Sefer HaChinuch ספר החינוך

The commandment of the procedure of the sacrifice of the peace-offerings: That the priests were commanded that they should execute the peace-offerings (sacrifice) according to the statute that is written in the passage, as it is stated (Leviticus 3:1), “If his sacrifice is a sacrifice of peace-offerings, etc.” And it states further in the completion of the process (Leviticus 7:11-12), “And this is the law of the sacrifice of the peace-offerings[...] If he offers it as a thanksgiving-offering.” And under four names are all matters of sacrifices included. And they are the burnt-offering; the sin-offering; the guilt-offering; and the peace-offerings. As any sacrifice offered by the community or the individual is always from one of them. I have already written twice that we should not write the roots for these processes (Sefer HaChinukh 138).

The laws of the commandment are that which they, may their memory be blessed, said (Menachot 107b) that the peace-offerings come from sheep, goats and cattle, whether male or female and whether large or small. And fowl does not come as peace-offerings. And from eight days old to a full year — from day to day (according to the calendar date) — is called small. If the year is intercalated, it is intercalated for it — meaning to say, it will be small until the completion of the [extra month]. And from one year until three years is called large with cattle; and from a year until two full years with sheep. More than this is old and we do not sacrifice it. And there are four types of peace-offerings: one is a communal peace-offering and three are individual peace-offerings. Communal peace-offerings are called higher-level consecrated foods (kodshei kodashim); but regarding peace-offerings, the community only has one [type] of sacrifice — and that is the two sheep that come with the two breads on [Shavuot]. These two sheep are called the sacrifices of the communal peace-offerings and are eaten by priests — except for the entrails — like the sin-offering and the guilt-offering. Their processes — such as their slaughter, sprinkling, flaying, dissection, salting and the incineration of their entrails — are explained in Menachot 20a. And individual peace-offerings are called lower-level consecrated foods (kodshim kalim). And the place of their slaughter and the procedure of the sprinkling, flaying, dissection, waving and the separation of the entrails is explained in Menachot 61a. And these three types of individual peace-offerings are the same in these processes. But you should know the matter of the difference between them in some of their matters more generally.

You should know that of the three types of individual peace-offerings: The first is the sacrifice of peace-offerings which comes without bread, and those are the peace-offerings of the festival and of joy — and these are called [just] peace-offerings; and the second are peace-offerings that come with the well-known bread, and those are the ones that come for a vow or an oath — and these peace-offerings are called thanksgiving, and the bread that comes with it is called the bread of thanksgiving; and the third type of peace-offerings are the ones that a nazirite brings on the day of the fulfillment of the days of his naziriteship, and they also come with bread — and these peace-offerings are called the ram of the nazirite. And they, may their memory be blessed, elucidated there in the Gemara (Chullin 134b) what is the measure of their breast and leg that were eaten by the priests, and also the measure of the cooked forearm from the ram of the nazirite that was eaten besides the breast and the leg, and in which place of the [Temple] they cooked it.

And the laws of the bread (Menachot 76b) that comes with the two types of peace-offerings — and they are the thanksgiving and the ram of the nazirite: from how many issaron it is (made); which one of them comes [also] as chamets and which one comes only as matsah; how the one that comes as chamets and matsah is divided; how they are leavened; the tally of the loaves that come as matsah — how many of them are baked in the oven and how many are soaked with oil or roasted in oil — it is all in Zevachim. (It should say Menachot.)

And the content of those that came as matsah with the thanksgiving offering was like this: They would make thirty loaves from the ten issaron of flour. Ten of them were made by baking in the oven, meaning to say that nothing was done to them, except for putting an eighth of a log of oil into its dough, as such is a law of Moshe from Sinai. And ten of them are called rekikin (soaked in oil); but there is no difference between the ten that were soaked and the ten that were oven-baked, except that with the ten that were oven-baked, they would mix the eighth of a log of oil at the time of kneading, but with the soaked ones, they would smear the eighth of a log of oil after their being baked in the oven. And ten of them are called murbakhot (roasted in oil) — and the understanding of roasting is that they would scald the loaf in boiling water and bake it a little, and afterwards roast it in oil, in the way that people roast (fry) donuts in a pan. And it is roasted in the oil of the ten roasted ones, as the oil in which [each one] was roasted was a fourth of a log, [which when totaled] is the measure of all the oil of the [other] twenty loaves — and the measure of oil of the roasted ones is also a law of Moshe from Sinai. And that which we said is the understanding of murbakhot in every place in the Torah. And it is explained there (Menachot 77b), how much the share of the priest is in the loaves — and the rest is eaten by the owners. And the rest of all of its details are in Tractate Zevachim.

And the commandment of peace-offerings is practiced by the males of the priesthood, as the obligation of the service is upon them. And one who transgresses it and changes their arrangement in ways that are known in the Gemara has violated a positive commandment — aside from [the fact] that there are ways through which the sacrifice is disqualified.