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

When is a good time to curse someone? When God’s angry at them! When is that?

Explaining the cause of God’s anger, it was taught in a baraita in the name of Rabbi Meir: When the sun rises and the kings place their crowns on their heads and bow down to the sun, the Holy One, Blessed be He, immediately grows angry. Since this occurs in the early hours of every day, God becomes angry at His world at that time every day.

So, you want to curse someone at that particular moment at dawn. Now, what happens when one of our rabbis uses this knowledge? Let’s read and find out:

There was a certain heretic who was in Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi’s neighborhood who would upset him by incessantly challenging the legitimacy of biblical verses. One day, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi took a rooster and tied it by its legs and sat and waited (when the roosters gullet is clear from sunlight, then it’s time to curse!). He said: When that moment of God’s wrath arrives, I will curse him. When that moment of God’s wrath arrived, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi dozed off. When he awakened, he said: Conclude from the fact that I dozed off that it is not proper conduct to curse even the wicked, as it is written: “Punishment, even for the righteous, is not good” (Proverbs 17:26). Even with regard to heretics, a righteous person should not state a curse in order to punish them.

Ha! So, don’t curse anyone, even if you think they deserve it.

Okay, there was too much to pick from. But I settled on just two. The first:

With regard to the phrase: “Great among the nations, and princess among the provinces” (Lamentations 1:1), Rava says that Rabbi Yoḥanan says: Every place they go, when exiled among the nations, the Jewish people become princes to their masters due to their wisdom.

Okay, this is so true. How often in the history of the Jewish people have we seen Jews make it to number two positions (and never to #1)? From Joseph in Egypt to today, this is quite the observation.

The second is so beautiful. It’s doing a line by line interpretation of the book of Lamentations, which we read on the 9th of Av, Tisha B’Av, s we recall the destruction of the Temple, and many other evils that befell us.

“And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and the people cried that night” (Numbers 14:1). Rabba says that Rabbi Yoḥanan says: That day that they heard the spies’ report was the evening of the Ninth of Av. The Holy One, Blessed be He, said to the Jewish people: You cried an unwarranted cry, and so I will establish for you a reason to cry for generations.

This is why so many bad things happen to the Jews on this date in history. And yet, we get these lovely passages as alternative understandings:

Alternatively, the term “at night” indicates that with regard to anyone who cries at night, his voice is heard due to the ambient silence. Alternatively, the term “at night” indicates that in the case of anyone who cries at night, the stars and the constellations cry with him.

Ah! So beautiful! Heaven, cry with me.

Alternatively, the term “at night” indicates that in the case of anyone who cries at night, one who hears his voice is touched by his suffering and cries with him.

So, beautiful. How compassionate.

There was an incident involving one woman, the neighbor of Rabban Gamliel, whose son died, and she would cry over his death at night. Rabban Gamliel heard her voice and cried with her until his eyelashes fell out. The next day his students noticed that he had been crying, and they removed the woman from his neighborhood so that Rabban Gamliel could sleep.

Okay, I laughed out loud when I read this. Rabban Gamliel was so compassionate, but apparently his students only cared about him, not his grieving neighbor.

Two little gems for you today. (Though the entire daf is interesting if you want to study Israel’s kings and how they went astray.)

Our first gem teaches us to say blessings and not to take anything for granted. If you take without blessing, it’s equivalent to theft.

Rabbi Ḥanina bar Pappa says: With regard to anyone who derives benefit from this world without reciting a blessing, it is as though he stole from the Holy One, Blessed be He, and the congregation of Israel, as it is stated: “Whoever robs his father and his mother and says: It is no transgression, he is the companion of a corrupter” (Proverbs 28:24).

So, kiddos, thank you parents for dinner. And for us grownups – thank God for everything.

Our second gem is a really good one:

Rav Pappa says that this is in accordance with the adage that people say: One who avenges due to his zealotry destroys his own house.

Wow! Love this so much. It reminds me of Samson pulling the palace down on himself in order to destroy the Philistines. And the Buddha quote that “holding on to anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.”

We are not all Liam Neeson. As Elsa sings, “let it go.”

In a proof that no detail in the Torah is without meaning, we get a lesson about the importance of inclusion.

The Gemara asks: With regard to that verse that we came to discuss, in any event, what is the significance of the phrase in the verse “And Lotan’s sister was Timna”? The Gemara explains: Timna was the daughter of kings, as it is written: “The chief of Lotan” (Genesis 36:29), and: “The chief of Timna” (Genesis 36:40), and each chief is a member of a monarchy, albeit without a crown. That is why they are called chief and not king. Timna sought to convert. She came before Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and they did not accept her. She went and became a concubine of Eliphaz, son of Esau, and said, referring to herself: It is preferable that she will be a maidservant for this nation, and she will not be a noblewoman for another nation. Ultimately, Amalek, son of Eliphaz, emerged from her, and that tribe afflicted the Jewish people. What is the reason that the Jewish people were punished by suffering at the hand of Amalek? It is due to the fact that they should not have rejected her when she sought to convert.

