Shabbat – Sabbath

• Shabbat – “Sabbath” – The Day of Rest.
  • 3/8/20, Chapter 1, Page 2 – On the Sabbath, there’s a generally well known precept in Jewish tradition of not carrying things between the private (i.e., home) and public domains. The discussion here is on the responsibility of two parties – a poor person at the door of your house, and you as the homeowner inside the house. It covers the various ways in which an object might be transferred in or out of the house between the two of you. What struck me was the constant reference to the “poor person at the door”. Do the same rules apply if it’s a rich person? And assuming we’re talking about some sort of charity in at least the cases where the object is going to the poor person, oughtn’t the mitzvah, the good deed, of charity trump this rule?
  • 3/9/20, Page 3 – The conversation continues, with the whole concept of no differentiation between outside and inside, public and private, all is, in essence, one. Except when it comes to exceptions to the whole conversation about sin, responsibility, etc. It is permissible to trap a deer inside your house that has entered on its own. Presumably, dinner. It is also permissible to prevent a poisonous snake from entering, or let one leave if it’s already inside. Presumably, not dinner.
  • 3/10/20, Page 4 – Oh Talmud, you’ve gone all Star Trek on me. Yes, you did it first, but we’re talking about my ground zero in pop culture. Can you violate a minor law, a rabbinic law, if it will save a) another from violating a major law, a Torah law, or b) to save the community from such a violation? Though left with thoughts on various positions, the majority seem to come down on a) no, b) yes. “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” 
  • 3/11/20, Page 5 – Baseball. Seriously, that’s what came to mind. Baseball. Every Jewish kid who had to play on a Little League team and couldn’t catch a ball. Because we were famous for that. Sure, there were exceptions, like Sandy Koufax and Hank Aaron, that we all knew and revered, but, exceptions. The Talmudic passage today talks about tossing an object from the camp under one banner to that under another banner, catching it with “a basket on the hand”, what to do if you drop it, what to do with it if you catch it, responsibility for it, and exceptions for if the object is too close to the ground or too high off the ground. Baseball. So Dad, that’s why I couldn’t catch a ball, I was thinking about Talmud….
  • 3/12/20, Page 6 – I always thought an eiruv was cheating. For those who don’t know what an eiruv is, it’s an area that would normally be considered public domain, like courtyards, alleys, streets, where on the Sabbath, observant Jews are not allowed to carry things – you’re allowed to carry things within a private domain, like your home or the synagogue. So the Rabbis established eiruvs, areas that basically connected those, so that one could walk from home to the synagogue and carry what you needed – they were designated “private for the community”. Back in the day, that was probably a limited number of passageways. I doubt they envisioned things like Manhattan’s eiruv which runs from West 126th Street down to Battery Park, and then up to East 111th Street and then across (there’s actually an overhead wire encompassing the entire thing), allowing, pretty much, Orthodox Jews to pretend that most of the island is “private domain”.
  • 3/13/20, Page 7 – Throw a fig cake at the wall and see if it sticks. A clear antecedent to a more well known modern expression. The rabbis also come down hard on “tiny homes” and NYC sized apartments, declaring anything that small is “not to be considered a home”.
  • 3/14/20, Page 8 – I think we’re talking barbecues here at one point. As best I can figure it, it’s advice on how deep of a pit you should dig to make your food in. Not too deep is perfect. Too deep, not so much.
  • 3/15/20, Page 9 – If someone’s at your door, at your gate, at the entrance, they’re not inside your home, they have no hold over you, you have no liability for them. Open the door, and/or invite them in, and you’re theirs. Always remember, you can’t be a victim of a vampire if you don’t invite him or her in.
  • 3/16/20, Page 10 – Oh boy do we get a lot today. First, is the timing of morning meals. In order of who should eat, hour by hour, it is, apparently: cannibals (because they’re really hungry), robbers (because they’ve been working all night), rich people (because, rich), then it’s a toss up as to whether the common folk or the servants eat four or fifth. No one argues with the cannibals. Second, in a bathhouse, “shalom” is an inappropriate greeting when you’re mucking about naked, because it’s a holy word. “Hey girl…” is probably okay. Third, we’re back to pedophilia – if you, as a scholar, “give a young boy a treat”, you have to let his mother know, which you do by marking the boy’s eyes with blue eye-shadow. Just so, you know, mom knows that you’ve been “giving some bread” to her son.
  • 3/17/20, Page 11 – Imagine, if you will, the amount of written law that it took to run a few ancient city-states, with a few hundreds of thousands of people, contrasted with the volume of written law in modern day life to manage 200+ countries and 7 billion plus people. The sages who said that if all the seas were ink, all the reeds were quills, all the heavens were parchment, and every person alive was a scribe; it still wouldn’t have been enough to write down everything legal that government has to do… had no f*ing clue.
  • 3/18/20, Page 12 – It seems that the learned folk of the era were more concerned with how to get around the prohibitions of doing things on the Sabbath than with keeping with them. So, we learn about ways to get rid of lice by not outright killing them, by squeezing them and throwing them, or tossing them in water and letting them drown; by using a paraffin lamp instead of an oil lamp or candle because it’s not adjustable (candles are adjustable?), and, my favorite, talking about things you’re not supposed to talk about in Aramaic instead of in Hebrew, because angels only understand Hebrew, not Aramaic, and so you won’t get caught.
  • 3/19/20, Page 13 – Two quite long discussions about putting yourself in the way of temptation, one relates to eating, with admonitions about having foods that shouldn’t be eaten together on the same table, or things you shouldn’t eat at all being on the table; either while on your own, while dining with a friend, or while dining with a stranger – each situation is approached slightly differently. The second discussion relates to potential sexual relations; showing affection to your spouse, a non-spousal relative, or someone else, and again, each is approached differently. Upshot? If there are xiao long bao on the table, have your chopsticks at the ready.
  • 3/20/20, Page 14 – Clearly “cleanliness is next to godliness” was not a precept back in the day. The rabbis say that in order to be ritually pure, you have to immerse yourself in naturally collected water pools, like a cave pool, despite the fact that it stinks and is dirty. If you then rinse off with clean, drawn water, you’re impure again. Then they say you should only handle food, and the Torah, if your hands are ritually pure. So, umm, no, sorry, if you’re going to be handling my food, or the Torah, I want your hands clean, not coated in swamp water. Seems apropos in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
  • 3/21/20, Page 15 – Rabbis and sages don’t agree on anything. Well, I think, they agree that spit, urine, and ignorant people are all “impure”, but other than that, it’s all up for grabs.
  • 3/22/20, Page 16 – This whole section is getting into the technicalities of ritual impurities, there might not be a lot for me to grab onto here. This passage covers the differences in impurities between earthenware, glass, and metal vessels, and particularly their purification if they have a hole or have been broken, and how to purify them. About the only thing unusual I gleaned is that vessels made from cow dung aren’t impure, period. I mean, if any kind of vessel ought to be considered impure….
  • 3/23/20, Page 17 – Remember way back in Berakhot 58 where gentiles (non-Jews) were declared heretics? So, obviously, having sex with a heretic is an impure kind of act. Got it. And apparently, we now find out in a little tangent passage, that when a boy has had “three emissions”, he becomes of legal status to transmit impurity, but not before. So in order, and it’s spelled out in the actual words, “that Jewish boys don’t become accustomed to having sexual relations with gentile boys”, we have a declaration from the rabbis that gentile boys are impure from birth, “as if they’ve had three emissions”. By implication, apparently, Jewish boys should only have their sexual relations with other Jewish boys, and only twice. Is that with each?
  • 3/24/20, Page 18 – We’re back to the “how do I get around the rules” game when it comes to the hours before the Sabbath starts. Upshot for modern life? Yes, no-knead bread. Maybe, Instant Pot. Yes, give your work to a gentile to do. Yes, pretend for 24 hours that something isn’t actually yours.
  • 3/25/20, Page 19 – Although this passage is mostly about the timing of starting things prior to the Sabbath, I end up down a rabbit hole with a reference to “Babylonian kutah“, a condiment. A half hour of roaming through the internet reveals that historians shouldn’t be allowed in the kitchen. It is variously described as a dry condiment, a dip, or a liquid. There seems general agreement that it involves some sort of soured dairy product, though that ranges from what sounds like sour milk to sour cream, to cheese. And it contains either breadcrumbs, bread crusts, moldy or stale bread, or barley. And some say it contains wine. Salt. They do all seem to agree on salt.
  • 3/26/20, Page 20 – As the rabbis and sages argue over how to build a fire, from its form to its substance, that includes everything from branches to reeds, to moss to… cheese… one thing becomes eminently clear. None of them were ever Boy Scouts. And all of them could really use enrollment in a hands-on BBQ pitmaster class. We also end chapter one of Shabbat.
  • 3/27/20, Chapter 2, Page 21 – When I was growing up, lighting Chanukah candles during the festival was a ritual that had a defined order – 1 candle the first night, 2 the second, and on to 8 the final night. I had no idea that this was controversial. 8 or 13 or the number of people in your household? Start at 1 and work up, or start at the maximum and work down? At least in modern day western life, it appears that Rabbi Hillel’s approach of 8 and ascending won out. I wonder if that’s true in all Jewish communities?
  • 3/28/20, Page 22 – Multiple examples are used to illustrate one core point – if something is used for a spiritual, or holy, purpose, one doesn’t simply just pluck it from that use to serve another purpose. MacGyver would not have a good ride with the Sages.
  • 3/29/20, Page 23 – The rabbis really have a thing about deaf-mutes and imbeciles, as the terms are translated. Basically, they barely seem to consider them human, certainly not on the same plane as upstanding citizens. An interesting look at the lighting of one’s courtyard – if you have two entrances to the courtyard, a good person is required to light both entrances at night, as if one entrance is left dark, it is fair to assume that it is for nefarious purposes and the owner is up to no good.
  • 3/30/20, Page 24 – We learn that various oils are acceptable for lighting Sabbath lamps, from olive oil to nut oils to turnip oil, to fish oil, to gour oil, to tar, even to naptha, a gas product. Wait… what? Turnip oil? Gourd oil? What are those? A bit of online research – we’re talking about the oil from their seeds – in the case of the former, in essence, it’s what we call canola oil. It’s actually pretty astonishing the number of different seed oils available out there on the internet. And the uses for which they are touted.
