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

Today’s gem. “Rav Yehuda said that Rav Asi said that Rav said: It is prohibited to count money opposite a Hanukkah light.“

I wanted to find out what this is all about. The basic gist I gathered is that Chanukah provided both spiritual and financial benefits to the Jewish people. Rav Assi is emphasizing, with this law, that the celebration of Chanukah is not for the “money” — financial benefits derived through the miracle — but primarily for the spiritual benefit — that the Greeks were no longer able to restrict the Jews in matters of Torah and mitzvot.

It’s interesting to think about this law in terms of the way we celebrate Chanukah today, by literally playing dreidel with gold coins by the Chanukiah. And, if you argue it’s just chocolate and a kids game – how about the gifts? The argument is that the holiday should not be one about materialism, and what do we do? In America (not as much in other countries) we try and have the holiday compete with Christmas. 8 days of presents. That was my brag to my Christian friends as a child. But isn’t the miracle enough of a brag? That a tiny people were able to fight back a huge empire? That we tried even though it seemed futile? That we almost let the light go out – the light of the Jewish people- but didn’t? That we didn’t think we had enough (oil/men/power) but we tried and a miracle happened?

I think this is a subtle reminder to remember what the holiday is really about. To put the spiritual over the material.

Today’s daf had a lot of little things I loved. I’ll share just three.

1) That when the priests clothes and belts got tattered and old, they would unravel them and use the thread for candle wicks. The beauty of upcycling, of making light and something holy out of something that today we would trash . . .

2) This moment: “The Sages said this halakha before Abaye in the name of Rabbi Yirmeya and he did not accept it. When Ravin came the Sages said this halakha before Abaye in the name of Rabbi Yoḥanan, and he accepted it. Then Abaye said regretfully: Had I merited, I would have learned this halakha from the outset.” Am I the only who is yelling – this is me!! You say something, suggest it again and again, and the boss/partner/spouse/friend doesn’t accept it. But then, someone else comes along – SAYS THE EXACT SAME THING and the person you were trying to convince is like, “Oh, I wished I had thought of that earlier!” AH!!!! Rabbi Yirmeya, I feel your pain brother.

3) The disagreement between Hillel and Shammai about how to light the Chanukiah. Shammai says we should start by lighting 8 lights and then count down. Hillel says we should start with one and then increase by one light every night. Hillel wins because “in matters of sanctity, one does not downgrade.”

May our holiness, our light, always increase.

The gem today comes from my colleague Rabbi Jessica Barolsky:

Shabbat 20b: “Ravin and Abaye were sitting before Rabbana Nechemya, brother of the Exilarch. Ravin saw that he was wearing [a specific type of silk]. He said to Abaye: this is the [a different words for silk] that we learned! Abaye said to him: we call it [yet another words for silk].

Even when we have different words for things, we can/should/must strive to understand one another.

And also, the rabbis were excited to see things talked about in their lessons in real life, just like we are.

Today’s gem is found in a conversation in the Talmud about how much time before Shabbat you need to give your clothing to a launderer to insure they will have enough time to finish the job before sundown on the 6th day.

I love this discussion, because it recognizes that everyone, Jew or gentile, person with wealth or person without, deserves a day of rest. The Talmud is very careful to make sure to give guidelines to prevent us from accidentally setting up another person to violate Shabbat – even if it’s not their Shabbas!

It really reflects the biblical line from Numbers 15:16,  “One law and one rule shall be for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you.”

I am thinking about this line in particular today, because today is usually the day when my cleaning lady, Marta, comes to clean my home. This is usually my favorite day of the week. It’s the one day I walk into my home and it’s clean and fresh and I had nothing to do with getting it that way.

However, because we are trying to stay safe and healthy, and because we want Marta to also stay safe and healthy, we are no longer having her in our home. We are continuing to pay her, as she relies on this income to help feed and provide for her family; but we realize that we need to follow one standard, for ourselves and for her.

Just like the Talmud outlines that we should not behave in a way that might cause a launderer to work on Shabbat, no matter how that person feels about working on Shabbat – we should also not behave in a way that might cause another person to put their health in danger, even if they’re comfortable with going into another person’s home.

I miss a lot of people. Marta, I am missing you in particular today.

Today’s daf focuses on the discussion of what you can and cannot do right before Shabbat begins. It’s my gem of the day because it brings up an enduring understanding: that preparation and rest are always intertwined. We cannot have rest without preparation. If want something to be special, we need to prepare.

Shabbat Kodesh, Sabbath holiness, doesn’t just happen, we need to prepare, and make room, for it to happen.

