When I learned the Mishnah 77b, I asked someone what the mishnah's need is to teach us פרוס is pasul, if the measurements of each loaf are precise and 1/10 must be taken as terumah and if a fractional piece of the bread is taken, it won't equal the correct amount of terumah.
מתני' מכולם היה נוטל אחד מעשרה תרומה שנאמר והקריב ממנו אחד מכל קרבן תרומה לה' אחד שלא יטול פרוס מכל קרבן שיהו כל הקרבנות שוות שלא יטול מקרבן על חבירו לכהן הזורק את דם השלמים לו יהיה והשאר נאכל לבעלים: גמ' תנו רבנן והקריב ממנו מן המחובר אחד שלא יטול פרוס מכל קרבן שיהו כל הקרבנות שוות שלא יטול מן הקרבן על חבירו
That person answered that the mishnah's rule teaching us פרוס is pasul refers only to where a full loaf crumbles and one is trying to use the full volume of one loaf but in broken crumby form.
I noted today in the parsha Tzav, perek 7, pasuk 12, ois 12 in sifsei chachamim
To me the logic/math of this sifse chachamim only works if פרוס means a fractional piece of the bread and NOT the entire bread broken into pieces. If it meant the entire bread broken into pieces, there would appear to be no logic or correct math in what he's saying, thus a strong indication sifsei chachamim did not learn that way and could only have learned that פרוס means a fractional piece of the bread.
That brings us back to needing to resolve the question posed as the mishnah's need to teach usפרוס is pasul, if the measurements of each loaf are precise and 1/10 must be taken as terumah and if a fractional piece of the bread is taken, it won't equal the correct amount of terumah. Perhaps the answer is that the mishna is repeating the limud of the pasuk about פרוס and the very point of the pasuk teaching us that is to make the limud that the sifsei chachamim described work.
כך מפורש במנחות. נאמר כאן תרומה ליי ונאמר בתרומת מעשר תרומה ליי, מה להלן אחד מעשרה אף כאן אחד מעשרה, ולמדנו שכל מין ומין היו עשרה חלות, שאם היו פחות מעשרה או יתר על עשרה א"א שיהא עשירית מכל מין, אלא חתיכה מן החלה אחת או חצי החלה, והתורה אמרה אחד מכל קרבן, שפירושו אחד שלם מכל מין, שלא יטול פרוס:
Daniel Gray
Hi Daniel,
Thank you for your detailed and thoughtful question. You already suggested a possible direction, and I am inclined to agree with your final proposal, that everything is really one Limud from the Pasuk. Since the Torah requires "Echad" and not a "Parus," it follows that there must be ten complete loaves, and one complete loaf is taken for the Kohen.
I would add an additional point. There is an explicit Shi'ur of flour for the loaves, as is detailed in Menachos Perek 7. Without the Pasuk that disqualifies a "Parus," one might have thought that a person could take half of a larger loaf, where that half itself is equal in size to a standard loaf. In such a case, the measurement would be correct, yet it would still be invalid because it is a "Parus."
According to this, the Mishnah is not teaching something redundant, but emphasizing that even when the Shi'ur is exact, the requirement of "Echad" demands a complete loaf and not a broken piece.
What do you think?
Kol Tuv,
Aharon Steiner
The issue with that answer is inherent in your words: There is an explicit Shi'ur of flour for the loaves, as is detailed in Menachos Perek 7. Without the Pasuk that disqualifies a "Parus," one might have thought that a person could take half of a larger loaf, where that half itself is equal in size to a standard loaf.
There is a explicit Shi'ur of flour for the loaves, one cannot make a double loaf with double Shi'ur of flour, to even reach a possibility of taking half of a larger loaf, where that half itself is equal in size to a standard loaf.
Why can't he theoretically make a double-size loaf and while making it, be Makdish just half of it? Would that be okay without the Mi'ut of "Echad v'Lo Parus"?
Aharon Steiner