  • 3/31/20, Page 25 – Remember how I said there was a growing rift between the rabbis from, let’s say, different sides of the tracks? Try this passage out, with a trio arguing over what constitutes a wealthy person: Rabbi Tarfon says, “Anyone who has one hundred vineyards, and one hundred fields, and one hundred slaves working in them.” Rabbi Akiva says, “Anyone who has a wife whose actions are pleasant.” Rabbi Yosei says, “Anyone who has a bathroom close to his table.” Priorities, you know?
  • 4/1/20, Page 26 – A long discussion about woven garments made of either wool or linen, both of which get a lot of face time in both the Torah and the Talmud. It suddenly occurs to me that there are no rules about other woven fabrics, not how or when to wear them, or what they must look like… what would the Talmudic sages have to say about qiana shirts?
  • 4/2/20, Page 27 – Got it. Leprosy, bad. Creeping animals, bad. If either comes in contact with your clothes, throw them in the washer. Now. Ritual Purify setting.
  • 4/3/20, Page 28 – In the midst of a conversation over what animal hides are acceptable as coverings for a sacred tent, we are introduced to the tahash, a legendary creature with one horn and a six-colored hide. Tangent reading shows that for eons the sages have speculated whether the tahash is the same as the keresh, or unicorn (which apparently, in their minds is an established, extant creature), something more like a giant Eurasian rhinoceros, or a large one-horned ox, or a marine animal like a narwhal, though most seem to come down on that it was a creature that appeared just once, created by God just to have its hide used as the tent over the Ark of the Covenant.
  • 4/4/20, Page 29 – Remember way back in Berakhot when we were doing the buddy system to avoid brigands, demons, and prostitutes? Well now, it turns out, we can extinguish a lamp on the Sabbath (something normally not permitted) if: we’re afraid of thieves, evil spirits, gentiles (are those a 1:1 correspondence with the previous trio?), or are simply depressed or sick and want to sit in the dark.
  • 4/5/20, Page 30 – We spend a bit of time on the life, well, the end of life, of King David. In both places in the Torah where this comes up, he dies of old age and natural causes. Here in the Talmud, he has a conversation with God, who tells him he will die on the Sabbath. So David spends every Sabbath studying Torah, because the Angel of Death cannot, supposedly, take him away while he’s studying Torah. One day, the Angel, tired of waiting, causes a great noise in the trees outside David’s chambers, and he sets down his studying and rushes out to see what happened – in doing so, breaking his routine of studying, and the Angel causes him to crash through a broken stairway and die. We also find out that David left a “hit list” with his son Solomon, who prays to God, sometime later, to remember David, and God causes lightning to come down and turn the skin of all of David’s enemies on the list “as dark as the bottom of a pot”. Perhaps a part of the long standing enmity between the ultra-religious Hasidim and people of color?
  • 4/6/20, Page 31 – It’s another Hillel vs Shemmai knockdown dragout battle, of patience versus impulsiveness. But, in what may be Hillel’s best line ever (though I have a whole lot of the Talmud left to cover, so that may change), is his famed, “That which is hateful to you do not do to another; that is the the entire Torah, and the rest is its interpretation.” Given that the Torah is the core of Jewish beliefs, this is a great summation of our core precept, and likely a parallel development of the Confucian, “Don’t do unto others what you don’t want done unto you..” That, or Rabbi Hillel went out for a plate of kung pao and read it in a fortune cookie.
  • 4/7/20, Page 32 – It’s only one line, a throwaway line at that, when Rav Shmuel announces that in an effort to avoid divine judgement, he will only cross a river in a ferry boat with a Gentile, because… “Satan doesn’t have dominion over two nations”. My takeaway is, hangout with non-Jews (and vice versa), because it’ll keep the demons away.
  • 4/8/20, Page 33 – Judges delay in meting out justice? Bring pestilence, famine, violence, and looting upon the land. Break an oath? Kill your children and your livestock. Don’t study Torah enough? Targeted bio-attacks upon your person. Wow. I mean, in modern terms, this passage is God as bio-terrorist.
  • 4/9/20, Page 34 – I think this has my favorite line in the Talmud so far…. “If competing prostitutes still apply makeup to each other to help one another look beautiful, all the more so that Torah scholars should cooperate with each other.” It’s also far more interesting than the long discussion about which Pantone shade of blue the sky has to be to determine when twilight occurs.
  • 4/10/20, Page 35 – No surprise here… from when twilight begins, we move into, “how long does twilight last”? I have to admit, I love the various measurements for different parts of twilight and the start of the Sabbath, from the length of time it takes to walk from the observation point on Mt. Carmel to the shore, to the length of time it takes to fry a small fish.
  • 4/11/20, Page 36 – An interesting, albeit silly to my mind discussion that touches, more or less, on legalese. If something with a specific name was prohibited or allowed, and later, the name of that object or person is changed, does the prohibition or allowance still hold? Here, also, ends chapter 2 of Shabbat.
  • 4/12/20, Chapter 3, Page 37 – As best I can tell, this is a passage advocating for the development of the chafing dish, crock-pot or insta-pot, basically a discussion of the allowance of things to be left over a source of continuous heat to keep them hot, and/or even to finalize cooking, during the Sabbath, but not to allow any heating or cooking that requires initiating or adjusting the heat source. No wonder my people love buffets.
  • 4/13/20, Page 38 – Intention matters. Also, cool, today makes 100 days of Daf Yomi study! Only 2,611 more days to go.
  • 4/14/20, Page 39 – There are YouTube videos out there that enumerate dozens of ways to cook eggs. At no point in any of them did the idea of “wrapping an egg in hot cloths” come up (not permitted on the Sabbath) nor did, “placing an egg on your roof to let the sun cook it” (permitted on the Sabbath, but only on the roof, not on the ground). So get yourself one of those solar cookers and mount it on the terrace.
  • 4/15/20, Page 40 – All about the heating of water and oil on the Sabbath. We know that you can’t start a fire, and you can’t put something directly on a fire that’s already burning and start to heat it up. But it turns out, you can put something “near” to a fire enough to warm it up, as long as it doesn’t get hot enough to cook something. So, we find, that schvitzing in the sauna is okay as long as it’s all trapped heat. Putting a hot wet towel on your stomach to ease intestinal distress is fine – though there’s a strong recommendation for not putting the hot water kettle directly on your stomach, be it the Sabbath or not. And rubbing your children with warmed oil is fine, because you’re not planning to cook them anyway.
  • 4/16/20, Page 41 – Proudly display your penis when naked – while bathing, in a bathhouse, taking a dip in the river…. To do otherwise might be seen as being embarrassed about your circumcised penis, a covenant with God. And, don’t hold your penis while peeing, because you might start to fondle yourself and get aroused and then, who knows what might happen?
  • 4/17/20, Page 42 – Life doesn’t always go as planned, and sometimes acknowledging that you’re bending or even breaking the rules with a commitment not to do so again, is the right thing to do.
  • 4/18/20, Page 43 – There’s this corpse. You’re awaiting burial, you’re sitting shiva (the Jewish version of a wake), but there’s this dead body. It’s the Sabbath, and you accidentally didn’t move the corpse out of the sun. Or, the house is suddenly on fire. But, you’re not allowed to move a corpse on the Sabbath. Got it? There are two things in particular that you’re allowed to move around on the Sabbath. A loaf of bread, or an infant. And, you’re allowed to carry the tray that the bread is on for slicing, or the bassinet that the child is carried in. So, brilliant solution! Set the bread, or the infant, on the corpse, and then you can move the corpse because it’s now considered to be a bread tray or a baby’s basket. Remember, the house is on fire.
  • 4/19/20, Page 44 – There’s a lot of moving and not moving of lamps and lights on the Sabbath, but the take away is, in modern terms, recommended social distancing from things that you find disgusting.
  • 4/20/20, Page 45 – We’re back to… intentions matter. A long discussion of “set asides”, as in, if you want to have or use something on the Sabbath, set it aside for that purpose. If you set it aside for another purpose, and it’s now the Sabbath, you can’t now use it just because it’s there. Keeps the Sabbath separate. Oh, and Persian Zoroastrian Fire Priests. I want to know more about Persian Zoroastrian Fire Priests. Is that like an early Dungeons & Dragons reference?
  • 4/21/20, Page 46 – First off, I don’t care how important you are, if your shoes are covered with clay, you don’t prop your feet up on my furniture. Second, we get some solid sexism. Remember those set asides from yesterday? Well, if a woman sets something aside, she needs her husband’s permission – if she didn’t get it, he can void her “vow”. If a man sets something aside, and wants to change that, he has to go to one of the sages of the community to annul his vow. Bet none of the sages are women….
  • 4/22/20, Page 47 – Although one might be tempted to explore the subject of why poor people’s clothing and rich people’s clothing are different sizes, of far more interest to me is the observation that chamber pots full of feces are left uncovered, smelly, and disgusting, while coal pans, filled with “clean, clean, beautiful coal” are kept covered. It is something to ponder. Here, we end chapter 3 of Shabbat.
  • 4/23/20, Page 48 – The start of chapter 4…. An interesting and fundamental tenet of what’s behind many of the Sabbath laws… Does the action you’re taking fundamentally alter the object you’re acting on. And so, cooking, heating water, cutting cloth, lighting a fire, etc., change the object on which you’re acting into a new state and therefore, are prohibited. Removing a cork from a bottle of wine, unlacing a shoe or garment, stuffing the filling back into a pillow, lifting a book and/or reading it, do not alter the character of those things, and therefore, are permitted.
  • 4/24/20, Page 49 – Although much of this page is devoted to discussions of insulation materials, the standout passage that most focus on is a lovely story about Elisha, the “man of wings”. I’ll leave you to Google him for the story, but the takeaway is that, as in the case of many spiritual practices, it pays to approach them in a state of purity of body, mind, and heart. An inquiring mind (mine) also wants to know if the dove wings were just an illusion, or an actual change, and, if the latter, did Elisha get his tefillin back?
  • 4/25/20, Page 50 – In which I learn about natron and berada. The former is a naturally occurring mix of soda ash, salt, and baking soda, that apparently, mixed with sand, was used as an exfoliant scrub. There is disagreement about whether the use of this, and by extension, other exfoliants, is allowed on the Sabbath as it might cause your facial hair to fall out (therefore, we find, the prohibition doesn’t apply to women, children, or eunuchs). Instead, it is suggested that we cleanse our faces with powdered frankincense – a pine resin; jasmine seed pulp, cracked pepper (really?), or, berada, which is an equal parts mixture of aloe, myrtle, and violets. St. Ives should make a facial mask out of the last one.
