Why Every Meal Offering Is Forbidden to Be Made as Leaven

Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 451:2

From where do we learn to include the other meal offerings? Scripture teaches by saying "the whole meal offering" (Leviticus 6:10). One might think that I have only those meal offerings whose remnants are eaten, that they may not be made as leaven; from where do I include meal offerings whose remnants are not eaten? Scripture teaches by saying "the whole meal offering that you bring to the LORD." Rabbi Yose the Galilean says: this comes to include the showbread. Rabbi Akiva says: it comes to include the meal offering that accompanies the drink offerings. "It shall not be made as leaven" (Leviticus 2:11). One might think there is a single prohibition covering all of them together; Scripture teaches by saying "it shall not be baked as leaven" (Leviticus 6:10). Baking was already included in the general rule, so why was it singled out? To draw a comparison to it and to tell you: just as baking is distinctive in that it is a single discrete act and one is liable for it on its own, so too I include the kneading and the shaping, and for every act involved in it one becomes liable on its own.

Themes