Pesachim 53: THEODOSIUS OF ROME "Todos Ish Romi"

For the source text click/tap here: Pesachim 53

To download, click/tap here: PDF

The Rabbis sent Todos a message, saying: If you were not Todos (a great scholar and respected personage in the community), we would have excommunicated you because you are causing Jews to eat kodashim - sacrificial meat, outside of Yerushalayim.

But Todos was a powerful man leader and benefactor of the Rabbis….

This leads us to an investigation of the Jews of Rome past and present and the fascinating case of Rabbi Israel Zolli of Rome who converted.

Pesachim 52: Hananya/Kfar Inan

For the source text click/tap here: Pesachim 52

To download, click/tap here: PDF

There are three territories in respect to the law of removal [of sheviit produce]: [these are]: Judea, Transjordan, and Galilee, and there are three territories in each one. Upper Galilee, lower Galilee, and the valley. From Kefar Hananiah upwards, the region where sycamores do not grow, is Upper Galilee. From Kefar Hananiah downwards, where the sycamores do grow, is Lower Galilee.

Ancient Kfar Hananya was a Jewish village during the period of Roman and Byzantine rule in the Galilee. After the Ottoman Empire conquered Palestine, the village came to be known as Kafr 'Inan and became an all-Muslim village.

During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Kafr 'Inan was captured by the Golani Brigade of the Israel Defense Forces as part of Operation Hiram and the area was subsequently incorporated into the State of Israel. The villagers were expelled.

Modern day Kefar Hannaniah has an ancient tradition but for me the erasure of the local population of Kfar Inan requires an examination of all the villages that were ethnically cleansed in 1948 during operation Hiram.

Pesachim 51: Cordax

For the source text click/tap here: Pesachim 51

To download, click/tap here: PDF

The Gemora returns to discuss various customs which one must not permit in public including wearing a wide kurdekison sandal outside on Shabbos, and we are not concerned that it will slip off and he will pick it up. Nevertheless Yehuda and Hillel, Rabban Gamliel’s sons, wore them in Birai, and were slandered, saying that they never saw anybody do that. They slipped them off and gave them to their servants, since they didn’t want to tell them it was permitted. This leads us to the discussion of the Greek etymology of the kurdekison a dancing shoe and the dance known as the Cordax (not the Lorax!).

Pesachim 50: “Indolent But Rewarded" Women of Machoza

For the source text click/tap here: Pesachim 50

To download, click/tap here:  PDF

Rava says "With regard to those women of Machoza, even though they do not work on Erev Shabbos, it is due to excessive pampering, because they don't work on any other day [either]. Even so, we call them 'indolent but rewarded.”

This statement leads us to a discussion of what shelo lishma and intentionality means.

Pesachim 49: Shidduchim

For the source text click/tap here: Pesachim 49

To download, click/tap here:  PDF

Despite the pious recommendations in our Daf the situation on the ground for most young people today, who wish to make use of the shadchanim is demoralizing. From the “resume” to the intrusive FBI tactics used prospective in laws to the artificial first date chaperoned even in non chassidic circles and the incidence of divorce soon after marriage forces us to critique the system as is employed. Below is my daughter’s view of the landscape…

Pesachim 48: כקרני חגבים

For the source text click/tap here: Pesachim 48

To download, click/tap here:  PDF

In our mishnah there is a difference of opinion concerning the visual signs of partly leavened bread. Rabbi Yehudah ben-Ilai says that when Tanna Kamma refers to partly leavened bread he means that when it comes out of the oven it has a crust with small cracks in it - cracks that look like the antennae of grasshoppers: two small cracks only in a kind of V-shape.

This leads us to ponder the use of the grasshopper for the shape of a crack and the function of its antennae.

Pesachim 47: Lechem HaPanim

For the source text click/tap here: Pesachim 47

To download, click/tap here: PDF

The embarrassment of God "needing bread" philosophically, leads to the multiple symbolic interpretations….

Pesachim 46: 18 Minuten

For the source text click/tap here: Pesachim 46

To download, click/tap here: PDF

It is hard to know when a dough becomes chametz. The Mishna and Talmud give certain identifying characteristics for chametz dough but these are not always readily apparent. In case of doubt the Talmud provides a specific time frame after which it can be presumed that the dough has become chametz. The Yerushalmi’s opinion is that after 72 minutes dough can be presumed to be chametz, but the standard version of the Bavli declares that this is assumed after only 18 minutes.

In the 19th century two rabbinic geographers debated if the text in the Talmud Bavli had become corrupted and originally agreed with the Yerushalmi’s longer timeframe.

Pesachim 45: Tanners

For the source text click/tap here: Pesachim 45

To download, click/tap here: PDF

The tanners pot that chametz crept in to leads us to a review of ancient tanning practices and the germara’s (Kiddushin)

Negative view of tanning as a trade for a nice Jewish boy!

Pesachim 44: From כותח הבבלי and Murri to Kamach

For the source text click/tap here: Pesachim 44

To download, click/tap here:  PDF

For bread, there was a whole range of condiments or dips called kemach. In modern Arabic, this word is sometimes used for vinegar pickles, but the main ninth-century condiment, al-kaamakh al-ahmar, was made by mixing fermented barley —the same material that murri was made of—with milk and salt.

