11
votes
Why is Joseph's pit mentioned amid all the Chanukah stuff in tractate Shabas?
This immediately follows another statement of R. Kahana's, which also quoted an exegesis of R. Nasan b. Minyome's in the name of R. Tanchum. Quoting another statement from the same people is pretty ...
- 74k
9
votes
Accepted
Why does the Mishnah use the terms poor person and homeowner when discussing carrying on Shabbat?
Bartenura Shabbat 1:1:
ולהכי נקט הוצאה בלשון עני ועשיר, דאגב אורחיה קמ״ל דמצוה הבאה בעבירה אסורה וחייבין עליה:
The reason for discussing carrying between domains in the context of a poor ...
- 46.6k
8
votes
Was R. Shimon Bar Yochai not part of "R. Shimon Bar Yochai and his companions"?
1) Tosfos to Shabbos 11a (as well as the Ran and others) answers that prayer on 33a refers to Krias Shema specifically.
כגון רבי שמעון בן יוחי וחבריו - והא דאמר לקמן (דף לנ:) כי הוה מטי (זמן תפלה) ...
- 5,484
7
votes
What does איברא mean?
Here is Jastrow on Eivara (a limb), and Ivra (to be sure). He says that the latter comes from A-V-R, which is a lashon of strength in Aramaic.
- 21.2k
7
votes
Accepted
Chazal Heimlich Maneuver
Yes, the incantation will work today, but only if you are precise in your pronunciation of the Hebrew letters, in the manner that Chazal historically pronounced them. This is the only incantation ...
- 21.1k
6
votes
Accepted
Why isn't it considered Borer to use a spoon to take cholent from a cholent pot?
Cholent is considered a mixture of beans, potatoes, meat, etc. If you dip into cholent with a spoon, you are separating one glob of cholent from another glob. IOW, you are taking a mixture from a ...
- 11k
6
votes
Biometric screening on Shabbat
Even if the "listening" circuit is always on, the "action" circuit is turned off until activated. When anything comes near the sensor, it immediately springs into action, searching ...
- 522
5
votes
Accepted
What is the case of a burning thrown object?
The answer is that it doesn't matter what the case is exactly. The Talmud is not responsible to provide an exact scenario.
However! It's your lucky day, because the Talmud (ibid.) provides a perfect ...
- 1,230
5
votes
Sukkos and Chanukah Connection
According to Macabees 2 chapter 1 verse 21 it looks like that year they did not celebrate Sukkot on time until Kislev
כא) ועתה כי יש את נפשנו לחוג את יום חנוכת המזבח בעשרים וחמש לחודש
כסלו. לא ...
- 362
5
votes
Kiddush written on the sukkah
See Mishnah Brurah s.k. 4 that only uses that nullify its kedushah are prohibited.
(In addition, I think that the rule of mitzvos lav lehanos nitnu - pleasure of a mitzvah is not considered pleasure -...
- 6,535
5
votes
Accepted
Confusing Tes with Pei
Here are three ways this Gemara is understood in Rishonim.
The Yereim argues that the problem is if you add the green segment, then the non-blue parts make up a Pei, and that's a problem even though ...
- 101k
5
votes
What is the source that the תרמודאי were wood merchants?
It's practically impossible to know what Rashi's exact source was, but a few explanations of the word תרמודאי surrounding wood and merchants appear in Otzar HaGeonim, Shabbat pg. 30, so that ...
- 101k
5
votes
Accepted
What do the words בֶּאֱמֶת אָמְרוּ teach us in the Mishna?
Bava Metzia 60a:
א"ר אלעזר עדא אמרה כל באמת אמרו הלכה היא
Rabbi Elazar said: That is to say, every time a halakha is introduced with the phrase: Actually they said, it is an established halakha ...
- 46.6k
5
votes
Accepted
Why is the kabalat hatorah at Purim needed?
Tosafot says that even by the reaffirmation of the covenant in the plains of Moav it was considered coerced because
ע"פ הדיבור היה
it was by means of a command (from Hashem)
The Noda BiYehuda ...
- 14.8k
4
votes
Source of the first verse of the sectarian
@moses in this answer refers to Edgar J. Goodspeed, who in "The Possible Aramaic Gospel", pg. 335, brought Hermann Strack's suggestion that:
"It is probably, as Strack suggested, a ...
