Talking Talmud

Opening with a very (very!) long mishnah on the 12 loaves of the shewbread, including their process and their location and their shaping and their measurements and their placement. Also, how some of that processing overrode Shabbat rules, and some did not. Rabbi Akiva's general principle here is that if something can be done before Shabbat, it will not override the laws of Shabbat, but if it cannot be done before Shabbat (and not because a person ran out of time), those practices would override Shabbat. Plus, some of the comments of the Gemara - specifically on the way the shewbread was bent upwards but a significant measure, and set up on rods to allow the air to circulate and prevent mold.

On the lehem ha-panim, the 12 loaves of the shewbread - what happened to this offering when the Israelites were traveling in the wilderness, and need to switch the loaves from shabbat-to-shabbat? Would the bread become invalidated through the moving? Also, a new mishnah on how the 2 loaves of Shavuot and the 12 loaves of the shewbread are the same in processing. Including what is consecrated and requires the Temple courtyard for processing in vessels. Plus, a backhanded compliment for Rav Sheshet.

Closing chapter 10: A new mishnah! On the ways that semichah (laying on of hands) is more stringent than the requirement of waving the animal parts, and the ways that the waving is more stringent than semichah. And a potential contradiction as to whether the laying on of hands was as limited as the mishnah makes it sound (with a very nice resolution, too). Opening chapter 11! With a new mishnah - back to the 2 loaves of Shavuot and the lechem ha-panim, and the process by which they are kneaded and baked. Including safeguards to prevent mold. Plus, a puzzling apparent mismatch between the shape of the pans and that of the loaves.

Yesterday's mishnah raised the case of heirs bringing a sacrifice on behalf of someone who died before being able to offer it - and whether they would do the laying on of hands. Here, we are privy to a contradiction in the materials over whether they do it. Plus, another mishnah, with the list of all those who can, under the right circumstances, do the laying on of hands (semichah). Also, more on the semichah - specifically, how it was done with 2 hands, and how we know that it is supposed to be done with 2 hands. Plus, Resh Lakish's stance on this halakhah and the way he argues for and against it, with some frustration.

On the requirement of "semicha" - the laying on of hands before slaughtering an animal, and how it's the subject of the first recorded debate in the Oral Law. Plus, the way the placing of hands is part of the process of offering the sacrifice, together with atonement. Also, which animals require that laying on of hands? It's not all of them - where a bull does require it, but the goats brought in atonement for idolatry, well, that's a machloket. And what is the province of the elders, as compared to Aharon/the kohen gadol?