Bava Batra 24: מִשּׁוּם נוֹיֵי הָעִיר

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The Mishna on our daf discusses cases where a person is limited in the kinds of building that he can do on his property if it may disturb the needs of the larger community.

The Mishna also forbids planting trees near the city, which is explained by Ulla in the Gemara as a concern with noyei ha-ir – the beauty of the city. Part of the attractiveness of a walled city is having its walls exposed on the outside.

The Gemara asks why this explanation is necessary, given the biblical principle that the cities of the Levites are surrounded by an empty area of 1,000 amot and a further 2,000 amot that are left available for planting vegetation (see Num 35:1-8), and explains that we might have thought that there were exceptions to this rule, but the concern with noyei ha-ir trumps any possible exceptions.

We explore the biblical notion of beauty and comparison with Greek ideals.

The concept of the beauty of Jerusalem and its appropriation by William Blake in his poem.

Bava Batra 23: נִמְצָא בֵּין שְׁנֵי שׁוֹבָכוֹת

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The Mishnah rules that the maximum range of movement of a young dove is up to fifty amos from its dovecote. This was determined by our sages.

Therefore, any dove found within a fifty-amos radius of a dovecote must be assumed to belong to the owner of the dovecote, and it should be returned to him.

The Gemara asks: Must one distance a dovecote only fifty cubits from the city and no more?Is that as far as one can expect a dove to fly? And the Gemara raises a contradiction from a mishna (Bava Kamma 79b): One may spread out traps [neshavin] for doves only if this was performed at a distance of at least thirty ris, or four mil, which is eight thousand cubits, from any settled area, to avoid catching birds that belong to another.

Apparently, doves fly a distance of thirty ris, whereas the mishna here states fifty cubits.

We explore the biology phylogeny and use of the dove as a metaphor in antiquity as well as in Tanach.

Bava Batra 22: גְּרָמָא בְּנִיזָּקִין אָסוּר

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The new Mishna teaches that one may not build a new wall too close to the old wall of their neighbour's home. One must leave four cubits between the old wall and the new wall. Similarly, one must be careful about the placement of windows. Windows must be four cubits away from walls, whether above or below.

A tradesman who resides outside of a town where his type of business has already been established can be barred from plying his trade in that town.

We explore restrictive commerce and ancient markets.

Bava Batra 21: אִלְמָלֵא הוּא, נִשְׁתַּכַּח תּוֹרָה מִיִּשְׂרָאֵל

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The Gemara on our daf offers the source for public Jewish education.

In the Mishna (20b) we learn that no one in a courtyard can complain if one of the people living there opens a school for children, even if the children are noisy. The Gemara on our daf explains that this is talking about the time period that followed Yehoshua ben Gamla’s innovation. In presenting his enactment, the Gemara opens with a brief review of the history of Jewish education.

We explore modern Jewish educational systems.

Bava Batra 20: בֶּן שְׁמֹנֶה הֲרֵי הוּא כְּאֶבֶן

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The Gemara raises another objection to the assumption that an item for which there is a use does not reduce the dimensions of a window, even if is not susceptible to impurity, from a baraita:

...and a gentile sitting in the window; and a child born after eight months of pregnancy, who is not expected to survive,…

that is placed in the window; and salt; and an earthenware vessel; and a Torah scroll, all these reduce the dimensions of the window.

Consequently, impurity passes through only if there remains an open space of a square handbreadth.

We explore the notions of survival in pregnancy and the ancient belief that the eighth month of gestation alone is more dangerous than later.

Bava Batra 19: מֵי רַגְלַיִם מִן הַכּוֹתֶל

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The Mishna had stated: One must distance his urine three tefachim from the wall of his friend. Rabbah bar bar Chanah said: It is permissible for a man to urinate on the side of another man’s wall, as it is written: And I will cut off from Achav’s house every one that urinates against the wall (every man) and the wealth that is stored in houses, and the animals that are left in the fields of Israel. [Evidently, urinating by a wall was common practice!?]

The Gemora answers: our Mishna is discussing urine which is poured from a pot (and then it requires distancing from a wall). The Gemora asks from a braisa: A man should not urinate on the side of another man’s wall unless he keep three tefachim away.

We explore how urine was used and abused in antiquity (uromancy) and the properties of urine in our times.

Bava Batra 18: דְּבוֹרִים לְחַרְדָּל לָא מַזְּקִי לֵיהּ

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Aside from the examples enumerated in the Mishna, the Gemara quotes a baraita that obligates a neighbor to keep

water in which flax is soaked away from his neighbor’s vegetables

leeks away from his neighbor’s onions, and

mustard plants away from his neighbor’s bees.

