Off the Daf and Into Israel

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...