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A USER's MANUAL Part 1: How Is Halakhah Organized?
TORAHLEADERSHIP.ORG RABBI ARYEH KLAPPER HALAKHAH: A USER’S MANUAL Part 1: How is Halakhah Organized? I. How is Halakhah Organized? 4 case studies a. Mishnah Berakhot 1:1, and gemara thereupon b. Support of the poor Peiah, Bava Batra, Matnot Aniyyim, Yoreh Deah) c. Conversion ?, Yevamot, Issurei Biah, Yoreh Deah) d. Mourning Moed Qattan, Shoftim, Yoreh Deiah) Mishnah Berakhot 1:1 From what time may one recite the Shema in the evening? From the hour that the kohanim enter to eat their terumah Until the end of the first watch, in the opinion of Rabbi Eliezer. The Sages say: Until midnight. Rabban Gamliel says: Until morning. It happened that his sons came from a wedding feast. They said to him: We have not yet recited the Shema. He said to them: If it has not yet morned, you are obligated to recite it. Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 2a What is the context of the Mishnah’s opening “From when”? Also, why does it teach about the evening first, rather than about the morning? The context is Scripture saying “when you lie down and when you arise” (Devarim 6:7, 11:9). what the Mishnah intends is: “The time of the Shema of lying-down – when is it?” Alternatively: The context is Creation, as Scripture writes “There was evening and there was morning”. Mishnah Berakhot 1:1 (continued) Not only this – rather, everything about which the Sages say until midnight – their mitzvah is until morning. The burning of fats and organs – their mitzvah is until morning. All sacrifices that must be eaten in a day – their mitzvah is until morning. -
Designing the Talmud: the Origins of the Printed Talmudic Page
Marvin J. Heller The author has published Printing the Talmud: A History of the Earliest Printed Editions of the Talmud. DESIGNING THE TALMUD: THE ORIGINS OF THE PRINTED TALMUDIC PAGE non-biblical Jewish work,i Its redaction was completed at the The Talmudbeginning is indisputablyof the fifth century the most and the important most important and influential commen- taries were written in the middle ages. Studied without interruption for a milennium and a half, it is surprising just how significant an eftèct the invention of printing, a relatively late occurrence, had upon the Talmud. The ramifications of Gutenberg's invention are well known. One of the consequences not foreseen by the early practitioners of the "Holy Work" and commonly associated with the Industrial Revolution, was the introduction of standardization. The spread of printing meant that distinct scribal styles became generic fonts, erratic spellngs became uni- form and sequential numbering of pages became standard. The first printed books (incunabula) were typeset copies of manu- scripts, lacking pagination and often not uniform. As a result, incunabu- la share many characteristics with manuscripts, such as leaving a blank space for the first letter or word to be embellshed with an ornamental woodcut, a colophon at the end of the work rather than a title page, and the use of signatures but no pagination.2 The Gutenberg Bibles, for example, were printed with blank spaces to be completed by calligra- phers, accounting for the varying appearance of the surviving Bibles. Hebrew books, too, shared many features with manuscripts; A. M. Habermann writes that "Conats type-faces were cast after his own handwriting, . -
Labor Rights in the Jewish Tradition
LABOR RIGHTS IN THE JEWISH TRADITION Michael S. Perry Jewish Labor Committee □ 25 East 21 st Street □ New York, NY 10010 □ www.jewishlabor.org Michael S. Perry is Executive Director of the Jewish Labor Committee. © Jewish Labor Committee, 1993 2 Labor Rights in the Jewish Tradition I. Introduction The Jewish community in the United ory of an earlier period of mass Jewish im- ments relating to the hiring of workers are States has been supportive of worker and migration to the United States, when an imbued with respect for labor rights, and trade union rights for many years, even as it overwhelmingly immigrant community some Jewish religious laws anticipate cur- evolved from a predominantly working-class toiled in difficult and often desperate condi- rent secular labor law by thousands of community in the first part of the 20th cen- tions in the garment industry and other years. The following is a description of tury to a predominantly professional and trades. This support is also consistent with labor rights found in Jewish religious entrepreneurial-class community today. This Jewish religious law (“Halacha”). Both in sources and an analysis of current industrial support stems in part from a collective mem- spirit and in practice, religious command- relations issues in light of this tradition. II. Judaism and the Dignity of Labor Respect for the dignity of labor has The Talmudic ideal of work stood in This recognition of absolute Divine been an important theme in Jewish reli- sharp contrast to other views prevailing in ownership and of limited temporary gious writings for centuries. -
