Comentário sobre Levítico 23:13

ומנחתו AND THE MEAL OFFERING THEREOF — i. e. the usual meal-offering that was brought together with its drink-offering,

The meal-offering [which accompanies] its wineoffering. I.e., [this offering is] not the meal offering [which is brought] by itself that is mentioned in parshas Vayikra. Because iIt is written afterwards “Its wine-offering is one fourth of a hin,” and since the wine is [comes as] a wine-offering, the meal offering too is also certainly the mealoffering [which accompanies] a wine offering. Even though it is two tenths and the mealoffering of a sheep [that accompanies a wineoffering] is [generally] one [tenth], even so, it is [nevertheless] the meal-offering [which accompanies] a wine-offering, except that [here] it is double [the normal amount].

ומנחתו שני עשרונים, “with its meal offering including two tenth parts of an eyphah of fine flour;” our sages point out that this meal offering was different from all other meal offerings offered as an adjunct to offerings consisting of sheep which were only accompanied by meal offerings containing one tenth of an eypha of fine flour; although it was accompanied by a larger meal offering than other similar offerings, the libation that accompanied it was not larger than the normal one quarter of a hin of wine. This is also why when we recite in our Mussaph on the festivals that offerings of bullocks were accompanied by three measures of fine meal for such offering, whereas two measures accompanied offers consisting of a ram, and one such measure accompanying offerings consisting of a sheep. When listing the accompanying libation offerings in that same prayer, the text does not mention the amount of wine for the libations of each such sacrifice beyond saying “the appropriate amount for each.” When speaking of the libation for the “omer” offering, the Torah writes: ונסכה in the feminine mode instead of ונסכו, for Its libation offering” in the masculine mode as it refers to the whole meal offering, the word for that offering being מנחה, a feminine noun. In our prayers we do not refer to this distinction as it is the only exception. Actually, one half of the meal offering is intended to belong to the omer firstling of the barley harvest offering, whereas the other half is intended to be the meal offering which belongs to the sheep offering. The size of the libation accompanying this offering is the same as usual.

ומנחתו שני עשרונים סלת, and its gift offering, “two tenths of fine flour, etc.;” this was double the usual amount as it was the first offering presented from the new harvest. The additional amount of flour presented symbolizes that the harvest has been bountiful. Seeing that we do not find a parallel when it comes to the number of sheep offered on this occasion in addition to the breads, we mention in our mussaph prayers on the festival the respective components of each of these offeringsSome opinions hold that the one “tenth” of fine flour mentioned here was the “omer,” and they bring as proof that the libation accompanying that offering was not commensurate with the two “tenths” of fine flour mentioned here. This argument is without merit, as the two “tenths” mentioned here were wheat flour, whereas the “omer” consisted of barley. The expression סלת for finely ground flour is used exclusively with flour made from wheat.

שני עשרנים TWO TENTHS DEALS OF FLOUR — It was double as much as was usually required with a lamb (cf. Numbers ch. 28).

ונסכה יין רביעית ההין, “and its accompanying libation, one tenth of a measure known as hin, of wine." Rabbi Eliezer, in the Talmud, tractate Menachot folio 89, points out that the Torah uses the feminine mode for the word ונסכה, i.e. it is read as if it had been spelled with the masculine pronoun ending ו, although spelled with feminine ending ה. What is the reason for this strange phenomenon? The libation appropriate for a gift offering, known as מנחה in Hebrew is appropriately referred to in the feminine mode, seeing that the noun מנחה, gift offering, is a feminine noun. On the other hand, normally the libation accompanying the gift offering consists of oil, whereas here it consists of wine, יין. It is therefore not correct to speak of a doubling of the libation, as only the amount of flour has been doubled. Moreover, libations consisting of oil were a later addition in the history of the Jewish people in the desert, having been introduced only in Numbers chapter 28.

ונסכו רביעית ההין AND THE DRINK OFFERING THEREOF OF WINE SHALL BE THE FOURTH PART OF HIN — Although its meal-offering was twice as much as usual its drink-offering was not double (Menachot 89b).

ומנחתו ושני עשרונים, ונסכו יין, “and its gift offering, two tenths of fine flour and its libation, wine; Seeing that this libation was not introduced until Numbers 28, the reference to it here is grammatically ambiguous; we find another example of such an ambiguity in verse 18 of our chapter: שבעת כבשים ופר אחד ואילים שנים, “seven male sheep and one bullock and two rams,” which are offered on account of the two loaves representing the firstling fruit of the new wheat harvest on the festival of Shavuot; The Torah adds here: “and their respective gift offerings and libations,” (without spelling out what the latter consisted of.) All the other sacrifices offered on the festivals, mentioned here without specifics, are all described in the feminine mode, as only in Numbers chapter 28 they are considered as complete, as there the libations accompanying them are spelled out.