Most meal-offerings were made up of fine wheat flour that was mixed with oil and frankincense. On today’s daf (=page) we learn that according to Rav a minhah – a meal-offering – can become sanctified even without its oil, since we find that there is a minhah that is brought without oil, that is, the lehem ha-panim – the Shewbread. Similarly, a minhah can become sanctified even without its levonah – its frankincense, since the minhah that is a wine libation is brought without frankincense (see Bamidbar 15:1-16). Even if both the oil and the levonah were missing the minhah could become sanctified, since we find that a minhat hoteh – the meal-offering brought by a person who commits one of a number of specific sins and cannot afford a more expensive sacrifice, is brought without oil and without levonah (see Vayikra 5:1-13, and in particular, verse 11).
Rabbi Hanina disagrees with Rav, arguing that without all of the ingredients, the flour will not become sanctified.
It should be noted that this discussion is not about actually bringing the meal-offerings when they are missing one or more of their required elements, since the Mishnah later on in Masechet Menahot (daf 27a) makes it clear that each of these elements is essential if the offering is to be brought. The issue at hand is whether the flour will become sanctified if it is placed in one of the Temple vessels even if one (or more) of the ingredients is missing.
While Rav explained his position based on parallels to other types of menahot, Rabbi Hanina offers no explanation for his position. In his Netivot ha-Kodesh, Rabbi Avraham Moshe Salman of Harkov suggests that Rabbi Hanina believes that all of the ingredients are essential for the flour to be considered having the potential to become a meal-offering, and without one of those ingredients even placement in one of the Temple vessels will have no effect.