Menachos chapter 5, mishnah 8. In this mishnah we turn to practical matters. As we recall, the five types of voluntary meal offerings are:
Minchas HaSoles - a raw meal offering that undergoes neither cooking nor baking.
Minchas Machavas and Minchas Marcheshes - two meal offerings that are fried in a vessel.
Minchas Chalos and Minchas Rekikin - two baked meal offerings.
Our mishnah deals with the two fried offerings, while the following mishnah will deal with the two baked ones.
"Ha'omer harei alai b'machavas":
A person who takes a formal vow to bring a meal offering, and specifies in his vow that he will bring an offering fried in a machavas - that is, in a flat vessel - "lo yavi marcheshes" - he may not prepare his offering in a deep vessel. And if he did bring it in a marcheshes, the offering he brought is indeed accepted, but it does not discharge his obligation, and he must bring an additional offering made specifically in a machavas. For his vow was specifically for a machavas.
And so too the reverse: one who obligates himself to bring an offering "b'marcheshes", which is the deep pan, "lo yavi b'machavas" - he may not bring an offering prepared in a flat vessel.
"U'mah bein machavas l'marcheshes?"
That is, what is the practical difference between the two vessels? On this the Tannaim disagree:
The view of Rabbi Yosi HaGelili: "Marcheshes yesh lah kisuy u'machavas ein lah kisuy" - the marcheshes has a cover and the machavas has no cover. In his opinion, which he received as a tradition from his teachers, the defining feature distinguishing the two is not the shape of the vessel but the cover: both vessels are of one type, except that one has a lid and the other does not. The marcheshes - from the word "rocheshes", movement and quivering - produces the softer product, and it is made in a vessel that is covered with a lid, whereas the machavas is a flat vessel without a cover.
The view of Rabbi Chanina ben Gamliel, and the halachah follows him: "Marcheshes amukah uma'aseha rochashin, u'machavas tzafah uma'aseha kashin" - the marcheshes is a deep vessel, and therefore the product that comes out of it is soft and quivering, something like a sponge cake; and the machavas is flat, and therefore the product that comes out of it is firm and hard.
Rashi's explanation:
Rashi explains along the lines presented above: the difference lies solely in the shape of the vessel, and from that follows the difference in the product. The marcheshes is a deep vessel, so the dough sits inside the oil and fries in it, and the result is soft and spongy. The machavas is flat, and the oil spills off it to the sides, and therefore the product comes out hard and firm, something like a biscuit.
The explanation of the Rambam and the Bartenura:
The Rambam explains, and it seems the Bartenura follows his approach, that the difference is broader and touches the batter itself. A deep vessel with walls allows one to prepare a looser batter in it, with a greater amount of water, and therefore the finished product comes out spongy. Such a preparation is impossible in a flat vessel, since a runny batter placed on a flat surface would spill over the sides and fall into the fire.
Therefore, when preparing on a flat pan, a thicker dough that holds its place is required. From here stems the difference in the result: the marcheshes produces something like soft cakes made from batter, while the machavas produces thick breads, fried, solid and more firm.
In summary: In this Mishnah we learned that one who vows a machavas meal offering does not fulfill his vow with a marcheshes, and one who vows a marcheshes does not fulfill his vow with a machavas. As to the difference between them the Tannaim disagreed: according to Rabbi Yose HaGelili the difference is in the covering of the vessel, while according to Rabbi Chanina ben Gamliel, and this is the halachah, the marcheshes is deep and its products are soft and quivering, and the machavas is flat and its products are hard. Rashi attributed the difference to the shape of the vessel and to the amount of oil in it, while the Rambam and the Bartenura added that the dough itself is also different: a loose batter in the deep vessel, and a thick dough in the flat vessel.
In the next Mishnah we will deal with the two baked meal offerings - the challos and the rekikin.