2,711 pages of Talmud. A gem a day.

More math!!!

Yesterday we had the law of relativity. Today – trigonometry! My math mind is blown. We read:

Rabban Gamliel had a special tube through which he would look and see a distance of two thousand cubits on land, and also determine a corresponding distance of two thousand cubits at sea. In general, one who wishes to know the depth of a valley can bring such a tube and look through it, and he will know the depth of the valley. The Gemara cites another statement with regard to measurements: One who wishes to know the height of a palm tree, but does not want to actually climb the tree to measure it, can measure his own height, and the length of his own shadow, and the length of the shadow of the height of the palm tree, and calculate the proportions, and he will know the height of the palm tree.

My engineering heart is full. Our rabbis knew trigonometry. And had technology that they used to determine distance using those math concepts. When I first read this, I assumed that Rabban Gamliel had a telescope (and he might of). However, the telescope was not patented for another 1500 years . . . Which makes me want to claim (like the father in My Big Fat Greek Wedding) that the Jews invented everything and here is the proof. But, alas, I think that what follows this statement is more likely to tell us what is really happening – and that’s where trigonometry comes in.

How can we look at a shadow and determine height? The same way we can look at a building, calculate it’s relative size, and determine distance. According to the Jerusalem Talmud: Rabban Gamliel knew of the heights of some towers (along the coast) which he estimated with his eyes…

This tidbit of information is what we need to calculate distance. You can only use the trigonometry of a right-angled triangle if you know the length of one of the sides of the triangle, and one of its angles. The Yerushalmi teaches that Rabban Gamliel knew the height of the towers that he was observing (AB in the diagram below). Here is the explanation provided by W.M. Feldman in his classic work Rabbinical Mathematics and Astronomy, first published in London in 1931 (From http://www.talmudology.com/ a blog about math in the Talmud that I found when I got so excited about seeing trigonometry in the Talmud and discovered I was not alone)

Did Rabban Gamliel know trigonometry? Well,probably not in the same was our 11th graders do. However, what the Talmud describes, as comparing your shadows length to your height in order to determine the height of a tree based on its shadow – that’s a skill of ratio and comparison that lead to the discovery of the trig law you see above.

So, I guess the moral is that observation of the world can bring us closer to God. And that, perhaps, those of us who love math and love Talmud are not so very rare after all.

There is an Orthodox woman in my office who goes on a long cruise every year (except this past year) during Passover. She loved these kosher cruises as they serve only Kosher food and everything is set up for the proper observance of the holiday. It’s over the whole chag, so they have both Seder(s) on the boat as well as Shabbat and services. If you are wondering about how this is possible on a boat, when we are not supposed to move outside of our eiruv on Shabbat – you are not alone! This is the questions we are grappling with on part of yesterday’s daf and (with a bit of side conversation) on today’s.

Yesterday we learned by watching 4 rabbis who entered a boat and were on the boat on Shabbat. How do they behave? There was an incident where all of these Sages were coming from Pelandarsin, an overseas location, and their boat set sail on the sea on Shabbat, taking them beyond their Shabbat limit. Rabban Gamliel and Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya walked about the entire boat, as they hold that the entire boat is considered like four cubits, while Rabbi Yehoshua and Rabbi Akiva did not move beyond four cubits, as they sought to be stringent with themselves.

Today the debate continues as to who is right? Why? In what context? And it gets into some fun mental gymnastics, things we discussed in my AP physics class. Here’s the physics mental gymnastics: Rabbi Zeira said: (we hold with Rabban Gamliel) since the boat constantly moves the person out of his four cubits, lifting him from the beginning of four cubits and placing him at the end of four cubits.

His 4 cubits constantly readjusts even if he stands perfectly still – as the boat moves, he moves 4 cubits, but then the limit readjust again, and again, and again. It’s like the question of a plane moving at the speed of light – if a fly is flying forward on the plane – are they traveling faster than the speed of light?

This Gemara is way before Einstein uncovered his theory of relativity – but the rabbis are discussing exactly that. If you are standing on a boat that is moving – are you moving? If the boat traverses your shabbat limits, do you? What if you’re eiruv is on the boat and therefore moving as well?

It also make me wonder about Einstein. He loved to surround himself with Jewish intellectuals and discuss all kinds of issues. I wonder if he know of this piece of text?