  • 4/26/20, Page 51 – We finish off insulation (I hope) with a discussion of insulating cold things rather than the hot of page 49. And then, we move on, to… well, leash laws. Most of page 51 is a discussion of what types of collars, halters, bits, and ropes can be used with different animals, ranging from horses, to camels, to, awfully specifically, white female camels, to Libyan donkeys (the Best Donkeys), to cats. Cat liberation wins the day with a collar and no leash of any sort. I’m left wanting to know what’s special about white female camels. And, here we end the rather short chapter 4.
  • 4/27/20, Page 52 – Chapter 5. We’re still on leashes, now for donkeys, red heifers, and mules. The upshot? Better safe than sorry. And also, not decorative. Step away from your Bedazzler. Also, a needle without an eye is a pin.
  • 4/28/20, Page 53 – There are so many topics on one page, I’m just lost. How to treat your animals on the Sabbath seems to be the major thread, including what sorts of decoration and amulets they may wear. But there are also bizarre “miracle” stories of a man who grows breasts in order to feed his son, after his wife dies, and a man who is married to a woman for many years and never realizes she only has one arm, because he sees the illusion that she has two. The argument that ensues is over whether these “alterations of creation” are abominations or not. I guess that comes down to whether you think the “miracles” happened by divine intervention, or by sorcery.
  • 4/29/20, Page 54 – Still on animals, mostly on what kinds of, and numbers of, ropes or straps can be used to lead them about on the Sabbath. The general consensus is sort of “none”. Let your animals rest on the Sabbath, just like you and the rest of your family. More important, perhaps, an exchange between some of the Rabbis about one’s personal responsibility for his/her own household, community, and even the whole world. As the NYPD put it after 9/11, “if you see something, say something”, or one might say, for each person, “the buck stops here”.
  • 4/30/20, Page 55 – It’s an Angelic Lucha Libre – with the angel Gabriel passing through the streets of Jerusalem divinely marking each person into one of three categories – those who sin, those who protest the sin, and those who stand idly by. He is followed by a sextet of angels of destruction – Fury, Wrath, Rage, Destroyer, Breaker, and Annihilator. Their job? Put to death all those in the categories of both those who sin, and those who do nothing about it. And the first mention of the Jewish concept of “original sin”, which, while it exists in terms of the idea that all of us are from that lineage, and perhaps carry with us a touch of sin (remember, no wicked person is totally wicked, no good person is totally good, from way back in these pages), unlike in Christianity, we are not held responsible for the sins of our ancestors, nor are we for those of our descendants.
  • 5/1/20, Page 56 – Two things stood out here. The first, is an interesting tradition within the armies of King David, whose soldiers, when headed off to battle, gave their wives a “conditional” bill of divorce, to be executed only if they died on the battlefield. Why? Because in tradition, a widow was not allowed to remarry, but a divorcee was. Think about it…. The second, a different version of the famous story of the Golden Calf appears here, with two, yes, two, Golden Calves, one near Jerusalem, and one in Dan, in “the north”. On this second site a small hut is erected, and according to the Talmud, constitutes the foundation of Italy. This might explain a lot…. Here ends chapter 5.
  • 5/2/20, Page 57 – Chapter 6 – Having just finished off chapter 5, which was all about what sorts of bits, halters, and ornaments that a domesticated animal can “wear” on the Sabbath, it’s a bit disconcerting to launch into an almost identical conversation about what sorts of jewelry, braids, strings, and amulets a woman can wear on the Sabbath. I’m wondering if Chapter 7 will be the same for men? Take-away? Women shouldn’t wear any ornamentation that another woman might want to look at that would require removing it to show it off, and potentially then “carrying” an object on the Sabbath. Because you know women can’t help themselves. <eye-roll>
  • 5/3/20, Page 58 – Wow. Quite the insight into the mindset of the wealthier caste in the Jewish community. The page is basically a discussion of what sorts of seals of ownership and bells that slaves can have clamped around their necks or affixed to their clothing when they go out. It’s not that slavery existed, nor that these sorts of fine points were being debated that struck me, but that the justifications for which sorts of seals of ownership and bells can be worn are derived from the rules set down in Chapter 5, above, i.e., what sorts of seals of ownership and bells can be placed on domesticated animals when they go out.
  • 5/4/20, Page 59 – We’re back to women and ornamentation. Tiaras, belts, earrings, necklaces…. And here, we get a combination of the last two pages, with it being made clear than an ordinary sort of woman can’t go out with those things on the Sabbath if they’re made of shiny metals, like gold, or very decorative, because they simply wouldn’t be able to help themselves but to take them off and show them off to their friends. But a wealthy woman can, those of wealth assert, because no woman of true breeding would stoop so low as to take off her ornaments and pass them around to show them off. The mere act of her wearing them is all that she needs do to assert her position.
  • 5/5/20, Page 60 – Do you all know the urban legend about putting a roast in the oven, but first slicing the ends off of it? If not, take a moment to read it here. Today’s page is on topic. Most of it is spent on the prohibition of wearing spiked sandals. Also a short passage prohibiting transporting the ashes of a red cow across the river. What they have in common is a single defining event. A moment when someone did something to resolve a momentary issue (a one time possible reveal of a secret hideaway, and a one time destruction of cargo) that became “let’s always do it this way just in case”, which led, generations on, to “we do it this way because our ancestors did it this way”. No one ever asks the simple question, “why?”.
  • 5/6/20, Page 61 – Seriously, do we need to argue over whether to put on or take off our sandals right foot first or left foot first? And if the purpose of wearing sandals is to protect one’s feet from harm while walking, does it make sense to not wear a sandal on an injured foot and only on a non-injured foot?
  • 5/7/20, Page 62 – Don’t wear your magic amulets when you go to the bathroom, it’s disrespectful to the spirits. Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. Okay, it doesn’t mention the planets, but it’s clear the sages want us to know just how different they are. And once again, women are apparently unable to control their urges to show off. Now it’s “fragrant herbs” which apparently they place “down there” when there’s a “foul odor”. And they might just whip those herbs out to show to their girlfriends. Eww, no, I can’t un-see that now. The women of Samaria are apparently sluts, the women of Zion are stuck-up bitches. My take? These sages were the world’s first incels.
  • 5/8/20, Page 63 – White wine. Black wine. Well-kneaded bread. Un-kneaded bread. No, these aren’t food references. They’re Talmudic Tinder  “what kind of woman do you want to f*k?” references. Women who take big strides will break their hymen and thus become non-virgins. No guys, that’s not how it works. Women shouldn’t be allowed out with sword and shield. You know how they get. Attack dogs evil. Not a euphemism. Not clear why it’s in the middle of all this misogynistic stuff, other than the story of a barking rottweiler scaring a woman into a miscarriage.
  • 5/9/20, Page 64 – In a clear case of judicial overreach, the first part of this page starts from the ritual impurity of wearing a sack, to extend to, in quick succession, goat’s hair sacks, goat’s hair ropes, and goat’s hair ornaments, then jumps to extending the same prohibitions to the same things made from a horse’s or cow’s tail, and then suddenly we’re back to the earlier on established grisliness of things that have come in contact with a corpse, which of course leads to the creepiness of things that have been in contact with a creeping animal, which obviously also extends to the ickiness of things which have come in contact with a man’s semen. That was a roller-coaster ride. In the second part, it’s mostly about women’s wigs, but I’m struck by a passage about the unseemliness of women decorating their eyes in the color blue. I realize that blue eye shadow has come up repeatedly throughout the Talmud so far – in relation to women, and young boys – and there’s clearly some sort of “despoiled” connotation.
  • 5/10/20, Page 65 – Young girls are not permitted to lie next to each other as they might become aroused with sexual desire, and lesbians are not allowed to marry priests. I gather they’re allowed to marry anyone else.
  • 5/11/20, Page 66 – Quite the argument about the disabled. The rabbis disagree whether an amputee is allowed to go out into public on the Sabbath – though no particular reason is given for why it shouldn’t be allowed. Among those who think it should be allowed, there is another split between whether to allow them the use of a wooden leg, a crutch, a wheelchair, or… not. It is clear, however, that all of them consider someone with a disability to be less than fully human. Some things never change.
  • 5/12/20, Page 67 – A sudden switch in topics, from all the things that women are likely to do wrong, to a series of various cures for different ailments and injuries. My favorite has to be that if you have a bone stuck in your throat, get another bone from the same animal, set it on top of your head, recite a prayer to link the two bones together, and, as you then lift the bone on top of your head up, the bone in your throat will drop down into your stomach. Also, Moses and the burning bush is apparently a metaphor for a malaria cure. And, here ends Chapter 6.
  • 5/13/20, Page 68 – Chapter 7. We switch, now, to punishments for not complying with the various prohibitions against work on the Sabbath. A distinction is drawn between one who loses track of time or day and continues working into the Sabbath, and one who does so intentionally. The former is subject to bringing a single “sin offering” to the priests in atonement, the latter, to bringing an equal number of offerings to the number of violations on the given day. Either way, the priests are getting fat and happy. The second half of the page is an argument over whether a child who was born Jewish but not raised Jewish (two scenarios are proposed, a kidnapping, or simply a parental choice), and later finds out he is Jewish, is liable for the above atonements for all the Sabbaths of his life that he violated. Guess who’s in favor of receiving that multitude of offerings?
  • 5/14/20, Page 69 – Most of this page continues in the same general theme, moving on to different levels of awareness of having transgressed, and sorts of punishments are apt. What caught my eye was a brief mention of the apostate, a person who in essence renounces their Judaism and either takes up another religion or goes agnostic or atheist. If that person later returns to the faith, they are not held liable for the time they were a non-believer. It put me in mind of the Amish rumspringa, the ritual of a year off from the faith to decide how one wants to live their life, with no repercussions on return.
  • 5/15/20, Page 70 – On this page we move on in similar vein, to the person who is aware that it is the Sabbath, but is unaware that something they’re doing violates the rules. To wit, there are 39 activities, or labors, that are prohibited in the Torah to perform on the Sabbath, and what if someone, who is not well educated in the intricacies of the rules, doesn’t realize that something they’re doing violates them. I mean, I don’t know what all 39 of them are. If I understand the upshot, it’s that if it’s a first time offense, and someone takes the time to teach him the rules, he gets a pass. But if he does it again, he’s liable for a “sin offering” for each violation of rules thereafter. Seems a reasoned approach.
