Menachos, Chapter 4, Mishnah 3. In this mishnah we continue to discuss the special offerings brought on Shavuos - the lambs of Atzeres and the two loaves - and the question of the relationship between them.
Background: the thirteen animals that come with the two loaves:
As was explained in the previous mishnah, altogether thirteen animals are brought in connection with the two loaves:
Eleven animals - very similar to the eleven animals brought as part of the Musaf of Shavuos: one bull, two rams, three lambs and a goat for a sin offering.
The two lambs of Atzeres - peace offerings that accompany the two loaves and are waved together with the two loaves.
The mishnah opens by stating: "HaPar veha'eilim vehakevasim vehasa'ir einam me'akvin es halechem, velo halechem me'akvan" - the eleven special animals brought in connection with the two loaves are not dependent on the loaves, and the loaves are not dependent on them. If there is no bread, the animals are offered; and if there are no animals, the bread is brought. Although they come together, they are not bound up with one another, and on this everyone agrees.
The question: the relationship between the lambs of Atzeres and the two loaves:
We learned that the sanctity takes effect on the loaves with the waving, after which comes the slaughtering of the two lambs and finally the offering of their blood, which permits the kohanim to eat the two loaves. Bear in mind that the entire use of the two loaves, apart from the waving, is by the kohanim alone; they do not go up on the mizbeach at all, since they are chametz. Hence the question: what is the relationship between the lambs of Atzeres and the two loaves - does one hold up the other?
The view of Rabbi Akiva:
"Halechem me'akev es hakevasim, vehakevasim einam me'akvin es halechem" - this is the opinion of Rabbi Akiva. If there are no two loaves, the lambs of Atzeres are not brought, since they are a single package: no two loaves, no lambs of Atzeres. But if there are no lambs, for whatever reason, the two loaves are still brought. They are not waved together with the lambs; rather they are made and the kohanim eat them, and that is all there is to them. Surprisingly, this is how the Rambam rules as a matter of halachah.
The view of Rabbi Shimon ben Nanas:
Opposite him there is the reverse approach, which is the halachah according to the Ra'avad: "Amar Rabbi Shimon ben Nanas: lo ki, ela hakevasim me'akvin es halechem, vehalechem eino me'akev es hakevasim". If there are no lambs for the lambs of Atzeres, the two loaves are not brought; but if there are no loaves, because no wheat is available, for example, the two lambs of Atzeres are still offered.
Rabbi Shimon ben Nanas brings a proof from a historical precedent: when Israel were in the wilderness for forty years, they lived on the manna - bread from heaven, but not actual bread. They had no wheat and they were wandering, and therefore they could not prepare the loaves; but they did have the lambs they had taken out of Egypt, and those they offered. His tradition is therefore that during those forty years "karvu kevasim belo lechem" - the lambs of Atzeres were offered without the accompanying bread. And from here: "af kan yikrevu kevasim belo lechem" - so too now, in Eretz Yisrael, if it happens that there is no bread, the two lambs of Atzeres are offered even without bread.
The View of Rabbi Shimon:
The Mishnah adds: "Amar Rabbi Shimon: halachah k'divrei ben Nanas, aval ein hata'am k'divrav" - Rabbi Shimon said: The halachah follows the words of ben Nanas, but not for the reason he gave. Rabbi Shimon - this is Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai - agrees with the conclusion, that one may bring the lambs without the bread but not the bread without the lambs, but in his view the reason for this is different.
Background: Chumash HaPekudim and Toras Kohanim:
The musaf offerings - all the musaf offerings are stated in Parashas Pinchas in the book of Bamidbar, the book that Chazal and the Mishnah call "Chumash HaPekudim," the Book of Numberings.
The other offerings - including the special offerings that accompany the two loaves of Shavuos, are stated in the book of Vayikra, which Chazal and the Mishnah call "Toras Kohanim" - literally, the laws of the kohanim.
According to Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, the offerings mentioned in Toras Kohanim were not brought in the wilderness, but only after Israel entered Eretz Yisrael, whereas the offerings mentioned in Chumash HaPekudim were indeed brought in the wilderness. Accordingly, the special Shavuos offerings, including the Atzeres lambs, were not brought at all during the years in the wilderness. It follows that ben Nanas's assumption - that the Atzeres lambs were brought in the wilderness but there was no bread to accompany them - is incorrect, and no proof can be drawn from that episode. Rabbi Shimon further explains that once they entered Eretz Yisrael the service was carried out in full, and they brought everything just as the Torah specifies.
Rabbi Shimon's Reason: The Blood Is What Permits:
Why, then, may the Atzeres lambs be brought even without bread? Because what permits the animals - that their fats be burned on the altar and that the kohanim eat their meat - is the blood. The blood is present, so there is something that permits; the blood of the lambs permits the lambs themselves, and they do not need the bread.
But if a person has only loaves of bread and there are no lambs accompanying them, there is nothing to permit the bread, since what permits it is the blood of the lambs: no blood, no permitting agent, and no eating of the bread. And since the bread cannot be eaten, there is nothing at all to be done with this offering, and therefore it is not brought. This is the deficiency in bread without lambs, and the halachah is decided in accordance with Rabbi Shimon.
In summary: In this Mishnah we learned that the eleven animals brought together with the two loaves do not hold back the bread, nor does the bread hold them back. Regarding the Atzeres lambs there is a dispute: Rabbi Akiva holds that the bread holds back the lambs but not the reverse, and this is how the Rambam rules; Rabbi Shimon ben Nanas holds the opposite - the lambs hold back the bread, and his proof is from the forty years in the wilderness, when lambs were brought without bread, and this is the halachah according to the Ra'avad; and Rabbi Shimon agrees with his conclusion but rejects his reason, since the offerings of Toras Kohanim were not brought in the wilderness at all, and he bases the reason on the permitting agent: the blood of the lambs permits both itself and the bread, and without it the bread has nothing to permit it. This, then, is a dispute over the question of what holds back what.