On today’s daf we get a new Mishnah. Within the Mishnah, we get the teaching that if an evil spirit took him out beyond the Shabbat limit, he has only four cubits that he may walk from where he is standing. Unless, of course, he wanders back within the limit while still under the influence of the evil spirit. Interesting right? The Talmud continues:

GEMARA: The Gemara cites a related baraita, in which the Sages taught: Three matters cause a person to act against his own will and the will of his Maker, and they are: Gentiles, and an evil spirit, and the depths of extreme poverty.

Let’s break this down a bit.

Gentiles. In the Mishnah, it also discussed what to do when a gentile forces you to break the Shabbat boundary. We need to remember, that this is not (as it would have been for me) a situation where your gentile friend says: hey, let’s go to this party! And you break Shabbat. This is a situation where the “gentile” is code for local law authority. (We see this just a few lines later when the Gemara gives a parallel teaching to the one we are discussing: The Gemara cites a related teaching: Three classes of people do not see the face of Gehenna, because the suffering that they bear in this world atones for their sins, and they are: Those suffering the depths of extreme poverty, those afflicted with intestinal disease, and those oppressed by creditors.) Here the Gentiles are likely creditors. I think this is a very interesting text to take seriously. When does the law of the land (of the “gentile authority”) ask us to go against our will? the will of our maker? As a citizen, we follow the laws of the land – but sometimes those laws go against what we know to be right and good. With having lost Ruth Bader Ginsburg last night – I think of how she was part of a system of justice that she did not always find just – and about how she stood up for what she thought was right, all while still honoring and obeying the law of the land.

an evil spirit. Here, we should remember that mental health issues (and physical health issues as we see in the parallel verse) can lead us to behave in ways we would not otherwise. Mental health is often overlooked and neglected. Even our ancient rabbis knew how important it was to look beyond the behaviors and see that someone needs help.

Depths of poverty. Poverty leads us to do things that go against our own will and the will of God. And poverty, like mental un-health, is at disastrous proportions. Poverty is the #1 indicator of poor health, poor education, shortened life expectancy and violent crime. In Abram X. Kendi’s book “How to be AntiRacist” he walks through some of his presumptions about race and then what science has proven. One of those presumptions was that black people are more violent than whites. It’s what he saw on the news, what he was taught from society, and he had witnessed some violence first hand so he believed it. However, research has proven that, when you hold steady for poverty, violence rates between blacks and whites are the same. Poverty makes us go against our own will and the will of our maker. We need a war on Poverty. Some are already trying to wage that war. Please, this year, take a look into the Poor People’s Campaign. If we want a better world, if we want to live into God’s will, if we want more “law and order,” then we need to fight what is really leading to violence – poverty. And with over 13.6 million unemployed this is a real issue.

Today’s daf asks whether we recite the “blessing of time” (the shechekiyanu) over Rosh haShana and Yom Kippur. We know that we do for the pilgrimage festivals, but what of these other holy days?

After we get a yes – the question becomes, how do we bless and sanctify the day? We usually do this by making a kiddish over wine . . . how does that work on Yom Kippur?

Granted, one can recite the blessing over a cup of wine on Shavuot and Rosh HaShana; but what does one do on Yom Kippur? If you say that he should recite the blessing over a cup of wine before the actual commencement of Yom Kippur and drink it, there is a difficulty: Since he recited the blessing for time, he accepted the sanctity of the day upon himself, and therefore caused the wine to be prohibited to himself by the laws of Yom Kippur. (We are supposed to be fasting!) . . .

And if you say that he should recite the blessing over a cup of wine and leave it and drink it only after the conclusion of Yom Kippur, this too is difficult, as the principle is that one who recites a blessing over a cup of wine must taste from it. If you say that he should give it to a child, who is not obligated to fast, this too is not feasible because the halakha is not in accordance (The child might come to drink wine on Yom Kippur even in future years after he comes of age, and we do not institute a practice that might turn into a stumbling block.)

SO, what’s the answer? Well, to figure out what to do, the rabbis do what they do best – look at what other rabbis are doing:

The Sages sent Rav Yeimar the Elder before Rav Ḥisda on the eve of Rosh HaShana. They said to him: Go, see how he acts and come tell us. When Rav Ḥisda saw Rav Yeimar, he said to him in the words of a folk saying: One who picks up a moist log, which is not fit for firewood, must want to do something on the spot. In other words, you certainly have come to me with some purpose in mind, and not just for a visit. They brought him a cup of wine, and he recited kiddush and the blessing for time.

