Menachot 85 – How to Grow the Best Grain

For flour offerings, they would not use grain from fertilized fields, because once the field requires fertilization, perhaps it was not fertilized enough, or possibly because the use of fertilizer, which is malodorous, adversely affects the taste of the produce. They also did not use the grain from irrigated fields or from a field of trees, because it was not of the best quality. Such grain, though, would be acceptable after the fact.

How then does one work the land to produce superior grain? He plows it the first year in the summer without sowing it in the winter. This gets rid of the thorns. Then in the second year he plows it again and now sows it, seventy days before Passover, and it produces abundant flour.

How does one examine the flour? The Temple treasurer inserts his hand into it, and if dust comes up in his hand, the flour is invalid until he sifts it again. If the flour became wormy, it is permanently disqualified.

Additional story - too much oil

The Torah states, “He will dip his foot in oil” – that's talking about the land portion of Asher, where oil flows like a spring – because olive oil expands the mind.

Once the people of Ludkiya needed oil. They appointed an agent to seek out the amount of oil bought for a million maneh, which equals to 400,000,000 golden dinars. The agent went to Jerusalem, this being the capital, but they told him to go to Tyre, which is a large port town. There, however, they directed him to Gush Chalav, in the portion of Asher.

He came to Gush Chalav, and there they told him, “Go to so and so, to that certain field.” There he found a Jewish farmer, who was digging and hoeing under his olive trees. The agent asked, “Do you have the amount of oil for a million maneh?” - but the farmer replied, “Please wait till I finish my work.” After the farmer finished his work, he tied his tools and put them over his shoulder. As he was going, he was clearing away the stones from the field. The agent thought to himself, “Can such a hard-working man have that much oil? The Jews played a trick on me!”

However, when the Jewish farmer reached his city, his maidservant brought out for him a small kettle of hot water, and he washed his hands and feet in it. Then she brought out for him a golden basin filled with oil, and he dipped his hands and feet in it, to fulfill literally the verse of “he dips his foot in oil.”

After they ate and drank, the farmer measured out to the agent the million maneh's worth of oil, and then he said, “Do you need any more?” The agent said, “But I have no money left!” The farmer replied to him, “Take more, and I will come and collect the payment.” He measured out another 180 thousand maneh wroth of oil, and the agent had to rent every animal, horse, mule, camel, and donkey in Israel to transport the oil.

The people of Ludkiya came to greet and praise their agent, but gave all honor to the farmer, who fulfilled the verse from king Solomon, “There is one who gives the impression of wealthy but has nothing, and there is one who gives the impression of being poor and has great wealth.”

Art: Samuel Bough - Sowing the Seed