pesachim 95

succot & pesach


the dead cannot praise God, but the living who have been in contact with death, have a second chance. and how when one's hands are doing mitzvot then how can one not sing praises to God. Halleluyah

(the differences between Pesach and Pesach Sheni)

pesachim 94

calculating distance on this planet by observing and trying to understand the things that revolve around this planet.

(when calculating how far is far and how far can a person walk in daylight hours, various theories and measurements are debated, all based on observable phenomenon in the skies)

pesachim 93

when is far too far - the cut off point for being expected to bring a pesach offering, and if not be liable for karet. being cut off from the people

pesachim 92

watching one's step and connection to the dead while on the way to bring the pesach offering

pesachim 91

can those who are not fully free be a group to bring the pesach offering, which marks freedom?

prisoners and women

pesachim 90

using money for sacrifices to buy items connected to the sacrifice
clothing, bitter herbs, matzah, wood

but whose other services do you pay for?

(this page discusses if payment for a prostitute could be used for the pesach offering, and what any money set aside for the offering could buy - wood, bitter herbs and matzah are connected to bringing the pesach offering. but clothes....?)

pesachim 89

pesach gets competitive

the daughter who out-runs her lazy brothers to get to Jerusalem first and thus win the opportunity to do the pesach offering.

even though she does not lay her hand on it.

and the hands that grab more than their fair share.

pesachim 87

the journey back to the mother's house, in a time of a need of safety

and returning to the father's house, to eat the food of freedom from slavery.

or

the pedagogy of women's bodies

(this page begins by discussing a bride who returns to her father's house to join him in the pesach offering and not her husband. It then interprets various verses about a bride who is welcome at her in-law's house. This leads to exploring verses about breasts comparing them to towers, and places of learning. Another example of using a woman's body as a teaching tool is an expansion of the story of the prohet Hosea who is instructed to marry a prostitute, have children with her then cast her out. when he refuses, God says: you see! That's how I feel about the people.... The page concludes with describing the people in exile in Bavel, as going back to their mother's house. they have returned to Abraham's birthplace)

pesachim 88

a strange tale of a lizard, a king, a queen and a rabbi, and while cannot presume that a husband always speaks on behalf of his wife, because she has her own mind. even if he doesn't.

a lizard is found dead in the kitchen. potentially making the place, and the pesach offering which is there, impure. The king does not know what to do. So he asks the queen. She asks Rabban Gamliel who throws cold water on the lizard. Lizard is not dead, just passed out from heat. Hurrah! Dinner is saved!

(earlier in the page it is discussed if wife is included in the husband's pesach offering, like minors or slaves, or if she has to give verbal consent as she could make other arrangements.)

pesachim 86

no one sees the bride eating
&
no one should see above the kodesh kodeshim (Holy of Holies)

(when eating the pesach offering as a group the mishna comments that a bride turns her face away from the group to eat. earlier in the page, discussing about which parts of the Temple are considered holy, it is mentioned that the upper story of the Holy of Holies is holier than inside the Holy of Holies as that was rarely entered, once every 7 years, or every 50 years. unseen eating and unseen sacred architecture)

pesachim 85

what is inside is stripped to the bone.

but what's outside remains outside.

except for prayer.
prayers can fly through iron walls

(if a limb of the pesach offering goes outside of the boundary, the part inside is stripped of the meat to the bone, and the outside bit untouched. the talmud then discusses if the thresholds, the doorway and windows are considered inside or outside. to be included in the communal prayer one ought to be inside, and not at the doorway. but R. Yehoshua ben Levi stated that even an iron barrier does not come between people in prayer and God.)

gmar tov. whichever side of the doorway you position yourselves this Yom Kippur.

pesachim 84

impure or inedible?

don't break the bones of the pesach offering, seems straightforward...

but the tangle of what could and could not be included that ends up weaving all statements together:
not the tail-bone
not if it went out of the boundary
not raw bones
not a bone with only a teeny tiny meat on it
not if the meat on the bone wasn't on the break
not if the timing lapsed...

all make the cracks appear in the simple instruction "don't break the bones"

pesachim 83

burning the bones. all the bones.
the marrow inside,
the sinews outside,
the leftover bits of meat stuck to it... all to be burnt up.

it is as if the evidence is being destroyed without breaking any bones.

(the pesach sacrifice should completely burnt, all the the leftovers, sinews, bones. this offering is unusual in that the bones are not allowed to be broken)

pesachim 82

why didn't Aaron eat the offering on the 8th day?

because of what happened earlier.

what is rejected in grief is completely burnt up.

(this page discusses burning consecrated items that are not eaten, either if they are invalid, or there is no one around to eat them. the page finishes with discussing Aaron who did not eat the offering on the 8th day of the dedication of the Mishkan, Tabernacle. R. Nechamya argues that it was because of his grief and mourning for the death of his sons that he could not eat. and so, like his sons, the meat was burnt whole to God)

pesachim 81

how many people can know before it is no longer considered hidden?

the hidden source of the impurity of the deep. someone will eventually see where the bodies are buried.