- 28.4k
4
votes
Accepted
Rashi's misquoting in Parashat Pinchas?
Perhaps Rashi attributed the position that Tzelofechad was not the "collector of sticks" (R' Akiva's position) but one of the "Ma'apilim" who prematurely stormed Cana'an in Num 4:14 based on a source ...
- 48.6k
4
votes
Accepted
"This is R. M'nachem." So? (שבת עה ע״ב)
R. Ya'akov Bachrach (Nimukei HaGRIV, printed in the back of many editions of the Talmud) has a note on this Rashi, referencing a similarly worded discussion in Chullin 104b:
מתני׳ העוף עולה עם ...
- 46.6k
4
votes
Does a Shli'ach for carrying adopt the sender's designation of the item?
I think it would depend on the agent's intent.
The reason why one becomes liable for carrying when the item was predesignated is that the predesignation shows us that the carrier is carrying the item ...
- 50.3k
4
votes
Accepted
Why can a baby get Tzaraas?
Negaim i.e Tzaraas skin disease - takes effect against our will whether we sin or not even without prior warning (despite the fact that sometimes one is warned as questioner assumes)Yalkut Shimoni ...
- 11.6k
4
votes
Why did the guy on Shabbat 127b change the order of events?
Looks like the Talmud printings may have been based on MSS that had copyist errors. At least one such manuscript was preserved and can be found on the Genizah website, MS CUL: T-S F 2(2).75 (the part ...
- 28.4k
4
votes
Accepted
Was Shammai a builder?
Chatam Sofer's commentary on the passage in Masechet Shabbat:
הוא הי' ת"ח וגם בנאי
- 2,602
4
votes
Torah as a bar metzra
The Torah is not only a gift. It's also referred to as an inheritance (מורשה קהלת יעקב, Deut. 33:4) and as a sale (מכרתי לכם תורתי, Shmos Rabbah 33:1). So the issue of bar metzra would still apply to ...
- 10.4k
3
votes
How can Hashem judge a person לזכות, favourably, as in הדן חבירו לכף זכות דנין אותו לזכות
One simple answer is that there is a difference between לכף זכות, and דנין אותו לזכות. danin לכף זכות alludes to a scale of justice tilting uncertainly (cf. Bertenura to Avot 1:6). One should judge ...
- 36k
3
votes
Accepted
What does איברא mean?
Here is what Sokoloff records in his dictionary of Babylonian Aramaic:
To answer the etymological question, therefore, the word comes from Middle Iranian.
- 3,997
3
votes
תיקו How can we rely on Eliyohu to decide halachic issues? The Torah is to be decided on earth.
Commenting on a Talmudic passage (Berachot 3a) in which R. Yosi learned three laws from Elijah the Prophet, R. Zvi Hirsch Chajes essentially asks your question:
ק' ע"ד רש"י (שבת ק"ח ע&...
- 50.3k
3
votes
What is known about the Sage מונבז?
Munbaz is also mentioned in Sifra Metzorah 1:3, Tosefta Shabbat 9:4 and Shevuot 26b.
According to Rabbi Reuven Margaliyot in "Lecheker Shemot V'Kinuyim BaTalmud", pg. 12, "Munbaz" ...
- 28.4k
3
votes
Accepted
The Gemara says (mesechet shabbat) that one can survive with a rivi'it of blood
Rashi indeed seems to indicate like the OP’s assumption:
רביעית דם - חיי אדם תלויים בה
A Revi’is of blood - the life of a person depends on it
The Gemara in Sotah 5a takes this even further:
...
- 34.7k
3
votes
Accepted
Proof from Arvos Moav to Har Sinai regarding who was there
Like is explained by the Ba’al HaTurim to Devarim 29:9, Chazal see the same language usage as in Shemot 19:17 and through that make the equation.
אתם נצבים היום גו׳
ויוצא משה את-העם לקראת האלהים
מן-...
- 16.7k
3
votes
Accepted
What does the Shabbos Shel Mi mean?
The phrase "כל הקרב הקרב כי לא לחנם הלך זרזיר אצל עורב" is found in a couple places in Shas (Chullin 65a, Bava Kamma 92b) and can literally be translated as:
not for naught that the zarzir ...
- 12.2k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible