Menachos, Chapter 2, Mishnah 1. We continue with the laws of pigul - the intent of "chutz lizmano," that is, an intent to perform an act at a time when it is not fit - this time with regard to menachos (meal offerings). Our mishnah is rather abstract, and in order to understand it we first need to look at the general framework of the laws of pigul.
A review of the fundamentals of pigul in animal offerings:
With animal offerings the rule is that if a person performed one of the four central blood services - shechitah (slaughtering), kabbalah (receiving the blood), holachah (carrying it) and zerikah (sprinkling it) - and while doing so he had in mind to perform an act at a time when it is not fit, his intent can render the offering pigul. There are three intentions that can bring this about:
To offer the blood at the wrong time.
To burn the eimurim - the portions offered on the altar - at the wrong time.
To eat the meat at the wrong time (for example, in a chatas, whose meat is eaten by the kohanim).
The parallel structure in a minchah:
A minchah has a very similar structure, with four primary services:
Kemitzah - removing a handful from the minchah.
Placing it in a vessel - putting the minchah into a service vessel, which sanctifies it with kedushas haguf.
Holachah - bringing the vessel with the kometz to the altar.
Haktarah - burning the kometz on the altar.
If a person had in mind, during any one of these four stages, to perform an act at a time when it is not fit, his intent can render the offering pigul. The two basic elements here are the burning of the kometz and the eating of the shirayim - the remainder of the minchah. But there is a third element that also goes up on the altar: the levonah (frankincense). Intending to burn the levonah at the wrong time likewise renders the offering pigul.
It emerges that just as in an animal offering there are three components subject to pigul and four stages at which the intent is relevant, so too in a minchah. The parallel would seem to be complete - except that one point does not correspond at all.
Where the parallel breaks down:
How do the three components of an animal offering - blood, eimurim and meat - line up against the three components of a minchah: kometz, levonah and shirayim? The shirayim are eaten by the kohanim, corresponding to the meat of the offering, which is eaten by the kohanim; that parallel is clear. But the kometz, which is burned on the altar - does it correspond to the blood that is sprinkled on the altar, or to the eimurim that are burned upon it?
The answer is that functionally, even though both are burned on the altar, the kometz functions like the blood: it is the "matir," the element that permits. Offering the blood properly is what permits the eating of the meat and the burning of the eimurim, and without it the eimurim are not burned and the meat is not eaten. So too with the kometz - its going up on the altar is what permits the eating of the shirayim. Accordingly, the four essential services of the kometz genuinely parallel the four blood services.
And what about the levonah (frankincense)? The third element of an animal offering was the eimurim, the portions burned on the altar, and the levonah too is burned on the altar - but conceptually its role is not the same as theirs. The eimurim do not permit anything; they are themselves the 'permitted' items: the blood offered on the altar is what permits the altar, as it were, to consume the eimurim. The levonah, by contrast, permits the remainder to be eaten, and it is not itself permitted by the offering of the kometz.
It emerges that a minchah has two parallel permitting agents - the kometz and the levonah - both of which must be offered properly in order to permit the remainder to be eaten, and there is no functional parallel to the eimurim. In an animal offering: one permitting agent (the blood) and two permitted items (the eimurim and the meat); in a minchah: two permitting agents (the kometz and the levonah) and one permitted item (the remainder).
The rule: one permitting agent does not render the other piggul:
Hence the question: what is the law when, while performing the kemitzah, a person had an intention of eating outside the proper time regarding the levonah? The two opinions in our Mishnah agree on one principle: "a permitting agent does not render another permitting agent piggul" - an intention of outside its time concerning one permitting agent while one is engaged with the other does not cause piggul, unless the two permitting agents are bound up with one another and form part of a single unit. The question, then, is what the relationship is between the kometz and the levonah: are they two separate permitting agents, or parts of a single unit? That is the dispute in our Mishnah.
It is worth emphasizing that this is not intuitive. Let us return to animal offerings: if during the slaughter, the receiving of the blood, the carrying, or the sprinkling a person had improper thoughts - that he will desecrate Shabbos, that he will feed the offering to dogs, or that the offering is foolish and why did the Holy One, Blessed is He, command it - any improper thought that does not specifically concern offering the blood or eating the eimurim and the meat at an unfit time does not cause piggul and does not even disqualify the offering. The piggul intention is an extremely specific one; other improper thoughts are unbecoming, but they do not disqualify.
