Taanit 31: Hadran-"Dancing with the Zaddikim"

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In the final section of our masechta we explore the joy of the festival for which the daughters of Jerusalem would go out to the dance in the vineyards in borrowed white clothing (so that girls who were poor would not be embarrassed), calling out to the young men suggesting that they choose wives from among them.

Our Daf here concludes the Maseches by saying that in the future, Hashem will make a (machol) circle of Tzadikim.

The Shechinah will sit inside the circle, and the Tzadikim will point towards the center of the circle and declare, "This is my G-d, we will rejoice in His salvation."

This event is understood by the commentaries as referring to a mystical event rather than a physical one. Other midrashim will suggest that when Hashem offers them a cup of consolation (for all the suffering of Galut)

They will refuse it!!

We explore the notion of learning Torah by night as well as the incongruity for the rationale (for the 4th brocho in benching) for the burial of the victims of Beitar with the historical dates.

Taanit 30: Mourning and Messianism

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Aside from the five basic activities forbidden on Tisha be-Av (eating and drinking, washing, anointing, wearing leather shoes, and sexual relations), the baraita teaches that all of the restrictions that apply to someone who is in mourning for a close relative are applicable to all Jews on Tisha be-Av. A person is not allowed to learn Torah – neither Tanakh nor the Oral Law – except for things that are in the spirit of the day, like kinot, Sefer Iyov and the parts of Yirmiyahu that describe the destruction of the Temple.

Over the past millenia Tisha B'av also embodies the hope for the future rebuilding of the destroyed Beis Hamikdash as well as the birthday of the Messiah.

We explore the halachic parameters of learning on this day then look at false Messiahs who were born on this day. We end with the disturbing article by Sol Kirsch reviewing the academic analysis of Chabad Messianism.

Taanit 29: Calamity and Communal Memory

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The Mishnah (26a-b) taught that five separate occurrences took place on the seventeenth of Tamuz and another five on the ninth day of Av for which we are in mourning to this day.

The events of Tisha be-Av are discussed on our daf. They include:

After the sin of the spies, the Children of Israel were condemned to die in the desert rather than enter the Promised Land

The first Temple was destroyed

The second Temple was destroyed

The city of Beitar was captured

The city of Jerusalem was plowed up

We explore the historical events from Apostemus to Himmler associated with Tisha B'Av and how it shapes our communal memory and self identity.

Taanit 28: Zatu and Bikkurim Smugglers

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On our daf we find that it was once decreed that the Jewish people could no longer bring their bikkurim/ new fruits to Yerushalayim. Guards were stationed along the roads leading to the holy city just as they had been during the days of Yeravam ben Nevat.

Certain righteous people, however, would smuggle in their bikkurim by covering the new fruits with a layer of dried figs. When the guards asked what they were doing with the basket of figs, they would respond that they were bringing in figs for processing. It is clear that those who were not especially righteous did not bring their bikkurim during that period of prohibition. This appears to be very problematic.

We explore the history of Jewish identity during the period with Rivkah Fishman-Duker's excellent review as well as the transformation of the wood offering from biblical times onward.

Taanit 27: Neshama Yeseirah

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Reish Lakish said: They would not fast on Sunday due to the added soul, as Reish Lakish said: An added soul is given to man on Shabbat eve, and at the conclusion of Shabbat it is removed it from him, as it is stated:

“He ceased from work and rested [vayinafash]”

which he expounds as follows: Since one has rested and Shabbat has passed, woe for the soul [vai nefesh] that is lost, the added soul that each individual relinquishes. Consequently, one is still weak from this loss on Sunday.

We explore the mystical notion of the added soul of Shabbat.

Taanit 26: Tu B'Av

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Our daf reminds us that the 15th of Av and Yom Kippur are our most joyous holidays. On both of those days, wood is burned, and women dance in the fields all dressed in white. Their clothes are all borrowed from each other to divert attention from wealth. They call out to the boys to choose themselves wives. However, they also quote from Psalms (30:31-2) to remind young men that beauty is not as valuable as righteous behaviour.

Tu b'av reminds us of five historical events the most disturbing being the scandal of Pilegesh B'Givah.

Taanit 25: מַעֲבִיר עַל מִדּוֹתָיו/Nicht Fargin

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Rabbi Eliezer led the congregation in the lengthy amidah prayer for fast days, but his prayers were not answered. At that point, his student, Rabbi Akiva, prayed for rain, and rain began to fall. When the rabbis present began to discuss why the student, Rabbi Akiva, was successful, while Rabbi Eliezer was not, a heavenly voice called out that it was not an issue of greatness; rather, Rabbi Akiva was more relaxed and forgiving, while Rabbi Eliezer was more exact and demanding. God responded to each of them according to his personality.

We look at the avina malkenu prayer in depth.

We then examine the concept of מַעֲבִיר עַל מִדּוֹתָיו as applied to personal conduct and behavior as well as the yiddish term "fargin".

Taanit 24: Chaninah ben Dosa Benefitting From Miracle?

