Talking Talmud

More on moving muktzah, for the sake of needing its place or the item itself. Specifically, terumah, where some is pure and some is impure, in the same basket. Also, coins on a pillow. Notably, the Gemara's careful and close reading of the Mishnah. A side comment on "Gemara logic," and its associative nature, as compared to the linear approach of Greek logic, which underpins much of modern thinkin...

Moving muktzah - when and how can you manage that? When you need the space where the muktzah item is, or when you need the muktzah item for a non-muktzah use. Examples include straw and a press, depending on the rest of the circumstances. Also: Scraping mud off your shoes with a tool... as long as the shoes are new. Similarly, how one can use oil as a moisturizer without working the shoe leather,...

A brief comment on the range of homegrown practices of amud alef. And then the wisdom of R. Hisda (Who's Who), including the general advice and then his personal experience, to Torah students: 1. Don't eat vegetables; 2. Don't share out your bread if you don't have enough; 3. Don't pass up barley bread or beer for wheat bread or wine, because of bal taschit (the Gemara recasts that). Plus his advi...

Cause and effect: If there are troubles in your world, look to what's wrong with the judges of Israel. The rebuke here is explicit, even if we are less comfortable with ascribing blame that directly in this day and age. And so we ask, punishment, or a natural consequence of the messy messiness? Also: 3 questions asked if Levi: spreading a canopy on Shabbat, planting hops in a vineyard, and burial...

How straining wine for its sediment is a concern of making a tent. More, the range of opinions in the dispute about that wine is fodder for concern (on the daf) about how disparate they are (recall the Jerusalem of Gold ornament). Also: A promise, as it were, that the Torah will be forgotten by Israel (the people) in the future, with a prooftext from a verse in Amos. Which is, or course, of great...

Finishing off this chapter on brit milah. What if you do a brit milah on Shabbat that wasn't supposed to happen until Sunday? Or Friday? Interestingly, the dispute here is rooted in a parallel of idolatry. And: Brit milah takes place on the 8th day of the baby's life, but it also can happen in the 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th days, simply because of how the calendar works out. And of course the brit dela...

Warning: Infant mortality. In the world of the Talmud, a baby was viable if carried to term at 9 months, and also viable at 7 months, but not those delivered at 8 months. Also, 2 stories of rabbis who mourned their babies, even though they seemed to have died within the first 30 days after birth. Both sages insist that the child was born to term, and they each mourn, despite those who raise questi...

More on brit milah... When a child is born circumcised, what to do? You can take a drop of blood. Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai seem to disagree. R. Adda bar Ahava fathered a son who was born circumcised, and took that drop of blood, to his detriment. Also: If a baby is born to a woman who does not become impure in childbirth, what day should the brit milah be? Plus: Who's Who/What's What: Eved Kna...

Dedicated by Lisa Droski, in memory of her parents Bertrand and Florence Sandweiss. || A story about Rabbi Meir not keeping the halakhah he himself had paskened - an object lesson of not doing something just because you can. Also, medical lessons taught to Abaye by his mother, specifically about newborns. Notable is the level of care, given the times of the Talmud, without molecular knowledge. And...

[With apologies for the audio issues at the beginning. They do diminish pretty quickly.] The Gemara asks why verses are needed when logic should be enough, in that the unintentional act is permitted. Rava and Abaye explain that the verses are necessary to make the point here to R. Yehuda and R. Shimon - as, when it comes to intent, they each take the less popular position. More on brit milah: You...

More brit milah on Shabbat - everyone accepts that milah overrides Shabbat: it's Halakhah! From brit milah, we infer that saving a life also overrides Shabbat. What's What: Kal va-chomer. In the context of different approaches of rabbinic interpretation. Plus: The Rock Paper Scissors of what overrides Shabbat - meaning, when there's a conflict between mitzvot that compete for the time (namely, on...

Gezerah shavah again. The Omer sacrifice and the Shtei HaLechem sacrifice - both of which involve grinding of flour to prepare. Not all gezerah shavahs are created equal. Also: Not all mitzvot override Shabbat, but the following do: lulav, sukkah, matzah, shofar, brit milah. These inferences do not arrive at modern day halakhah, because the overriding sometimes applied only in the Temple. And a br...

