Pesachim 13a - May the messiah come soon, but not when it's inconvenient

"Said they to him, it has long been assured to Israel that Elijah will come neither on the eve of the Sabbath nor on the eve of Festivals, on account of the trouble."

Reading this line made me really happy, as something about it seems to sum up something of the essence of Judaism.

A practical kind of messianism, that we believe in but trust that it won't disrupt any of our ritual or halachic obligations; a powerful mythology brought into the human realm of the weekly and yearly cycles of the calendar; a practical kind of mysticism.

I can't get enough of it!

Context is everything - Shabbat 130b

Said he [Rabbi Zeira] to him [Rav Assi], But I once asked you and you did not answer me: perhaps in the rush your tradition hurried back to you? Yes, he replied; in the rush my tradition hurried back to me.
-Shabbat 130b

We don't learn in single blocks of information, unconnected from anything else, but rather we add to our webs of knowledge, accumulating connections between things we already understand and that which we are trying to assimilate.

When pressured for an answer, Rav Assi couldn't remember his teaching, but in the flow of the entire argument, from the context of the entire debate, his tradition hurried back to him, and he could give an answer.

To learn something well, it must resonate with other facts within our web of knowledge.

To teach well, we must help our students find those points of connection for themselves, so they too can experience the rush in which learning hurries back to them.

The tabernacle - Kabbalistic thoughts Shabbat 98b-99a

The school of Rabbi Ishmael taught: What was the Mishkan like? Like a woman who goes into the street and her skirts trail after her.

Our rabbis taught: The boards were cut and the sockets grooved, and the loops in the clasps seemed like stars in the sky.

Having ploughed my way through six weeks of daf yomi over two weeks, I finally caught up today with rather complex legal and architectural debate.

Nevertheless, the last few lines caught my eye as the mishkan/tabernacle is described in very feminine terms, and ideas that remind me of Malchut, the lowest feminine aspect of God in the sefirotic system.

These lines I quoted seem to hint that the mishkan spreads its influence beyond its borders, that for a temple or a synagogue to fulfill its purpose, it must reach beyond itself. The mishkan represents malchut, but within, or beyond, malchut, lies yesod - also called petach einayim, the opening of the eyes. This is the stage where we can glimpse the rest of the system, realise that we are standing at the doorway to the infinite.

If our institutions are to be truly holy, her skirts must extend into the wider world and the heavens must be glimpsed within.

Shabbat 83b - Studying torah? It's to die for.

Resh Lakish said 'words of Torah only endure in someone who kills himself over them, as it says "This is the Torah, when a person dies in a tent..." (Num 19)'.

While these words of Resh Lakish have been interpreted as saying that the torah can only endure as long as people are willing to die for it, which is to say become martyrs, I tend to read this powerful statement psychologically.

As long as you are concerned with yourself, the torah cannot endure in you - there is too much ego to make room for God. To make room for God and the words of torah you must kill your 'self', remove your ego, make room for the Holy One to radically alter your life.

Quick thoughts on chapter 6 of Shabbat

I've fallen, shall we say, a little behind in my daf yomi, but now that I'm on holiday I thought I would blitz it. Over several hours (with multiple breaks of course) I learned pages 60-67 today, and scribbled some notes on interesting passages in the margins.

In lieu of a longer post, here are the sections that caught my eye:

•61a - Amulets and charms - how do we know if they work?

•62a - Gender politics - are women 'a nation unto themselves'?

•62b - Swinging - the rabbis frown on partner-swapping.

•63a - The relationship between weapons and the world to come. Decorations or aberrations?

•63a - 'The simple meaning of the text' - but what is it?

•63a - The value of torah study, Resh Lakish uses language of peace. Interesting considering his fall out with Rabbi Yochanan.

•64b - Mar'it ayin - one must avoid doing something because it looks wrong. So can you do it if no one is looking?

•66b - Magic! Abaye's mother must have been a seriously cool woman.

•67a - Incantations against various demons seem to contain nonsense words. In magic (as prayer) it's sometimes better if you don't understand what you're saying.