This royal woman just wanted to be part of the Jewish people. Our rejection of her (by even the most righteous of us) eventually leads our own punishment.

It reminds me again of Esther. That this intermarriage saves the Jewish people. We need to invite people in. Let them know us, love us, maybe even join us. That is what keeps us safe – not isolationism.

Another gorgeous text. So important. In a conversation about how we will know the Messiah is coming, we learn that the Messiah may be close by.

Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said to Elijah: When will the Messiah come? Elijah said to him: Go ask him. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi asked: And where is he sitting? Elijah said to him: At the entrance of the city of Rome. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi asked him: And what is his identifying sign by means of which I can recognize him? Elijah answered: He sits among the poor who suffer from illnesses. And all of them untie their bandages and tie them all at once, but the Messiah unties one bandage and ties one at a time. He says: Perhaps I will be needed to serve to bring about the redemption. Therefore, I will never tie more than one bandage, so that I will not be delayed. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi went to the Messiah. He said to the Messiah: Greetings to you, my rabbi and my teacher. The Messiah said to him: Greetings to you, bar Leva’i. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said to him: When will the Master come? The Messiah said to him: Today. Sometime later, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi came to Elijah. Elijah said to him: What didthe Messiah say to you? He said to Elijah that the Messiah said: Greetings [shalom] to you, bar Leva’i. Elijah said to him: He thereby guaranteed that you and your father will enter the World-to-Come, as he greeted you with shalom. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said to Elijah: The Messiah lied to me, as he said to me: I am coming today, and he did not come. Elijah said to him that this is what he said to you: He said that he will come “today, if you will listen to his voice” (Psalms 95:7). 

The Messiah is sitting with in treating lepers (this translation is different than others), those who the rest of society would purposefully keep out of the camp.

So many questions to unpack:

Is the messiah a leper? Or just tending to them? What would it take for him to come?

What does it man that Joshua B. Levi need to “hear his voice?” What could he/we have done to show that he has heard?

Who is outside the camp today? Whose voices do we ignore? What messages that are lost as a result?

In a world of alternative facts and untruths truths – I loved this passage in our daf today.

Concerning the lack of truth, Rava says: Initially I would say that there is no truth anywhere in the world. There was a certain one of the Sages, and Rav Tavut is his name, and some say Rav Tavyomei is his name, who was so honest that if they were to give him the entire world, he would not deviate from the truth in his statement. He said to me: One time I happened to come to a certain place, and Truth is its name, and its residents would not deviate from the truth in their statements, and no person from there would die prematurely. I married a woman from among them, and I had two sons from her. One day his wife was sitting and washing the hair on her head. Her neighbor came and knocked on the door. He thought: It is not proper conduct to tell the neighbor that his wife is bathing. He said to her: She is not here. Since he deviated from the truth his two sons died. The people residing in that place came before himand said to him: What is the meaning of this? He said to them: This was the nature of the incident, and told them what happened. They said to him: Please leave our place and do not provoke premature death upon these people.

Can you imagine? How different would our world be if we were as honest as possible?

(Reminded me of the movie “The invention of lying” by the way.)

Today’s daf has a loud and clear message not to judge! It’s a beauty.

Rabbi Zeira says: Even though Rabbi Yehuda ben Beteira sent a statement from Netzivin: Be vigilant with regard to treating with deference an elder who forgot his studies due to circumstances beyond his control, and be vigilant with regard to cutting the jugular veins when slaughtering an animal in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Yehuda, and be vigilant with regard to treating with respect the children of ignoramuses, as from some of them Torah will emerge, we inform them of a message like this matter.

Gorgeous. Treat others with respect. Don’t judgmental. Respect all living beings and if you eat meat slaughter it with care.

But it gets much harder by the end of the daf – telling us that great people have descended from the worst of the worst!!

Before you read, you need to know that Nebuzaradan worked for Nebuchadnezzar- the evil ruler who destroyed the Temple. But here we see him in a different light:

(Nebuzaradan) He deserted his army and dispatched a last will to his house and converted. 

He converts!

The Sages taught in a baraita: Naaman the Aramean (see II Kings, chapter 5) was a ger toshav, meaning that he accepted upon himself to refrain from idol worship but did not convert to Judaism. Nebuzaradan was a completely righteous convert. Among the descendants of Sisera (see Judges, chapter 4) were those who studied Torah in Jerusalem. Among the descendants of Sennacherib were those who taught Torah in public. The Gemara asks: And who are they? The Gemara answers: They were Shemaya and Avtalyon. 

These are the leaders of the Jewish people!! It continues:

The baraita continues: Among the descendants of Haman were those who studied Torah in Bnei Brak.

Wow! So the worst of the worst of Jew haters either fell in love with Judaism or had descendants who did.

So, what do we learn? Not to judge. Redemption is always possible. And flowers grow from manure.

May flowers sprout from this crappy time.