daf bit: Menachot 14

[cellio]

(Today's daf is Menachot 15.)

This tractate begins by discussing grain offerings. The mishna teaches: if one of the two loaves brought together (on Shavuot), or one of the two rows of the show-bread, becomes ritually impure and thus forbidden to eat, then Rabbi Yehudah says you must burn both of them, for the offerings of the congregation may not be divided. The sages disagree, saying that the impure one is treated as impure but the other can be eaten. (14b)

It is not clear to me whether replacements must be brought for loaves that become ritually impure, or if you are just deprived of the food.

It would seem a natural tendency to say "better safe than sorry" and discard both, but the rabbis do not do that here. I don't know about this case, but in the similar case of accidentally spilling a drop of milk into a large pot of meat, where the rabbis nullify the milk instead of throwing out the whole pot, one factor they weigh is the loss to the affected person. The rabbis seem to seek a balance between risk of halachic error and cost of the (possible) error.

Comments

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

ISTR something similar involving responsibility and loss, taking into account whether the person is rich or poor, i.e. how well (or not) the person could afford the loss. Sorry, no cites or refs, I'm no scholar in this field.

[cellio]

I've heard of individual circumstances being factors in decisions that involve financial loss, yes. I can't cite any specifics.

[zevabe.livejournal.com]

While there are kashrut cases where hefsed merubeh (a serious financial loss) is a factor, the drop of milk into a pot of meat is not one of them as far as I recall. If you refer specifically to Chullin 108a, maybe, but I still think not.

To further complicate matters how a hefsed merubeh is assessed is a matter of debate.

And I'd think you would need to replace these sacrifices because they are obligatory. The showbread might have a technical detail about needing to have been there all week. Since as is the showbread is distributed to all the kohanim of 2 weeks (amounting to 1/12 of all kohanim), so everyone only gets a small piece and is satisfied. The same could apply if there were only 10 loaves.

I understand why 1 of the 2 loaves of shavuot affects its friend to not be halves. But then for showbread it should also be all or nothing, not one additional loaf. The adjacent loaf is no more connected to the tamei one than any other and you need 12.

[cellio]

Thank you for the correction.

I was thinking of the loss of the koheins' food more than the loss to the community of replacing the offerings, but I had failed to understand just how many kohanim needed to get a share of those loaves. Ok, that makes a difference. :-)

[http://users.livejournal.com/merle_/]

The rabbis seem to seek a balance between risk of halachic error and cost of the (possible) error.

The rabbis are wise.