The Gemara concludes: The halakha is that one recites the blessing for time on Rosh HaShana and on Yom Kippur, and the halakha is that one may recite the blessing for time even in the market, as it does not require a cup of wine.

So, we can say the shechekiyanu over both Rosh haShana AND Yom Kippur – where we fast. And in reality, we can say it any time, and we don’t need wine, we just need to stop and savor the sanctity of the day.

This is my favorite prayer. One I say with my boys whenever any of us has a first. One that helps me to stop and savor and appreciate.

Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Sovereign of all, who has kept us alive, sustained us, and brought us to this season. Amen. Happy New Year.

How perfect to be reading today’s daf the day before Rosh haShana. Yesterday’s daf had a discussion of if an eiruv is valid for one, or both days, if Shabbat is followed by a festival (or vice versa). Today’s daf wonders about an eiruv’s status if this year happens to be a year where there are two days of Rosh haShana.

Now, some reading this may have grown up, like I did, only observing one day of Rosh HaShana, and would be surprised to learn there can be two days. Others who grew up in conservative or orthodox homes, may be surprised by the text saying that sometimes there is only one day of Rosh HaShana. This debate has to do with how the calendar used to be calculate – based upon witnesses watching the moon cycle. Today, when there is no doubt when the new moon is, you woudl think we always know exactly and that we woudl only observe one day – this is what the practice is in Israel, however in the diaspora people still tend to observe two day.

However, what confused me the most, was the question of if you are observing two days of Rosh haShana – do you have to treat both days as sacred? Actually make both Rosh haShana? Or can you kindof fudge one of the days and say the one day where you were strict covers both?

Rabbi Yosei said to the Rabbis: Don’t you concede that if witnesses came from the time of minḥa and onwards on the first day of Rosh HaShana and testified that they had seen the new moon, we do not rely on their testimony to sanctify that day as Rosh HaShana; rather, since their testimony was not given on time, we observe that day as sanctified and also the following day as sanctified? This indicates that the two days of Rosh HaShana are not observed out of doubt as to which is the proper day; rather, it is as though the two days are one long day that are imbued with one unified sanctity. This would mean we treat both days with full sanctity as Rosh haShana. And the Rabbis hold that there, the first day is not observed as a Festival by Torah law but due to rabbinic decree, so that people will not demean the day in future years and end up desecrating the Festival should the witnesses come on time. However, by Torah law it is an ordinary weekday, and therefore one can establish two separate eiruvin for the two days.

Wowzers! I had assumed that the law would go according to Rabbi Yosei – both days are Rosh haShana! Keep both! But, the rabbis hold that this second day is only a rabbinic decree to make sure that we don’t accidentally demean Rosh haShana out of our confusion over it if this is a year where it’s two days or one. (And that is confusing, no wonder our movements have chosen to either have one day or two days and doesn’t change it from year to year.)

This seems to open up the possibility that, in today’s world where we really know when the new moon is, we really only need to observe one day of the New Year. In my community, we do two – but the second day is certainly not as formal or long, or serious as the first.

If you celebrate one day or two, I hope that you have a happy and sweet New Year. I fervently pray that 5781 will be a year of healing and wholeness for our torn, broken, and burning world and for our torn broken and burning hearts.

Shana Tova.

Today’s gem comes all the way at the end of the daf (and a line onto tomorrow’s) and it’s message is to savor the day:

Baraita: A person may not walk to the end of his field on Shabbat to determine what work and repair it requires, which will be done after Shabbat. Similarly, (39a) a person may not stroll at the entrance to the city toward the end of Shabbat or a Festival in order to enter a bathhouse immediately upon the conclusion of Shabbat.

How often do we do this? We are supposed to be doing one thing, or in the case of Shabbat NOT doing something, and yet we keep thinking about what’s next, what’s on the to-do list for later, for tomorrow? And similarly, Shabbat is supposed to be a day we savor, not one we look forward to ending!

Shabbat is a day of practicing being present, of being completely in the moment. IT’s day where we focus only on what we have, where we celebrate our gifts – not one where we work, or work on ourselves or others.

