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Nathan wrote this entry on Monday, 26th of January 2009 at 05:15:36 PM
So it has been a long time since I wrote regularly on this thing. I have no singular excuse, but a combination of a few. I thought it was about time to just post a general update to what has been going on in the last 4-5 months. A quick list:
- I sold my first home and bought a new one. Still in Hoboken, but much nicer. Once it is all together I will post photos and more information. It is a green building, with a LEED certification. The process of selling, moving, and resetting up your home is a grueling and I will not be doing this again. The fish tank alone was 2.5 days of work and I lost more than a few of the poor little guys. » Continue reading Global Update
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Nathan wrote this entry on Monday, 28th of April 2008 at 12:25:34 AM
A randomish note in tractate Nazir 34a: the koy. An animal that is speculated to be one of the following: off spring of a he-goat and a hind a distinct species, not a hybrid unknown if it is a domesticated animal (בהמה) or a wild animal (חיה). it is indeed kosher The implication in this Gemara revolves around a [...]
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Nathan wrote this entry on Friday, 15th of February 2008 at 02:24:18 PM
Nedarim 38a lauds Moses for his unique abilities. Offering some questions about why the messiah was not mentioned in Moses’ time and if there is a messiah what else beyond what Moses achieved is necessary for one to be the messiah. Was it the same moment of doubt that kept G-d’s most faithful servant [...]
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Nathan wrote this entry on Thursday, 29th of November 2007 at 12:37:50 AM
Another creepy disease from Talmudic times, from Ketubot 77b:
What are its symptoms? His eyes tear, his nostrils run, he brings spittle from his mouth, and flies swarm around him.
And what is its cure? Abaye said: Take the following ingredients: Pennyroyal [a kind of mint] and wormwood, the bark of a nut tree [...]
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Nathan wrote this entry on Friday, 9th of November 2007 at 03:11:37 PM
Rabban Yochanan Ben Zakki wept and said, “Fortunate are you, O Israel. When they do the will of the omnipresent, no nation or tongue can rule over them, but when they do not do the will of the omnipresent, he delivers them to the hands of a lowly nation. And not into the hands [...]
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Nathan wrote this entry on Thursday, 6th of September 2007 at 10:52:50 PM
Wow! Yevamot was 3 volumes and 122 pages, I am guessing about 850 total pages. The Daf Yomi cycle is both sides of the Hebrew each day; meaning this mesechet took 121 days to complete. Why they all start with 2, I don’t know.
The entire tractate was devoted to the complexities of yibum: [...]
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Nathan wrote this entry on Wednesday, 22nd of August 2007 at 09:00:53 AM
Kares is defined in the back of one of my books as excision; early death imposed for certain classes of transgressions. It occurred to me in the shower this morning (I often do my best thinking there!) that one of the reasons for a lack of a hell like concept in Judaism is that [...]
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Nathan wrote this entry on Sunday, 1st of July 2007 at 10:28:33 PM
It has been a while since I posted a Talmud tidbit. This is partly because I have been traveling and because work has been killing me. Not since a certain South African took over my company have I battled such usurpers. On top of all this, I am in the midst of Yevamot which [...]
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Nathan wrote this entry on Monday, 19th of March 2007 at 06:29:33 PM
From Wikipedia: Daf Yomi (Heb. דף יומי “page [of the] day” or “daily folio”) is a daily regimen undertaken to study the entire Talmud Bavli one daf (i.e. two actual pages), one day at a time, so that it can be completed in a cycle of seven and a half years.
I started the [...]
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Nathan wrote this entry on Wednesday, 7th of March 2007 at 07:27:46 AM
What is a Shas you ask? Well it is a Hebrew abbreviation of shishah sedarim, the “six orders” of the Mishnah. Still confused: I bought the 73 volumes on the Schottenstein Edition of The Talmud. It arrived in 6 boxes. Only one is open – the current daf yomi tractate – the others I [...]
