Where the Priest May Take the Handful of Flour

Rabbi Elazar said: a meal offering whose handful was taken inside the sanctuary hall is valid, for so we find with the removal of the bowls of frankincense from the showbread table. Rabbi Jeremiah objected from the verse "and he shall take a handful from there" (Leviticus 6:8) — from the place where the feet of the non-priest stand, [meaning the courtyard, not the hall]. Ben Beteira says: from where do we know that if he took the handful with his left hand he must take it again with his right? The verse says "and he shall take a handful from there" — from the place where he already took the handful. This teaching is needed only to render fit the entire courtyard for taking the handful. Rather, it was necessary, for it might have entered your mind to say: since it is written "and he shall bring it near to the priest and bring it close to the altar, and he shall lift up" (verses 8-9), then just as the bringing close is at the southwest corner, so too the taking of the handful must be at the southwest corner. The verse therefore comes to teach us that this is not so.