A more precise example: a person brings two offerings together, an olah and a shelamim, and while slaughtering the olah he thinks about how he will perform the service of the shelamim at an unfit time. It is a foolish thought, but it disqualifies neither the olah before him nor the shelamim that is yet to come, since the two are not joined to one another. Piggul is caused only by a thought about the offering that is before him.
The dispute between Rabbi Yosei and the Sages:
And so in our case: one who performs the kemitzah, or places the kometz in a vessel, or the like, and thinks about the levonah:
According to the Sages: the kometz and the levonah are joined together and are part of that very same minchah, and therefore the thought about the levonah disqualifies everything and causes piggul.
According to Rabbi Yosei: they are two parallel and separate permitting agents, and the proof is that the levonah may be brought either before the kometz or after it - neither one is designated to the other. And since "a permitting agent does not render another permitting agent piggul," the thought about the levonah does not cause piggul.
The words of the Mishnah:
"HaKometz es haminchah le'echol shiyareha o l'haktir kumtzah lemachar" - one who performs the kemitzah (and the same applies to placing the kometz in a vessel, carrying it, and burning it), and while doing so intended to eat the rest of the minchah, the remainder, or to burn the kometz the next day, at an unfit time. "Modeh Rabbi Yosei bazeh shehu piggul vechayav aleha kareis" - this is the classic case of piggul, which all agree upon: an intention of outside its time during one of the four essential services of the minchah, the offering is disqualified, and anyone who eats it is liable to kareis.
"L'haktir levonah lemachar" - if, while engaged with the kometz, he intended to burn the levonah the next day, at an unfit time: "Rabbi Yosei omer: pasul v'ein bo kareis" - this is not piggul. And the disqualification itself is only rabbinic, a decree lest he come to have such thoughts about the kometz itself; but by Torah law, since the kometz and the levonah are independent, parallel permitting agents, the thought about the levonah spoils nothing. "Vachachamim omrim: piggul vechayav aleha kareis" - in their view the two are entirely bound up with one another, and an intention of outside its time regarding the levonah during the performance of the kemitzah renders it piggul, and one who eats it is liable to kareis.
The give and take in the Mishnah:
"Amru lo: mah shanah zo min hazevach?" - the Sages ask Rabbi Yosei: why should we distinguish between this meal offering and an animal offering? Just as with an animal offering, an improper intention regarding the blood, the eimurim or the meat during any one of the four blood services renders everything pigul, so too one who performs the kemitzah and has an improper intention regarding the kometz, the frankincense or the shirayim should likewise cause pigul.
"Amar lahem: shehazevach damo uvesaro ve'eimurav echad" - Rabbi Yosei answers: the three components of an animal offering are bound up with one another. The blood service is not a matter of the blood alone; it simultaneously permits the blood, the meat for eating and the eimurim for burning on the altar. They are all one single unit.
"Ulevonah einah min haminchah" - not so with a meal offering: the taking of the kometz, which is the primary act, has no direct effect on permitting the frankincense, since the frankincense is offered first. They are two separate matirim, functioning in parallel, and "one matir does not render another matir pigul" - therefore an improper intention regarding the frankincense at the time of taking the kometz does not turn everything into pigul.
The Sages disagree: the frankincense and the kometz are brought in a single vessel and come together as one. True, one may be burned before the other, but nevertheless they are part of one unified whole - a single meal offering in the same vessel, performed as one process. Therefore an improper intention regarding the frankincense at the time of taking the kometz does indeed cause pigul, and this is the halachah.
In summary: a meal offering has four essential services - kemitzah, placing in a vessel, carrying and burning - and three components that are subject to pigul: the kometz, the frankincense and the shirayim. The kometz parallels in its role the blood of an animal offering, while the frankincense is an additional matir parallel to it, unlike the eimurim, which are only permitted items. From here comes the dispute in our Mishnah: according to Rabbi Yosei they are two separate matirim, and "one matir does not render another matir pigul"; according to the Sages they are one unified whole, and an intention to offer beyond its proper time regarding the frankincense at the time of taking the kometz renders everything pigul.