A mishnah on today’s daf poses the following question: What happens if a person vows to bring a mincha (meal) offering to the Temple in a manner that is not acceptable?
One who says: “It is incumbent upon me to bring a meal offering from barley,” should bring the meal offering from wheat. One who says: “It is incumbent upon me to bring a meal offering from regular flour,” should bring the meal offering from fine flour … But Rabbi Shimon deems one exempt from bringing a meal offering in all these cases, as the one who makes the pledge did not do so in the manner of those who pledge.
The mishnah poses two different consequences of the improper vow. The first anonymous opinion is that the vow has obligated the person to bring a mincha, but they must do it correctly, not in the manner they vowed to do it. Barley doesn’t constitute a proper offering, and neither does ordinary flour, so fine wheat flour is substituted. Rabbi Shimon, however, views the problematic vow as completely ineffectual, entailing no obligation to bring an offering at all.
The Gemara will spend the rest of today’s daf interrogating these two opinions, starting here:
Why (is an improper vow valid)? It is a case of a vow and its extenuation together.
The Gemara is giving a framework for thinking about this problem. It suggests we should think of the improper vow in two parts: a vow (to bring a mincha) and an “extenuation” (the additional promise to bring it from barley flour or ordinary wheat flour that makes it problematic). The question, then, is whether the vow stands on its own or if the extenuation renders it invalid.
A similar dilemma has already been discussed by Hillel and Shammai, and the Gemara now tries to ascertain how they would reason about this case:
Hizkiyya said: In accordance with whose opinion is this mishnah? It is Beit Shammai, who say we attend only to the first statement. As we learned in a mishnah (Nazir 9a): If one says: “I am hereby a nazirite from dried figs and from pressed figs,” Beit Shammai say he is a full-fledged nazirite and Beit Hillel say he is not a nazirite.
When a person becomes a nazirite, they vow to abstain from wine and other grape products. Abstaining from figs has nothing to do with being a nazirite. The example of this odd vow to become a nazirite and abstain from figs, then, is similar to the improper vow to bring a mincha offering from barley flour. In Beit Shammai’s view, the vow to be a nazirite still stands, regardless of the claim about figs. But in the view of Beit Hillel, the fig statement cancels the vow. If we see the michna vow and the nazirite vow as parallel, then Beit Shammai aligns with the anonymous position in today’s mishnah (generally considered the winning view) and Beit Hillel with Rabbi Shimon. This is a surprise because, as longtime Talmud students know, Hillel almost always prevails over Shammai.
Indeed, in the Gemara, Rabbi Yohanan now reinterprets the mishnah with that exact result:
Rabbi Yohanan said: You may say that the mishnah here is in accordance with the opinion of Beit Hillel. It is referring to one who (upon being informed that such a vow is not effective) says: “Had I known that one cannot vow in this manner to bring barley for a meal offering, I would not have vowed in this manner but rather in that manner.”
Rabbi Yohanan suggests the mishnah is talking about a very specific scenario. Not only did the donor vow to bring a mincha from barley, they also later learned of their mistake and stated that had they known a michna can’t be brought from barley, they would have vowed to bring the mincha from wheat. In that case, he asserts, Hillel would in fact tell the donor to move forward with the wheat offering — and this aligns the anonymous (and therefore majority) position in the mishnah with Hillel. This solution is more comfortable for the rabbis, who generally align with Hillel. Indeed:
Hizkiyya retracted (his initial explanation that the mishnah is in accordance with Beit Shammai).
As usual, Hillel comes out on top.
Read all of Menachot 103 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on April 24, 2026. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
Help us keep Jewish knowledge accessible to millions of people around the world. With your help, My Jewish Learning can provide endless opportunities for learning, connection and discovery.
