Today’s gem reminds me of the Maya Angelou quote, “Do the best you can, and when you know better, do better.” A man known as bar Peyoli was standing before Shmuel and was removing the sciatic nerve from the leg of an animal. He was cutting out the nerve without scraping away the surrounding flesh,Continue reading “Chullin 96”
Tag Archives: chullin
Chullin 94
Today’s daf has one lesson: don’t be fake. It tell us it straight: This is as Shmuel said: It is prohibited to deceive people, and even to deceive a gentile. It tells us it as as story: Shmuel was once crossing a river in a ferry [mavra]. He said to his attendant: Compensate the ferrymanContinue reading “Chullin 94”
Chullin 89
What do Abraham, Moses, Aaron, and David all have in common? According to today’s daf, they all passed the same test. The Torah tells us that God chose the Jewish people “not because you are more numerous than all the peoples—you are the fewest.” The rabbis take this in a completely unexpected direction. “Fewest” (ha-me’at)Continue reading “Chullin 89”
Chullin 88
Dust and Ashes Sometimes the Talmud notices details we would otherwise skim past. On today’s daf, Rava says: As reward for that which our Patriarch Abraham said: “And I am but dust [afar] and ashes” (Genesis 18:27), his children merited two mitzvot: The ashes of the red heifer (see Numbers, chapter 19) and the dustContinue reading “Chullin 88”
Chullin 87
Nothing I love more than when the daf shares a story . . . and a good lesson. We often talk of the heretic who came to Rabbis Hillel and Shammai and said, “teach me the entire Torah while I stand on one foot.” (Hillel says, “that which is hateful to you do not doContinue reading “Chullin 87”
Chullin 86
What’s good for the gander, isn’t always good for the goose. On our daf today, we learn that Rabbi Hiyya had moths in his flax. The Gemara asks: And could moths have infested his flax? But doesn’t Ravin bar Abba say, and some say Rabbi Avin bar Sheva says: From when the people of theContinue reading “Chullin 86”
Chullin 84
Besides meeting “Ya’akov the heretic” and “Rabbi Elazar HaKappar the Distinguished” on our daf today, we have two great gems. The first is quite the argument for eating less meat! The Torah taught that it is a desired mode of behavior that a person should consume meat due only to appetite. That is, one shouldContinue reading “Chullin 84”
Chullin 72
Every once in a while, the Talmud asks a question that sounds absurd until you realize it’s really asking about us. In Chullin 72, the rabbis debate a technical question about a fetus inside its mother. Along the way, Rava explains why this case is different: “הואיל וסופו לצאת”—“because it is destined to emerge.” It’sContinue reading “Chullin 72”
Chullin 71
Chullin 71 has one of those wonderfully strange halakhic discussions that suddenly becomes deeply human. The daf begins with a tragic case: With regard to a woman whose fetus died in her womb and the midwife extended her hand into the womb and touched the fetus, the midwife is thereby rendered impure with the seven-dayContinue reading “Chullin 71”
Chullin 70
I am in love with the Talmud. Not only is it deep and beautiful. It’s also off the wall ridiculous. Take this from today’s daf: A weasel climbs inside the womb of a kosher animal, pulls out a fetus, eats it – then proceeds to climb BACK UP into the womb and throw up theContinue reading “Chullin 70”
2,711 pages of Talmud. A gem a day. 