"Let's Get Toasted" #3 of Flour Power | Talmud on Sefirat Ha’Omer. Tractate Menachot, folio page 66a
22In the Season of Sefira, Tom's Talmud Tisch annually focuses on Tractate Menachot. "FLOUR POWER" is our second consecutive text-based Gemara mini-series focusing on the Seasonal Barely Harvest and the Firstling Omer Offering.
The eponymous Temple Rite linked to Sefirat Ha'Omer, the Post-Passover Counting Up to Shavuot -- the holiday commemorating the Giving of the Torah, is the central theme.
This is all about the initial steps taken to prepare fresh Barley to be turned into Grain, then Flour so that it can become the dough of that famous firstling grain offering, known by the Chalice in which it was brought: the proverbial Omer!
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In this third Episode entitled "LET'S GET TOASTED," we continue our "Flour Power" mini-series by opening the Gemara (elucidating the Mishna we just completed) by revisiting the therein cited disagreement on how freshly harvested barley stalks were singed and toasted by fire.
This was necessary to ensure successful extraction of flour -- due to its pliant and uncured state. The question becomes how exactly we artificially accelerate this process in full accordance with the scriptural specifications.
In the relentless pursuit for authenticity, we analyze the precise verbiage by way of an etymological journey that'll take us from the heights of the Celestial Heavens to the soil of Fertile Farms.
Our fascinating word-meaning search will harness the power of biblical exegesis. Digging into Torah's messages, we will reveal the Torah's ideal methodology to prematurely stimulate grain maturation and eventual flour production!
The third episode of our second mini-series on Sefirat Ha'Omer has been dedicated by Michelle Kahn in memory of Lili bat Chaim לילי בת חיים on the occasion of her Yahrzeit on Shavuot.