Apples and Oranges
“Two Menachos Were Mixed but the Handfuls Were Not Taken”
(Menachos 23a)
Our Mishna discusses where two different Mincha offerings were inadvertently mixed together prior to the kemitzah – the taking of a handful from each. The Mishna teaches that if they were not thoroughly mixed, leaving over for each an amount sufficient to take a kometz (handful), then upon so doing, each offering is valid. However, if there remained for each an amount of flour insufficient for the taking of a handful, neither is valid.
Its Flour
Rashi (to our daf but printed on 22a sv “im yachol likmotz…”) explains the source for invalidating a kemitzah from a mixture of two Mincha offerings as Toras Kohanim, where our Sages derive from the pasuk in Parshas Vayikra (Vayikra 2:2) “…he shall take from there a handful from its flour” – its flour and not the flour of its mate (i.e., of another offering).
Sefas Emes (ad.loc.) explains that the reason to invalidate a handful of such a mixture is simply because there is not an amount sufficient for either. This is based on the Mishna (6a) that rules if one took too much or too little in the handful, the kemitzah is invalid.
Prayer As Compensation
Today, when we are no longer able to bring offerings on the altar in the Temple, our tefillos take the place of the offerings, as the pasuk (Hoshea 14:3) states, “Let our lips compensate for the bulls.” Now this brings us to a dispute in the Shulchan Aruch between the Mechaber and the Rema regarding the halacha to be followed by an individual who, though he finds himself in the synagogue, nevertheless is not keeping pace with the congregation (or he arrived late). The dispute is whether two different tefillos may be considered similar enough to merge.
A Mixture of Tefillos
The Mechaber (Orach Chayyim 109:3) rules if one is in the midst of his own Shemoneh Esrei and at the point of kedusha, while the congregation is about to recite the kedusha d’sidra (of “U’va l’tzion”), he does not interrupt his tefillah and recite together with them because the two kedushos are not considered to be the same. The Mechaber notes as well that in the instance where the individual is in the midst of Shemoneh Esrei of Shacharis and the congregation is in the midst of Musaf, if the congregation is reciting Kesser [or Na’aritzcha for nusach Ashkenaz], he should remain silent and contemplate with them, as listening is like verbalizing – shome’a k’oneh. The Mechaber’s view here too is that Musaf and Shacharis are not comparable.
The Rema is of the view that even though the individual is in the midst of the Shemoneh Esrei of Shacharis and the congregation is in the midst of Musaf, he may nevertheless join in with them in respondingt. This is because both are a kedusha of Shemoneh Esrei and their sanctity is the same.
Mishneh Berura (sk 16) explains that kedusha of Shemoneh Esrei differs from kedusha d’sidra because the latter is not an actual recitation of kedusha but rather relates how the angels recite their kedusha. We might say that it is like mixing apples and oranges.