ומעלהו
— R. Ashi said: It was necessary [to mention this], because otherwise it may have occurred to me to say that the bringing of the meal-offering itself [to the altar without the ministering vessel] is required. Consequently we are informed [that the contrary is the correct procedure]. But say that it is really so [and the ministering vessel is not necessary]! — The text states: And it shall be presented unto the priest, and he shall bring it unto the altar<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lev. II, 8.
');"><sup>19</sup></span> — as the presentation to the priest is in a [ministering] vessel, so also the bringing to the altar must be in a [ministering] vessel. 'He then moves the frankincense to one side [of the vessel]', so that none of it may be included in the handful taken of the meal-offering; as we have learnt: If, when he took a handful, there came into his hand a pebble or particle of salt or grain of frankincense, it is disqualified.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' As not being a complete handful.
');"><sup>20</sup></span> 'Takes a handful [of flour] from a place where its oil is abundant' — whence is this? For it is written: Of the fine flour thereof and of the oil thereof;<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Ibid. 2.
');"><sup>21</sup></span> of the bruised corn thereof and of the oil thereof.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Ibid. 16.
');"><sup>22</sup></span> 'Sets it in a ministering vessel and hallows it in a ministering vessel' — for what purpose, since he has already hallowed it once? — It is analogous to the case of blood: although the knife<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Which is regarded as a utensil of the Sanctuary.
');"><sup>23</sup></span> hallows it in the animal's neck, [the priest] again hallows it in a ministering vessel;<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' I.e., the basin in which the blood is received.
');"><sup>24</sup></span> so here, too, there is no difference. 'Gathers its frankincense and places it on the top thereof; for it is written: And all the frankincense which is upon the meal-offering.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lev. VI, 8, E.V. 15. ');"><sup>25</sup></span> 'And sets it upon the altar
Sefer HaChinukh
And these are all the types of meal-offerings that they would offer at the time of the [Temple] that come on their own - meaning to say that they do not come as meal-offerings of libations, meaning in the context of another sacrifice: There are three meal-offerings that come for the sake of the entire community and they are (Menachot 68b) the omer of Pesach, the two breads of [Shavouot] and the bread of display of each Shabbat - and the three of them are called, 'mincha.' And there are nine of the individual and these are them: 1) The meal-offering of a sinner - and that is the meal-offering that a poor person offers when he is liable for a sin-offering, but his hand does not reach [a more expensive sacrifice]; 2) the meal-offering of the sotah, which is the meal-offering of jealousy that is written in Parshat Nasso (Numbers 5:15); 3) the meal-offering that every priest offers when he enters the service that he offers in his hand, and this is called the meal-offering of inauguration; 4) the meal-offering that the high priest offers every day, and it is called the griddled meal-offering; 5) the meal-offering of fine flour, and it comes as an oath or a vow; 6) the meal-offering of the griddle, and it comes as an oath or a vow; 7) the meal-offering of the pan, and it comes as an oath or a vow; 8) the oven-baked meal-offering that is loaves, and it comes as an oath or a vow; 9) the oven-baked meal-offering that comes soaked in oil, and it comes as an oath or a vow. From these meal-offerings, some of them are fine wheat flour and some are barley; some of them are eaten by the priests except for the handful and some are all burnt. And one of them is chamets and that is the two breads of the day of Shavouot, as they are also called 'mincha,' but they are not offered on top of the altar. And it was not stated in the Torah about the two breads, when it more generally forbade, "Any meal-offering that you offer to the Lord, you shall not make chamets" (Leviticus 2:11). [Rather,] it specified these and excluded them from the rule. And about them is it stated there (Leviticus 2:12), "A first sacrifice shall you bring them to the Lord" - meaning to say, with these I did not prohibit chamets to you. And nonetheless, they would not go up on the altar, since there was chamets in them, and as it is stated about them, "upon the altar they shall not be brought up as a pleasing smell." And all of the rest was matsa. And the order of their bringing was thus (Sotah 14b): A man brings fine flour from his house in a vessel of silver or gold or of [another] metal and carries it to the priest; and the priest carries it to the altar, [he] skims a handful from it with the tips of his fingers and incinerates the handful; and the rest is eaten by the priests. This is the order of those eaten. And the order of those burned; the processes done with meal-offerings by non-priests and those done [only] by priests; and the rest of its details are elucidated in the tractate that is built upon this, and that it Tractate Menachot.
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