First, finishing chapter 9: If a non-kohen served in the Temple, that would be punishable by death "in the hands of heaven." But that opinion seems to be contradicted by the very sages who said it to begin with. Why so? The Gemara resolves the question. Next, beginning chapter 10, starting with a new mishnah: Those who are sentenced to death by strangulation. Note, again, the special status of the daughter of the kohen. Plus, the sources for these violations leading to this particular execution....
Mar 11, 2025•16 min•Season 24Ep. 84
In the context of death that is meted out in the hands of heaven, the Gemara presents a list of those in this category - specifically, pertaining to the Temple, the required practices of the kohanim, and so on. Plus, other violations by kohanim while performing the Temple service who aren't punished with death, but simply with violating a negative commandment. Also, if a non-kohen eats terumah, reserved for the kohanim to be eaten with purity - seems a violation for lashes, and not worse. With c...
Mar 10, 2025•13 min•Season 24Ep. 83
Rav Dimi traveled from the land of Israel to Babylonia: The Hasmonean court isn't decrees against a man sleeping with a non-Jewish woman that puts him in violation of 4 injunctions: a woman who is impure from menstruation (even if she's not Jewish, when that wouldn't usually apply), a non-Jewish maidservant, a non-Jewish woman, and a married woman. That last one was subject to debate, and "zonah," prostitute, was suggested in place of adultery. But a Jewish man who saw this kind of event and bri...
Mar 09, 2025•23 min•Season 24Ep. 82
Mishnayot! 1 - Someone who has incurred two different kinds of death penalties (but can only be killed once) - he is killed with the worse of them. Someone who has incurred two death penalties with one action, likewise to the more severe punishment. Which is tricky because there are such disputes over the hierarchy of the severity of the ways of execution. Also, 2 - someone who has been punished with lashes twice is then given the judgement of "machnisin oto la-kipah," even though he can't be ex...
Mar 07, 2025•18 min•Season 24Ep. 81
Ongoing discussion of a guilty party intermingled with innocent people (for example). Beginning with a case of two people standing together - and an arrow being shot from there those two people are, which kills someone. But since there's no way to identify which of those two shot the arrow, both are off the hook. Even if one of them is so righteous (like Abba Halafta) that the perpetrator seems obvious. Also, a group of those who all are waiting for their respective death sentences, but the exec...
Mar 07, 2025•14 min•Season 24Ep. 80
Two new mishnayot! First, one with the case of one who intends to kill an animal, but kills a person, or a non-Jew and then Jew, etc. Disturbing cases, but in the effort of determining the parameters of the case - when the perpetrator would be culpable, and when not. Plus, many cases of intending one action (including killing), but where the result is the death of someone else - where the perpetrator is deemed not liable. Such that intent and the degree of his blow, for example, will bring about...
Mar 06, 2025•16 min•Season 24Ep. 79
With partial or shared causation, who is culpable? Which leads to a discussion of someone who is already mortally wounded or ill or injured, and then someone kills that person, when is that considered murder (and the perpetrator would be held accountable) - as compared to being exempt because there was no new "death" to perpetrate (because he was already dying)? And what if one's strike is not forceful enough, but someone else follows up? Or one's strike IS forceful enough, but happens not to ki...
Mar 05, 2025•18 min•Season 24Ep. 78
When one person ties up another, and the tied-up person died of starvation, or of the elements (on delay), then the person who tied him up is exempt - unless he tied him up, for example, in such a way that the elements begin their affect on the person who dies immediately. Or a person ties another person up in front of a lion - where the lion might not eat the guy... or mosquitos, which would definitely bite him until he dies... that's the distinction between whether the perpetrator is held acco...
Mar 04, 2025•18 min•Season 24Ep. 77
Complicated incestuous relationship - such as a man with a woman he raped and the daughter of that rape (don't we know that that's an unacceptable!?!). Plus, a discussion of poverty and the potential for moving on or, conversely, falling back. Plus, the counter to the loving family, as presumed from the ceiling decoration And the ambiguity a word "et'hen," the meaning of it, and the dispute over its meaning. Also, a new mishnah - execution via decapitation - which may yet apply to a murderer....
Mar 03, 2025•19 min•Season 24Ep. 76
Chapter 9! With a new mishnah too - on those whose crimes warrant execution, at this time, the death penalty is to be burning, including the adulterous daughter of a kohen. Plus, the man who sleeps with both a wife and her mother, as an example of other cases of incest that get the "burning" execution. And then Gemara works hard to show that the cases are learned from each other, via the use of an unusual term, as in promiscuity of "lewedness." Also, the prohibited liaisons are extended to both ...
