What should we do with the leftovers? TB Sotah 23

Today’s daf TB Sotah 23 discusses a halakhic conundrum, the joint ownership of a kohen and his wife’s minkha offering. When a person offers a minkha, a grain sacrifice, the kohen takes a handful of the grain mixture and burns it on the altar. Whatever is left over the kohen and his sons eat. If a kohen offers a minkha sacrifice, the minkha is completely burned on the altar. The question the Gemara will be deliberating is the conundrum when a kohen’s wife offers up the minkha. Since the kohen pays for the minkha, he has a share in it; consequently, all of it should be burned on the altar. On the other hand, his wife is bringing this minkha offering. After the handful is burnt on the altar, her share in the sacrifice produces leftovers which normally would be eaten by the kohanim. According to rabbinic interpretation, leftovers from sacrifices are forbidden to be burnt on the altar. What should be done to these leftovers after the handful is burned on the altar? The Gemara provides two solutions.

“Yehuda, son of Rabbi Shimon ben Pazi, said that the priest burns the remainder not as an offering but for the purpose of firewood. This is permitted, in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Eliezer, as it is taught in a baraita that Rabbi Eliezer says: With regard to those parts of an offering which may not be burned, for a pleasing aroma you may not burn them; however, you may burn them on the altar for the purpose of firewood.” (Sefaria.org translation) This solution works only if you accept Rabbi Eliezer’s position which the rabbis don’t.

“With regard to the remainder, they (the rabbis) act in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, as it is taught in a baraita: Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, says with regard to the meal-offering of a sinner who is a priest: The handful is removed from the meal-offering and sacrificed by itself, and the remainder is neither eaten nor burned on the altar; rather, it is scattered on the place of the ashes.” (Sefaria.org translation)

Rambam poskins in accordance with the majority view of the rabbis. (Mishneh Torah, Sefer Avodah, Hilkhot Sacrificial Procedure, chapter 2, halakha 12)

Tomorrow we begin the third chapter of our massekhet!