Masechet Menachot, Perek Aleph, Mishnah Aleph: The korban (offering) minchah, a flour offering, has to be offered with certain precautions and certain proper kavanot (intentions). There are four main avodot, the main different steps when offering a korban minchah. Number one, there is kemitzah, which is the scooping up of the flour with the three middle fingers on a person's right hand. Number two, netinah ba-kli, placing it in a kli sharet, a sacred vessel of the Beit HaMikdash. Holachah is walking the kometz (scooped handful) that a person placed in the kli sharet to the Mizbeach (altar). And fourth is haktarah, the burning of the kometz on the Mizbeach. These are parallel to the four main avodot done with a korban as it is slaughtered and eventually thrown on. So the actions of the Kohen (priest) here have to be done a certain way, but his intentions also have to be a certain way. An improper intention could, in certain scenarios, invalidate a korban. In this Mishnah, we'll talk about offering up a minchah with the intention that it should be a different type of korban minchah. There are a variety of different types of korbanot when it comes to the flour offerings. The person had the wrong flour offering in mind. We'll talk through different cases.
Mishnah says. Says the Mishnah: “All types of minchah offerings was kemitzah.” The scooping up with the three middle fingers was done not for the sake of the korban minchah that a person was supposed to do, but for the sake of a different type of korban minchah. The korban minchah still remains valid and the offering proceeds as normal, but the korban minchah that he brought does not count toward fulfilling an obligation, and therefore he would have to bring another one. Let's say he vowed to bring a certain type of korban minchah, and his kavanah was to offer a different type of korban minchah. He proceeds as normal, but he does not fulfill the vow that he made, and therefore he would have to bring another korban minchah that was done appropriately, with the proper kavanot.
The exception to this rule is the minchat choteh, the minchah offering of a sinner, and the Minchat Kena'ot, the minchah offering of a sotah (woman suspected of adultery). If these are offered with improper intention—in other words, if they are offered for a different type of minchah, a different type of korban—they become completely invalidated. The minchat choteh that we just mentioned is a minchah brought by a poor person instead of bringing a regular animal chatat (sin-offering) for the violation of one of three sins. Number one, if a person entered the Beit HaMikdash when he was impure, or he ate kodashim, he ate from holy food while he was impure. That's one. Number two, if he swore falsely that he didn't know of a piece of testimony that could have helped somebody in a trial that had to do with money, that's called shevu'at ha'edut (oath of testimony). And lastly, if he violated a sota, swear that he made a shevu'at bitui (oath of utterance). In all these cases, he would have to bring a minchat choteh. A Minchat Kena'ot is the korban minchah that a husband has to bring when he's bringing his wife in on trial as a sotah. The Minchat Kena'ot is the minchah of jealousy. So in these two cases, if the improper intention was there, then those two minchah offerings do not proceed and are not offered on the Mizbeach.
We learned this out from a gezerah shavah (verbal analogy) about a korban chatat. If a korban chatat is brought with improper kavanot, if it's brought to be a different type of korban, it's completely invalid and is not brought on the Mizbeach, and we connect it to a korban chatat, to the minchat choteh. It's the same type of thing. So we connect it to that, and we also connect it to the Minchat Kena'ot as well, all through limudim (derivations), all through different pesukim (verses) that chachamim (sages) connected to. And that will bring down the different types of proper and improper intentions that a person could have to invalidate these two mentioned menachot.
Mishnah continues. If a person took a kemitzah of flour from either a minchat choteh or a Minchat Kena'ot, not for its own sake, but for the sake of a different type of minchah, “natan ba-kli v'halach v'hiktir shelo lishman,” or he took the kometz in a kli sharet, or he brought the kometz to the Mizbeach, or he burnt it on the Mizbeach, not for its own sake, but for the sake of a different type of korban minchah; or “lishman v'shelo lishman,” or he did one of these avodot with a partial improper kavanah, he did it for its own sake, for the sake of the minchat choteh or the Minchat Kena'ot, and also for the sake of another type of minchah. So he had an improper intention about something else in the middle of one of the avodot that he was doing; or “shelo lishman v'lishman,” or he did the opposite: he did one of the avodot with the intention that it should not be for the sake of the minchat choteh or the Minchat Kena'ot, and then he switched his mind and also had it for its own sake. In all of these cases that we just mentioned, pesulot—the minchat choteh and the Minchat Kena'ot are completely invalid—because one of the avodot wasn't done properly. For these two types of menachot to be valid, all four avodot that we mentioned have to be completely done with proper kavanah, so that it's for that type of minchah.
“Ketzad lishman v'shelo lishman,” what's an example of an avodah done for its own sake and not for its own sake, but for the sake of a different korban minchah? “L'shem minchat choteh, l'shem minchat nedavah”: let's say somebody did an avodah, and he had it both for the sake of the minchat choteh and also in his mind for a voluntary donated minchah. “O shelo lishman v'lishman,” what's an example of an avodah done not for its own sake and also for its own sake? “L'shem minchat nedavah, l'shem minchat choteh”: he did the avodah both for the sake of a voluntary donated minchah, which is on the outside, and also for the sake of a sinner's minchah, which is the korban we're talking about. And therefore, since it wasn't a full proper kavanah, for the person who's bringing this korban, the minchah is not accepted and is not burned or offered on the Mizbeach.