Mar 02, 2025•22 min•Season 24Ep. 75
A gathering of sages in an attic in Lod, and they were discussing martyrdom and when it was mandated. That is, most of the time, saving one's life takes precedence, except for "the big 3" - idolatry, adultery (and other illicit sexual relations), and murder (because who can say "whose blood is redder"?!). But whether the violation of the mitzvah is to be public or private also makes a difference. As does a time of persecution against Judaism. Plus, and suitable for Rosh Chodesh Adar (thank you, ...
Feb 28, 2025•19 min•Season 24Ep. 74
A new mishnah! When a person who is committing a crime can be killed - and what kind of crimes warrant putting such a person to death before he can commit the crime. With sources from the Torah to derive the cases. Also, the many sins that one can save another from sinning by killing him - take his life in order to save him. But not every sin! With rape, even of the betrothed young woman as a complicated case.
Feb 28, 2025•20 min•Season 24Ep. 73
The case of the burglar who is judged now for what is determined to be certain to happen later. Such that the homeowner would not be held liable if he killed the burglar while burgling. Plus, the burglar would not be held liable for damage to property during this action of willingness to kill, as if he "bought" it with his risk-taking. Plus, "if someone comes against you to kill you, you rise up and kill him first." Also, the case of "rodef," the pursuer. And how one is to kill a person who is a...
Feb 27, 2025•20 min•Season 24Ep. 72
A page with 5 mishnayot: 1. To become a ben sorer u-moreh, the kid has to steal food from his father and eat it while on the property of others. 2. For the kid to be a ben sorer u-moreh, both parents need to be in agreement in bringing him to court. Plus, the parents have to be suited for each other (and not in violation of prohibited relationships -- but also the Gemara establishes them as more the "same" than that). 3. If either parents has a physical impairment or disability, the child is exc...
Feb 26, 2025•17 min•Season 24Ep. 71
A new mishnah! From when is this son going to be liable as "ben sorer u-moreh"? He needs to eat and drink a certain amount of meat an wine (with dispute as to how much) -- but then the mishnah lists many ways that this person could eat and be exempt from being a ben sorer u-moreh (both for good kinds of meals and or sins, which carry their own punishment or consequence, but can't make him a ben sorer u-moreh. Also, a deep dive into "wine" -- spinning off from this beverage, including those who m...
Feb 25, 2025•23 min•Season 24Ep. 70
On the age of eligibility to be a ben sorer u-moreh the Gemara stipulates 3 months only, at the age of 13. But the mishnah stipulated physical signs of majority. So the Gemara minimizes the time to say that whichever comes first - the second physical sign of majority OR the end of 3 months. Also, a fairly difficult amud about how young one may have fathered children - in this case, the lineage of David and Solomon, with a lot of math and some extreme conclusions.
Feb 24, 2025•21 min•Season 24Ep. 69
Finishing chapter 7 and beginning chapter 8. First, a story about Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus and his death, put in context. The backdrop includes the oven of Akhnei and the fact that Rabbi Eliezer was put into cherem/ostracized for his different approach in that case. When Rabbi Eliezer became ill, Rabbi Akiva (and others) went to visit him, apparently in violation of the cherem. Plus how he was received, his teachings of halakhah, and his knowledge of sorcery, with regard to cucumbers (or squas...
Feb 23, 2025•25 min•Season 24Ep. 68
Two mishnayot and some stories: An instigator and his manner of convincing people to sin -- plus, his death sentence, and the rationale for making sure to entrap him if need be, to get him off the streets, as it were. Plus, the one who engages in the sin to convince others to join him. Also, the subverter - who tries to convince a whole city to sin. Also, returning to the topic of sorcery - first, the different levels of prohibition, in parallel to Shabbat. Then, a bunch of stories about sorcery...
Feb 21, 2025•22 min•Season 24Ep. 67
A daf of mishnayot - 3! Beginning with violations of the law that incur the death sentence with the execution of stoning. Beginning with Shabbat -- with just the exception of either exceeding the boundary of Shabbat OR igniting a fire -- different opinion as to which -- where the violation is a Torah prohibition, but the punishment is lashes. Next: One who curses his father or mother is only liable for stoning if one has cursed in the name of God (with debate whether it needs to be the full name...
Feb 21, 2025•16 min•Season 24Ep. 66
A new mishnah! On the "ove ve-yedoni," necromancer and sorcerer, and when their death sentences (stoning) kick in. Plus, what are the differences between these two. With a parallel, but just the ove, in the tractate Keritot. The Gemara explains why only the ove is there (hint: machloket). Also, a story in which Rabbi Akiva meets the Roman leader Turnus Rufus. With more on the ove -- in a perverse sexual way - as compared to one who "consults" a skull. Plus, a theological discussion between Rabbi...