  • 5/16/20, Page 71 – We’re still on the same “how many sin-offerings” theme, this time in relation to the eating of “forbidden fats” more than once – is atonement necessary every time, or every two, or every three times? I probably knew this at some point in my youth in Hebrew school, but I’d forgotten that the eating of the fat of oxen, sheep, and goats, the three animals considered as appropriate sacrificial animals, is forbidden – not just on the Sabbath, but in general. There go my lamb-fat mashed potatoes and my oxtail sauce for pasta… yeah, like I’m giving those up.
  • 5/17/20, Page 72 – Same theme, this time, however, it’s… there’s no way to put this delicately… how many times you fucked your “designated maidservant” on the Sabbath. Yes, apparently, designated fuckable maidservants were a thing, though, like other workers, I guess they get a day off. And second off, the argument is over whether you need to atone each time you have sex with her on the Sabbath, or just every five times. Needless to say, the wealthier sages opine the latter.
  • 5/18/20, Page 73 – We finally get a listing of the prohibited 39 labors on the Sabbath. Obviously, those are also in the Torah, but this is the first time they’ve been listed out, nearly bullet-point form, in the Talmud in one spot. There’s a lot about sowing, reaping, gathering, threshing, grinding, and throwing. Not surprising for an agrarian society.
  • 5/19/20, Page 74 – I’m not sure, but I think the richer rabbis just prohibited intentional leftovers, and also the picking at unintentional leftovers. Specific to the Sabbath, either preparing a meal for the day before and leaving some for the Sabbath or preparing for the Sabbath and leaving it for the following day. I understand the idea of keeping it a special day with things designated just for it and only it, but not everyone has those lifestyle options. I guess when you’re wealthy, you can afford to throw out the food you didn’t finish.
  • 5/20/20, Page 75 – There’s a sort of “audit the course, don’t participate in full” admonition in which it’s made clear that it’s okay to learn enough to understand the knowledge of surrounding cultures and religions, “Persian sorcerers” are singled out, but, and it’s a big but, because violating it is punishable by the death penalty, it’s not okay to put it into practice by participating or learning “to do”. So, taking a comparative religion class in high school or college is okay, but going to church and participating in a service, big taboo. Also, menstrual blood should be stored as it is suitable for enriching your cat’s food. First, eww. Second, that sounds like sorcery in the making.
  • 5/21/20, Page 76 – One of our favorite Peruvian restaurants here in Buenos Aires used to have a sign over their bar with a Spanish quote that translates to: “Nothing can give the rich of today more pleasure than eating like the poor of yesteryear”. It came to mind in a little throwaway line where the sages mention that “only the poor eat bread made with a mix of refined flour and bran”. If only they could see Instagram during the covid pandemic…. Here ends Chapter 7.
  • 5/22/20, Page 77 – Chapter 8. A conversation between the learned Rav Yehuda and Rabbi Zeira, on the nature of the world. The former opines on the origins of the various names of things. I think my favorite was his etymological pronouncement that the word in Aramaic for spices, mitkolita, is an acronym for matai tikhleh da, meaning “when will this be finished?” Interestingly, he claims this is because spices last a long time, whereas my first reaction before reading that second sentence is that it would refer to the finishing of a dish with spices. My second reaction is that spices really don’t last very long, at least not with good flavor. Clearly Yehuda and I need to have a conversation.
  • 5/23/20, Page 78 – We’re into measures of how much of something violates carrying prohibitions on the Sabbath. Liquids center around water, wine, milk, and honey, and whether they’re being used for consumption or healing purposes. But then there’s blood, which thankfully they only discuss in regard to healing. Apparently, the blood of a wild chicken is used to cure warts around the eyes, and the blood of a bat, to cure cataracts. I will not be smearing blood in my eyes, as a cure for anything. Especially not that of bats in these particular times.
  • 5/24/20, Page 79 – Initially this page centers around how much of an animal hide or parchment you can or cannot carry on the Sabbath, as well as associated things like dyes or other supplies for tanning it. It then swiftly moves into an intricate discussion of the preparation of hides for ritual use to create the different types of parchment used for the Torah scrolls, mezuzas, and other important documents. The slightly bizarre takeaway, for those not interested in tanneries, is that for a non-tanned hide, the maximum sized piece you can carry on the Sabbath is one big enough to write a mystical amulet on, and for tanned hide, it’s a piece sufficient to write out a divorce decree on.
  • 5/25/20, Page 80 – Apparently, beer drinking causes hair growth, particularly on areas of the body where hair might be unsightly, and so beer drinking women need to use depilatories to have beautiful skin. I guess I should have drunk more beer and less wine. Appropriate depilatories, in increasing order of economic status are, apparently, lime, flour, and olive oil.
  • 5/26/20, Page 81 – This is the second time that using a stone “to wipe oneself” has come up in regard to bathroom usage (the first was page 55 of Masekhot Berakhot). Does it really require arguing over how many stones you’re allowed to use? Whether or not it’s acceptable to use a stone that someone else has previously used, and if so, which side of it, the same or the other? Whether the stone should be cleaned in between uses? Whether it should be wet or dry, and if dry, should it be left to dry in the bathroom or taken up to the roof to dry in the sun? Whether you should use one to “manipulate your anus as you do on weekdays”? Did these people not have leaves? Here ends Chapter 8.
  • 5/27/20, Page 82 – Chapter 9. A continuation from yesterday’s page. Grass! It occurs to them that damp grass can be used to wipe oneself. Also earthenware shards, as long as they’re not sharp, and ones that don’t involve witchcraft. There’s quite a discussion on cures for constipation that include “manipulation with an earthenware shard”, “thinking about other non-related things”, “moving from side to side”, and, the one that seems to be favored, with anecdotal evidence, of repeatedly “sitting down and standing up”.
  • 5/28/20, Page 83 – Thankfully, we’ve moved on from bathroom habits. The discussion today opens with idolatry, and in particular, small bits of idolatry, like a medal or figurine that one carries, on up to ashera, which are basically wooden poles used in the worship of the Earth Mother in Canaanite traditions (the local neighbors). Needless to say, the rabbis come down against. It reminded me, however, of how common it is throughout the world, to have some sort of Earth goddess at the core of many religions. Here in South American, often still found in rituals to the Pachamama, a practice that was subsumed by the Catholic church early on by creating more grounded, and local, versions of the Virgin Mary.
  • 5/29/20, Page 84 – There’s a prohibition in the bible about mixing different seeds together in planting a field or garden. Apparently in a momentary flash of landscape architecture creativity, the rabbis decide that one can plant, count them, five different kinds of seeds in a single garden, as long as they are planted in the fashion of one each along each side of the garden, and the fifth in the center. No other arrangements or quantities are permitted. I’m not clear why this is in the book of Sabbath rules rather than the previous Book of Seeds, where it seems more appropriate. Perhaps just tying up some loose ends?
  • 5/30/20, Page 85 – They are really obsessed with this “no intermingling of seeds” thing. If they didn’t back it up with explanations of gardening techniques and the way rows are to be laid out, and how many different things can be planted, and spacing between not only different plants, but different gardens… I’d think that “no intermingling of seeds” was code for something very non-landscape related.
  • 5/31/20, Page 86 – I should trust my instincts. The discussion of seed plantings winds down right into a discussion of women and semen, and the mitzva of separation as told to Moses on Mount Sinai – literally a discussion of (reference numbers above), having relations separated five times over a period of three days. This is swiftly followed by a discussion of “where” one’s semen is deposited, that includes Jewish women, gentile women, and animals. I swear, the previous two pages were metaphoric etiquette guidelines for attending the 4th century equivalent of a weekend at Jeffrey Epstein’s.
  • 6/1/20, Page 87 – “It’s easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission” is an expression we’ve probably all heard. And although it might be attributed to Admiral Grace Hopper back in the 1980s, in practice, it goes way back. To Moses, at the least. We all probably know the story about him coming down from Mt. Sinai with the tablets of the commandments and breaking them when he saw that people were worshiping an idol, but that was just one of three “incidents” where he took the initiative to “Do the right thing within the organization, whether or not they know it. That way you can help the people that you work for,” i.e., for him, without having talked it over with God first. The other two, he chose to leave his wife, so that he would always be available at a moment’s notice if God rang him up for more conversation (we all know people like that in the work world), and, the precept of a weekly three day separation between spouses (I didn’t know that one) was stated by God as two. Moses has an elaborate reasoning for changing it to three. After the fact, God apparently agreed with all three decisions.
  • 6/2/20, Page 88 – While “doing” is important to accomplish things in life, doing without learning is little more than acting on impulse. Learn to listen, learn to hear, learn to think, and then, learn to do.
  • 6/3/20, Page 89 – Bizarre. Moses has an argument with the angels to convince them that he was the right guy to bring the Torah, a sort of instruction set, to the Jewish people and they were the right people to get it, then Satan tries to get it back and Moses plays “catch me if you can”, and then we find God petulantly engaged in daily chores assigned to him by… who? Buried within there it is noted that the Torah existed for 974 generations before the creation of the world, and that only the angels had access to it prior to Moses. Handbook? Chores? Generations? I’m suddenly picturing God as a sort of whiny gaming nerd teen who created Earth as an MMORPG and the Torah as the gamemasters’ (angels’) handbook.
  • 6/4/20, Page 90 – Yesterday’s page ended with a sort of “oops, we got off track there with all that crazy Moses stuff, let’s get back to the Sabbath rules”. So it’s back to numbers of seeds and quantities of hairs that one can carry about on the Sabbath. And a long discussion of locusts. Apparently there are both kosher and non-kosher locusts, the former for eating, the latter for children to play with, and there is concern that a child might confuse the two and accidentally eat his play locust. Parental concerns have not changed one jot in two millenia. Here ends Chapter 9.
  • 6/5/20, Page 91 – Chapter 10. The page opens with a bold series of paragraphs that can be summed up as, “if you’ve once used an object for a particular purpose, that purpose becomes built in to the object and any future usage of the object includes any previous purpose for which it was used”. A bit complicated sounding – the intent, I believe, is once again to designate certain things to be used for everyday life and certain things for the Sabbath, and never the twain shall meet. But it’s stated much broader than that, and calls to mind metaphysical considerations. Does my frying pan contain within it, each and every time I use it, the sum total of every meal I’ve ever prepared in it? It’s an interesting way to look at the objects we use in daily life. “If this pan could talk.”
