Talking Talmud

How accessible does the food in the eruv need to be? What if you're a kohen, and you know that some of your food is terumah, and some is terumah that has been rendered impure? What can you eat? What happens if the status of your food is about to change (the next day, for example)? Is it sufficient to be available before Shabbat? What about the case of "tivul yom" (What's What)? It seems that the p...

A detour: When someone becomes a "zav" and is impure, that impurity can be transferred to an item simply by moving the item. But only if it's a kli, utensil, not if it's a tent that moves. And depending on what makes it move. Back to Eruvin: What happens if your eruv techumin is no longer available to be an eruv - if it rolls outside of the techum, if it's been destroyed, or rendered impure... Plu...

Do you really need to bring the eruv techumin to the place where you want to set up the eruv? (In the case where Shabbat follows yom tov) Perhaps the concept of the eruv is sufficient, without having a physical eruv set up. But the case of when yom tov falls *after* Shabbat is exactly one that poses a difficulty for that theoretical eruv approach - the theoretical has to be possible! Also, if you...

If you put your eruv good low in a tree, note that if it within 3 tefachim of the ground, it's as if it were on the ground itself. What if you put the eruv food in a basket that hangs from the tree? Will that hanging make a difference? Will it be valid? Can you move the food? Perhaps the eruv first must be in a makom patur, in its own defined domain. Also, how Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi uses the opinion...

Following from the discussion of shlichut, sending an emissary - when can you trust that the system will function the way you've set it up to run? When you appoint a shaliach, can you act thereafter as if the shaliach has done his (or her) job? Or so you need to check in before you take the next step? For example, a woman who has given birth and offers a korban before she can dunk in the mikveh to...

The case of an eruv for a kohen who can eat the terumah (which is pure), and he himself is pure, but the location for the eruv is on a grave (which is impure). Ah, but the terumah has to be prepared or readied to be eligible to be rendered impure. The Gemara gets into a number of details pertaining to the care the kohen must take - an example of the far-reaching permutations for the case, the kind...

When the eruv meal is made on food that the person using the eruv cannot eat (a Nazir and wine, a Yisrael and terumah). That's acceptable to Beit Hillel, but not to Beit Shammai. And then, for a change, Beit Hillel actively attempts to convince Beit Shammai, making a logical argument about an eruv for an adult on Yom Kippur. But Beit Shammai has an answer why they agree with Beit Hillel for the Yo...

How much of certain foods do you need for them to be part of the meal upon which an eruv is established? 2 meals worth of the given food, now jointly owned (for eruv chatzerot), or left in the place of extending your distance (even if you don't eat it). We focus on the beverages this time. First, wine. Depending on the wine, you might need more or less of it. For beer, the discussion revolves arou...

More on the food that is not just food, when it comes to establish an eruv. Greens, herbs, however they are identified by the Gemara's names (which Anne stumbles over): cress and sweet clover and more. Unused (for people) parts of wheat and unripe dates are not eligible for the eruv meal. But what about that sweet clover? It's not good for everyone, so how can it be eligible for this meal? The Gem...

The 3rd perek of Eruvin - beginning with a mishnah that ranges many topics. A joined meal to establish an eruv, also for Eruv Techumin (to extend one's city environs by another 2,000 amot). What about a meal made on maaser sheni?! You sell that produce, and use that money down the road (I'm Jerusalem). [What's What: They cycle of maaser sheni and maaser ani in the shemittah cycle]. What about some...

Terminology: Karpef! (finally). Also, the case if the karpef near the home of the Resh Galuta. Who, in the end, has harsh words for the sages Andrew their figuring and configuring of the eruv. We see some of the tension between the political power, as compared to the sages themselves, in Babylonia, specifically. Plus: Comparing the verse used to criticize the sages to its meaning in its original c...

More on the karpef. What if you demarcate the space with another partition, in addition to the original partition that demarcates it. Also, the inheritance rules for the convert (ger), or acquiring the property from the ger, are a little unexpected. To take possession, one would have to actively improve the land. Plus, the case of a woman who doesn't improve the land to take possession in the acce...

"New faces": More on the courtyard garden area - set up to be part of one's residence, where people may we'll need to carry. What if you take one amah at a time and fence it off? What if you broach the fence and seal it off, to the size of a pomegranate - will that be sufficiently redone, such that it's fundamentally a new item (as per the impure and its repair vs. reconfiguration to a new sandal,...

