Off the Daf and Into Israel

Mountains and Valleys Sotah 33 and 37 Before we delve into the geographic puzzles of Gittin, a few last words on Sotah. In the seventh chapter we have a comprehensive discussion of the blessings and curses given on Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Ebal. This is in the context of what must be recited in Hebrew and what can be said in any language. The mishnah explains the procedure for giving the blessings and curses and expounds on the verse in Devarim 11 that explains how to get to the mountains: ארץ הכנעני הישב בערבהמול הגלגל אצל אלוני מרה הלא המה בעבר הירדן אחרי דרך מבוא השמש Both are on the other side of the Jordan, beyond the west road that is in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the Arabah – near Gilgal, by the terebinths of Moreh. (JPS trans.) There are many details in that verse, not all of them fitting together. The Gemara discusses whether מבוא השמש  means east or west, connects the story to Abraham who goes to Elon Moreh and brings in the Samaritans who i...

Sotah 41 If Only One of Them Had Had a Nickname. . . In the discussion on our daf about the king reading from the Torah at the Hakhel ceremony, we have the fascinating story about King Agrippa. The Mishnah relates that he stood during the ceremony even though he was a king (the Gemara explains that that was because he was not from the house of David). When he reached the verse that forbids appointing a non-Jewish king, he started to cry, presumably since he was not fully Jewish. The crowd comforted him by saying אל תתירא אגריפס, אחינו אתה, אחינו אתה!   Do not fear Agrippa, you are our brother, you are our brother! The story suggests a number of things: that Agrippa’s Jewish ancestry is in doubt, that he is a righteous man and that he has public support. The question is, who was Agrippa? We know that Agippa was a king from the house of Herod, and also of Hasmonean lineage. Rashi states these facts and adds that he was king at the time of the destruction of the Temp...

Sky of Blue Sotah 17 R. Meir used to say: Why is blue specified from all the varieties of colours? Because blue resembles [the colour of] the sea, and the sea resembles [the colour of] heaven, and heaven resembles [the colour of] the Throne of Glory, as it is said: And they saw the God of Israel and there was under His feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and as it were the very heaven for clearness, 28   and it is written: The likeness of a throne as the appearance of a sapphire stone. 29 This famous saying explains why the color techelet, a beautiful shade of blue, was chosen for one fringe of the tzitzit . The rediscovery of how to make the techelet dye is a fascinating story and for that take a look at http://tekhelet.com// But the techelet color has also been an inspiration in Jewish art and in Jewish homes, particularly in the mystical city of Tzfat. So here, courtesy of Google images, are some memorable Tzfat techelet scenes. 

Land of (Wheat) and Barley Sotah 14 After explaining how a Sotah offering is different from other offerings, the Mishnah brings a statement by Rabban Gamliel. He explains that the offering is made of barley because barley is animal food. . Continuing the train of thought of the last chapter, that God acts with you in a reciprocal manner, he explains that the Sotah acted in a manner befitting animals so she brings animal food as an offering. Let’s talk about barley, שעורה . It is one of the seven species that the land of Israel is blessed with, along with wheat, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates. It is brought as the Omer offering on the second day of Pesach. And it is definitely a staple crop. So why the second-rate status? Barley was always an important crop. It ripens earlier than wheat (see the plague of hail in Egypt, which ruined the barley crop but not the wheat which was not ready yet Shmot 10:31-32) and has many nutrients. But it also contain...

Masekhet Sotah Parshandata I have always loved Rashi. I started learning Rashi with Chumash in grade school and studied about Rashi in the context of medieval Europe and the Crusades in college.  I even wrote a paper on him for graduate school. Now that I am learning the daf, my appreciation for Rashi has grown even greater as he is the ultimate guide to the complexities of the Talmud. I seem to recall a saying that God gave you two hands so that one could hold the place in the text and the other could hold the place in Rashi, since you needed to be looking at them simultaneously. Simply put, Rashi is the king, or, as one of his nicknames puts it, “Parshandata, “ THE parshan (commentator), a play on a name in the Megillah. So I have been less than happy having only “pseudo- Rashi” for masekhtot Nedarim and Nazir. While the insights of this mysterious commentator are often helpful, they do not provide the level of explanation and hand-holding that Rashi does. So in honor ...

Under the Swaying Palms   Nazir 47   In the mishnah on this daf we hear about a second woman who joins Queen Helene in becoming a Nazirite. her name is Miriam and she is from Tadmor (most commentaries correct the text that says Tarmod and make it Tadmor). Unfortunately, nothing is known about this Miriam but her homeland is  well known in both Jewish and non-Jewish sources. Tadmor, otherwise known as Palmyra, has been in the news lately because it is now controlled by ISIS and they have deliberately destroyed some of the fabulous antiquities there. But let’s go back in history to happier times. Tadmor/Palmyra seems to derive its name from the tamar, the palm tree. It is a desert oasis on one of the main caravan routes through the Syrian Desert: (Wikipedia) Because of its strategic location, Tadmor was already settled in prehistoric times and by Biblical times it beame a main stop on the caravan route. It was settled by Arameans and Arabs and later b...

