Tuesday, August 16, 2011

We Love Fat Priests: Yoma 47b

As part of many ritual sacrifices in the Temple, a priest would take a handful of flour and sacrifice it on the altar. The Talmud, being the Talmud, wants to know exactly what a 'handful' is. A problematic question is whether any flour left between the fingers after a priest scoops up the flour with his hands is actually part of the handful or something extra. Our sages were unable to determine the status of such flour. Therefore they mandated that, whenever possible, fat priests, whose fingers are chubby enough that no flour gets caught between them, should perform this sacrifice.

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