A mohel who needs to perform a circumcision on Shabbat should make sure his tools are at the site of the brit from before Shabbat. If he has to bring the tools with him on Shabbat, he makes sure they're visible, so everyone know what he's carrying. But why visible? And what if the era involves oppression of Jews, where "visible" is not a good idea? Rabbi Akiva's rule: that which can be done before...

To be stringent or lenient when it comes to not quite a case of pikuach nefesh? Note that lenient with regard to Shabbat in this context means being stringent with regard to health - and that is the psak. Also: Bloodletting - seems to have been done frequently, for the sake of basic health, and even nourishment. Look at the extent to which Chazal were focused on health, even if their bloodletting...

Food for ravens - muktzah or no? Food for deer? For doves? What about food for ostriches? Or elephants? Who knew?! Plus: All of Israel are the children of kings. Namely, even exotic pets area reasonable. Note the application to a debtor collecting from one of our princes. Back to the animals - chicks, chickens, calves, foals... and toddlers: help them to walk. How do we navigate the muktzah aspect...

Muktzah does appear! R. Yehudah HaNasi cleared the baskets, but not actually himself - an example of what it meant to be the Nasi. Also: That passage about moving the baskets for the sake of the guests rolls into a discussion about hachnasat orchim - hospitality. Which rolls into the beraita that lists the mitzvot for which we real the real rewards in the World to Come, though they seem to focus o...

The distinction on practice at the Temple vs. outside of it. In this case, door bolts that are not tied to the door - which is fundamentally the melakhah of building. So there's a work-around for places outside the Temple, but not within it. Also: window shutters, even if they aren't attached to the building.... are permitted. Note: What's What: Anonymous mishnayot are usually authoritative - but...

What do you do with the broken shards of an item that was (or wasn't) designated before Shabbat? The daf follows the process of argumentation that emerges on this discussion. Side-point: A paradigm of impurity. Also: A contraption that involves filling it up on Shabbat -- and introducing the "basis" category of muktzah, depending on your intent. But how can you tell what happened how?! And the daf...

The term "muktzah." Shabbat vs. yom tov - when it comes to items with a permissible purpose on yom tov that is prohibited on Shabbat. But shouldn't all details of Shabbat and yom tov be the same outside of food prep? And yet, that's not necessarily the case. Also: the shards of broken vessels can be treated like the vessels themselves would have been, as long as they serve a purpose.... more of le...

The mishnah on daf 122 explains that every item is permissible to move on Shabbat - and provides permitted activities to do that designate items that otherwise have a prohibited purpose on Shabbat for use on Shabbat. But what is this really all about? For that, we need today's daf. And the mishnah here says - you can move all items on Shabbat, except 2. But why? Again, what is this really all abou...

Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi - a man of great wealth, and why that matters. Even the non-Jews wouldn't think of starting up with him; such was his power and influence. Which segues nicely into a mishnah from generations earlier on the relationships between Jews and non-Jews. Namely, when a non-Jew does melakhah on his own behalf vs. on behalf of a Jew. For example, one candle lights the way for 100. And a...

A footnote to the Who's Who on Rabbi Yosi ben Halafta. And: Amira le-Akum, and how Jews are not responsible for non-Jewish activities on Shabbat. But Jews are responsible for the activities of Jewish children on Shabbat. Also-ran: When a miracle put out a fire on Shabbat, and that's not the focus of the story of putting out a fire on Shabbat. Also: a focus on determining Halakhah based on real-lif...

Getting the community in on rescuing foods from the fire, and calculating who owns whom what. But are pious people going to take payment for this helping out on Shabbat? (Answer: quite possibly). Also: Smothering a flame on Shabbat, one-step removed - when is this allowed? Note that this Gemara reads a little nonchalant, given the context of fire in the home. Though their homes may have been less...

The source for Kabbalat Shabbat is here - going out to greet the Sabbath - and the implicit honor to the day. And a list of rabbis attests to what each of them did special in preparation for Shabbat. It's a real lesson to our efforts today too. Plus: One of the most famous stories about Shabbat - Yosef Moker Shabbat - is next, with a special guest. This telling includes a detail that we think is l...

Eating the 3 meals of Shabbat protects you from 3 harsh periods of travail - inspirational fear, if you will. Also: What happens when people don't keep Shabbat? Even from the very beginning of the mitzvah of Shabbat! In some ways, this is disheartening; in others, the capacity for return is inspiring. Plus: A series of statements by Rabbi Yosi - and our Who's Who. And the story if his 5 sons, his...