The person pictured in today’s daf teaches us two lessons about what not to do. Frist, don’t make mental lists of what you need to do on Shabbat. Here we see a person walking to the edges of her field to check if she needs to repair a hole in the fence. The Gemara is saying, let it go for today. Just for today, nothing needs repairing. Just for today, we don’t need to worry about appearances or to-do lists.

The second scenario is someone who is eager waiting for Shabbat to end! They wait on the edges of the city eagerly awaiting their chance to hit the bathhouse.

Both beg the question: What is it about Shabbat that makes it truly an oneg, a joy? It’s the savoring. The slowing down. That everything is perfect in its imperfection for just one day. As Heschel said, it’s an “oasis in time.”

One skill that practitioners of positive psychology tell us can lead to more happiness in our lives is praciting savoring. We often think of savoring food – letting a piece of chocolate melt on your tongue, eating slowly as to get the full impact of the flavour of what you take in. But savoring is important in other areas as well, and can make us enjoy and entend happiness! Shabbat is all about savoring the moment. Savor the good food, the ambiance, the smells and beauty. Savor the good company. Savor the laughter. Savor the freedom to stop and be in the now. Savor your space. Savor the reward of the work you did during the week so that you could enjoy Shabbat.

On today’s daf, we get two people who are very much like us: Going through the motions, coloring within the lines, but totally missing the big picture. The big picture of Shabbat is to take time to stop, savor, and appreciate. When we do that well, we won’t notice what’s broken, only what’s whole. We won’t be anxious for Shabbat to leave, only excited for Shabbat to come.

My boys, like so many other children, and currently attending school from home. My 3rd grader is learning about Shabbat, and his teacher has demonstrated making a challah and now assigned them the task of making it at home. While I am not a cook, I do bake challah every week. When I told him he needed to do his assignment, he argued that he had already done it tons of times!

That’s precisely the issue on today’s daf. Can you retroactively assign meaning to an action? Can you designate things as set aside after you’ve used them? Tithe after consuming? While we know that we should do things with thought and intention, sometimes we want retroactive credit for things.

Like many a page of Talmud, there is no hard and fast answer. Really the only answer we get is “be consistent”:

Rav Yosef holds that one who accepts the principle of retroactive designation accepts it in all cases; there is no difference between Torah law and rabbinic decrees. And one who does not accept the principle of retroactive designation does not accept it at all; there is no difference between Torah law and rabbinic decrees.

If you accept things retroactively under certain circumstances, then you should in all circumstances. I can see this being important as an educator – if my kid’s teacher will accept his work retroactively, then she will have to accept it retroactively for all the kids (so then if they have EVER made challah they have an argument to be made).

Looks like my 3rd grader is making Challah this week. A round one for the New Year.

Today’s gem comes amidst a discussion of if we can set up to eruvs, one in the east and the other in the west, and then decide where we will spend Shabbat at last minute. They give the example of if a tax collector is coming, you may want to go to the eruv further away. But, if a Sage is coming, you may want to go to the eruv that is closer. But what if two sages are coming from two directions? What if one is your teacehr? Do you have a coice?

Here is the gem:

We learned in the mishna that Rabbi Yehuda says: If one of the Sages was his teacher, he may go only to his teacher. The Gemara asks: And what is the reason that the Rabbis do not accept this seemingly straightforward argument? The Gemara answers: The Rabbis maintain that sometimes one prefers to meet the Sage who is his colleague rather than the Sage who is his teacher.

Such wise words. Not only do we sometimes learn more from our peers than our superiors, sometimes we need compassion and empathy and not instruction on what we should do.

I often see couples who fight because of this issue. One is coming to the other with a problem – and the other wants to solve the problem, but that is not what the one wants – the one wants empathy, someone to listen, not someone to fix. I give this advice often, and try to use it in my relationship with my husband (and colleagues too): tell people what you want. Are you visiting with this person for their Sage advice? Or simply because you want compassion? Do you want a “here is what you should do,” or an “I hear you”?

Sometimes we want a sage. But sometimes we just want a colleague who gets it.

Reading today’s daf, I was struck (not for the first time) by how the rabbis could seem to speak so casually about something quite disturbing. Today, they are arguing (still) about food used to establish and eruv, and they go on an odd tangent to try and give backing to a point. . .

