Menachos 87
Summary
- Today's *daf* is Menachos 87, starting at the *Mishnah* at the bottom of Menachos 86b, and it lays out the preferred sources, disqualifications, and handling procedures for wine used for *nesachim* in the *Beis HaMikdash*, followed by the *Gemara* resolving contradictions about sweet wine and explaining disputes about aged wine. The text then moves to additional preferred origins for animals and birds for the *Avodah* and an *aggadic* passage about appointed “watchers” on the walls of Yerushalayim who constantly remind Hashem of redemption, concluding with “הדרן עלך כל קרבנות הצבור.” The narrative then returns to an extended reflection on the *ner ma’aravi* as “עדות לכל באי עולם שהשכינה שורה בישראל,” why it is not listed among the ten miracles in *Pirkei Avos*, and how that relates to differing levels of *Shechinah* and the Rambam’s view that “השכינה אינה בטלה,” and it continues into the next *perek* about measuring vessels for flour, the disputes between רבי מאיר and חכמים about how many *isaron* measures existed, and several *Gemara* questions about dividing the כהן גדול’s *chavitim* and whether the *shulchan* can sanctify *kematzim* or *levonah* for offering versus only for disqualification.
- The *Mishnah* states that the best wine comes from כרוחים ואטולין, and the second-best comes from בית רימה ובית לבן בהר and כפר סגנה בבקעה, while all lands in Eretz Yisrael are technically valid. The *Mishnah* prohibits bringing wine from a vineyard that is מבית הזבל, מבית השלחין, or from vines with other growth planted between them, and it rules that if such wine is brought *b’dieved* it is *kasher*. The *Mishnah* prohibits יין הליסטיון, wine from grapes sweetened by extended sun exposure, and still rules *b’dieved* it is *kasher*.
- The *Mishnah* records רבי’s view that aged wine is not brought, while חכמים permit it. The *Mishnah* rules that wine that is not sweet, smoked, or cooked may not be brought and if brought *b’dieved* it is *pasul*. The *Gemara* challenges the apparent contradiction between יין הליסטיון being *kasher b’dieved* and יין מתוק being *pasul b’dieved*, and Ravina resolves it by emending the *Mishnah* so that יין הליסטיון is included among the *pasul* cases, while Rav Ashi distinguishes sweetness caused by sun exposure from sweetness inherent in the fruit, treating the latter as *ma’us*.
- The *Gemara* cites Chizkiyah explaining רבי’s rationale from the phrase לכבש יין, equating the wine’s “age” to the כבש being בן שנה. The *Gemara* considers whether the analogy implies that two-year-old wine should be *pasul b’dieved*, but a *beraisa* states יין בן שתי שנים לא יביא ואם הביא כשר. Rava therefore grounds רבי’s preference for younger, redder wine in the verse אל תרא יין כי יתאדם, asserting that optimal wine is most red and that this corresponds to בן שנה.
- The *Mishnah* forbids taking wine מן הדליות and requires wine מן הרגליות and מן הכרמים העובדים. The *Gemara* defines כרמים העבודים as vineyards worked twice yearly and illustrates this with Rav Yosef’s vineyard corner that produced wine requiring a two-to-one water dilution because of superior strength. The *Mishnah* prohibits storing the wine in large חצבין and requires small חביות, and the *Gemara* specifies קדיות לודייות בינוניות and requires storing them אחת אחת rather than שנים שנים to prevent spoilage spreading.
- The *Mishnah* requires leaving headspace in the barrel so that the aroma accumulates and forbids taking wine from the top due to קמחין and from the bottom due to שמרים, requiring drawing from the middle third and specifically the middle of that. The *Mishnah* describes the גזבר sitting with a stick and signaling by striking when he sees sediment enter the stream. The *Gemara* explains that speaking is avoided because “דיבור רע ליין,” based on Rabbi Yochanan’s statement that speech harms wine as speech benefits spices.
- Rabbi Yosi bar Rabbi Yehudah rules that wine containing קמחין is *pasul* because “תמימים” is repeated regarding offerings and נסכים, making the requirement *me’akev*. רבי יוחנן raises whether one who consecrates such invalid wine receives lashes for consecrating a “בעל מום” equivalent. The *Gemara* leaves the question unresolved with תיקו.
- A *beraisa* states that אילים come from מואב, כבשים from חברון, עגלים from שרון, and גוזלות from הר המלך. רבי יהודה adds that the preferred כבשים are גבון כרחבן, with height equal to width. רבה בר רב שילא derives this from ירעה מקנך ביום ההוא כר נרחב.
- The verse “על חומותיך ירושלים הפקדתי שומרים כל היום וכל הלילה… המזכירים את ה' אל דמי לכם” is presented with the *mefarshim* identifying the שומרים as אבלי ציון who never forget the *Churban*. רבה בר רב שילא interprets the שומרים as מלאכים appointed by Hashem who, in *galus*, say “אתה תקום תרחם ציון כי עת לחננה כי בא מועד,” while Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak says they say “בונה ירושלים ה' נדחי ישראל יכנס.” רבה בר רב שילא explains that originally, when the *Beis HaMikdash* stood, they said “כי בחר ה' בציון אוה למושב לו,” and the section ends with “הדרן עלך כל קרבנות הצבור.”