With regard to mustard and bees, mustard plants are common in Israel, and their colorful flowers attract bees to them.

Rashi explains that the bees may eat the sharp mustard, which may then lead them to devour their own honey, causing a loss to the beekeeper.

We explore the world of bees in antiquity.

Bava Batra 17: בְּעֶטְיוֹ, שֶׁל נָחָשׁ

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The Gemara states that "over three people the Yetzer ha'Ra had no dominion" -- Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yakov, and some say even David ha'Melech.

If the Yetzer ha'Ra had no control over them, then how could they receive reward in Olam ha'Ba for the Mitzvos that they did in this world? Without the influence of the Yetzer ha'Ra, there is no option but to choose to do good, so they would have had no Bechirah, free choice. How, then, could they be rewarded for doing good?

TOSFOS explains that their Yetzer ha'Ra was not entirely curtailed. Rather, since Hash-m saw that they made great efforts to avoid sin, Hash-m helped them and did not let the Yetzer ha'Ra influence them.

We explore the suffering of these righteous figures which begs the very question of theodicy.

Bava Batra 16: הוּא שָׂטָן, הוּא יֵצֶר הָרָע

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Our daf covers a lot of agadaic ground. The Gemara begins by continuing the story of Job beginning with Job losing everything that he has been given. Job continues to praise G-d though even G-d tells Satan that Satan moved G-d against Job to destroy him without cause. G-d allowed Satan to cause Job further suffering - anything short of killing him. Rabbi Yitzchak suggests that Satan's suffering was worse than that of Job, for Satan found it so painful to restrict his cruelty.

Reish Lakish suggests that Satan is the same thing as yetzer hara, the evil inclination, and malach hamazet, the Angel of Death. Each is an aspect of the same essence.

We explore this most difficult of characters from different perspectives both Rabbinic and literary.

Bava Batra 15: מֹשֶׁה כּוֹתֵב בְּדֶמַע

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On yesterday’s daf we learned that Yehoshua wrote his book (Sefer Yehoshua) and the last eight pesukim of the Torah. On our daf the Gemara points out that there is a difference of opinion regarding the last eight pesukim.

Rabbi Yehuda says that Moshe could not possibly have written the last eight pesukim of the Torah, which open with the words “So Moshe the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab” (Devarim 34:5). How could Moshe be alive and writing that he had died!? Therefore he concludes that Yehoshua completed the last few verses of the Torah.

We explore the rabbinic commentaries as well as the scholarship surrounding this threat to the very integrity of the biblical text.

Bava Batra 14: שִׁבְרֵי לוּחוֹת שֶׁמּוּנָּחִים בָּאָרוֹן

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Our daf includes opinions as to what might have been included in the Ark. Two tablets plus the destroyed tablets plus a Torah scroll.

Including the Writings and the Prophets or not?

How might the Prophets have been collected and stored - in groups of twos? or fours?

We explore the scholarship on the Ark of the Covenant, whether one or two!

Bava Batra 13: מַדְבִּיק אָדָם תּוֹרָה נְבִיאִים וּכְתוּבִים

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Our Daf begins a general discussion about sacred writings. The Sages taught: A person may attach the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings together as one scroll; this is the statement of Rabbi Meir. Rabbi Yehuda says: The Torah should be a scroll by itself, the books of the Prophets a scroll by themselves, and the books of the Writings a scroll by themselves. And the Sages say: Each one of the books of the Prophets and the Writings should be a scroll by itself.

We explore the evolution from scrolls to codices.

Bava Batra 12: נִיטְּלָה נְבוּאָה מִן הַנְּבִיאִים וְנִיתְּנָה לַשּׁוֹטִים וְלַתִּינוֹקוֹת

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Rav Avdimi from Chaifah said: Since the day when the First Holy Temple was destroyed, prophecy has been taken from the prophets and given to the sages.

The Gemara asks: Was a sage not also a prophet?

The Gemara explains: What he meant was that although prophecy has been taken from the prophets (who were not sages), it has not been taken from the sages.

Ameimar said: A sage is even superior to a prophet, as it is written: And a prophet has a heart of wisdom. Who is compared with whom? Is not the smaller compared with the greater?

We explore the phenomenon of prophecy with late manifestations in our own day in mental institutions and in the writings of the Nazir.

Bava Batra 11: מַעֲשֶׂה בְמוֹנְבַּז

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Closing the section on the subject of charity, our daf relates the story of King Munbaz, who gave away all of the money in his treasury as well as his ancestors’ treasures to the poor during a year of famine.