Here, someone (let’s call him Reuben) is in bed with another person(let’s call him Shlomo – and don’t get too excited, this is decidedly not sexual). In the middle of the night, Reuben touches that Shlomo (it seems like an accidental or incidental kind of touching). In the morning, Reuben wakes to find Shlomo is dead! The question becomes: do we assume that Shlomo was dead, or alive, when Reuben touched him? If he was alive, Reuben is pure, if Shlomo was dead, Reuben is now impure.

As we learned in a mishna: If one touched one other person at night, and he does not know whether the person he touched was alive or dead, and the following day he arose and found him dead, and he is in doubt as to whether or not he contracted ritual impurity as a result of having come into contact with a corpse, Rabbi Meir renders him ritually pure. It is assumed that the deceased was still alive until the point that it is known with certainty that he is dead. And the Rabbis render him ritually impure because it is assumed that all ritually impure items had already been in the same state as they were at the time they were discovered.

After reading this, I had to go to the Rashi and the Tosafot to try and see if they would fill in the blanks. I can’t help but wonder: What’s the full situation? Are these two study partners? Was Shlomo Reuben’s elderly father who he slept next to knowing his dad would soon pass? Did this happen all the time? No one seems shocked or upset by what has transpired . . .just concerned with ritual purity.

A little over two years ago, my aunt June went in to the hospital for a hammer toe surgery. A minor thing that people have done every day. Her blood pressure was a little high, but she wanted to go home and sleep in her own bed so they released her.

In the early morning hours (for some it would be considered the middle of the night), my uncle turned over in his sleep and unconsciously touched her. Her body was cold. He woke to find that she had died in her sleep.

The shock of it was all consuming.

I wonder at the daf at moments like this. So casual. So fixated on something that is so removed from emotion and experience of that person who waked to find their bed-fellow dead. . .

It reminds me of a line from Eishet Chayil: The law of kindness is always on her lips.

We should remember always that above the technicalities of the law, we are dealing with real people, who are dealing with real emotions. While we sit and wade through laws like these, let’s remember that primary to these rules is the law of kindness.

Do we really own our homes? What about the earth below it? The sky above? How far below or above? What does that mean? Our daf explains:

We learned in the mishna: If one placed the eiruv in a pit, even if it is a hundred cubits deep, his eiruv is a valid eiruv. The Gemara asks: This pit, where is it situated? If you say that it is situated in the private domain, it is obvious, for the private domain ascends to the sky, and just as it ascends upward, so too, it descends downward to the bottom of the pit, even if it is more than ten handbreadths deep. Rather, we must say that the pit is situated in the public domain.

This legal concept is not solely the purview of the Talmud. It is also encoded in the Latin, cuius est solum, eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos (“Whoever owns the soil, it is theirs up to Heaven and down to Hell.”), which appears in medieval Roman law and is credited to Accursius (13th-century).

This law was not really challenged until technology threw this belief into question: city pipes and subways underground, and airplanes and building rights in the sky above. I have a friend who is a professor of aviation law, and this is an area that she teaches: air rights for the landowners. While I find the legalities interesting, my gem is really a challenge to the idea that anyone can own land or sky. There are myriad rules about how we cannot do damage, even to what we “own” if it causes hard to others. Two of my favorite examples follow:

Midrash: Vayikra (Leviticus) Rabbah– 4:6 

If one Jew sins, all of Israel feels it….This can be compared to the case of men on a ship, one of whom took a drill and began drilling beneath his own place. His fellow travelers to said to him: ‘what are you doing?’ He replied: ‘What does that matter to you, I am drilling only under my own place?’ They continued: ‘We care because the water will come up and flood the ship for us all.’ 

A Chasidic Tale (This is based upon his understanding of Bava Batra 37a and b which discusses conflicts in ownership of land during the shmitah year.): Two men were fighting over a piece of land. Each claimed ownership and bolstered his claim with proof. To resolve their differences, they agreed to put the case before the rabbi. The rabbi listened but could not come to a decision because both seemed to be right. Finally he said, “Since I cannot decide to whom this land belongs, let us ask the land.”. He put his ear to the ground, and after a moment straightened up. “Gentlemen, the land says that it belongs to neither of you – but that you belong to it.”