daf bit: Menachot 6

[cellio]

Last week we finished Zevachim, about animal offerings, and now move on to Menachot, about meal-offerings. The torah describes how these are done: the kohein takes a handful of the meal, puts it in a vessel, and turns it to smoke on the altar, and the rest is made into food for the kohanim. The mishna on today's daf talks about (among things) this handful. The handful must be taken with the right hand; if he took it with the left it is invalid. Ben Batyra says if this happens he puts it back and then takes with his right hand. If, when he takes it (with his right hand), what he takes includes a stone or a grain of salt or a drop of frankincense, it is invalid because the foreign object diminishes the volume of the grain too much. (I'm assuming that grains of salt were bigger than what we are used to today, else how would he know?) An offering is invalid if it is either too much (overflowing his hand) or too little (he took with his fingertips only); the kohein needs to take a full handful of unadulterated grain. (6a)