The priest who scoops the handful of a meal offering for the altar is required to use his right hand, as is the norm for almost all rituals in the Temple. So what happens if he uses the left? A recent mishnah taught:
If the priest removed the handful with his left hand, the meal offering is unfit.
Ben Beteira says: He must return the handful to the vessel that contains the meal offering and again remove the handful, this time with his right hand.
The majority position is that the handful scooped with the wrong hand is now unfit for use, and renders the remainder of the offering unfit as well. But Ben Beteira demurs, asserting the priest can return it to the original vessel, then scoop again with his right.
The Gemara on yesterday’s daf brought up a concern about Ben Beteira’s position: Technically, once the handful that’s been removed is placed in a service vessel, it is sanctified. This means that the handful removed by the left hand is sanctified as soon as it is returned to the original vessel. This, in turn, means it cannot assimilate with the rest of the unconsecrated grain in that vessel. So how can Ben Beteira credibly hold the position that the left-handed scoop is returned to the original vessel?
The Gemara on yesterday’s daf gave a narrowly-applicable resolution: Perhaps Ben Beteira is speaking in a case where the original service vessel is filled to the brim with the meal offering, such that when the handful is returned, it doesn’t enter the airspace within the vessel, and therefore isn’t sanctified. The Gemara on today’s daf, however, points out that the following might have been a more intuitive resolution:
Rabbi Yirmeya said to Rabbi Zeira: And let one interpret his ruling as speaking of a case where he returned it to a vessel that is resting on the ground. Rather, shouldn’t one conclude from here that one may remove a handful of a meal offering from a service vessel that is resting upon the ground?
There is an idea here that if the vessel holding the meal offering is resting on the ground, then it will not consecrate items coming in. And if that’s the case, this would’ve been a possible resolution to the issue with Ben Beteira’s ruling. However, the Gemara didn’t choose that resolution. And from the fact that the Gemara did not provide this answer, Rabbi Yirmeya infers that even a vessel resting on the ground can, in fact, impart sanctity to incoming grain. That has relevance not only for Ben Beteira’s position about returning an improperly-taken handful, but also for the question of whether one can lechatchilah — from the get-go — remove a handful from such a vessel.
That was a pretty technical discussion, but the Gemara briefly veers in a more narrative direction. Rabbi Yirmeya’s interlocutor responds:
Rabbi Zeira said to him: You have touched upon a dilemma that was already raised before us, when Rabbi Avimi was learning Tractate Menachot in the study hall of Rav Hisda.
Rabbi Zeira notes that this question had already been brought up by Rabbi Avimi when learning these mishnahs in Rav Hisda’s study hall. This mention leads the Gemara on a tangent:
And did Rabbi Avimi really learn in the study hall of Rav Hisda? But didn’t Rav Hisda say: “I absorbed many blows from Avimi as a result of that halakhah…”
Rabbi Zeira’s statement implies that Rabbi Avimi was a student learning before Rav Hisda. However, we know of a story in which Rav Hisda was chastised by Avimi. This implies that Avimi was Hisda’s teacher, not the other way around! The Gemara goes on to explain that Avimi was, in fact, Rav Hisda’s teacher; however, he’d forgotten his learning of Tractate Menachot, and so he went to Rav Hisda, his student, to help him recall that which he’d lost. He even takes the trouble to travel to learn from his student, rather than summoning his student to tutor him. Based on their relative statuses, he certainly could have made Hisda come to him, but as Rashi explains, there’s a principle that people are rewarded for expending further effort on their Torah study, and so Avimi sought out his student in order to review the learning he’d forgotten.
Read all of Menachot 7 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on January 18, 2026. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