  • 6/6/20, Page 92 – I’m guessing that trying to get around the strict rabbinical rules derived from the Torah must have been a big thing back in the day. “How can one carry things without violating the Sabbath rules against carrying things?” It’s surprising how much thought apparently went into different ways of carrying that weren’t the norm (by hand, on your shoulders or head, on your back, or in your lap), and led to long-winded arguments between the rabbis as to whether carrying things in your mouth, hanging from your ears, in a money belt that’s turned upside down, tied to your hair, sewn into the hem of your cloak, attached to your foot or your elbow, or balanced on your shoe or sandal are violations of the rules. The page does not end with a decision… they were still arguing.
  • 6/7/20, Page 93 – Early accomplice law. An interesting discussion on the liability incurred by someone who assists someone else in violating Sabbath laws. The gist comes down to, is the person who is “just assisting” equally liable with the same punishment, less liable with a lesser punishment, or are they equally liable but both at a reduced punishment because only one punishment is specified for the violation and it gets split up? Worthy of a modern day law school debate. But of most importance is the “fig cake” which is so big that it requires assistance to carry. As seems to be the case in the Talmud, no recipe is provided.
  • 6/8/20, Page 94 – Get me some popcorn, it’s time for a rabbinical cat fight! See there are things that are prohibited by the Torah to do on the Sabbath, i.e., the things ostensibly prohibited by God. And then, there are the additional things prohibited by extension and/or the additional rules around the Torah prohibitions, that were decided on by the sages and rabbis at some point in history. On this page we get into the meat of that, with the traditionalists puffing up their chests and saying “this is the law, the way it is and always has been”, and the reformers waving fingers in the air saying, “Nope, God didn’t say so, a couple of rabbis made up that interpretation”.
  • 6/9/20, Page 95 – Much of this page is devoted to prohibitions on the Sabbath of the “act of building”. Though not explicitly stated, what they seem to be talking about is the act of creating one thing from another – and they give wide latitude to what is considered creation or building. The two primary examples used are braiding someone’s hair, and curdling milk to make cheese. It is, once again, a very different way to look at things that might be considered ordinary tasks in many households, to think of them as acts of creation. Here ends Chapter 10.
  • 6/10/20, Page 96 – Chapter 11. It’s rule interpretation time. The rabbis opine, and give many examples, that carrying, passing, and throwing are all one and the same in their eyes. Do not let them referee a basketball game. I’m not even a fan of the sport and I know that those three things are not the same.
  • 6/11/20, Page 97 – There was a man named Zelophehad, who was stoned to death because he was out gathering wood on the Sabbath. This led me to the story of his daughters, told in Numbers 27 & 36. The five of them, totally out of character for women at the time, petition Moses and the elders for inheritance rights, as he had no sons, and Moses takes this radical idea to God (see page 89), who says, Yeah, of course, if a man has no sons, his daughters inherit, like… duh. A few chapters later, the elders come back to Moses and say, Hey, but what if those daughters marry outside our tribe? Like, there goes the neighborhood. Moses goes back to God, who pretends he’d thought this all through, and he says, Yeah, well obviously, I meant they could inherit but have to marry men from their father’s tribe, like… duh. Can I get back to smiting orcs now? Two steps forward, one step back – civil rights in a nutshell.
  • 6/12/20, Page 98 – There’s a lot of math on this page – mostly related to the size and shape of wagons, and the beams and/or stakes that would be loaded onto them for construction purposes, but also, goat hair curtains. Yup, goat hair curtains, one of the four permitted types of coverings for the Tabernacle – you know, the place where René Belloq opened up The Ark of the Covenant in Indiana Jones, thus setting in motion the disaster that happened afterwards. The other three types, while not listed on this page, being ram’s skin dyed red, badger skin, and linen. I don’t really have anywhere to go with this, I’m just left thinking about goat hair curtains, each measuring 24 x 4 cubits, or 36 x 6 feet.
  • 6/13/20, Page 99 – Topic one, finishing off those goat hair curtains in linen and wool, in sky blue, purple, scarlet, and with clasps of stars… paging Liberace! Topic two, and the majority of the page, is a “just a wafer thin mint” conversation. With numerous examples of situations, the rabbis argue about “just how much over the limit” of how much of something one can carry, how long, wide or high something can be, how far something can be thrown (they throw fig cakes at walls… what is this obsession with fig cakes?), before it is just too far. Examples are shaved to a minimum, like setting a needle atop a boulder which is already at the limit… is the mere width of a needle that “step too far”? The core of the argument is really… Are the rules really as hard and fast as they are written? Or can they be bent, depending on intent? Our modern court system thrives on these sorts of questions.
  • 6/14/20, Page 100 – Much of this page is taken up by an exploration of adding one thing to another, or one thing passing through another, and whether that addition or passage creates change. What is the impact of partition, division, or connection, where neither thing or person is lost or had their fundamental natures changed? I’m hearing Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel singing “For Good” in the back of my mind. “Because I knew you, I have been changed for good”.
  • 6/15/20, Page 101 – In which we discover that if a bunch of boats are tied together, they can be treated for Sabbath prohibition purposes as a single domain, and carrying, moving, throwing, etc., things from one to another is not a violation. More importantly, why are there narrow flat-bottomed boats from Meishan in the mix? That’s in China. What were they doing in Babylonia? In the 3rd century? I mean, it is on a river in Sichuan province, but that’s a long way from home (and, a shipping hub, noted for using narrow, flat-bottomed river boats). Then again, maybe we’ve just discovered the whole Chinese Food and The Jews connection. [Edit: more research down the road, this refers to Mesene, a city in Babylonia. Ah well, it was a theory.]
  • 6/16/20, Page 102 – Chapter 12. You have a large task to complete, and you choose to start with a small amount of it – a minor fix pending a larger repair, moving one piece of something you plan to move all of, tossing out the first of many things. But, you realize it’s the Sabbath, so you stop, this is not the time. You still violated Sabbath rules, but, are you liable for penance? Which is the determining factor? Your intentions on impulse when you started, or your intentions after you realized you’d made an error? Forgive and forget, or not?
  • 6/17/20, Page 103 – This is so apropos of having just read through the different justices’ opinions in the LGBT employment discrimination case that was just decided this week by the US Supreme Court. A totally different, and of less import topic – but hinges on the same sorts of arguments. The topic is the act of writing on the Sabbath – not permitted except in certain circumstances. And, like the disagreement over “because of sex”, that’s where the argument goes, all based on the precise wording of the prohibition and what exactly was originally meant, and what a reasonable person would interpret be meant, by words like “these”, “from these”, “from one”, and whether “perfect writing” refers to spelling or handwriting, and what sorts of mistakes within those are too far away from perfection.
  • 6/18/20, Page 104 – Word and letter “play” is the order of the day. The one that sticks with me is a section of two interpretations of the entire alphabet as if it were a text. The Hebrew alphabet only has consonants. Vowels are filled in by context and tradition in ancient texts. It’s part of what makes their interpretation difficult. A lineup of consonants can mean very different things with different vowels. The rabbis take the alphabet and pair the first letter with the last, then the second letter with the second to last, and on. Then they insert vowels and come up with one very negative and one very positive series of spiritual statements. An exercise in spiritual creativity. Imagine the series of English letters: BZCYDXFWGVHTJSKRLQMPN. Now fill in vowels and spaces and try to come up with words to make phrases. It doesn’t work well in English because the structure of the language is different, but you get the idea. It’s a part of why there are different translations of the bible. Interpretation is in the mindset of the reader. Chapter 12 overlaps a little into the next page but ends quickly.
  • 6/19/20, Page 105 – Chapter 13. Rending and tearing your garments, bleaching them, breaking things – all not permitted on the Sabbath, unless… unless… you’re in mourning. Then, rend, tear, and break to your heart’s content, if it brings calm and relief to your grief. There have been some past exemptions from various prohibitions during times of mourning. It’s nice to know the sages and rabbis weren’t all a bunch of stoic, stiff upper lip sorts.
  • 6/20/20, Page 106 – The page starts with the portents of what the order of death for children in a family means for the family, which is totally bizarre, but seems to be advocating that the best outcome is for the middle child(ren) to go first. Then suddenly it’s all about trapping birds in the house, deer in the garden, wandering lions, and various sorts of insects. Apparently trapping something “for personal use” is prohibited on the Sabbath, while trapping something that isn’t for personal use is okay. It is not clear why hornets and mosquitoes are on the former list, though none of the rabbis seem to question it. And, here ends the very short Chapter 13.
  • 6/21/20, Page 107 – Chapter 14. Surprisingly given that it’s a new chapter, this page continues the previous page’s line of thought, extending trapping to also including wounding something. Examples here are “creeping animals” like snakes and lizards, along with scorpions, lice, and more. But really, same conversation – if you’re doing it for personal gain, it’s a no-no, if you’re doing it for protecting you or your family, it’s okay. We do discover that if a bird just so happens to fly into your clothing and nestle itself in there, you’re allowed to entrap it casually, as if nothing is happening at all….
  • 6/22/20, Page 108 – There’s a lot of salt here. While brining things on the Sabbath is not permitted, making a little salted water or salted oil in which to dip your bread, is permitted. Rabbi Yehuda opines that you may not salt radishes or eggs because it will improve their flavor. I have to admit, I’m starting to have issues with this whole “you can’t do anything to improve something on the Sabbath” stance – I mean, what better day of the week than to dedicate to improving things in life? Rabbi Hizkiya says you can’t salt a radish because it will ruin it, but you can salt an egg because it doesn’t have any effect. Rabbi Nahman says salting radishes is permitted precisely because it would ruin the flavor. He doesn’t mention eggs. Hizkaya and Nahman have no palates and should not be allowed in the kitchen.
  • 6/23/20, Page 109 – Most of this page is a litany of different herbal infusions that one may not partake of on the Sabbath because of their healing (physical and/or mental) properties. Now, it’s not that you can’t treat someone medically if they have a critical injury or illness – that, is permitted. It seems, based on the descriptions of the different concoctions and what they’re for, and not all that different from today, that people were very into different cleanses and such to rid their bodies and minds of everything from the sniffles to evil spirits. There are also a few infusions that seem to be for, more or less, psychedelic spiritual trips. One day a week all those are to be set aside and the mind and body dedicated to faith.
