Talking Talmud

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?

The Torah mentions offerings that are voluntary, and that theoretically could come to include a burn-offering, but the Torah also specifies the burnt-offering so that the details of accompaniment are also learned (for example, the libations). And we see the halakhic hermeneutical principles of deriving the general, the specific, and the general -- which concludes with a narrower application that one might have thought. Also, the specifics of offerings that indeed involve accompaniments -

2 new mishnayot! 1: All the dry measures used for measuring in the Temple were expected to be heaping measures. But one of the liquid measures for a unique usage (the kohen's grain-offering) was explicitly larger to be used as a level measure. Plus, the question of whether the measuring vessels were consecrated on the inside and on the outside or only on the inside - and the ramifications of that for any overflow and whether it becomes sanctified. 2: The animal sacrifices that are accompanied by libations. With the variations per different purposes of the offerings.

It took 3.5 log of oil to light the menorah - half a log per cup (with 6 branches, plus the shamash). That's the precise amount of oil to burn through the night, but did they figure that out by using excess oil and working the amount down, or did they start with a little and keep adding until they made it through the night? Also, a new mishnah: where libations that accompany the animal sacrifices were transferrable or combinable among some specific sacrifices. Plus, the lamb that was brought by the person recovering from tzara'at for the guilt-offering needs libations together with it.

More on the measures of liquids - and how the "hin" measuring cup was made by Moses in the wilderness, and then it wasn't used. Plus, a new mishnah - on the quarter-log and its uses, including the ratios of oil to flour. Also, the measure for the menorah's cups, and the process of removing them to fill them.