Commento su Genesi 18:6

קמח סלת MEAL, FINE FLOUR — The fine flour (סלת) for the cakes, the meal (קמח) for the dough used by cooks to place over the pot to absorb the scum (Bava Metzia 86b).

MEAL, FINE FLOUR. The fine flour for the cakes; the meal for the dough used by cooks to place over the pot to absorb the scum. Thus the words of Rashi. And so it is found in Bereshith Rabbah.⁸⁶48:13, with changes. Now there the Sages explained that there were three measures of meal and three measures of fine flour for each one of the guests. But we do not know why he served so much bread for three men. Perhaps he was aware of how the food disappeared successively,⁸⁷See above, Note 51. and it was as if he was offering more Burnt-offerings upon the altar, or perhaps because in their honor chiefs of his house dined with them.
By way of the simple meaning [of Scripture, the verse is to be interpreted as follows: Make ready quickly three measures of meal to make of them fine flour. Thus from the entire three measures of meal, they extracted a bit of fine flour.

CHOICE FLOUR. Wheat flour, for wherever it says "solet," it is from wheat, as is expounded from the consecration offering, where it is written (Ex. 29:2), "make these of choice wheat flour" [solet hitim].

ויאמר...שלש סאים, in order to make a challah, loaf, of bread comprising one sa-ah (measure) of flour for each of his guests.

קמח סלת, “flour, the finest.” Coarse flour {made into a sticky mass as the grain it is made from is underdeveloped. The thin, wafer like mass, is used to absorb rising impurities of what is boiling in the pots used by the cooks in the kitchen. Although this is the way it is described in the Mishnah Pessachim 42, [I am not sure how it applies to baked goods such as cake, unless it is placed under the cake to prevent the underside from being burned by the oven. Ed.] Although it was Passover, there was no danger of it becoming leavened, as the heat would prevent this from happening. According to Nachmanides the reason Avraham ordered Sarah to use such a huge quantity of flour for just three men (equivalent of 432 eggs), is that Avraham may have invited numerous dignitaries to share this meal with them. According to the plain meaning, three measures of coarse flour yield 1 measure of fine flour after it has been sieved in a fine-meshed sieve.

שלש סאים, “three measures of, etc.” The three measures described are known as a single measure called איפה. Our sages in Menachot 76 say that three measures called Sa-ah constitute the measure known as Eyfah. Seeing that the Torah usually ecomomises with its words, why did it not write איפה , a single word, instead of writing שלש סאים in two words? It is possible that the reason Avraham spoke in terms of three measures was due to etiquette. He meant to assure each one of the three angels of a whole measure for him exclusively, which would be made into cake. This would ensure that each of them received equal portions and that there would not be any kind of envy between one and the other during the meal (compare Megillah 12). He may have had yet another consideration. He wanted to attract a crowd in order to demonstrate to them to what lengths he and Sarah would go in order to entertain uninvited strangers. It was similar to what our sages recommended we should do in order to welcome the Sabbath (compare Shabbat 119) where we find a discussion on the manner in which the Sabbath is to be welcomed. The Talmud relates that Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak was constantly busy coming and going on the Sabbath eve (making a commotion). When asked why he was in such an uproar on account of the Sabbath, he replied that if the two leading scholars of his time Rabbi Ami and Rabbi Assi were to be his guests would he not go out of his way to honour them? The Sabbath does not deserve any less honour.
Another thing we can learn from this detail the Torah provides us with when mentioning the amount of flour used by Sarah to bake cakes for her guests, is that Avraham was of a generous disposition. Had he used the expression איפה, the impression created would have been that he wanted to limit the amount of flour to be used, i.e. “one measure, not more.” In order to prevent such an impression being created the Torah decided to write an extra word in order to preserve Avraham’s image as a generous person.

The fine flour is used for cakes, the meal is for the starch used by cooks... Rashi is answering the question: The verse implies that she should knead קמח and סלת together, to make cakes from them. Was Avraham stingy and therefore he did not instruct that the cakes be made from fine flour alone? Thus Rashi explains: Only the fine flour was for the cakes, and the meal...

קמח סלת .שלש סאים קמח סלת eine Zusammenstellung, die sich nicht wiederfindet. קמח ist die geringere Sorte Mehl, סלת die bessere. Gröber und feiner gäbe eine unrichtige Vorstellung, denn nach der Menachoth 76b. beschriebenen Prozedur wurde das סלת als der innere beste Kern durch wiederholtes Sieben von dem קמה, dem schlechten, das als feiner Staub durch das Sieb ging, befreit, woher auch das (Sprüche der Väter 5, 18): ein Sieb, das das grobe Mehl durchlässt und das feine zurückhält, seine Erklärung erhält. Aus eben der Stelle in Menachoth wissen wir aber, dass man zum Schaubrote aus einem 1/3) סאה Epha) ein zehntel Epha feinstes Mehl gewann. 1/10 Epha entspricht aber dem Omer, also der für einen Menschen entsprechenden Portion, einem מהרי שלש סאים קמח סלת .שיעור חלה scheint daher zu heißen: nimm schnell aus drei סאה groben Mehls das feinste, dies gäbe dann ein עשרון für jeden Gast, ein Quantum, das ganz dem Sinne Abrahams entsprechend wäre.

מהרי “hurry!” seeing that the men still had a distance to walk in order to reach Sodom before nightfall, they did not have much time to spend at Avraham’s tent. [Did Avraham know that Sodom was their next destination from the direction in which they were headed? Ed.]

קמח סולת, flour, suitable to make into cake. Cake is made of flour which can be baked more quickly than ordinary bread.

שלש סאים קמח, “three measures of flour;” this was the amount of average quality flour from which it was possible to distil the amount of superior flour (1 tenth of the tree measures known as saah) to bake cakes for three adults such as these. קמח, according to Rashi, Avraham instructed Sarah to use the kind of flour used for covering the pots, an expression known in the Talmud Pessachim 37 as “bread baked from ground flour.”Other commentators understand Avraham’s instruction to Sarah here to mean that she should bake the entire amount of flour, all three measures. He did so as this was the maximum capacity of the ovens they used. Our sages add that the quality of bread baked in a full oven is superior to that which was baked when the oven was half empty.

לושי, when the angels arrived at Lot, (Genesis 19,3) he is described as having baked the unleavened bread. From this it is deduced that the women made the dough, kneaded it, whereas the man did the actual baking.

ועשי עוגות, “and make it into cakes;” something that does not take long to bake. He was conscious that these “men” were in a hurry to get going.