Feb 19, 2025•18 min•Season 24Ep. 65
A busy daf: First - a story of how the people prayed for idolatry to be removed from the world, to diminish sin. Including the need for an egg, which seems connected to the interest in idolatry, until they eventually "blind the eyes" of the "evil inclination" to sin. Also, the case of a non-Jewish woman who vows to worship all the idolatries if she recovers from a very serious illness -- which she does, until she comes to the practice of defecating before Pe'or, and she balks at that. Which give...
Feb 18, 2025•17 min•Season 24Ep. 64
Any of the otherwise innocuous actions (hugging, kissing, washing, etc.) are problematic with regard to an idol, and incur flogging/lashes. But taking an oath in the name of the idolatry, for example, does not get lashes, even though it's a violation of a negative commandment, because it doesn't have a physical action that is necessary for the punishment of lashes to be incurred. Which isn't to say that taking an oath in the name of an idol is acceptable -- to the extent that one should not utte...
Feb 18, 2025•17 min•Season 24Ep. 63
A one-discussion daf: If one did several acts of apparent worshipping of an idol in one time period of unawareness of the violation - that entails one sacrifice in apology, as it were. Except for the machloket on that decision. Which goes back to violations of Shabbat in one time period of unawareness of those violations. Which leads into a fundamental discussion of Hilkhot Shabbat, and back to avot/toladot, as categories of the laws of Shabbat. Also, a beraita that observes the stringencies tha...
Feb 17, 2025•18 min•Season 24Ep. 62
A halakhic discussion takes place when Rabbah meets Rav Hamnuna, who's looking for his oxen: 2 mishnayot contradict, over what point a person who plans to worship idolatry is held accountable. Is the statement that one will go worship sufficiently close to worship? Also, a discussion about idolatry done out of love of another person (or fear), though that distinction is usually reserved for God. Or when one says - worship me! And what happens when the action doesn't line up perfectly with the in...
Feb 16, 2025•23 min•Season 24Ep. 61
One who hears blasphemy from a non-Jew is not obligated to tear keriyah (in mourning for the desecration of the Name of God), as he would have been had the blasphemy been uttered by a Jew. Also, blasphemy only requires that tearing keriyah if the Ineffable Name of God were uttered. Plus, Rabbi Hiyya's caveat that tearing keriyah wasn't done in his day and age, because their garments would be all torn up. A new mishnah! One who worships idols -- with a long list of how one might do that. Which ra...
Feb 14, 2025•13 min•Season 24Ep. 60
More on the Noahide laws -- eating the limb from a live animal, in contrast to the Jews being prohibited about the same thing. But why wasn't the one prohibition sufficient to teach them both? The Gemara says that the Noahide commandments were not repeated at Sinai (except for when and why they were). Yet nothing that is permitted for Israel is prohibited for Bnei Noah - except for "eshet yifat to'ar," some discussion over small thefts, and circumcision. Also, the shift to eating meat that was o...
Feb 14, 2025•18 min•Season 24Ep. 59
Establishing the prohibition of the illicit relationship with one's father's sister -- with nods to Moshe's parents and Avraham and Sarah. Also, what happens when a non-Jew hits a Jew -- with another nod to Moshe. A death sentence is warranted, notes the Gemara, given what violence does to society.
Feb 12, 2025•14 min•Season 24Ep. 58
More on the Noahide Laws - and the puzzling nature of law for people who are not necessarily paying any attention to Torah's requirements for them. Plus, some contrasts between the Noahide law an ramifications as compared to the Jewish legal system, for example. Also, the academy of the Bnei Menashe, who have a different list. Plus, are women part of the Noahide judicial system? Also, the biblical textual support that includes a non-Jew in the Jewish legal system -- for example, if a non-Jew vio...
Feb 11, 2025•19 min•Season 24Ep. 57
A new mishnah! A blasphemer is only culpable once he mentions the Name of God. All testimony would be provided using a euphemism, until the very end, when one occasion of direct citation of the blasphemy would take place before any judgement would be brought into effect. The judges who heard this would tear their garments for this desecration. Also, the 7 Noachide laws, and dispute over what they are. That is, the sages had other laws to add - several of which were connected to false approaches ...
Feb 11, 2025•20 min•Season 24Ep. 56
A challenging daf, with the breakdown of details of activity or homosexual acts, for bestial acts, and so on. The sages tackle the topics with seeming equanimity, until Rav Sheshet reacts in such a way that it opens the question whether they weren't as sanguine about it all. Also, the question of a non-Jew who engages in bestiality - does the animal need to be put to death? What about in the case of a non-Jew and idolatry regarding an animal? That animal isn't put to death (though a tree that is...
Feb 10, 2025•23 min•Season 24Ep. 55
