Talking Talmud

2 mishnayot! 1 - If one makes a vow to bring a voluntary grain-offering, but the phrasing makes it an invalid vow in some way or other, then the vow is incumbent upon the person who misphrased it. Which seems stringent, rather than looking for an opening to let the oath-taker out of the oath. With a dispute as to how this works between Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai - namely, why the oath is still incumbent upon the person who misspoke. 2 - If one makes a vow to bring a grain-offering of 60-tenths of an ephah of fine flour, he can bring it in one vessel. But if one takes a vow to bring 61-tenths of an ephah, that would entail one vessel of 60-tenths and another of one-tenth. The day that would require 61-tenths is the first day of Sukkot if it falls out on Shabbat. With the clarification that, yes, that degree of precision with the measurements is necessary for compliance with halakhah.

On consecrated items and ritually impure items -- and how they are not treated the same in halakhah with regard to their prohibited use and their respective liabilities. Plus, the specific properties of food in its capacity to be rendered impure. Plus, the timing of the sprinkling of the blood of an animal sacrifice. Also, the wording of a vow to bring a grain-offering will have significant impact on what the obligation becomes. With examples of how a vow can go unfulfilled when the oath and the offering do not match.

Chapter 12! With a new mishnah - redeeming the sanctity of grain offerings and libations, especially when the item has become impure. But what happens if the item is pure? Plus, complex Gemara on the impurity and redemption of these items, with various opinions on when precisely the redemption can be implemented, with a focus on the monetary sanctity.

2 mishnayot to finish chapter 11! What if the items from the table were moved on the wrong day (that is, the shewbread and the frankincense)? What happens if they remain present past the time of Shabbat when they are supposed to be removed correctly? Plus, a dispute over premature offerings -- and what is considered a "premature" offering (including thinking it was daytime when it was still night). Note also the many ways that the offerings and other substances are sanctified throughout the process. Also, the days that one can eat the bread from the 2 loaves of the Shavuot offering (namely, 2 or 3 days from the baking of the loaves, depending on how the holiday falls out in proximity (or lack thereof) to Shabbat). Plus, when the loaves can be baked on the holiday, though not on Shabbat or Yom Kippur.

More on King Solomon's 10 tables, and how the kohanim put the shewbread on Moses' table and not Solomon's (or was it one table at a time, including Solomon's tables?). Also, the concept of increasing in holiness and never diminishing it - as familiar from Chanukah, and applied here. Plus, not mocking one who has forgotten his Torah, but treating such a person with respect -- and a key example of how a sage's own life story may have impact on the positions he takes in the Gemara. Also, a new mishnah! Of the tables, and of two at the entrance of the sanctuary, one was marble and one was gold - with the preparation for the shewbread and then the staged removal of the old shewbread. Plus, the pageantry of switching in the new shewbread for the old. And the brief days during which eating the bread was valid (and how two days of not cooking led to Babylonian returnees eating raw meat). Also, the question of when to learn non-Torah subjects like Greek philosophy.