  • 6/24/20, Page 110 – The world of remedies. The first part deals with snakes, and how to get rid of them, which includes approaches such as tying cats to your bedposts so they will eat any snakes that approach, or if a snake is following a woman, she should have sex with her husband in front of it so that the snake knows she’s taken and will go away and leave her alone. Followed by a series of remedies for three afflictions: constipation (wheat, saffron, salt, & cumin anyone? or Babylonian beer?); menstruation (herbal salves and yelling at the woman to stop menstruating); and jaundice (“grasshopper brine”, it’s a thing now).
  • 6/25/20, Page 111 – Wine vinegar is good for your teeth. Fruit vinegar is harmful to your teeth. Camel driver’s knots and sailor’s knots are intended to be permanent and not easy to untie (and therefore, it is prohibited to tie them on the Sabbath). Here ends chapter 14.
  • 6/26/20, Page 112 – Chapter 15. In contrast to yesterday’s knots, do you know what sort of knots are permitted to be tied on the Sabbath? The knot that a woman ties to close her robe. Why? Because it isn’t intended to be permanent, and she has to untie it to remove her robe. Unless she can remove her robe without untying it, and then, it’s not the right sort of knot. Same with footwear. Since you have to undo the laces on shoes or the straps on sandals to remove them, those knots or straps are a-okay. Unless you can remove the shoes or sandals without… and then they’re not. Which are, let’s face it, most shoes or sandals. I can hear my mother’s voice in the back of my mind, “Untie your shoes before you take them off!”
  • 6/27/20, Page 113 – This page finishes off on knots and ropes and weaver’s threads, along with walking alongside a stream and how to cross it. The upshot is, as might have been clear from the last two pages, that on the Sabbath, one is to do things that are specific to, and temporary to, the Sabbath, and not meant to continue on to other days. Part of the whole keeping it separate, different, and special. The page then switches topics, and heads into a story from the Book of Ruth and how she met Boaz, and started the lineage that led to King David in a couple of generations. There’s a lot of wink, wink, hinting over Ruth and Boaz’s first meeting that included a whole lot of being satiated.
  • 6/28/20, Page 114 – We all know the stereotype of the scholar who pays no attention to their appearance, lost in their own deep thoughts. Much of this page is a discussion of just how unwashed and unkempt it is acceptable for, specifically a Torah scholar, to be when they go out in public. The general agreement is, not very. If the scholar is supposed to be the pinnacle of the community, and, it is asserted, supported by the community in those studies on behalf of them, then the scholar has an obligation to take care of his appearance when he is among those that might be best described as his constituents. There’s even a discussion of the death penalty in relation to this precept, albeit, I think, more figurative than literal, which shows how seriously they took it. End of Chapter 15.
  • 6/29/20, Page 115 – Chapter 16. Traditionally, sacred texts like the Torah were only allowed to be written in Hebrew. There was actually a prohibition on them being written in any other language. There was some point in history where the powers that be decided that as the Jewish community moved to other parts of the world, and lost touch with Hebrew as their primary language, that it would have to be permitted to offer translations. I imagine this is much the same as the arguments that the Catholic church had about allowing scripture to be written in something other than Latin. This comes up in relation to today’s page, which is about making the effort to rescue sacred texts in the event of a fire – something which is not just permitted, but a spiritual obligation, even on the Sabbath. The debate, and left unresolved, is whether the same holds true for scrolls written in translation, rather than “the sacred language” of Hebrew?
  • 6/30/20, Page 116 – I’ve grown up knowing that the Torah is divided into five books, the Pentateuch, the “five books of Moses”, the way we see it appearing in bibles – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. It’s backed up by the way the scroll of the Torah is laid out – with a four line break between each of those. But that five-book convention is a later one – while talked about earlier, at the time the Talmud was written it was still not 100% accepted wisdom. In almost a sidebar, the wise folk spend some time debating on whether Numbers is a single book, or in reality, three – the Ark (and Israelites) in Sinai, then the Ark on the move through the wilderness, and then the Ark settled in its new home in Moab. A bit of online sleuthing suggests that there’s still biblical scholarship debating a seven-book Torah.
  • 7/1/20, Page 117 – Ah, my people and food. Try to follow this chain of Talmudic reasoning starting from the previous two pages. We’ve already established that it’s an obligation to save the Torah from a fire. The Torah is written on parchment which is the skin of a lamb. Therefore you should also be obligated to save the skins of lambs because they are potential Torahs. And if the skin of the lamb happens to be still around the meat of the lamb, you are obligated to save the carcass because it’s a part of that potential Torah. And if you’re obligated to save the lamb when butchered, you’re obviously obligated to save it while alive, because… you got it. And if we’ve already agreed that we’re saving a lamb, which is part of at least, what, one meal? Two meals? Three meals? You really have to save the food necessary for, like, three meals. And that’s per person. But what if, after the fire, guests drop by, whom we’re obligated to feed? Okay, we’re obligated to save food.
  • 7/2/20, Page 118 – For all their love of food, it is apparent that people of the time when the Talmud was written only ate two meals a day – lunch and dinner, except for the Sabbath when they ate either three or four – there is disagreement amongst the rabbinate. So stop telling me breakfast is the most important meal of the day and leave me alone with my coffee, I have Talmudic backing, thank you very much! Also, Rabbi Yosei’s son, Menachem, who went on to be a rabbi himself, is apparently “so pretty” that “everyone” called him Rose. This bears investigating.
  • 7/3/20, Page 119 – There’s a whole section of this page that’s just very sweet in regard to the Sabbath evening meal, with the rabbis sharing in the preparation of the food, each with their own task, contributing to the whole experience. The taking of time to have the table set nicely, the food prepared well, and those in attendance dressed nicely for the meal. Within context, there’s a spiritual component of keeping the Sabbath as a “day apart”. But for those of us who don’t, it’s worth consideration to set aside a day, be it each week, or even just now and then, to treat ourselves, our families, and friends “special” for an evening – with a communal meal, with good food, setting, and atmosphere, where everyone contributes to making it “a night apart”.
  • 7/4/20, Page 120 – We’re back to the fire on the Sabbath from three pages ago. Apparently “three meals” isn’t sufficient, we’re getting into details of what you’re allowed to save. We already know about the lamb(s), now we add in “a basket of loaves”, “a fig cake” (seriously, we’re back to the fig cake. I need a recipe for this fig cake that everyone is carrying on about throughout the Talmud – all I know so far is it contains lots of dried figs, and it’s big), a barrel of wine, all, presumably, to go with the lamb. Also, clothes, which they settle on “18 items”, because while my house is burning down, I’m going to start selecting outfits. I know that “direct action” isn’t permitted on the Sabbath, but all this rescuing seems like a lot more action than just putting out the damned fire.
  • 7/5/20, Page 121 – We’re still in the midst of this fire. While as an adult Jew you’re not permitted to put out the fire on the Sabbath, if a gentile, or a Jewish child below the age of 13 (and therefore not responsible for adult rules) is around to put it out, they can. You can’t ask them to. You can’t tell them not to. Were you to coyly suggest that in putting out the fire, it wouldn’t be amiss, given that they’re not responsible for following the Sabbath rules, that, is apparently okay. Likewise, if you or your family are threatened by a mad dog, a poisonous snake, scorpion, or hornet (murder hornets!) you can’t “intentionally” kill it, but if you “innocently” kill it, or someone does for you (as long as you don’t ask), it’s okay. This is like the subjunctive case in Spanish that is so common, particularly in South America – “this thing happened because I was there, but I’m not taking any responsibility for it”.
  • 7/6/20, Page 122 – Having grown up more in the Reform end of Judaism, I didn’t encounter the concept of the “Sabbath Goy” before I moved to New York for grad school. The gist is that a non-Jew performs tasks on the Sabbath that we aren’t allowed to if we follow traditions. In NYC that might mean someone pushes the buttons on the elevator or turns on lights for you, and similar basic tasks. I always wondered, because it seemed a bit of a cheat. Turns out, it is. This page unequivocally prohibits us from benefiting from any of those actions unless that benefit is pure happenstance to the gentile doing those things for himself or for the public in general. A bit of sleuthing, it turns out that the more orthodox and Hasidic rabbis, agree, “Sabbath Goys” are not allowed. Here ends Chapter 16.
  • 7/7/20, Page 123 – Chapter 17. For each tool there is an appropriate purpose, and for each purpose there is an appropriate tool. Those are not immutable – an example is given of using a needle to remove a thorn – the thorn doesn’t care that the needle wasn’t designed to remove it. On the other hand, many counter-examples are given – not using a jeweler’s hammer to crush spices because it will impart off-flavors to the spices, not using a craftsman’s knife, or cook’s knife as a digging or plowing tool, because it will damage the tool, etc. Although on the surface, it’s about prohibitions and permissions, my takeaway is that it’s about truly giving thought to the purpose of a given object before making use of it. MacGyver would hate this page.
  • 7/8/20, Page 124 – There’s so much on this page, but one short paragraph caught my attention with a brief discussion of something I’d not heard of before, showbread. In the front of the Ark of the Covenant, but symbolically other altars as well, were placed a dozen showbreads, also called presence-breads. These were left there as an offering “in God’s sight” for a week, then replaced with fresh ones. They are unleavened breads, and there’s a lot of argument over their form, size, and how they’re to be displayed. The dozen count aligns with sacrificial offerings of the surrounding culture of the area, the Assyrians, with the choice of twelve relating to the zodiac.
  • 7/9/20, Page 125 – There’s a lot of opening and closing, and filling and emptying going on here, with stones (lots of stones), and poles, and gourds, and windows. But what’s actually going on? I feel like I’m stretching for this one on this page, but there seems to be a sort of “is the action you’re taking, or the thing you’re moving, filling, or changing… permanent or temporary?” If temporary, like opening an existing window, then it’s okay to do it or use it on the Sabbath, if it makes a structural or fundamental change, like cutting a hole to create that window, then it’s not. The page seems like a reference back to, and an expansion on, the rules and thoughts set out on page 48, the start of chapter 4 of this tractate.