The Hebrew word for holy, Kodesh, means separate and distinct. Shabbat is a day distinct from the other days. And so our daf is concerned that we might end up treating it like any other day, so we are shown that we must prepare to insure that it’s something special.

I keep thinking of all of the weddings and B’nai Mitzvah that have been cancelled and postponed. These families have been preparing – because the day is so special to them.

Yet, the preparation is holy too, in that it demonstrates how much this moment means to the families.

May they soon be able to celebrate again. With the whole family, all generations, all together in joy and health.

From Today’s Daf:Shammai said to him: If you provoke me and insist that there is no difference between gathering olives and grapes, then, in order not to contradict this, I will decree impurity on the gathering of olives as well. They related that since the dispute was so intense, they stuck a sword in the study hall, and they said: One who seeks to enter the study hall, let him enter, and one who seeks to leave may not leave, so that all of the Sages will be assembled to determine the halakha. That day Hillel was bowed and was sitting before Shammai like one of the students. The Gemara said: And that day was as difficult for Israel as the day the Golden Calf was made, as Hillel, who was the Nasi, was forced to sit in submission before Shammai, and the opinion of Beit Shammai prevailed in the vote conducted that day.

According to legend, the 9th of Adar was day in which the students of Hillel and Shammai, who has always been an example of Mahlokhet L’shem shamayim – argument for the sake of heaven. But on this day, after generations of disagreeing but honoring one another, they almost came to blows. Something happened in that attic.

Some suggests that this passage hints at an actual massacre, a rabbinic civil war. The Jerusalem Talmud, Shabbat 1:4 (3c) describes it as: That day was as wretched for Israel as the day on which the [golden] calf was made.It was taught in the name of Rabbi Yehoshua Oniya:The students of Beit Shammai stood below them and began to slaughter the students of Beit Hillel. It was taught: Six of them ascended and the others stood over them with swords and lances.

Did a massacre actually occur?

Well, the Shulchan Aruch, the most widely accepted code of Jewish law declares this day a fast day.

The Talmud shows us a picture of those in power exploiting the the minority. It is so sad to see the examples of what it means to disagree constructively (Hillel and Shammai) fall apart and turn to blows. So, what can we learn from this?

I would say that the day we stop listening to those who disagree with us, the day we suppress the minority and rule with an iron fist – is the day that we lose ourselves, what we hoped to stand for, and the respect others had for us. We lose a piece of heaven when we shut down dissent. And our opinions, even had they been right, are now less than. People act like this when they have power- but it reflects fear, not strength, to suppress those who disagree.

Today’s daf took the discussion of previous pages (what confers impurity) to household items. Amongst the discussion of when does an item become impure and how can it become pure again, we learn that if an item is broken (and there is a proper amount of brokenness) and is then recast, it becomes pure again.

Why do I like this? If you pull back, you see an ancient recycling program! They recast metal items to make them pure again. Now, I am not getting into the technicalities because I am too excited by this idea, and this value. Within the discussion of purity, we learn that if, let’s say, a metal spoon got a hole in it – instead of throwing it away, our forefathers recast the item – and whatever they created from it was ritually pure.

They did not waste.

Our culture today is so wasteful, so into replacing things before they have lived their full life. We toss before things get a hole, we toss when we see something else we want more. May this page remind us of the preciousness of nature’s resources. May it remind us too that we can recycle, up-cycle, and create something magical out of what might be broken.

(I take my high school juniors who have been accepted into tour social justice teen program to Comalapa Guatemala every year where we make buildings out of things others have tossed. It’s beautiful. Check out the website to see what we do! https://www.lwhome.org/)

Today’s gem comes right in the beginning of the page. The sages are discussing three areas where Hillel and Shammai disagreed. In each case, Hillel is very lenient and Shammai is strict. The gem comes from the rabbis themselves. As they look and see the suggestions of these schools of thought, they record both opinions and then decree the law to be somewhere in between.

I think that is so important – having some who are strict, some who are lenient, and most falling (and the law being) somewhere in between.

I am thinking about this in term of Jewish practice. I think we need people who live halakhic lives, who embrace tradition, and who are strict. I also think we need people who are lenient with the laws, who rethink how each holiday might be celebrated, what it might look like to create Jewish practice that speaks to our values today (just to name a few: eco-kashrut, mikvah for divorce, gender identity celebration). Those on the outskirts, either being strict or liberal, push each other to live Jewish values in ways that reflect the best of humanity.

We all have moments when we are in each space – the strict (me on Passover), the lenient (me for most things), and the middle path.

