Off the Daf and Into Israel

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...