HOW "KEMITZA" IS DONE (Menachos 11a)
(a) Question (Abaye): How is Kemitza done?
(b) Answer (Rava): The way people normally do this (with all the fingers.)
(c) Question (Beraisa): (Each finger is needed for Kodshim -) the pinky for the Zeres (the measure of the Choshen), the ring finger (is the first finger used for Kemitza), the middle finger (for the measure of an Amah), the index finger (for Haza'as Dam), the thumb (for Matanos Dam and oil on a Metzora.)
(d) Answer (Rava): When I said that all the fingers are used, I did not mean that they all hold flour - the pinky and thumb only wipe away excess sticking out of the middle three fingers.
(e) Question: How does the ring finger begin Kemitza?
(f) Answer (Mar Zutra bar Tuvya): He bends back the middle three fingers until the palm, taking the flour inside.
(g) Support (Beraisa) Suggestion: "Melo* (full) Kumtzo" - perhaps it should be overflowing!
- Rejection: "B'Kumtzo" (it must be inside his hand).
- Suggestion: "B'Kumtzo" - perhaps he should curl the fingers tightly!
- Rejection: "Melo Kumtzo".
- Resolution: He bends back the middle three fingers until the palm, taking the flour inside.
- In Minchas Machavas or Marcheshes (baked dough), he wipes away the excess (protruding pieces) using the pinky and thumb.
- And this is one of the difficult services performed in the Bais HaMikdash (to break the protruding pieces at exactly the right point so the kometz would not be deficient or excessive).
WHAT IS THE DEFINITION OF KUMTZO?
- Gur Aryeh – expression of what is within the three fingers
- Radak – expression of קובץ ואסיפה; one is able to gather together and hold much
- R’ Bachayei – חורו expression of creating an empty space (a hole) which is to be filled
His Full Kometz מלא קמצו and With His Kometz בקמצו: At first the Torah (VaYikra 2,2 & 5,12) says that the Kohen takes “his full kometz.” Thus, the entire Kemitza is essential for its validity (Menachos 27a). However, VaYikra 6,8 states that he performs the Kemitza בקמצו “with his kometz.” (The term Kometz refers both to the cavity formed when the Kohen closes his three fingers over his palm and to the flour and oil that he scoops up in that cavity.) The modified wording is expounded to teach that he must perform the Kemitza by hand (with his Kometz).
Thus, verse VaYikra 6,8 implies by use of the prefix ב, two ideas reflecting the limitation of this prefix:
- Not to use a vessel to measure but to do specifically using only one’s hand
- Cut off the excess; one is able to brush off so that only the mixture inside the 3 fingers is the Kometz. The prefix “in” implies that only the flour held within his grasp is eligible to be offered.
HAMAN AND KEMITZA
The verse recited when the Torah is raised says, "THIS is the Torah." For those who have this pointing custom with their pinky it is to demonstrate that Torah is here, now, tangible and relevant. Why the pinky? (1) The pinky is the humblest of the fingers, and Torah is acquired through humility (2) The pinky had an important function in the Holy Temple service of "Kemitza" gathering a three-finger's full of flour meal required for a meal-offering, minus the pinky amount which remained unclosed. The Gemara (Megilah 16a) relates that when Haman went looking for Mordechai to parade him around on the King's horse, he found him studying Torah. And what was the subject matter? They were talking about this Kemitza measurement of flour-meal (He was teaching the students to get ready for the Omer since this event occurred on the 16th of Nissan). Haman was incredulous - this little three-finger worth of flour outweighed the 10,000 talents of silver he offered to the King! So by pointing the pinky, we're highlighting the power of Torah. (Chabad's custom is not to point a pinky or any finger, but to simply gaze at the words and letters of the open Torah).
The blessing on the sun takes place when it reaches its original point in the heavens, which occurs every 28 years in the month of Nissan. Recently was the 206th Bircas Hachamah since creation. This happens on the fourth day of the week, because on the fourth day of creation Hashem created the sun, the moon, and the stars. Some say that on erev Pesach of the year recorded in the events of the Megilah, Mordechai was teaching the Jewish children the laws of Kemitza, Some say that year Bircas Hachamah also fell out on the fourteenth of the month and on that day—after Bircas Hachamah and Mordechai learning Torah with the children —HaShem turned the judgment from Am Yisrael onto Haman and his ten sons.
G-d gave man five fingers on each hand. The first is called the godel (thumb); the second is the etzba; the third is called the amah; the fourth is the Kemitza; and the fifth, the little finger, is called the zeres (pinky). (R’ Bachayei)
If some of the flour protrudes beneath the fourth finger (the Kemitza is done with the second, third and fourth fingers) the little finger is used to level it off so that the kometz will not be excessive.
Other difficult services in the Bais haMikdash:
- Melichah (unique manner in slaughtering bird offerings): The Kohen holds the legs and wings between his fingers and cuts the back of its neck with his thumbnail. Rambam says the Kohen holds the bird in his left hand and performs melichah with his right hand and the difficulty lies in the pain endured by the Kohen in pushing the thumbnail through the bird’s neck-bone. Tosfos maintains that the Kohen has to grasp the bird in his right and do melichah with the same hand, the difficulty lying in the unusual manual dexterity necessary to accomplish this act.
- Chanifah (service done by the Kohen Gadol in the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur): the Kohen Gadol cups his hands together to hold the ketores which is poured from the ladle. Without putting the ladle down, he must use his fingertips or his teeth to tilt the contents into his hands.