Pesachim 43: HETER MITZTAREF L'ISUR vs Taam Ke-ikar

For the source text click/tap here: Pesachim 43

To download, click/tap here:  PDF

With all this talk of ta’aruvos let us review the work of Heckler:

Mystical Bodies, Mystical Meals: Eating and Embodiment in Medieval Kabbalah.

Pesachim 42: The "Wise Men" of Papunya

For the source text click/tap here: Pesachim 42

To download, click/tap here:  PDF

The “Wise Men” of Papunya.

Pesachim 41: Toldos ha-Chama and Solar Power

For the source text click/tap here: Pesachim 41

To download, click/tap here:  PDF

Prefiguring later laws of cooking the Passover lamb itself, which will be discussed in totality later, the Talmud gives a few rules here. One should not cook it in water or in any other liquid, but only roast it on fire. However, once it is roasted, he can baste it or eat it with relishes.

The use of Chamei Teverya the Hot Springs of Tiberias (remember in Shabbes 38?) this time leading us to the use on Shabbes of solar power,solar panels and the controversy over the use of the Dud Shemesh.

Pesachim 40: Sh’mura Matza

For the source text click/tap here: Pesachim 40

To download, click/tap here:  PDF

Ex 12:!5

וּשְׁמַרְתֶּם, אֶת-הַמַּצּוֹת

These 3 words triggers the prooftext for sh'mura matza and our attempt to follow the mesorah leading to the interesting phenomena of reform Jews participating in this chumra!

Pesachim 39: Maror as Hirduf or Mad Honey?

For the source text click/tap here: Pesachim 39

To download, click/tap here:  PDF

Our Daf is in the process of identifying the species which is referred to as “מרור “(Ex 12:8) for fulfillment of the Torah’s mitzvah to consume it on Pesach.[1]

The Mishnah and Baraisa provide an extensive list of vegetables which qualify for this mitzvah. Among them is horseradish, romaine lettuce, endives, palm ivy or succory.

The Gemara then suggests an additional species, hirduf— a piece of wood (possibly oleander bush, an evergreen shrub, the type thrown into the water at Marah by Moshe to miraculously sweeten the water)—for consideration as maror.

This species is identified by Rashi as ruscus, however more likely the species of Rhododaphne Oleander and how Mad Honey stopped Pompey’s army.

Pesachim 38: Matza Ashira M’Misht Zich Nisht”

For the source text click/tap here: Pesachim 38

To download, click/tap here:  PDF

The Magen Avraham (471:5) deduces from our Gemora that if a person uses mostly fruit juice and some water as the liquids with which he makes his matzah, he does not fulfill the mitzvah of matzah in any way with this matzah.

The halachot of Matza Ashira are reviewed leading to the extraordinary manage among Lisker chassidim to refrain from

Matzo during Pesach!

Pesachim 37: Pas Ava, Thick Bread and the Matza Machine

For the source text click/tap here: Pesachim 37

To download, click/tap here: PDF

In explanation of this baraita, one suggestion that is raised (either by Rav or by Rabbi Yehuda haNasi) is that pat ava does not mean to bake a thick cake; rather it means to bake a large amount at one time. The Gemara points out that if we understand pat ava this way, the potential problem would not be specific to Pesaḥ, but it is a general issue of possibly baking unnecessarily on Yom Tov.

Rabbenu Yehonatan explains that if this is, in fact, the point of disagreement, Beit Shammai forbids it lest some of the bread or matza will be left over and will be used after Yom Tov is over, creating a situation where preparations for the regular weekday were done on the holiday. Beit Hillel would argue that the baking process works better when a large amount is baked, so having leftovers is of no concern.

These concerns lead to the discussion of the shape of Matza, round vs square and the 19th century controversy over machine matzot.

Pesachim 36: Bull’s Eye “Zuboshi”

For the source text click/tap here: Pesachim 36

To download, click/tap here: PDF

If this bread, kneaded with milk, is prepared in the shape of an ox’s eye, it is permitted. In other words, if one forms this dough in a unique shape, e.g., the eye of an ox, one may eat it, as it is clearly distinguishable from ordinary bread. Therefore, there is no concern that it will be eaten with meat. However Rashi implies the eye of the ox is a measure of size…not the shape of the bread (like an ox)

The ey of an ox or bull…leads us to ponder Zen and the art of archery and the “zuboshi” or bulls eye

Pesachim 35: Kitniyot

For the source text click/tap here: Pesachim 35

To download, click/tap here: PDF

Eight hundred years after the custom began the consensus among the Ashkenazi rabbis about the relevance of the prohibition of eating kitniyot has, for the first time, been broken: The rabbis of the “Religious Court of Machon Shilo” have published a ruling that allows Ashkenazim living in Israel to cease the custom.

In a ruling that was published a few days ago, the rabbis of the institute, David Bar-Hayim, Yehoshua Buch, and Chaim Wasserman, claim that citizens of Israel are neither Ashkenazim or Sephardim (Jews of Spanish or North African descent), rather they are “Jews of Eretz Yisrael”, and therefore they should abide by the custom of the land and not by former customs.

Kitniyot represents that fault line between the past and the future and a litmus test of sorts.

Pesachim 34: Memory Loss vs. Inattention

For the source text click/tap here: Pesachim 34

To download, click/tap here: PDF

As a medical student (like Keats) I often walked Hampstead Heath this wonderful green patch in the middle of London’s NW boroughs. I would go to Keats house where he lived for two years before going to Rome. I was drunk with the British 19th century romantic poets who understood the fragility of life and the intoxication of romance yet also a sense of the sublime.