Hadran for Seder Nezikin with the Help of God Hadran for Seder Nezikin
Hadran for Seder Nezikin With the help of God Hadran for Seder Nezikin Based on an Oral Tradition Rebbe Nachman once said, "The world labors under the misconception that a tzaddik cannot make a mistake. I say this is not so. A tzaddik can make a mistake. The mistake remains a mistake and the tzaddik remains tzaddik." It is customary upon completion of learning a tractate of Talmud, or a seder (order) of Mishnah, to give a hadran to mark the occasion. (See below for a definition of hadran.) Having been blessed with the privilege of completing Seder Nezikin, I offer the following. Seder Nezikin, the fourth of the six orders of Mishnah, deals with Jewish jurisprudence. Tort law, property law, estate law, courts and justices, testimony, rendering decisions, administering sentences and ethics are some of the topics covered. The closing tractate, Horiyot, deals with the topic of rectifying judicial mistakes made by the king, the kohein gadol (high priest) or even of the entire Sanhedrin. Yes. Even the most learned of scholars, people of the most refined character and of genuine spirituality - 100% dyed-in-the-wool tzaddikim - can make mistakes. Not only simple, personal mistakes, but even mistakes that affect the entire Jewish people, even mistakes of heresy (1:5). The mistakes remain mistakes and they remain tzaddikim. It's not the end of the world. A mistake can be forgiven. We learn in Horiyot that the mistakes of the king, kohein gadol and Sanhedrin were forgiven and rectified by offering a sacrifice in the Beit Hamikdash (Temple). -
Daf Ditty Pesachim 78: Korban Pesach Today (?)
Daf Ditty Pesachim 78: Korban Pesach today (?) Three girls in Israel were detained by the Israeli Police (2018). The girls are activists of the “Return to the Mount” (Chozrim Lahar) movement. Why were they detained? They had posted Arabic signs in the Muslim Quarter calling upon Muslims to leave the Temple Mount area until Friday night, in order to allow Jews to bring the Korban Pesach. This is the fourth time that activists of the movement will come to the Old City on Erev Pesach with goats that they plan to bring as the Korban Pesach. There is also an organization called the Temple Institute that actively is trying to bring back the Korban Pesach. It is, of course, very controversial and the issues lie at the heart of one of the most fascinating halachic debates in the past two centuries. 1 The previous mishnah was concerned with the offering of the paschal lamb when the people who were to slaughter it and/or eat it were in a state of ritual impurity. Our present mishnah is concerned with a paschal lamb which itself becomes ritually impure. Such a lamb may not be eaten. (However, we learned incidentally in our study of 5:3 that the blood that gushed from the lamb's throat at the moment of slaughter was collected in a bowl by an attendant priest and passed down the line so that it could be sprinkled on the altar). Our mishnah states that if the carcass became ritually defiled, even if the internal organs that were to be burned on the altar were intact and usable the animal was an invalid sacrifice, it could not be served at the Seder and the blood should not be sprinkled. -
Women's Testimony and Talmudic Reasoning
Kedma: Penn's Journal on Jewish Thought, Jewish Culture, and Israel Volume 2 Number 2 Fall 2018 Article 8 2020 Women’s Testimony and Talmudic Reasoning Deena Kopyto University of Pennsylvania Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/kedma Part of the Jewish Studies Commons, Near and Middle Eastern Studies Commons, and the Religion Commons This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/kedma/vol2/iss2/8 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Women’s Testimony and Talmudic Reasoning Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License This article is available in Kedma: Penn's Journal on Jewish Thought, Jewish Culture, and Israel: https://repository.upenn.edu/kedma/vol2/iss2/8 Women’s Testimony and Talmudic Reasoning Deena Kopyto Introduction Today, being a witness is often considered a burden – an obligation that courts force people to fulfill. In contrast, in Talmudic-era Babylonia and ancient Israel, testifying was a privilege that certain groups, including slaves, women, and children, did not enjoy. While minors should be barred from participating in courts, and still largely are today, the status of women in Talmudic courts poses a much trickier question. Through this historical and Talmudic analysis, I aim to determine the root of this ban. The reasons for the ineligibility of female testimony range far and wide, but most are not explicitly mentioned in the Talmud. Perhaps women in Talmudic times were infrequently called as witnesses, and rabbis banned women from participation in courts in order to further crystallize this patriarchal structure. -