The focus on the cisterns and wells. Plus, the new mishnah - including 3 unusual statements that are not the halakhah, but are in the mishnah, giving us a window into the crafting of the Mishnah. Also: In determining measurements of the area of an eruv, the daf takes us back to the dimensions of the Mishkan, with all the implications of that comparison.

One who makes himself cruel for the sake of Torah, or Torah study... isn't doing the right thing, which of course should be obvious, but the fact that self-sacrifice for the sake of Torah can go wrong is a worthy point. Now, back to Eruvin topics - what happens when you have an apparent public domain passageway through what would otherwise be a private domain? Do you have to divert the path? Note...

Extending the private domain via the boards around the well, which fundamentally come to include it - and the limitations on this extension. There's a need for access to water - for animals, for people on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, etc. And on this daf, that measure of specificity comes into play. Also: Those limitations become even clearer in the context of "burganim," watchman's towers, and whet...

Note: Apologies for the interference from Yardaena's outdoor setting to record. Setting an enclosure around a well from before Shabbat - what if it dries up over the course of Shabbat? Or dries up and then is filled again by rain, both over the course of Shabbat? Namely, the status over Shabbat has shifted from what it was at the beginning of Shabbat. Does that change the standing of the enclosure...

More aggadot. The gold on the gold-plated altar did not melt in all the years of sacrifices. So too the nature of the Jewish people, who may sin, but have enough mitzvot to their individual credit that the sin has no power over them. Also: 3 entrances to Gehinom - the wilderness (Korach), the sea (Yonah), and Jerusalem. Plus 7 names for Gehinom. How do you get there? By means of mistaken actions o...

A small portion of a long mishnah: the case of arranging boards as an enclosure around a well, where 4 boards look like 8, or 8 that look like 12. The key being the "dyumadim" - double-boards. Then the daf moves on to aggadot connected to that "dyu" (two). Specifically, Adam and Eve, who were also two, but one. Also an observation on Eve as a receptacle for a baby. And the image of God as Adam's "...

What happens if the terms by which you established your eruv change over that Shabbat? Also: The mishnah that closes the chapter - 4 exemptions for those involved in military encampments, including, of course, eruv. Plus: burial of a soldier in the place where he fell. Is he considered a "met mitzvah"? Or does that particular mitzvah only kick in when there's nobody to do the burial? Certainly, in...

Terminology: Parutz, breach. The case of "Parutz ke-omed," when the breached part and the wall part are equal - as disputed by R. Papa and R. Huna. Where the sources and the bottom line don't quite line up. Also, the new mishnah, that follows the previous mishnah. Setting up an eruv out of ropes, when you're on the go, and you need to make camp for Shabbat. Note the debate of horizontal vs. vertic...

What if the lechi was there, in the right spot, with the necessary dimensions, naturally? What if that naturally occurring architecture element can be used as part of your sukkah? And, what if your naturally occurring architectural element is actually alive - not a tree, but an animal? The mishnah indicates that that would be fine, but R. Meir says otherwise. That said, writing a get (a bill of di...

Parameters needed for a koreh and lechi, and a round koreh, with its circumference and diameter... leads to a tangent... King Solomon's pool that was 10 amot across, and 30 amot in circumference (an approximation of our knowledge of πd, or, if you prefer, 2πr). This Yam shel Shlomo answers a question about the brim of a koreh. And what about the volume? As compared to mikvaot (at 40 seah!). Also,...

Who's Who: R. Meir. Including the differences of interpretive approach by R. Yishmael and R. Akiva, and we we don't always pasken halakhah according to R. Meir. Also: Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel - long-term disagreements between them, where both sides are treated as legitimate views, and the halakhah is according to Beit Hillel (who actually taught the Torah of Beit Shammai before presenting thei...

Eruvin 12:  Terminology: Pas/pasim. R. Eliezer visits his student, R. Yosi ben Preida, and the topic of conversation is the student's need for a second lechi on his alleyway. But how big of a need is it? Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai debate the need for lechi and koreh (is that both or either?!). And their debate answers R. Yosi ben Pereira. Now, another case - with only one board (pas) in a c...