Friday 27 January 2017

bava batra 4

build! & then the world won't see your darkness. 

Build! with marble, gold-plate, brick, plaster and palms. 


But who will pay for the walls on the border? 


Continuing Herod's story of how an ex-slave came to build a beautiful Temple. Herod kills all the rabbis, except for Bava ben Buta who he blinds with a spiked crown. Hidden, Herod provokes Bava to curse King Herod. Bava refuses to do so. At this Herod realise the wisdom of the rabbis, and repents. Bava suggests the Temple building project as a way to restore light in the world in the face of Herod darkness. Herod uses marble, and wants to gold-plate it. (of course he does, like all violent dictators, Herod has a things about gold) The rabbis persuade him not to because it is already a beautiful building. (The best marble. It was a beautiful building. The best building. No one saw such a beautiful building like this building) Also on this page is a discussion about neighbouring fields, and if one partner wants to build a boundary partition/wall and the other doesn't, who should pay for it and who owns it?


Learning dafyomi is such a welcome break from what is going on in today's world...


Learning this page I wonder if perhaps the right wing orthodox Trump-supporting Jews see him as Herod. Don't disrespect him, don't curse him, show that you are on his side. And perhaps your 'decency' will cause him to reflect and repent. And then he will allow you to build... And the left-wing see Trump as Pharaoh, and take their lead from the midwives who resisted. Unless it's not already clear, I would rather be a mid-wife than a blind-sighted rabbi.


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