  • 7/10/20, Page 126 – Locks and bolts. On the Sabbath you can’t carry a key with you (there are “tricks” used…), and this passage specifically prohibits leaving a key that is “attached” to the lock, door, or door-frame. In days past, people would leave their key on a nearby hook, under the doormat, in a flower-pot, something we’re not likely to do in modern society. So what about key-less locks, since many use electricity? Turns out that electricity is enough of a rabbinical kerfuffle itself with disparate opinions on its usage on the Sabbath, that we could have a whole new Talmudic Sefer Hashmal, or Book of Electricity. Retinal scan? Anyone? Rabbi? End of Chapter 17.
  • 7/11/20, Page 127 – Chapter 18.Two takeaways from this page. First, hospitality towards guests, and caring for the sick, are both paramount, even to the point of ignoring your faith or spiritual practices. That’s quite a demand, and one that I’d venture that few in the modern Judaeo-Christian world would espouse – we often see exhortations to worship as the primary duty, and that the rest will fall into place – this passage asserts that that comes second to “loving kindnesses”. Second, don’t judge someone simply based on their actions without knowing their motivations or intentions. Sometimes people do things that are suspect, until you know why they did so. That doesn’t relieve them of consequences for their actions, but it introduces the concept of “mitigating circumstances”. Which, in truth, leads back to the first takeaway, as it relates to “before you accuse someone of being derelict in their obligations, find out why”.
  • 7/12/20, Page 128 – The first half of this page is devoted to the moving around of food stuffs for various animals on the Sabbath – lily plants for deer, mustard seeds for doves, meat bones for dogs, grapevines for elephants, and… glass shards for ostriches. What? The things we learn in the Talmud. Indeed, glass shards. In fact, it turns out, ostriches and emus eat stones, glass shards, and bits of metal, because it helps the food in their stomachs grind up and digest their food. Who knew? Ostrich farmers. And the ostriches. That’s who. The second half of this page is about birthing – apparently, on the Sabbath, it’s not okay to birth an animal, you just have to let it happen and mother and child fend for themselves. But it is okay to birth a human child and do all the appropriate birthing stuff, umbilical cords and all. Well, thank goodness for that.
  • 7/13/20, Page 129 – We’ve already probably read or heard about the practice of bloodletting back in ancient times. The idea was that you could get rid of illnesses or curses or other things by having a certain amount of your blood and its “bad humors” removed from your body. Some people apparently made it a regular practice, sort of a preventative medicine approach. Much of this page is devoted to the topic with the most attention being paid to the timing and frequency of sessions, and what to eat and drink afterwards. Wine is a strong recommendation – “replacing red with red”, i.e., blood with wine, and I’ll side with Rabbi Rava who opines that one should seek out wine of quality, aged at least three years. End of Chapter 18.
  • 7/14/20, Page 130 – Chapter 19. Most of this page is about the carrying of a circumcision knife on the Sabbath. The argument centers on whether to carry it openly or hide it away. Intentions, once again, are paramount. If you carry it openly is it because you are about to perform a mitzvah, a good deed, and if so, is it simply to let the community know that a mitzvah is about to be performed, or is it about your personal pride that you’re the one doing it? If you hide it away, is it because you’re afraid of looking suspicious carrying a knife, or because you’re self-effacing in approaching your task. Also, Rabbi Yosei HaGelili is now my new hero sage, for arguing the illogic of including poultry in the no meat-milk rules since poultry doesn’t produce milk.
  • 7/15/20, Page 131 – Sages of the school of Shmuel opine that the making of bread is a skill and not a labor, and therefore is permitted on the Sabbath. Consider me a supporter of the school of Shmuel.
  • 7/16/20, Page 132 – We were bound to hit a truly controversial topic sooner or later. Circumcision. To its modern day Western society detractors (and it is, pretty much, what one might term a “first world issue” mostly espoused by people who find anything religious to be some form of offense), it is a form of mutilation and cruelty that is outdated and has no validity. To its supporters, and those who believe in the divine origin of the Torah, it is a symbol of spiritual connection, a fulfilling of a covenant with God (Genesis). In practical origin, it is little different from other tribal group body modifications, a form of scarification that was, at the time, and for many remains, an important part of tribal identity and connection with its spirituality. It’s interesting that later on in the Torah (Leviticus), other forms of scarification and tattooing are prohibited. I’ll bet we get to that topic sooner or later.
  • 7/17/20, Page 133 – We’re still on circumcision for most of this page – with instructions for how it’s to be done, what sort of bandaging should be used (seven parts fat, one part wax), what sort of healing salve to use (chew cumin seeds and smear it on the cut), and there’s a bit about leprosy that got too involved. There’s a sidebar in the middle of circumcision instructions that recalls us back to the “showbread” (Shabbat, page 124, above), where we find out that it requires four people to change the showbreads each week – two to remove the old ones and two to place the new ones. It is asserted that the removal of the old ones should be done first so that there’s room to put the new ones on the display table. This strikes me as just a bit obvious, no? [Reflecting on this passage afterwards, it occurs to me that the whole page is about things that are relatively straightforward procedures, outlined in a step-by-step fashion, that anyone performing them would probably already know. Perhaps it’s worth taking it as a reminder to take the time to do things right, in the proper order.”]
  • 7/18/20, Page 134 – More circumcision, and looking ahead, this may go on for a bit. Most of the discussion is around the elements to be used in making a salve, once again, cumin figures heavily, along with wine, wax, fat, oil, and hot water – and there’s, of course, much disagreement. There’s a sidebar into the process of straining things, that appears to have nothing to do with circumcision (I told you early on that the Talmud is apparently the verbatim scribing of the various sages and rabbis as they chatted about various topics on any given day). Anyway, on the Sabbath, you can’t strain mustard or curdled milk because it will fundamentally change them – separating the seeds, or separating the curds, but you can strain an egg because it all remains together afterwards. There’s a hint towards a discussion of gender identity coming up on tomorrow’s page.
  • 7/19/20, Page 135 – The tease about gender identity doesn’t go very far. We’re actually talking about a baby born as a hermaphrodite, i.e., with “partial reproductive organs of both male and female sexes”. Remember, we’re on the subject of the Sabbath. The rabbinical decision – don’t violate the Sabbath and perform the 8th day circumcision if it falls on that day for a hermaphrodite, because “it may not be required”. It’s left open-ended as to when or if it might be required. But the vague wording throughout the passage leaves it open to that someone, some day, will have to make that decision, be it parents, rabbis, sages, sorcerers, or the person themselves (none of those are specifically mentioned, it’s just left nebulous).
  • 7/20/20, Page 136 – We all know that birth viability was different in olden days, but it’s fascinating, and perhaps a bit appalling, to have it spelled out so graphically. You have to put yourself in the frame of a culture where babies born prematurely were unlikely to survive. The discussion on this page comes down to at what point is an infant considered to be a person. Since the date of one’s birth is only estimated at nine months from conception, the rabbinical argument is that since a baby born at less than eight months is probably not going to live, you start counting from the day of their birth, and they become a person after thirty days. An infant who dies prior to thirty days after their date of birth is deemed to have been stillborn and is not considered to have ever lived. That takes some grasping, no?
  • 7/21/20, Page 137 – We are, I think, at the tail end of the circumcision conversation. Two final (?) topics – one concerns just how much of the foreskin is to be circumcised, we’ll leave that aside. The other is an interesting case of responsibility. There is one baby who is due to be circumcised on the Sabbath and one the day after. The person performing the circumcision, the moyel, accidentally reverses them. This passage holds him responsible for the error and requires a “sin-offering” at the temple. My immediate thought is, isn’t this on the parents? I mean, a guy shows up a day early to circumcise your kid, it doesn’t occur to you to question it? We then move on to straining sediment out of wine, which is allowed on the Sabbath to make it drinkable, as long as you set up the strainer before the Sabbath starts. End of Chapter 19.
  • 7/22/20, Page 138 – Chapter 20. Oh wait, not so fast, the other side of the argument starts off this chapter with a disagreement on straining wine on the Sabbath that was at the end of yesterday’s page. They don’t settle the question, and instead launch into an argument about whether arguing such disparate viewpoints is acceptable or not. Seriously, these guys will argue about anything.
  • 7/23/20, Page 139 – Although much of this page continues on about the ins and outs of straining things (wine, beer, eggs) on the Sabbath, there’s a sidebar at the beginning that struck me as so fitting for our times now. Paraphrased… “If you see a generation that has many troubles befalling it, look to its judges to see if they are taking bribes to dispense unequal justice, to its priests selling out their beliefs for donations and power, and its prophets (pundits?) opining the future based on the highest offer they get.” Fix those and you fix the generation. And those Persian Zoroastrian Fire Priests make another appearance. We haven’t seen them since page 45. They’re not going away, it’s a bad day in the D&D campaign. Bizarrely, they came up yesterday in my life, in the last chapters of a sci-fi novel I was finishing, The Day After Never, by Nathan Van Coops, the third in a series on time travel.
  • 7/24/20, Page 140 – The first half of this page is taken up with different preparations of spices on the Sabbath. The basic takeaway is that if you’re using them to just give color or flavor, they’re okay, but if they provide medicinal value, they’re not. Recipes for two wine cocktails are given (which one is not supposed to prepare on the Sabbath), including Aluntit, which is a mix of aged wine, clear water, and balsam, that is used to cool down from the heat of a bathhouse after a good steam. Rav Yosef tells us the story of trying a cup of it once, “I felt its chill from the hairs on my head down to the toenails on my feet” and opines that it was so stimulating that if he’d had another cup of it, he might not have survived, and if he had survived, he’d have likely lost points in the “world to come”. What a lightweight.
  • 7/25/20, Page 141 – We circle back to the idea of doing things differently on the Sabbath. Examples are given that illustrate just how far one is expected to think this through. If you want to smooth the straw out on your bed, which you would normally do with your hands, you can’t, but you can lay down on it and wriggle your body around to smooth it out, because, that’s different. If you’re going to chop chilies, which you would (apparently) normally do two at a time, you cannot, however, you can chop them one at a time, or a whole bunch at a time, because, that’s different. If you’ve bought new shoes and want to wear them and show them off to your friends, you can’t, because they might be uncomfortable and you’d take them off and sort of stretch them to adjust them, so you can only wear old shoes, because, that’s different. And on… and on…. End of Chapter 20.