•67a - Is the magic forbidden? Not if done for the sake of healing.

Permitting and Forbidding - Shabbat 60b

Rabbi Chiyya said: Were it not for the fact that they would call me a Babylonian who permits forbidden things, I would permit more.

It's hard to be lenient. Much much easier to forbid everything and thus look suitably pious and stringent to those more strict than you. Rabbi Chiyya in this quote is concerned with the topic of how many nails is permitted in a sandal on shabbat, but his statement could be seen more generally - had he not been afraid to seem permissive, he would have permitted far more things.

How much should we be afraid of how we come across? How much should we follow what we really believe, even if the rest of the Jewish world will say we are permitting forbidden things?

The Master of Wings - Shabbat 49a

MISHNA: We may store food... in dove's wings...

GEMARA: Rabbi Yannai said: Tefillin demand a clean body, like Elisha, the master of wings...


This amazing story exemplifies one of the main reasons why I love Talmud. The gemara's first response to a mishna about storing food on shabbat is to tell a fantastical tale about the mysterious Elisha, whose tefillin morph into a dove when faced with Roman persecution. The leap is amazing, the story is a classic, and it offers great depth of interpretation.

"Why a dove?" asks the talmud, because just as the dove's wings protect it, so do the mitzvot protect Israel.

Because Elisha kept the law, he is saved by the symbol of that protection, and yet of course, he would not have needed the protection had he not kept the law.

Tefillin = dove's wings = mitzvot = insulation for food on shabbat.

And the clean body demanded, explained to refer to either passing wind or sleeping, seems to be more of a purity of soul, the white of the dove's wings.

Half-formed thoughts perhaps, but I'm several pages behind... Time for more talmud.

(Now just) Change Clothes and go - Shabbat 10a

    Rav Ashi said: I saw Rav Kahana, when there was trouble in the world, remove his cloak, clasp his hands, and pray, saying, ‘[I pray] like a slave before his master.’
    When there was peace, he would put it on, cover and enfold himself and pray, quoting, ‘Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.’ (Amos 4:12)

Rav Kahana would dress differently, act differently, and pray differently, depending on how he saw the world.

I worry that my prayer is too much the same - dressing the same, in the same posture, saying the same words - unaffected and removed from the world as we see and experience it.

How does our prayer respond to the world? And how much should it exist as a comfortable sanctuary unto itself?

Secret Teachings - Shabbat 6b

"Rav said, I found a secret scroll of the school of Rabbi Hiyya wherein it is written, Issi ben Yehuda said: There are thirty-nine principal labours, but one is liable only for one."

While catching up with Daf Yomi today (the chagim threw off my schedule), I came across this fascinating line, in which Rav claims to have found a secret teaching of Rabbi Hiyya which seems to contradict some of our basic assumptions about shabbat, namely that breaking the melachot, the 39 labours, makes us liable for punishment. This secret scroll says that this is not the case, though it also does not tell us which we are liable for.

The Talmud interprets this differently, namely that one of the melachot does not make us liable, but if we read this teaching as stated, why did Rabbi Hiyya keep it secret? Did he think it too dangerous or too heretical to reveal? And why does Rav feel free and able to reveal that which Rabbi Hiyya sought to conceal?

Keeping Secrets
All of which makes me wonder whether there are ideas and teachings that we hold, that as future leaders we could or perhaps even should keep secret from our communities. Are there teachings which would do too much damage to reveal? Or is everything Torah, and our communities sophisticated enough to handle the most academic or esoteric of topics?

For example, if I work in a devout community, that keeps halacha because they believe Moses literally received the whole Torah from God, should I teach them otherwise or keep my sense of history and criticism a secret?

Reveal Secrets
Moreover, if I uncover a secret, an opinion that one of my teachers did not reveal, do I have the right to share that with the world, regardless of how it may change how that teacher is seen?

The border between public and private grows ever more blurry, as ideas are written, shared and recorded faster and more often than ever before. But I suspect that we as community leaders need to consider what we are sharing, and what we should be keeping secret.