the priest's thoughts of offering the frankincense incorrectly while placing the kometz on the altar?  Today's daf speaks of the the sharp ones of Pumbedita.  They teach that even if the sacrifice does not become piggul unless the inappropriate thought referred to the entire process.  Perhaps this thought does contain the full essence of the sacrifice.  The kometz and the frankincense are placed together into the Temple vessel.

Steinsaltz teaches us that the sharp ones of Pumbedita refers to the sons of Rachava, Eifa and Avimi.  Rabbi Yehuda was Rachava's teacher.  Eifa and Avimi were recorded as debating with teach other about halachic arguments.  One of these was about Masechet Shevout: Eifa learned this masechet and Avimi and Rabba tested and questioned him.  They are quoted in the Yerushalmi Talmud even though they were associated with the Babilonian yeshiva.

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