Monday:

www.ucalgary.ca/~elsegal/TalmudMap/MG.html

Masorah

Chapter numbers

Targum (a few links)

Sedrah

Wednesday: Breslauer chapter 4.

G. Question: When is it evening?

• Tanna mentioned the offerings

• Why?

• Amora assumes that Tanna knew: evening was when the time the stars come out.

• Answer: to teach something else: the time of the priests ate the offerings.

Digression:

• Ritual impurity

• Does the coming of evening remove some impurity?

• Yes

Back to the point…

• Mishnah refers to offerings

• Another text t refers to a poor man’s evening meal.

• Solution: both events were simultaneous.

Later discussions

Added to Talmud in Medieval period.

“RASHI”

• R. Solomon ben Isaac

• 1040 – 1105: France

• Interpreted Talmud words in order of appearance.

• “When is it morning? When you can see the white spots in poorly died wool.”

TOSAFOT

• “Additions” to Rashi’s commentary.

• 12-13 century:

• Rashi wrong: Another commandment: wear fringes on garments: blue and white.

• When you can tell these apart.

• Try to bring all of Talmud into a consistent whole.

Other commentaries

• Medieval to renaissance.

• Sometimes shows differing cultural traits of Jews in different parts of the world.

•

Later Glosses

• Up to late 19th century

• Cross-references etc.

Oral Torah

• Tannaim Mishnah

• Amoraim Talmuds

• Mishnah

• Talmud.

• Midrash

2 kinds of writing

• Halakhah = legal discussions.

• Aggadah (Haggadah) = non-legal

AggadahHaggadah

• Non-legal portions of Oral Torah.

• Stories, Midrash

• Moral lessons etc.

Aggadah

• Rav Judah said in Rav’s name: The Holy One … did not create a single thing in all his world which has no purpose. He created the snail as a remedy for a scab…A serpent is a remedy for a boil. What is the treatment? One black and white serpent … boiled to a pulp and then rubbed in..Talmud: Shabbath 77.

Halakhah: “the way”

• Legal discussions in Oral Torah

Mitzvah / MitzvotCommandments

365 prohibitions

+ 248 requirements (248 = body parts)-----

613

613 = TORaH.T is 400

+ W (o) is 6+ R is 200+ H is 5

= 611 + 2

= 613

• Extra 2 come from commandments which precede creation.

• I am the Lord, your God You shall have no other gods before Me.

613• Some overlap between + and – mitzvot,

• Some very plain, others come from talmudic interpretation. Grace after meals inferred from "and you will eat and be satisfied and bless the Lord your God“.

Not all applicable

• No temple

• Some apply only to Israel.

Gezeirah, “Fence”

• Mitzvah: no work on Sabbath

• Gezeirah: do not touch implements of work

Takkanah

• Non-biblical law– Candles at Hanukkah

– Regional variation

Minhag

• Binding Custom

• Extra day of holidays outside of Israel, even after proper calendars made.

• Kippas

Halakhah

Mitzvot

Gezeirah

Takkanah

Minhag

Law, not legalism

• Self – Transformation

• Dignity not Dogma

Spirit, not letter of Torah

• “Eye for an eye”

• means compensation not mutilation

Golden rule

• Concerned with others, not yourself = love and fear of God

Emunah, Faith

• Righteous live by faith

Non-esoteric?

• Often against esoteric speculation.

• Every letter in Torah holds meaning.

Divine Truth

• This world

• The inner-person