Reflections and Table Activities for Yamim Noraim
SHALOM HARTMAN INSTITUTE Reflections and Table Activities for Yamim Noraim By Noam Zion Contents Copyright © 2008 Shalom Hartman Institute, Jerusalem, Israel hartman.org.il | [email protected] Reflections and Table Activities for Yamim Noraim By Noam Zion Table of Contents A. Rosh HaShana: A Time of Critical Self-Reflection Page 3 B. Seder Rosh HaShanah: Symbolic Foods and New Year’s Wishes Page 9 C. L’Shanah Tova Cards – Wishing Others Well Page 13 D. Tashlich Page 16 E. Yom Kippur: Personal Selichot: A Moment of Reconciliation with Our Families and Friends Page 17 F. Reviewing the Rules for Fasting and Eating on Yom Kippur Page 18 G. Kapparot and Scapegoats – Exchanging Coins for Chickens Page 24 H. Kol Nidrei – Canceling Promises Page 26 Contents Copyright © 2008 Shalom Hartman Institute, Jerusalem, Israel 2 hartman.org.il | [email protected] A. Rosh HaShana: A Time of Critical Self-Reflection Rabbi Marshall Meyer (activist for human rights in Argentina under the antisemitic, repressive government of the 1970’s) 1 “Rosh HaShanah initiates the Aseret Yimei Teshuvah commonly translated as the ‘Ten Days of Repentance.’ I would like to suggest that for these days to have a new dimension of meaning we translate them as the ‘Ten Days of Searching, Twisting and Turning,’ of wrestling with our souls and trying desperately to find new meaning to our existence.” Hannah Senesh’s Diary- October 11, 1940 (young Hungarian kibbutznik who volunteered as a Jewish paratrooper and spy for the British Army and the Hagana to drop behind Nazi lines in Hungary, -
Guardianship for Orphans in Talmudic Law
Guardianship for Orphans in Talmudic law AMIHAI RADZYNER ABSTRACT The article reviews the Talmudic institution of guardianship for orphans, as it appears in sources from Palestine and Babylon, mostly from the second to the fifth centuries CE. It is likely that the foundations of this institution are found in foreign law, but after it was absorbed in Jewish law, it began to build an independent life, and was not necessarily affected by its legal system of origin. The design of the institution was mainly conducted by the Jewish sages of the second-century (Tannaim). The Mishnah and Tosefta are already showing a fairly well-developed system of guardianship laws. This system was not changed substantially afterward, and the later Talmudic sages (Amoraim) continued to develop the institution upon the foundation created by their pre- decessors. The Talmudic sources present a fairly well-developed institution, from its creation through the duties of the guardian during his tenure to the end of the guardianship term. 245 INTRODUCTION It seems that like in other instances, the Greek term for guardian – epitropos which appears many times in Talmudic literature shows us ,1('אפוטרופוס') that it involves an institution which was created in Talmudic law under the influence of Greek and Roman Law, two legal traditions that were prevalent in Palestine at the time of the creation of the institution of guardianship.2 This does not mean, at the same time that the principles of the laws of Talmudic guardianship, which I shall not discuss in this short article, are identical to those of any known Greek or Roman law.3 Within this framework I shall con- fine my analysis to Talmudic Law and its principles exclusively. -
KS 3 Talmud Page Layout Copy
Page Chapter name Tractate name Chapter number Ein mishpat, Ner mitzvah Rashi’s commentary –Rashi (an acronym for Rabbi (Hebrew: Well of justice, Lamp of Shlomo Yitchaki) was a major Jewish scholar active in the commandment) Compiled in 11th century France. Rashi compiled the first the 16th century this provides the complete commentary on the Talmud. The Mishnah source references to the laws are written in in a brief, terse style without being discussed on the page. punctuation and Rashi’s commentary is directed towards helping readers work through the text and understand its basic form and content. Tosafot (Hebrew: additions) These Mishnah and Gemara The central column of the page contains medieval commentaries were written in verses of the Mishnah followed by verses from the Gemara. the 12th and 13th centuries. They are the The Mishnah is the primary record of the teaching, decisions work of various Talmudic scholars and disputes of a group of Jewish religious and judicial scholars primarily living in France and Germany. known as Tannaim, active from about 10 to 220 CE. Originally transmitted orally, it was edited into its current form and written down in 200 CE by Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi. Written primarily in Hebrew, it is divided into 63 tractates and organized into six sections or ‘orders’. The Gemara is an analysis and expansion on the Mishnah. There are two versions - the Other commentaries Various other Babylonian Talmud (the most commonly studied) and the commentaries appear in the margins Jerusalem Talmud. The Gemara is written primarily in Aramaic of a printed Talmud page. -