May we honor those who hold differently than we do. By recording their opinions, and choosing a middle path, the rabbis honored both Hillel and Shammai.

PS I am also thinking about this in terms of how my family is dealing with the coronavirus. some people are taking this as a mini-vacation and are not socially distancing. My family has gone into quarantine, even though we have not been told we need to (to the point where I sometimes feel I have broken the rules when I talk to people on the phone!). Really, the middle path is better: Socialize outside from 6 feet away.

Today’s daf is eesily releavnt to what we are experiencing with the coronavirus. At the end of the daf, we learn that King Solomon enacted two laws for the Jewish people (which had been discussed previously on the page). The first is eruv. We have been studying what can be brought from one domain to another on Shabbat, the eruv symbolically creates a virtual community connecting people living in different courtyards.

The second is one we are all painfully familiar with: handwashing. As we read earlier on the daf, “The hands [are impure] because hands are always busy. It’s on this daf that we learn that our hands are considered impure until we wash them. Solomon made this a law! And apparently, God liked this law because the Talmud connects these two laws, virtual community and washing hands to Proverbs 27:11 “If you are wise [Solomon] it will bring me joy”.

Rabbi Ariel Burger taught me that the “Hasidic master Reb Simcha Bunim asked: What’s the big deal? Why are these two laws so stunning that they evoke God’s admiration?

“He answers: Solomon was teaching his people how to hold the tension between two opposites: the need for community, and the need to wash your hands of any and all attachments. We need to stay connected and we need to remain independent.”

Is the Talmud eaves dropping on the news? This could not be more relevant to our times. Wash your hands. Find ways to create virtual community. This is holy stuff. As God says in Proverbs: “If you are wise it will bring me joy”.

Today’s page gave us a really powerfully painful moment.

“The school of Eliyahu taught: There was an incident involving one student who studied much and read much, and served Torah scholars, and, nevertheless, died at half his life expectancy. His wife would take his phylacteries and go around with them to synagogues and study halls, and she would say: It is written in the Torah: “For it is your life and the length of your days” (Deuteronomy 30:20). If so, my husband who studied much, and read much, and served Torah scholars extensively, why did he die at half his days?“

How incredibly heartbreaking. A man taken too young, his grieving wife going to the synagogue and house of study – quoting Torah – and saying that her husband did everything right, but died anyway. What was the point?

It becomes even more heartbreaking a few lines later, when a rabbi is trying to figure out how it could be that this righteous man died young. Eliyahu reports that he met with the widow: “And I said to her: My daughter, during the period of your menstruation, how did he act toward you? She said to me: Heaven forbid, he did not touch me even with his little finger. And I asked her: In the days of your white garments (after the menstrual flow ended, and you were just counting clean days), how did he act toward you then? She said to me: He ate with me, and drank with me, and slept with me with bodily contact and, however, it did not enter his mind about something else, i.e., conjugal relations. And I said to her: Blessed is the Omnipresent who killed him for this sin, as your husband did not show respect to the Torah.“

Before getting to the callousness of Eliyahu’s response to this young widow, take a moment and see how she paints such a loving picture of her husband. No, he stayed away during the time when they were forbidden to be in physical contact, but as soon as she was no longer menstruating, he made sure to eat with her, share wine with her, cuddle her . . . it’s a picture of such a loving husband. This makes the scene above with her anger, her taking his tefillin, his ritual garb, and marching around these places of God and asking why, asking how, all the more painful.

The gem on this page is not Eliyahu’s response. When someone asks why, asks how God could have allowed this to happen – they do not want you to find the tiniest thing that the person who died might have done wrong. As a modern reader, I find his response incredibly off-base and offensive. When we lose someone we love, we want to talk about what we loved about that person. We want to talk about all the good that person did. We want to talk about that missing piece of ourselves. No one is perfect. Pinpointing a supposed imperfection does not make the loss any easier, any more palatable.

When Eliyahu said “to her: Blessed is the Omnipresent who killed him for this sin, as your husband did not show respect to the Torah” we do not hear her say, “Amen.” We do not hear her say, thank you for explaining it to me, now it all makes sense.

In fact, we hear nothing. Perhaps because she never spoke another word to this man who was supposedly comforting her as a widow. (Perhaps she smacked him in the face and he didn’t want to tell them that!)

The gem on the page is this wife and the love between her and her late husband. May we all be blessed to love, and have people who love us, like this. May we be blessed to have someone to eat with. To drink with. To cuddle with. And who will always hold up our gifts and challenge those who would like to think less of us.