Parsha discussion

Question:  Why is the prohibition of eating קדשים whilst טמא mentioned twice in consecutive פסוקים? Approach:  There is a subtle difference between the two פסוקים. The first seems to refer to a situation where the person started eating in a state of טהרה and then became טמא. Whereas the second seems to be a situation whereby the person was טמא before starting to eat. Perhaps, we need the first case to teach us that - even though the start was permissible - one would need to stop immediately. And then the second case is needed to teach us that the punishment is identical in both cases, even though we may have thought otherwise since the second case would appear to be more severe.

Question:  Why are the details of how the קרבנות מנחה are sacrificed separated out? Approach:  The second set of rules appears in the rules relating to the מנחת מרחשת. The major difference between this type of מנחה and the types mentioned previously is the quantity of oil; the previous ones seemed to have relatively little oil (as indicated by the terms יצק and בלילה), whereas the מרחשת seems to have a lot of oil, as implied by the words מנחה בשמן. As such, the practicalities of how the offering is brought is going to be different.  And then, as this is the last of the major types of מנחה, the sundry rules about what else must (salt) and what cannot (leavening & honey) be put on the מנחה are listed.

  Question:  Why is there no detail of what the זהב was used for, in sharp distinction to כסף & נחשת? Approach:  Perhaps it was felt that initially, no detail or accounting was necessary for the donations received. However, the silver was given by a fixed "tax" by everyone, and hence the full amount should be accounted for. Once accounting was done, it was also applied to the נחשת.

Question:  31:8 What is meaning of the designation of the מנורה being טהורה? Especially as this description is not given earlier (see 30:27) Approach:  It would seem to me that the designation relates to the difficulty of preparing the מנורה from a single piece of metal. And hence why it appears here, where we're told of the craftsmen who will be responsible for the actual formation. The only other time it appears in ספר שמות is when the final products are presented to משה, which would imply that the task was done successfully.