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Many Talmudic scholars took great pride in their clarity of thought, their verbal precision and their rationality. The Talmud is however a vast literary sea. It encompasses law, philosophy, science, literature and creative ideas. Thus, it should not come as a surprise that among its many tomes and thousands of pages of text, we also move from the rational to the mystical and from the mystical to the world of miracles.

Such is the journey that Rabbi Chanina (also spelled Haninah) ben Dosa provides for us. Rabbi Chanina is different from the other Talmudic personages about whom we have studied. If the others dealt with the laws of probability and probability, Chanina was their opposite. His world was one of the improbable, of the irrational, of the unprovable.

We explore the permissibility of praying or relying on miracles and review the scholarship on charismatic Galillean hassidim like Chanina, and the controversial influence they might have had on the founder of Christianity and his own performance of miracles.

Taanit 23: Rain Makers and Miracle Workers

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Honi Hamaagel (Honi the circle maker) was an especially pious Jewish man who lived during the first century BCE. The Talmud states that he was so pious that he had a special relationship with God and was able to be a miracle worker. He would be able to pray for rain when the populace needed the precipitation. He would draw a circle, step inside it, and inform God that he would not step out of the circle until it rained. Due to his piety, he was always successful; God did not want to see this pious man stranded in a circle.

Honi has bucked the rabbinic method of dealing with drought, and though his methods initially work, bringing the rain that is so desperately needed, the ultimate results are disastrous. The rabbis are appalled, but because they recognize Honi’s extraordinary relationship with God, they stop short of excommunicating him.

On our daf, while traveling Honi saw a man planting a carob tree. He asked him, “How long would it take (for this tree) to bear fruit?” The man answered, “Seventy years.” He then asked, “Are you sure that you will live another seventy years?” The man answered, “No. But I’m not planting this (tree) for myself, but for the next generations and the ones that follow.” Honi shrugged his shoulders and left.

Later, when he sat down to rest, he slept for seventy years. When he awoke and retraced his prior walk, he saw a man plucking carobs from a tree. He asked, “Did you plant this tree?” The man answered, “No. My grandfather planted it. My father told me that his father planted this tree for me.”

We examine the literary and folk motif aspects of rain makers and miracle workers in Aggadah and the way his intercession provides a model for petitionary prayer.

Taanit 22: Pious Comedians

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On our daf we find that Rabi Beroka Choza’ah was once in the market of Bei Lefet when he met Eliyahu Hanavi.

He asked Eliyahu Hanavi, “Are there any bnei Olam Habah in this marketplace?” Eliyahu Hanavi answered, “No.”

Just then, two people arrived, and Eliyahu Hanavi changed his answer. Indicating the newcomers, he declared, “These two are bnei Olam Habah.”

Rabi Beroka Choza’ah asked the two men about their profession, and they responded that they were comedians/merry-makers who cheered people up. “When we see two people fighting, we make peace between them,” they said.

We explore the history of Jewish comedy and the use of humor when facing tragedy as a form of resistance.

Taanit 21: "It's All For The Best" Really?

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Nachum ish Gam Zu was called this way because he was accustomed to saying "That, too, (gam zu) is for the best." Once the Jews needed to send a gift of precious pearls to the Roman emperor. They chose Nachum ish Gam Zu, because "he is used to miracles happen on his behalf." On the road, people at an inn exchanged the precious stones in his chest for dirt from the house. In the morning, when Nachum saw it, he said "This, too, is for the best," and continued on his way, to present it to the emperor. When the latter saw the dirt, he was enraged, "Jew are mocking me!" and decided to kill them all. Nachum said, "That, too, is for the best."

We explore the notion that "all is for the best" and the problems this faith based claim caused in history most prominently in the philosophical debate following the Lisbon Earthquake in 1775 (Voltaire vs Leibnitz).

Taanit 20: The Oak and the Reed, Resist or Accommodate?

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The Gemara relates that Rebbi Elazar bar Rebbi Shimon was once riding his donkey proudly on the river bank after having learned much Torah. He was greeted by a very ugly person and he did not reply to the greeting. Instead, he said, "Empty one! How ugly are you! Are all of the people of your city as ugly as you?"

The person replied, "I do not know. But go and say to the Craftsman Who made me how ugly His handiwork is."

This verbal abuse leads to the concluding aphorism "A person should always be soft like a reed and he should not be stiff like a cedar, as one who is proud like a cedar is likely to sin." And therefore, due to its gentle qualities, the reed merited that a quill is taken from it to write with it a Torah scroll, phylacteries, and mezuzot.

What are the halachot of abuse?

We explore the notion of the flexibility of the reed over the strength of the cedar as applied to resistance vs accommodation even in disaster management and finally are there cross-cultural connections between our aphorism and Aesop's fable "The Oak and the Reeds"?

Taanit 19: Nicodemus/Nakdimon

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It was a drought. The Jews went up to Yerushalayim for the Sholosh Regolim, but they had no water to drink. Nakdimon ben Gurion, a wealthy man, saw this and went to the Roman governor who owned water cisterns and said to him, "Lend me twelve of your water cisterns so that I can give them to the pilgrims. I will return all the twelve cisterns of water and if I cannot, I will give you twelve large silver bars." The silver was worth much more than the water. In fact, it was enough to pay for porters to transport that much water from afar and even have a great deal left over! The two made up a date by which Nakdimon would have to replenish the cisterns — or pay the debt.

