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Week 89 - Sunday - 5 August 2001

KIDDUSHIN: CHAPTER 1: MISHNAH 8

The placings of hands and the wavings and the bringings near and the takings up of the handful and the burnings and the pinchings of the necks and the sprinklings and the receptions are performed by men and not by women, except for the meal-offering of the sotah and the female nazirite, which they wave.

Kehati

Our mishnah is a continuation of the preceding one. It enumerates types of sacrificial services, which are practiced by men and not by women.

The placings of the hands - on the heads of sacrifices before they are slaughtered, as it is written, "And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the burnt-offering" (Lev. 1:4), and similarly, "And he shall lay his hand upon the head of his offering" (Lev. 3:8). All animal sacrifices, whether obligatory or voluntary, require the laying of the hands, except for the sacrifice of the firstborn animals, the tithe sacrifice and the paschal sacrifice. Semikhah is performed by the owner of the animal, who places his hands on the animal before it is sacrificed, with all his strength. When a woman brings an animal sacrifice, she does not perform semikhah, for it is written, "Speak unto the sons of Israel…And he shall lay his hand" (Lev. 1:24), the sons of Israel perform semikhah, and not the daughters of Israel, and the wavings - of the sacrifices , as it is written "the fat with the breast shall he bring, that the breast may be waved for a wave-offering before the Lord" (Lev. 7:30), the owner brings the fat together with the breast and the hind leg in his hands, and the priest places his hand under the owner's hand, and performs the waving, i.e., he moves forward and back, and upwards and down. However, when a woman brings sacrifice the priest waves by himself and the woman does not wave, for in this case also it is written, "Speak unto the sons of Israel" (Lev. 7:29) from which it was learned, the sons of Israel and not the daughters of Israel;

and the bringings near - after the minhah (the meal offering) is placed in one of the Temple vessels and frankincense and oil are poured over it, the priest brings it to the altar and presents it at the south western corner. This presentation is made only by a priest and not by a priestess, as it is written, "the sons of Aaron shall offer it" (Lev. 6:7) - and not the daughters of Aaron;

and the takings up of the handfuls - of the minhah sacrifice, as it is written, "And he shall bring it to Aaron's sons the priests; and he shall take thereout his handful of the fine flour thereof" (Lev. 2:2) - the sons of Aaron, and not the daughters of Aaron:

and the burnings - of the fats or of the handfuls of meal on the altar, as it is written, "And Aaron's sons shall make it smoke" (Lev. 3:5),

and the pinchings of the necks - of birds offered as sacrifices, as it is written regarding a bird sacrificed as an olah, "And the priest shall bring it unto the altar, and pinch its head, and make it smoke on the altar" (Lev. 1:15). The Torah compares melikah (pinching) to haktarah (smoking): just as haktarah is performed by the sons of Aaron, and not by the daughters of Aaron, melikah also is performed by the sons of Aaron, and not by the daughters of Aaron;

and the sprinklings - of the blood on the altar. The Gemara explains that the sprinkling mentioned in the mishnah refers to the sprinkling of the blood of a bird brought as a sin-offering (hatat), as it is written "And he shall sprinkle of the blood of the sin-offering upon the side of the altar" (Lev. 5:9). The performance of sprinkling (haza'ah) by a priest, and not by a priestess, is learned by an a fortiori argument from the law regarding the sacrifice of an animal: if, regarding the sacrifice of an animal, for which the Torah did not require that it be slaughtered by a priest, and the slaughtering is proper even if conducted by a non-priest, the haza'ah must be conducted by a priest, then regarding the sacrifice of a bird, for which the Torah requires that its slaughtering (melikah) be performed by a priest, it surely requires a priest and not a priestess, to perform haza'ah;

and the receptions - of the blood of sacrifices from the neck of the animals, as it is written, "and Aaron's sons, the priests, shall offer the blood" (Lev. 1:5), and the Sages learned, "offer" means the reception of the blood, and here, too, "Aaron's sons" are specified; thus we see that all these sacrificial services -

are performed by men and not by women - as we have explained, except for the meal-offering of the sotah and the female nazirite, which they wave - the sotah (see Num. 5:11-31) waves her minhah, as was taught, "And the priest places his hand under her and waves" (Sot. 3:1), and the female nazirite waves the forearm, the hallah (unleavened cake), and the rakik (unleavened wafer) of her nazirite sacrifice (see Naz 6:9), for it is written, regarding the sotah, "and put the meal-offering of memorial in her hands" (Num. 5:18), and regarding the nazirite "and shall put them upon the hands of the nazirite" (Num. 6:19), and the law is the same for a male and a female nazirite regarding the sacrifice, as it is written at the beginning of the passage concerning the nazirite, "When either man or woman shall clearly utter a vow" (Rambam).

KIDDUSHIN: CHAPTER 1: MISHNAH 9

Any commandment which is dependent on the land must only be performed in the Land, and that which is not dependent on the land, must be performed both in the land and outside the land, except for orlah and kilayim. Rabbi Eliezer says, Also except for hadash.

Kehati

Incidental to the preceding mishnayot, which taught about obligations incumbent upon men and not upon women, and obligations incumbent upon both men and women, this mishnah teaches about commandments obligatory only in the land of Israel, and commandments which are obligatory both in the land of Israel and outside the land.

Any commandment which is dependent on the land - an obligation related to the use of land, such as terumah, (the priest's due), ma'aser, (tithes) and the Sabbatical year, must only be performed in the Land - of Israel, and not outside the Land of Israel, and that which is not dependent on the land - an obligation which is not related to the land or to that which grows from the land, but rather to the person himself, such as Shabbat, tefillin, the prohibition of idolatry, and circumcision, must be performed both in the Land and outside the Land - and even commandments of which the Torah writes, "And it shall be when the Lord shalt bring you into the land," such as tefillin and the redemption of the firstborn ass, must be performed both in the land and abroad since they are personal obligations (Hameiri),

except for - the prohibition of the fruits of - orlah and - the prohibition of - kilayim - in a vineyard, which are prohibitions related to the land, but are nevertheless in force outside the land. The prohibition of orlah outside the Land is an instruction conveyed to Moses at Sinai, and the prohibition of kilayim outside the land is a Rabbinical ordinance. The prohibition of orlah forbids deriving benefit from the produce of a tree for the first three years after it has been planted (Lev. 19:23); the prohibition of "kilayim in a vineyard" forbids sowing two types of grain together with grape seeds (Deut. 22:9). If a person sows wheat, barley, and grape seeds in the same handful in the land, he is liable for malkot (lashes), while if he does so outside Eretz Israel he receives the Rabbinical punishment of "lashes of rebellion" (makkat mardut). The Sages were stringent in prohibiting vineyard kilayim outside of the Land since it is also forbidden to derive benefit from it. The kilayim of other mixed grains, however, may be sown outside the Land (Gemara, Bartenura).

Rabbi Eliezer says, except for hadash - i.e., we must also add, "except for hadash," or according to another version, "even hadash" - even the prohibition of eating from the new harvest before the offering of the omer sacrifice (see Lev. 23:14), an obligation related to the Land, is in force, by Torah law, outside the Land, as it is written, "And you shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor fresh ears... in all your dwellings" (ibid.) - in every place in which you dwell. The law follows Rabbi Eliezer (Rambam). Nowadays it is also forbidden to eat from the new grain until after the sixteenth day of the month of Nissan, which was the day on which the omer sacrifice was offered, as it is written, "And you shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor fresh ears, until this selfsame day" (ibid. - see Suk. 3:12; Men. l0:5; Rambam, Hil. Ma'akhalot Asurot 10:2).

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