Resources for Chagigah daf 26

1.     The גמרא says that the קדר is believed even if his “אפּיקרסותו” is in the jug. רש"י explains that the word אפּיקרסותו means משקין טמאים. See the רמב"ם inהלכות מטמאי משכב ומושב פּרק י"א הל׳ ה who says that אפּיקרסותו means the קדר’s clothing which are treated as טמא מדרס. See the טורי אבן who asks on רש"י that we never find the word אפּיקרסותו meaning משקין, and רש"י himself in מ"ק דף כ"ב ע"ב said it meant clothing so why did he change here? He leaves it as a question.

2.     The גמרא says that “תמיד” is not said by the מנורה. Both רש"י andתוספות  in ד"ה מנורה explain that it was not תמיד  in the sense that the מנורה was not lit during the daytime. Even though the word "תמיד" is mentioned by the מנורה, that word refers to consistency (every night) but not 24/7. See the רמב"ן in שמות פּרק כ"ז פּסוק כ who disagrees and says that while most of the candles did not have to be lit by day, the נר מערבי did have to be lit all 24 hours and that is what the word תמיד is referring to. See the רמב"ם in הלכות תמידין ומוספין פּרק ג הל׳ י who says that there were two separate lightings of the מנורה -one by day and one by night and both were a מצות עשה. The simple reading of it sounds like all the candles needed to be lit the entire day. See the מנחת חינוך in מצוה צ"ח who says the רמב"ם learned this from the word תמיד. He asks on the רמב"ם from our סוגיא which says clearly that there is no תמיד by מנורה. This is a question on the רמב"ן as well. There is an important גור ארי-ה on the first פּסוק in תצוה that says that the word תמיד mentioned by the שלחן vs the one mentioned by the מנורה  refer to totally different things. The word תמיד by the שלחן is a הלכה in the שלחן itself (meaning שלחן must always be there so it can always have bread) whereas the word תמיד by the מנורה refers to the הדלקת הנרות but not the מנורה itself. Therefore, it was not as crucial to ask the ע"ה not to touch it, and we would not say there is "תמיד" by the מנורה itself.

3.     The גמרא says that they lifted up the שלחן during the עלי-ה לרגל to show everyone Hashem’s love for the Jewish people that the לחם הפּנים stayed the same a week later as when it was placed there originally. There is a fundamental question here: did they literally take the שלחן out of the היכל and show it to everyone standing there? Presumably not. In fact, both רש"י on the משנה and תוספות ד"ה שלא say that they would tell the כהנים עמי הארץ not to touch the שלחן as they may go in to the היכל to bow down. It sounds like the שלחן did not come out. If so, how did the people know it was still fresh? By contrast, see the רמב"ם inהלכות מטמאי משכב ומושב פּרק י"א הל׳ י"א who says that they told the general populace not to touch the שלחן and not just the כהנים. The משנה למלך there points out that this should indicate that according to the רמב"ם they actually took the שלחן out to the people in the עזרה. (While this explains how the people knew it was fresh, it begs the question how they were allowed to move the שלחן when there is a requirement of תמיד. The חזון אי"ש says it must be a גזרת הכתוב to allow it during the רגל.) According to רש"י and תוספות, we are left with a question, how did the people see that bread was still fresh? See the ריטב"א in יומא דף כ"א who answers that the bread was so hot that you could see the steam coming off of it from afar (this answer would not work for תוספות himself who says the bread wasn’t hot at all and was just fresh). See the שו"ת הרב"ז in חלק וּ סימן ב אלפים קע"ח who says that they showed the לחם הפּנים to the people on שבת חול המועד when they were actually taking it out for the כהנים to eat. However, they only moved the שלחן itself a little so people could see that the bread they were seeing was the same bread that was taken out of the היכל.