- The text returns to the earlier *Gemara* about differing oil standards for the *menorah* versus *menachos* and to the teaching that “ויקחו אליך” means the lighting is not for Hashem, “לא לאורה אני צריך,” and serves as “עדות לכל באי עולם שהשכינה שורה בישראל,” with the proof being the *ner ma’aravi*. The question is raised why the *ner ma’aravi* is not listed among the ten miracles in *Pirkei Avos*, and Rabbeinu Bachya in Parshas Shemini is cited as saying there are eighteen miracles, with eight omitted from the *Mishnah* list and including the *ner ma’aravi*. Tosafos Yom Tov is cited that the ten are miracles “וכמאן דלא רמיזי בקרא כלל,” and the Vilna Gaon’s approach of tracing *Pirkei Avos* teachings to pesukim is contrasted with this, noting the Gra supplies a source only for the last two items via “כלילת יופי משוש כל הארץ.”
- The Tiferes Yisrael explains that “עשרה ניסים נעשו לאבותינו” means these ten are specifically לטובת אבותינו, while other miracles serve as עדות שהשכינה שורה שם. The text combines this with the statement in Yoma that the *ner ma’aravi* functioned for forty years of Shimon HaTzaddik’s כהונה, and with the statement in Yoma that Bayis Sheini lacked שכינה among five missing elements, and it resolves this by asserting there are levels of השראת השכינה. The Rambam in Hilchos Beis HaBechirah 6:16 is cited that the קדושה of the *Mikdash* and Yerushalayim is due to *Shechinah* and “השכינה אינה בטלה,” and the prayer “ותשכון בתוכה כאשר דיברת” is explained as requesting a fuller level of *Shechinah*.
- The Meshech Chochmah is presented as linking the Rambam’s view that *hatavas ha’neiros* includes *hadlakah*, leading to lighting the *menorah* by day as well, to further negate the idea that Hashem needs light. The same conceptual method is used to explain why removing the בדי ארון incurs lashes while removing poles from other vessels does not, because the Aron is “נושא את נושאיו” and permanent poles emphasize that carrying is not their functional purpose.
- The new *perek* begins with the *Mishnah* stating there are two dry measures in the *Mikdash*, an עשרון and a חצי עשרון, while רבי מאיר says there are three, with two different עשרון measures and one חצי עשרון. The *Mishnah* says the עשרון measure is used for all *menachos* and not special measures of three for a bull or two for a ram, requiring repeated measurement in single *isaron* units. The *Mishnah* says the half-*isaron* is used for the כהן גדול’s *chavitim* because they are brought half in the morning and half in the evening.
- A *beraisa* records רבי מאיר deriving two *isaron* measures from “עשרון עשרון,” identifying one as גדוש and one as מחוק, with the מחוק used for חביתי כהן גדול and the other for general *menachos*. The חכמים say there is only one *isaron* measure based on “ועשרון אחד,” and they interpret “עשרון עשרון” as including a חצי עשרון. רבי מאיר derives the חצי עשרון from the extra vav in “ועשרון,” while the רבנן do not expound the vav and instead derive “no two- or three-*isaron* measures” from a dotted vav in the word עשרון in the *Sukkos* offerings passage, a method רבי מאיר does not use.
- The *Gemara* challenges the *Mishnah’s* phrasing of “מודד” regarding חביתי כהן גדול because a *beraisa* states they are not brought in halves but as a full *isaron* and then divided. Rav Sheshes resolves this by re-reading “מודד” as “מחלק,” using half-*isaron* vessels to divide evenly rather than to measure initially. Rami bar Chama asks Rav Chisda whether the half-*isaron* according to רבי מאיר is גדוש or מחוק, and Rav Chisda concludes it is מחוק because it serves the same function as the מחוק *isaron* used for *chavitim*, and he extends that conclusion to the רבנן’s half-*isaron*.
- Rami bar Chama asks whether the כהן גדול’s *chavitim* are divided by hand or with a כלי to ensure equal loaves. Rav Chisda answers that it is done by hand, because introducing a measuring כלי such as a scale is problematic. The *Gemara* rejects bringing a טורטני into the *Azarah* because it is associated with קללה in the *tochachah* and is not appropriate for the *Beis HaMikdash*.
- Rami bar Chama asks if the *shulchan* can sanctify *kematzim* at its height, reasoning that since it sanctifies the *lechem hapanim* it might sanctify the accompanying *levonah*. Rav Chisda answers that it does not sanctify items not fit for placement there. The *Gemara* challenges this from Rav Yochanan’s calculation that the *shulchan* sanctifies up to twelve or fifteen *tefachim* above, and it resolves that the *shulchan* can confer sanctity only “ליפסל” and not “ליקרב,” so it can render items subject to disqualification without enabling them to be offered.
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