Hot answers tagged lomdus
3
The Achronim (Shulchan Aruch OC 316:3) deal with the case of closing a box on Shabbos when there might be fly in it: Safek if there will be a definite Melacha of trapping. I believe there is a large Machloket there between the Achronim, with the Taz famously permitting closing the box.
See also the Gemoro in Shabbos 41b about allowing someone to put cold ...
3
Isaiah 9:17-
Therefore the Lord will take no pleasure in the young men, nor will he pity the fatherless and widows, for everyone is ungodly and wicked, every mouth speaks vileness. And for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.
As @GershonGold pointed out, the Talmud (Shabbos 33a) derives from here that nivul peh is a very ...
2
Hair is part of the body. The Gemara (Sukkah 6a) calls it טפל לבשרו; secondary to the flesh, but clearly a legitimate part of the body, as it needs to be included in tevila (ibid).
As to why @SethJ heard that a married woman's hair is ervah and not an unmarried woman's, the source that hair is ervah is Berachos 24a. The Mordechai there cites a Ra'avya (an ...
2
Read here for an evolution of the different opinions in Halacha regarding blood that moved, and eating raw meat (from the Talmud to the Poskim).
"blood that moved" is talking about the blood that is found in the meat, not the veins/arteries (as the Tur (67) and others say, while raw meat may be permitted without salting, the blood found in the ...
2
I haven't had time to go through the whole sugya, but this article by Dov Daniel (published in Daf Kesher vol 922, Parshat Pinchas 5763) seems to say that it is a din on the gavra and not the cheftza:
דברי ר' יונה:
"לא הוזכר דינא דמלכותא אלא בהפקעה שהנכסים מופקעים מבעליהם בדיני המלך וכענין הפקר בית דין הפקר ומי שיורד בהם במצות המלך זוכה ...
2
In Halachic discussions it is taken as axiomatic that the authors of the mishnayos and baraysos did not generally embellish and say things that were not pertinent. Therefore, if a tanna gives three reasons for something, it is assumed that each of the three reasons has independent application; that each reason has some application that could not have been ...
2
In "Gray Matter - Discourses in Contemporary Halachah", Rabbi Chaim Jachter explores various proposed solutions to the Agunah problem, including the idea of instituting a condition that would retroactively annul the marriage in the event of civil divorce. He writes that such a suggestion was made in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by some ...
2
Sometimes, the reason is technical:
Often, there were only two leaders of the Generation, such as the Nasi and Av Beis Din of the Sanhedrin, or the Rosh Yeshivas of Sura and Pumbedeisa.
In post-Talmudic texts, this is often just a preference of the Brisker Method of Talmudic analysis.
On a more philosophical level, Occam's Razor applies - why assume ...
1
It is grammatically impossible that חיים be modifying the construct noun דברי, as the nomen regens (נסמך) in all construct chains that feature a definite nomen rectum (סומך) must be grammatically definite as well. If you wanted to say "These and these are the living words of God", therefore, you would have to write:
אלו ואלו דברי אלהים החיים
— that is, ...
1
Grammatically, דברי is connected to the word after it (e.g. דברי ברכה - words of blessing). The אלוקים חיים is likely referring to דברים ה:
כי מי כל-בשר אשר שמע קול אלוהים חיים מדבר מתוך-האש, כמונו--ויחי
That both are the words of the living G-d that were heard at Sinai.
As for why the plural, I heard many years ago that the rule in Hebrew grammar is that ...
1
In the second mishnah of Brachos, there are two opinions as to what the latest time for Shema is: Rabbi Eliezer says sunrise, and Rabbi Yehoshua says it's three hours, because princes get up at three hours, so it can still be called "And when you get up" which is the time of the Shema in the morning.
The Rashba asked: If it is the practice for princes to ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
