Commentary for I Samuel 1:24

One eiphah of flour. I heard in the name of Rabbi Yitzchok Halevi, that she brought one eiphah of flour, the equivalent of three seahs, from which to extract three tenths of an eiphah of fine flour, the required amount for one bull.⁴¹See Bamidbar 15:8-9. As we learned in the Mishnah:⁴²Maseches Menachos 76b. The showbread was made of twenty-four tenths of an eiphah from twenty-four seahs; i.e., one tenth part of an eiphah of fine flour from each seah of wheat.

With three bulls: With three bulls to sacrifice to the Lord, and the flour for the grain offering and the wine for the libations.

With three bulls: Some of them to eat and some of them to slaughter to the Lord. And likewise, "one ephah of flour," to eat and to offer a grain-offering from it; and likewise, "and a jar of wine," to drink and to pour [a libation] from it. Hence it stated (I Samuel 1:25), "And they slaughtered the bull," and it did not say, "the bulls" - meaning to say, the bull that they offered to the Lord.

And a flask of wine. For a libation.

And she brought him: The lad.

And the lad was a lad: Meaning to say, the lad was still a small and delicate lad. Yet, in spite of this, she did not wait for him until he became stronger, but rather once she weaned him - meaning to say, when she completed his nursing at the end of twenty-four months [from] when he was born - she brought him up immediately with her to the House of the Lord. And Yonatan translated it [in the Targum] as, "and the lad was a yanik." But this does not mean that he was still nursing (yonek). For behold, it states, "when she weaned him" - when she finished nursing him. Rather yanik means to say, a young lad. For this is the way of Aramaic, they call a lad a yanik - as we have found in the words of our Rabbis, may their memory be blessed, "a yanik who is wise"; "the yanuka master and the old master." But some explain, "and the lad was a lad (naar) is [that] he was sharp and knew [the difference] between good and evil, like a shaker (menaer), who shakes off the waste from the flax.

Though the child was still a lad. The Targum renders, 'though the child was still young.'

And the lad was a lad: Meaning to say, the lad was a small and delicate lad. Yet, in spite of all this, it did not prevent her from bringing him when she weaned him.