Money Down the Drain Nazir 24 The mishnah here gets into complicated cases of what happens to money set aside for Nazir sacrifices if the sacrifices can no longer be brought. The money for a sin offering חטאת cannot be used for anything else and therefore the coins have to be disposed of. In the language of the mishnah: יוליכם לים המלח, bring them to the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is the mishnaic equivalent of flushing something down the toilet, ensuring that it can never be used or even found again. About ten years ago a huge cache of Hasmonean coins was found in the Dead Sea. Among the suggestions of where they came from is one connected to this idea, of coins that needed to be disposed of because they could not (or would not!) be brought to the Temple. The articles are below. > ​ http://www.haaretz.com/print- edition/features/pennies-from- heaven-or-elsewhere-1.133313 > >  http://sfile.f-static.com/ image/users/240224/ftp/my_ files/ITAMR/In%20for%20a% 20Penny%20-%20I...

Queen for a Day  Nazir 19   Our mishnah is one of the places where we hear about the intriguing figure of Queen Helene or Heleni HaMalka. Here she is described as taking a Nazirite vow while still in the Diaspora, and then having to redo part (or all) of it when she arrives in the land of Israel. Who is Helene, where is she from and what can archaeology tell us about her? We hear about Helene and her sons Monbaz and Izates in a number of places. Josephus, who was almost her contemporary (she probably died when he was a child, in the mid first century CE), writes about the family’s conversion to Judaism. Helene and her husband Monbaz were the rulers of a country called Adiabene or חדייב in Hebrew. It is located on the northern end of the Tigris River, near ancient Nineveh and the Assyrian kingdom. Today it is in northern Iraq, in Kurdistan:   http://womenofhistory.blogspot.co.il/2014/07/queen-helena-of-adiabene.html Adiabene’s location was on a major...

Welcome to Nazir! As we enter the fascinating world of Nazirite vows, we will see that it seems to have been rather prevalent in the time of the Second Temple and perhaps for a short time afterwards. But then becoming a Nazir fell out of fashion and we have no record of any medieval or modern Nezirim until we arrive in the twentieth century. Here we encounter an extraordinary individual: Rabbi David Cohen, known as the Nazir. The Nazir (1887-1972) was born to a distinguished rabbinical family in Eastern Europe and traveled all over, studying with the Hafetz Haim, at Slobodka and at Volozhin, among other places. He also began to study philosophy and other Western disciplines. During World War I he ended up in Basel, Switzerland, where he encountered the man who changed his life: Rabbi Abraham Isaac HaCohen Kook. After a philosophical discussion, Rabbi Cohen stayed the night. When he heard Rabbi Kook praying in the morning, he was overcome by his holiness and: “ I became a...

Ketubot 27 Hideouts I can’t leave Ketubot yet! The mishnah here talks about a tragic situation: if a city is besieged and conquered, all the wives of Kohanim in the city are considered to have been raped and therefore are forbidden to their husbands. There is a way out though: even if there is one witness to the woman not being raped, that witness is considered dependable and the woman can return to her husband. The following mishnah illustrates this halacha with a terrible story: Rabbi Zechariah ben HaKatzav swears by the Temple המעון הזה!   that when idolators entered Jerusalem he never left his wife’s side, literally he never let go of her hand. Despite this testimony, his wife was forbidden to him because one cannot testify about oneself. The Gemara has a curious and very significant addition: אמר רב אידי בר אבין אמר רב יצחק בר אשיאן: אם יש שם מחבואה אחת מצלת על הכוהנות כולן Rabbi Idi bar Abin in the name of Rabbi Yitzchak bar Ashian said: If there is one hi...

Ketubot  112 A Bridge Over the River Jordan Our masechet ends with paeans to the beauty and prosperity of the land of Israel. To me, one of the most powerful aliya stories is on our page, the story of Rabbi Zera. My neighbor Dr. Beni Gesundheit calls Rabbi Zera the ultimate oleh hadash, new immigrant, based on the many stories about his life as a “greenhorn” in Eretz Yisrael. After hearing a few pages ago about Rabbi Zera’s disagreements with his rebbe, Rabbi Yehudah, about moving to the land of Israel, here we find out that indeed he made it: “When R. Zera went up to the Land of Israel and could not find a ferry wherein to cross [a certain river]   he grasped a rope bridge and crossed.” Coming from Babylonia, we will assume that the river that needed crossing was the Jordan. Despite there being several organized bridges and crossing points to the Jordan, then and now, Rabbi Zera was not at one of those and therefore had to “grasp a rope bridge and cross.” W...