Hey there, and welcome back to Take One, the podcast that brings you just one

thoughtful page of Talmud each day.

And today's page, Menachot 74 begins with drain pipes, but evokes, as per usual, with the

tamlid, the greatest, most profound lessons imaginable.

Let's jump right in.

The Gamara asks, and are there no additional cases of sacrificial items that are completely

placed on the altar with none of their parts given to the priests?

But isn't there the burnt offering, which is completely burnt on the altar?

The Gamara answers.

There is the burnt offerings hide, which is given to the priests.

The Gamara asks, but isn't there the bird sacrifice as a burnt offering whose skin is not given to the priests? The Gamar asks, but isn't there the bird sacrifice as a burnt offering, whose skin is

not given to the priests? The Gamar answers, there is the bird burnt offerings crop and its feathers,

which are not burned upon the altar. The gamar asks, but aren't there wine libations which are

completely poured onto the altar? The gamar answers, the libations go to the

drain pipes, and pouring the wine into the drain pipes is not considered placing it upon the altar.

And so, we learn about the chitin, or those drain pipes, which, according to the late-great

Rabbi Adin Steinseltz were hollow spaces in and beneath the altar.

They opened as two small holes on the southwest corner of the altar,

and the blood and the wine libations would run from them to the water tunnel under the Temple Mount

and from there to the Kidron Valley.

You may think that's a mere technical side note just for us

completists eager to know exactly how the temple functioned. But elsewhere in the Talmud,

...