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
Aggadah
Haggadah
• 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 / Mitzvot
Commandments
365 prohibitions
+ 248 requirements (248 = body parts)
-----
613
613 = TORaH.
T
+ W (o)
+
R
+
H
=
is
is
is
is
400
6
200
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