Welcome to a new book of the Talmud! And Beitzah starts off by discussing . . . eggs! You should know that Beitzah means “egg” in Hebrew. . . it is also a slang term for mens’ gonads, so some call this book Bei’a (which I don’t understand as that’s so close to biah which means intercourse . . . )
And indeed, today’s page begins with a discussion about if one can prepare and eat an egg laid on Yom Tov, on a festival. Yom Tov would have been the best name for this tractate of the Talmud as that is what we will be studying over the next 39 days – the rules of a festival, and in particular, how they are different from Shabbat.
Today’s gem is just that our daf has one of those rare occasions when Shammai is more lenient that Hillel – which just goes to show that you never know when people (or schools of thought) will surprise you.
So, how do you prefer your eggs? Fried? Over-easy? Sunny side-up? Scrambled?
Maybe, with a side of Gemara . . .
2,711 pages of Talmud. A gem a day. 