Here begins one of the most famous interactions between the procurator and our hero Nakdimon or Nikomedus. It is part of a genre of wonder Rabbis who are able to perform miracles through divine intercession including Honi the Circle maker.

We examine the etymology of his name and the scholarship as to the possible identity of Nichomedus in the NT with our hero.

Finally a muse on the hebraification of Russian names by early Zionists like Ben Gurion and an entertaining thought on James Joyce's Leopold Bloom character.

Taanit 18: Trajan's Day

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Two examples of minor Second Temple holidays that appear in Megilat Ta’anit as days on which it is forbidden to fast or to eulogize are the 13th day of Adar, which was known as Yom Nikanor, and the 12th day of Adar, which was known as Yom Trayanus.

Our Daf explains the events that occurred on each of these celebratory days.

We explore the historical background for these events especially Trajan and his war on the Jews

and the halachic implications of martyrdom for others such as risky modern experimental medicines and vaccines.

Taanit 17: Priestly Grooming

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Our daf closes with Abayye‘s comment that, since we do not know which mishmar and bet av kohanim belong to today, kohanim should never be permitted to drink wine, since the Temple may be built miraculously and they will be called to participate in the service.

Nevertheless we do not restrict kohanim in this way because of the teaching of Rabbi, who said that the years of destruction do not allow us to legislate such a restriction.

The Sages also taught: A king cuts his hair every day, a High Priest cuts his hair every Friday, and a common priest once every thirty days.

We therefore explore the history of grooming, from ancient Egypt to beards and the halacha of shaving, as well as the notion of personal hygiene and bathing in modernity.

"Every age and culture was convinced that their version of cleanliness was the correct one, from the Roman who spent a few hours a day soaking in public baths of various temperatures to the 17th-century Frenchman who never touched water and believed he cleaned himself by changing into a fresh linen shirt.” (Katherine Ashenberg)

Taanit 16: Cemetery Prayers

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Our daf states that it was the custom to visit a cemetery on a fast day. One reason given is that the Jewish people were saying that they consider themselves like corpses and this will stimulate them to repent.

Another reason is that this will enable the deceased who are buried in the cemetery to pray for them.According to the second reason, they would not visit a cemetery that contained the graves of gentiles.

We explore the controversial history of visiting cemeteries to daven and visiting kivrei zaddikim to intercede on our behalf with the Almighty.

I end with my travelogue to Uman on Rosh Hashanah 2011 and my ambivalence…

Taanit 15: Ashes on the Forehead and Grief in the Soul

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The Mishna had stated that they would place ashes on the head of the Nasi and upon the head of the Rosh Beis Din (Head of the Court). Each person would place the ashes on his own head.

TheGemora questions why the Nasi and Rosh Beis Din do not place the ashes on their head by themselves. Rabbi Abba answers that being embarrassed by one’s own hand pales in comparison to being embarrassed by the hands of others and this will help make their prayers more successful.

The Gemora states that they would place the ashes on the place where the tefillin are worn on one’s head.

This opens us to explore the metaphor of ashes with Jastrow's paper on ancient funerary practices down to our work with grief and healing in the writings of Robert Bly (the path through ashes in Iron John) who died last week, and Martin Prechtel a shaman and his "Smell of Rain on Dust.”

Taanit 14: Sounding The Alarm

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The Mishna had stated that they would cry out during the last seven fasts.

The Gemora presents a dispute as to the meaning of “cry out.”

Rav Yehuda maintains that they would cry out by sounding the shofar and it was said in the name of Rav that they would cry out by reciting aneinu.

It is evident from this Gemora that shofaros were used on a fast day.

We re-examine the history of communal alarm sounding using trumpets, and the use of the shofar on Shabbat is some communities.

Taanit 13: Aneinu

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Our daf reveals that fast days that are established – either for an individual or for the community – are days of prayer and introspection.

Extra petitionary blessings are added to the amidah prayer.

Our daf asks whether an individual who accepts a personal fast will add an extra blessing to the amidah, or will simply add a prayer within the “catch-all” blessing of shome’ah tefillah, in which we ask God to accept our prayers.

We review the halachos of Aneinu which allows us to continue our exploration of different views on petitionary prayer both individual and communal and the observance of fast days during times of catastrophe.

Taanit 12: Personal Trials and Fasting

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The Mishna continues to discuss the process of conducting public fasts in the situation when there is a drought. If after the first series of public fasts, it did not begin to rain; Beis Din declares another three public fasts. The fasts begin at sunset and they are forbidden to perform work. They are not allowed to wash and anoint themselves. They are prohibited from wearing leather shoes and engaging in marital relations. The bathhouses would be closed as well. If these fasts passed and it still did not rain, Beis din would declare a series of seven fasts, which would be a total of thirteen decreed fasts.

We explore personal suffering that triggers such fasting including the halachic status of a communal mourning following the loss of Gush Katif.