  • 7/26/20, Page 142 – Chapter 21. This whole page is taken up by the rules about moving containers (or a child) that happen to have a stone or coins in them (or in their hand), and what is permitted on the Sabbath or not, as well as a discussion of the mixing of “pure” and “impure” fruit. The latter immediately flashed my mind to 1971 and The Osmond’s “One Bad Apple”. Now I can’t get it out of my head. And neither can you.
  • 7/27/20, Page 143 – Continuing the theme that’s been rampant throughout this tractate, it’s all about doing things differently on the Sabbath than on other days of the week. The one that stood out to me was clearing and cleaning a table. Under normal circumstances you’d pick up and move all the dishes to the sink to clean them, and then wipe up the crumbs with a sponge in your hand. But on the Sabbath, apparently, the only acceptable methods are something different – an example is given of simply tilting the table to dump everything off of it. It called to mind one of those sleight of hand tricks where someone pulls the tablecloth out from underneath everything without spilling a drop – only it doesn’t work and everything comes crashing down. Things to think about when “doing something differently”. End of Chapter 21.
  • 7/28/20, Page 144 – Chapter 22. We’ve seen there’s a prohibition on the Sabbath of bloodletting when it’s a regular practice you undertake. Also milking of animals because it’s a daily intentional act. And suddenly, we’re on grapes, olives, and pomegranates, which are used primarily for their juices, versus plums, apples, and beets, which are not primarily used for their juices, and which are okay and which are not – as usual, there’s not complete agreement. The upshot, on the Sabbath, “the act of intentionally squeezing in order to produce an emission of liquid” is prohibited if it’s something you would do daily, but not if it’s not something you do daily. I leave that quoted phrase to rattle around in your mind.
  • 7/29/20, Page 145 – Apparently we’re not done squeezing things for their liquids. We revisit olives and grapes, and then move on briefly to fish, followed by a long-winded discussion of the different reasons for, and different liquids obtained from, squeezing boiled versus pickled vegetables. We then move on to Rabbi Abba’s chicken recipe, which he boils until it “dissolves”, and which the other rabbis opine they’d vomit or spit out rather than eat, unless he serves them really good wine. And this leads to an argument over whether Israeli or Babylonian chickens are fatter. Seriously, couldn’t these scribes have taken a break now and again on recording everything these guys talked about?
  • 7/30/20, Page 146 – Oh my goodness these guys are obsessed with figs. Remember the fig cakes? Now they’re pressing figs in barrels, drying them in baskets, whacking the tops off the barrels with a sword (on the Sabbath, because you gotta do things differently), poking holes in the barrels with spears (on the Sabbath, because you gotta do things differently) so the figs can breathe or something. They even compare it to poking holes in a chicken coop. No, I mean, chickens actually do need to breathe and there should have been holes in the coop to start with. Figs do not need to breathe. Also, Gentiles live in a state of permanent moral contamination, because they didn’t show up at Mt. Sinai back there in the desert. Their only way out is conversion. Just letting you know.
  • 7/31/20, Page 147 – Ah, we’re back to the pleasures of the bathhouse. No details are given, but they, along with copious amounts of Turkish wine, were apparently the root cause of why we (the people of Israel) lost ten of our twelve tribes. And, as there were in earlier passages in both Berakhot and Shabbat, there are rules, though these apply specifically to the Sabbath. For example, you don’t dry yourself off with just one towel, because you might be tempted to wring it out, which is work, so instead, dry yourself with multiple towels (ten is suggested) so that they neither need wringing out by you, nor by the bathhouse attendants (who are, apparently, still working, but… servants and all that… so they don’t count). Bizarrely, it’s also suggested that in reverse, ten people share one towel, because they will use it so gingerly that no one will dare wring it out. What? No, I’m not sharing my towel with nine other people. End of Chapter 22.
  • 8/1/20, Page 148 – Chapter 23. Borrowing versus lending on the Sabbath. The act of borrowing, of asking someone if you can borrow something, allows them to simply acquiesce. Asking them to loan you something, while on the surface appears the same, sets up the semantic dynamic of them actively giving you something, and creates a debt. Since debt creation isn’t permitted on the Sabbath, you can ask to borrow from, but not ask them to lend to. In a sidebar we find the sages suggesting that perhaps it’s best not to bother ordinary people with all the minutiae of these pages upon pages of Sabbath rules, and just let them keep the Sabbath as best they can, and live in peace, as good people. Ignorance is bliss.
  • 8/2/20, Page 149 – If you’re having people over for dinner on the Sabbath, or a festival, you have to commit the guest list and the menu to memory, because if you read it off of a document, you run the risk of accidentally reading a business document that you might have picked up at the same time, and… no business on the Sabbath. Gambling with dice is prohibited (on all days, not just the Sabbath) because it’s a form of theft. And, the big conversation – an in-depth discussion of, in essence, letting someone “take the rap” for something you did or had a part in. Even if they choose to do so, it’s prohibited because it shows a lack of honor on both your parts, and reduces you to the status of a wicked person. And if you die as an unrepentant wicked person, your house and property will be infested with demons in perpetuity. There goes the property value.
  • 8/3/20, Page 150 – A lot of talk about leaving things until just prior to nightfall on the Sabbath to get them done. The upshot, with a lot of back and forth and blather is, don’t leave things until the last minute to get them done and then you don’t have to worry about whether you accidentally slipped over into violating Sabbath prohibitions. Handle stuff on a timely basis. On another topic, we find that contemplating and/or speaking about the Torah or reciting the Shema prayer in a bathhouse is prohibited, especially if you’re in front of another naked man. Because those are the thoughts that come up in that situation. Which, I find interesting, since there’s a whole page, 27, back in Masekhot Berakhot about teaching Torah to students while naked in the bathhouse. I said then, and I repeat now, I don’t think teaching Torah is what was really going on in that sauna.
  • 8/4/20, Page 151 – I have to admit, I never expected to encounter the whole “wheel of life” premise in the Talmud, but here it is, starting with the telling of a story of a poor man coming to your door, to be quick about giving them something to eat, because one day your descendants may be at the door of his descendants looking for charity. Fortunes rise and fall, and it all turns on a big wheel. Also, it’s okay to attend to the needs of both brides and corpses in the evening of the Sabbath, because they both need attending to.
  • 8/5/20, Page 152 – Almost this entire page is devoted to interpreting verses of Ecclesiastes about aging. Mostly it strikes me as a bunch of old men sitting around complaining about getting old. There’s a great line, that until the age of forty, food is really important for your body, after that, drink is more important for your mind. I don’t necessarily read it as recommending a complete change of diet, but of that during your earlier years, it’s about fuel and nutrition, and during your later years (obviously, in modern life, forty isn’t later years anymore), turning to the little pleasures and contemplation are. It’s my take, anyway. End of Chapter 23.
  • 8/6/20, Page 153 – Chapter 24. Most of this page is taken up by a discussion of what to do on the Sabbath when you have a pouch of money with you, which you’re not allowed to carry on the Sabbath, and how to move it from place to place. The various options seem to be to place it in the saddlebags of your donkey, give it to a minor, to a deaf-mute, or to an imbecile. Why those are the only four options is never explained, but other than “non-human is first choice, therefore the donkey”, the order of the rest is up for argument. But what caught my eye was a short section about raising the dead. Apparently, necromancy was a thing. An oracle can bring you back for up to a year after death, if, I gather, you had prepared your soul in advance (no real details are given, but some sort of good, righteous preparation), while your soul is in limbo, awaiting its final ascent. It must have been a rather rigorous ritual since it doesn’t seem to have been commonplace.
  • 8/7/20, Page 154 – After just yesterday suggesting that the way around the “carrying” prohibition on the Sabbath is to put your money-bags into your donkey’s saddle-bags, today we find the sages arguing over whether or not using your donkey or other beast off burden to carry things on the Sabbath is such a violation of the holy day that it warrants either having to make a sin-offering to the temple, being flogged, or being executed by stoning. Seriously, corporal or even capital punishment for this? What happened to last week on page 148 where they were telling us it was best just to let people live and do the best they can and not bother them with all these rules? This is like trying to drive on a round-about and having no idea where to turn next.
  • 8/8/20, Page 155 – While we know that preparing food for the Sabbath for yourself or your family must be done beforehand, as preparing and cooking aren’t allowed on the day, what about food for your animals? This gets into a more intricate set of rules, and there’s definitely not agreement on the part of the Rabbis and Sages. In general, they lean towards that it’s okay to do things for a baby or small animal that can’t fend for itself, but not for a larger animal, but it’d still be better if you did it in advance. This fits with earlier admonitions about caring for those who are too young to care for themselves. And then suddenly we’re talking about force-feeding geese, presumably some not sort of foie gras routine but more just fattening them up for the market, and, of course, that’s not allowed on the Sabbath, and the rule is then extended to when you can force-feed chickens, doves, cows, camels, elephants, and more. No forced fattening on the Sabbath!
  • 8/9/20, Page 156 – It’s Astrology time! First there’s a whole listing of what sort of general personality you’ll will have based on what day of the week you were born. I was born on a Friday, and it means I will be a “seeker”. Okay, I can get behind that. It’s kind of my thing. Second there’s a whole section based on what your ruling planet is for the day, time, and place you were born… okay, that took a little internet searching, mine appears to be Jupiter, which says I am a “just person”. I’m good with that. And they argue back and forth about the various meanings, each Rabbi and Sage giving their personal interpretations, and then the senior Rabbis step in and say, more or less, this astrology stuff is a bunch of mystical nonsense, stop looking at the stars to figure out what kind of person you’re supposed to be and just go out there and be the best person you can be. Yeah, I can definitely get with that one.
  • 8/10/20, Page 157 – We are finishing up Shabbat with this page, the last in what I believe is the longest tractate of the Talmud. Most of it is spent on discussing “nullifying vows” on the Sabbath, something which a husband can do on behalf of his wife or a father on behalf of his daughter, but as a man, he needs the rabbinic court to nullify his own vows. Not surprising in a patriarchal society. It’s not clear what vows we’re talking about – I’m assuming, but only assuming, it’s something to do with having promised to do something that happens to have a timeline that carries it onto the Sabbath. It is made clear that the vow is only nullified for a 24 hour period, and then picks up where it left off after the Sabbath. Seems like that if everyone is keeping the Sabbath, then the prohibitions on starting, doing, or completing some sort of work on that day are probably understood by everyone in the first place and ought to just be built in to promises between members of the community. End of Chapter 24, and Masekhot Shabbat.

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