Munbaz was the king of Adiabene at the end of the Second Temple period. Adiabene was a small kingdom in the north of Syria on the banks of the Euphrates. In the generation prior to the destruction of the second Temple, Queen Helene, together with her sons Munbaz and Izats, began to study Torah with Jews who traveled through their kingdom, and eventually converted to Judaism. (See Daf Ditty Bava Metziah 54)

We explore the world of Adiabene dynasty, the writings of Josephus and the recent archeological finds of the Tombeau des Rois.

Bava Batra 10: טוֹרָנוּסְרוּפוּס

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In the context of discussing the importance of giving charity, Rabbi Meir raises one of the most basic questions of theology – why doesn’t God, who loves all of His children, and is omnipotent – support the indigent?

Our daf relates that – Tineius Rufus, the Roman governor in Israel after the destruction of the Second Temple – asked Rabbi Akiva this very question.

Turnus Rufus ruled in Judea during the period of the Bar Kokhba rebellion, which he put down with great cruelty. As is told in this story, he carried on philosophical and theological debates with Rabbi Akiva – whose death he ordered as one of the Asara harugei malkhut – the Ten Martyrs.

We explore the dialogue in its cultural and political context.

Bava Batra 9: בּוֹדְקִין לִכְסוּת, וְאֵין בּוֹדְקִין לִמְזוֹנוֹת

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More on charity: The Sages taught: One does not calculate sums with charity collectors concerning the money they collected for charity, to verify how much they received and how much they distributed, nor does one calculate sums with the Temple treasurers concerning the property consecrated to the Temple.

Rav Huna says: Charity collectors examine the level of poverty of one who asks for food, but they do not examine the level of poverty of one who asks for clothing. If a person comes before the charity collectors in tattered clothes, he is given clothing without any questions being asked.

We explore the issues of charity and its administration in Halacha.

Bava Batra 8: פִּדְיוֹן שְׁבוּיִם מִצְוָה רַבָּה הִיא

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Our daf informs us of the mitzva of ransoming captives as a "great mitzva", and one is even permitted to sell a Torah scroll to fulfill it

Why so? Rabba bar Mari explains:

From the verse: "And it shall come to pass when they say unto you, Whither shall we go forth, then you shall tell them, Thus says the Lord, Such as are for death, to death, and such as are for the sword, to the sword, and such as are for famine, to the famine, and such as are for captivity, to captivity.”

We explore the currently painful issue affecting us all, of the halachot of hostage rescue.

Bava Batra 7: כּוֹפִין אוֹתוֹ לִבְנוֹת לָעִיר

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Our daf ends with an important caveat. Sages were exempt from paying for the cost of a wall or other protective measures. The rabbis quote verses that allude to G-d's protection of those who serve him through mitzvot. We close the book on today's daf with Rabbi Yochanan and Reish Lakish arguing about which verses are most helpful in this proof.

We explore the exemption of torah scholars from the army and the Hesder Institution.

Bava Batra 6: אַחְזֵיק לְהוּרְדֵי – אַחְזֵיק לִכְשׁוּרֵי Usucapio

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There is a disagreement amongst the Rishonim about the nature of

– establishing a chazakah for the use of a neighbor’s property. According to some Rishonim (1), this type of chazakah does not require continued use of the neighbor’s property for three consecutive years, as a chazakah on land requires.

On the other hand, the one attempting to establish the chazakah must claim that either he purchased this right of use or that the right was given to him by the owner. In this regard, it is similar to the chazakah that is made on land.

We explore the concept of Chazaka as well as comparing it to the Roman legal concept of uscapio.

Bava Batra 5: רוּנְיָא זְבֵן אַרְעָא אַמִּיצְרָא דְּרָבִינָא

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Our Mishnah returns to the law requiring that a wall be built, and rules that four amot, or cubits, is an appropriate height to prevent hezek re’iyah. This is true since four amot is higher than the height of an average person, thus solving the problem of hezek re’iyah. Therefore, according to the Mishnah, if the wall dividing the courtyard falls down it must be rebuilt to a height of four amot. Both parties must participate in the cost of rebuilding up to that height, but if one party wanted to build it higher, he cannot force the other person to contribute to the work that was done above four amot, since there is no obligation to build it that high.

It is related that a man named Ronya had a field that was surrounded by fields belonging to Ravina on all four sides. Ravina built partitions around his fields and said to him: Give meyour share of the expense in accordance with what I actually spent when I built the partitions, i.e., half the cost of the partitions. Ronya did not give it to him.

One day, Ronya was harvesting dates. Ravina said to his sharecropper: Go take a cluster [kibbura] of dates from him.

We explore the role of retributive justice vs distributive justice using the myth of Robin Hood as our metaphor.