Syllabus Beth Berkowitz Jewish Theological Seminary Animals in Rabbinic
TAL 6150 “Humans and Other Animals in Talmudic Torts” Prof. Beth Berkowitz The Jewish Theological Seminary of America Fall 2010 Monday/Wednesday 10:20-12:10 “Among nonhumans and separate from nonhumans there is an immense multiplicity of other living things that cannot in any way be homogenized, except by means of violence and willful ignorance, within the category of what is called the animal or animality in general.” Jacques Derrida “The Animal That Therefore I Am” Theme of Course Human beings have long considered themselves unique among animals. In recent decades, new research on animal cognition and the rise of the environmentalist movement have challenged the conviction that we are superior to – and have the right to exploit – other animal species. This course will explore the conceptualization of animals within classical rabbinic law. Slaughtering, sacrificing, and eating animals are the most prominent legal topics, but the Mishnah also discusses buying, selling, owning, inheriting, stealing, judging, and worshipping animals, as well as keeping them as pets, using them for labor, gambling with them, and having sex with them. Our course will focus on rabbinic laws about injury to and by animals, which is most often embodied by the “goring ox,” a legal motif inherited from the Torah (which was probably in turn borrowed from the Laws of Hammurabi). We will keep in mind the broader rabbinic discourse about animals as we ask: • According to rabbinic assumption, what is the character of animal cognition, communication, intention, emotion? -
Gemara Succah Elementary I and II
PREMIUMPREMIUM TORAHTORAH COLLEGECOLLEGE PROGRAMSPROGRAMSTaTa l l Gemara Succah Elementary I and II February 2019 Elementary Gemara I and II: Succah —Study Guide— In this Study Guide you will find: • Elementary Succah I: syllabus (page 4), and sample examination (page 11). • Elementary Succah II: syllabus (page 18), and sample examination (page 25). NOTE: a. Since you are required to answer in black ink, be sure to bring a black pen to your exam. b. Accustom yourself to outlining your answers on scrap paper and writing essays clearly. Illegible exams will not be graded. c. The lowest passing score on this exam is 70. You will not get credit for a score below 70, though in the case of a failed or illegible paper, you may be able to retake the exam after waiting six months. Grades for transcripts are calculated as follows: A = 90–100% B = 80–89% C = 70–79% This Study Guide is the property of TAL and MUST be returned after you take the exam. Failure to do so is an aveirah of gezel. GemaraSuccahElemIandIISPCombined-1 v02.indd © 2019 by Torah Accreditation Liaison. All Rights Reserved. Succah Elementary I and II Elementary Gemara I: Succah — Study Guide — This elementary Gemara I examination is based on the beginning of Maseches Succah, from: דף ד עמוד ב on (ושאינה גבוהה עשרה טפחים) 2a) until the two dots) דף ב עמוד א • (4b), and דף ז עמוד א 6b) through) דף ו עמוד ב on (ושאין לה שלש דפנות) from the two dots • .(on the last line גופא 7a) (until the word) In this Study Guide you will find: • The syllabus outline for the elementary Succah I examination (page 4). -
Humor in Torah and Talmud
Sat 3 July 2010 Dr Maurice M. Mizrahi Congregation Adat Reyim Lunch and Learn Humor in Torah and Talmud -Not general presentation on Jewish humor, just humor in Tanach and Talmud, and list below is far from exhaustive -Tanach mentions “laughter” 50 times (root: tz-cho-q) [excluding Yitzhaq] -Some commentators say humor is not intentional. -Maybe sometimes, but one cannot avoid the feeling it is. -Reason for humor not always clear. -Rabbah (4th cent. Talmudist) always began his lectures with a joke: Before starting to teach, Rabbah joked and pupils laughed. Afterwards he started seriously teaching halachah. (Talmud, Shabbat 30b) Humor in Tanach -Sarai can’t conceive, so she tells her husband Abram: I beg you, go in to my maid [Hagar]; perhaps I can obtain children through her. And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. [Genesis 16:2] Hagar gets pregnant and becomes very impertinent towards her mistress Sarai. So a very angry Sarai goes to her husband Abram and tells him: This is all your fault! [Genesis 16:5 ] -God tells Sarah she will have a child: And Sarah laughed, saying: Shall I have pleasure when I am old? My husband is also old. And the Lord said to Abraham [who did not hear Sarah]: “Why did Sarah laugh, saying: Shall I bear a child, when I am old?” [Genesis 18:12-13] God does not report all that Sarah said for shalom bayit -- to keep peace in the family. Based on this, Talmud concludes it’s OK to tell white lies [Bava Metzia 87a]. Note: After Sarah dies Abraham marries Keturah and has six more sons.