Menachot 96a — the Talmud in English

He is in danger,

he said this about himself: he was seized by bulmos [an illness that makes one ravenous], and they feed him until his eyes become illuminated, even on Yom Kippur.

And

if

Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Shimon

who disagreed concerning the law of whether the oven sanctifies,

disagree in the Gemara,

each one learned this from his teacher, and the other learned that from his teacher.

It is also precise

that Rabbi Shimon did not learn from the verse, as he said, from

that he teaches

in our Mishna:

Rabbi Shimon says: One should always be accustomed to say that the two loaves and the lechem ha-panim are fit in the Temple courtyard and fit at Beit Pagi,

and the expression “one should always be accustomed to say” implies that he said this from the Gemara.

And we conclude: Indeed,

hear from it

that they disagree in the Gemara.

a. It is written [Leviticus 6:13]: “This is the offering of Aaron and his sons, which they shall offer to the Lord on the day that He is anointed: a tenth of an ephah of fine flour as a meal-offering always, half of it in the morning and half of it in the evening. On a griddle it shall be made with oil; scalded, you shall bring it; baked, a meal-offering of broken pieces, you shall offer it as a pleasing fragrance to the Lord. And the anointed priest in his place from among his sons shall make it; an eternal statute for the Lord, it shall be completely burned.” These are the griddle-cakes of the high priest, which the high priest brings every day.

b. We learned in the Mishna above, at the beginning of the chapter “Two Measures”: “What was the half-issaron used for? With it he measured the griddle-cakes of the high priest, half in the morning and half between the evenings.”

Mishna:

The griddle-cakes of the high priest:

Their kneading, their arranging, and their baking are inside,

and because the measure of the half-issaron—with which he measured for the griddle-cakes of the high priest—was anointed and sanctified, if he made them outside, they would become invalid through being taken outside.

And they override

their kneading, arranging, and baking

the Shabbat,

for if he did so on the eve of Shabbat, it would become invalid through remaining overnight, and it follows that they are labors that cannot be performed on the eve of Shabbat. But

their grinding and sifting,

of the wheat for the griddle-cakes of the high priest, since he can do it before Shabbat,

does not override the Shabbat,

for

Rabbi Akiva stated a principle:

Any labor that can be performed on the eve of Shabbat does not override the Shabbat, but one that cannot be

performed on the eve of Shabbat—

even though it is an accessory to a mitzva—

overrides the Shabbat.

And likewise,

all the meal-offerings have a vessel-procedure inside,

that is, their arranging, kneading, and baking are in a sacred vessel inside,

and they do not have a vessel-procedure outside.

The two

loaves:

Their length was seven handbreadths, and their width four handbreadths, and their horns—

the dough that was attached to each corner in the form of horns— their length was

four fingerbreadths,

and these measures are a halakha given to Moses at Sinai.

The lechem ha-panim:

Their length was ten handbreadths, their width five handbreadths, and their horns seven fingerbreadths.

Rabbi Yehuda says:

Here is a sign

so that you will not err

in exchanging the measures between the two loaves and the lechem ha-panim:

The two loaves:

zayin.

dalet.

dalet. [

seven, four, four.]

The lechem ha-panim:

yod.

heh.

zayin. [

ten, five, seven.]

Ben Zoma says

as support:

It is written: “

And you shall place upon the table lechem panim before Me always,”

and we learn from the expression

“lechem panim”:

a.

That it should have faces,

these being the walls of the bread, as will be explained later in the Mishna.

b.

And that it should have

“pinim” [

corners], and these are the horns, as was explained.

a. The length and width of the table are explicit in the Torah [Exodus 25:23]: “And you shall make a table of acacia wood, two cubits its length, and one cubit its width, and one and a half cubits its height. And you shall make for it a rim of a handbreadth around, and you shall make a golden crown for its rim around.”

b. Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Yehuda disagreed in tractate Kelim 17:10, and it is brought below, 97a:

According to Rabbi Meir: all the cubits—both those of construction and those of the vessels that were in the Tabernacle—were medium cubits, that is, a cubit of six handbreadths.

According to Rabbi Yehuda: a construction cubit was six handbreadths, and a vessel cubit was five handbreadths; and in this disagreement they also disagreed in our Mishna.

The table was ten

handbreadths [two cubits, with a cubit of five handbreadths]

and five in width

handbreadths [one cubit, with a cubit of five], whereas

the lechem ha-panim—

as was explained—

was ten in length

handbreadths,

and five in width

handbreadths—

Thus he

places its length

of the bread—which is ten handbreadths—

opposite the width of the table,

which is five handbreadths, and five handbreadths remain in the length of the bread:

And he folds two and a half handbreadths from here,

from this end of the table two and a half handbreadths rise upright,

and two and a half handbreadths

rise upright

from here,

from the other end of the table—