Menachot 45 – The Book of Ezekiel

The book of Ezekiel contains apparent contradictions to the Torah. It would have been concealed, if not for Chanina ben Chizkiyah who who brought 300 barrels of oil up to his upper chamber and worked there until he explained all the difficult verses. For example, it says, “Any animal that was not properly slaughtered or that was sick the priests should not eat.” Are we to understand that regular Jews are allowed this? - No! Rather, the kohanim, since they eat birds slaughtered by melikah, may be thought to be allowed to eat other non-kosher meat, and Ezekiel prohibits that.

Wheat bread and two lambs were brought on Shavuot. If there was no bread, the lambs could not be brought, but if there were no lambs, the bread could be brought without them – these are the words of Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Shimon ben Nannas said that the reverse is true – since Jews brought the lambs in the wilderness, when they brought no bread, which had to come from Israel. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai says that the law is like ben Nannas, but not because of his reason, and the final law is still like Rabbi Akiva.

Art: Gerard Do - Old woman slicing bread