(impurity of the deep is a strange category of impurity. it is when someone has become impure due to hidden source and it is only revealed once the impurity has spread by contagion. this page discuss how many people need to know where the body is before it is no longer a hidden secret. and if a corpse was found lying widthways under a road.)

pesachim 80

kicking out a pure one to help tip the scales in favour of the impure

but what about the one who is pure but deep-down is impure?

that is on the priest's mind

(if there are more impure than pure people then the pesach sacrifice is brought in impurity. but if there are equal numbers then one of the pure ones is either made impure with a creeping insect, or is made to go away a long distance. thus tweaking the count of impure v pure. if someone thinks they are pure and later is found to have 'deep impurity' - the type only found once you have become contagious - then the headpiece of the priest makes the offering and sprinkling of blood acceptable...)

pesachim 79

the people
the priests
and the instruments

what needs to be (majority) pure to bring the pesach offering in purity

pesachim 78

the meat and the blood

and what is on the priest's mind (the gold piece worn on the forehead) that would make the offering acceptable, never mind what happened to the meat and the blood

pesachim 77

the new moon

what is and is not described as a moed, an appointment

pesachim 76

what dominates?

the thing that fell from above
or
what it landed into below

the halachic science of meat and milk absorption

pesachim 75

the 'kind' death of the soul dying inside and leaving the body and clothes in tact.

some people can go for years like this. clothed bodies with no soul.

(comparing different types of burning. with coals, with scalding water. the punishment for an adulterous daughter of a priest is to burn on the inside by ingesting molten lead. this is derivied from Aharon's sons whose souls were consumed but body and clothes left unscorched)

pesachim 74

what happens inside the meat...

roasting the meat inside and out. to be cooked only by fire. on a spit made of pomegranate wood.
fire draws out the blood and the strange science of emitting and absorbing blood

pesachim 73

sometimes slaughter, even slaughtering the wrong thing, is a constructive act.

living things, even those about to be slaughtered, are never rejected completely.

pesachim 72

do they agree or disagree? hard to see inside the heads and know the mindset.
men can sometimes be shy and not ask the questions they should.
perhaps should just trust their good intentions, never mind who their mother might be.

(in an discussion between R. Yochanan and Reish Lakish, it is unclear if they agree or disagree with each other if intention to do a mitzvah over-rides if the actual act is mistakenly prohibited. cases discussed is sleeping with one's wife when she is niddah, and sleeping with sister-in-law as part of a levirite marriage when she is niddah.
also discussed is if a priest finds out he is in fact the son of a divorcee while he is performing the sacrifice. and thus becoming an invalid priest. God still accepts his service...)

pesachim 71

old wine, clean clothes and meat

and happy memories of what happened in the past, even the recent past.

this is happiness. this is simcha

(discussion about the command to be happy on a festive day, simcha, if that applies on the first night. there is an opinion that it doesn't as the first night is the start of the festival, with no festive day preceeding it. Other ways to be happy include having: clean clothes, old wine, and the sacrificial meat.)

pesachim 70

breaking away & breaking bones

the father and son who broke away because they disagreed with the majority about the festive offering.
&
the cleaver that is used to break the bones of the festive offering.

pesachim 69

the cutting and burning punishment of not being part of the Pesach or taking slaughter lightly

(karet - spiritual cutting off from the community as punishment, and R. Akiva doomed to be slaughtered as punishment for being lenient about slaughtering)

pesachim 68

is the sun going to become brighter or dimmer? big or small?

is a festive day for God or for our own enjoyment?

can they be both?

pesachim 67

external contact with tamei (impurity)
and the impurity that comes from within
lead to different types of social exclusion

pesachim 66

the humbled goat

like a lamb or goat who carries the knife, the instrument of it's own slaughter, we carry the cause of our own downfall - our pride and anger. be we be prophets or scholars.

(discussion about bringing the knife to slaughter the Pesach sacrifice on Shabbat when it is prohibited to carry. Solution: have the animal carry it themselves, either in the wool or between the horns. Also in this page is the story of Hillel from Bavel who arrogantly rebuked the other rabbis, and then forgot the law. his wisdom was removed from him as a consequence for his pride. discussion about various prophets and scholars who lost their prophecy and wisdom due to their anger and arrogance.)

pesachim 65

the challenge of keeping clothes clean, feet in contact with the floor while wading in blood.
an act of love

apologies

sorry if you have been using this website to follow daf yomi. you may have noticed I haven't updated for a while. I have been travelling and found it tricky to find time to learn, draw, and then photograph, upload etc. but I have kept up-to-date and done the drawings. I am now home, with a reliable internet connection and if the capricious scanner is willing, I will scan and upload them all tonight. there are some lovely ones... it's been a very interesting week in Talmud.

in the meantime - here's some graffiti from tel aviv. a startled chicken. thought it was quite seasonal....