April 22 · 13 min
TT
Religion & Spirituality
Talking Talmud
Yardaena Osband & Anne Gordon
Learning the daf? We have something for you to think about. Not learning the daf? We have something for you to think about! (Along with a taste of the daf...)
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- 2,402 episodes
- Updated Friday
Episodes2402
- TTApril 21 · 22 min
Menahot 100: The Impact of Shabbat on the Breads
2 mishnayot to finish chapter 11! What if the items from the table were moved on the wrong day (that is, the shewbread and the frankincense)? What happens if they remain present past the time of Shabbat when they are supposed to be removed correctly? Plus, a dispute over premature offerings -- and what is considered a "premature" offering (including thinking it was daytime when it was still night). Note also the many ways that the offerings and other substances are sanctified throughout the process. Also, the days that one can eat the bread from the 2 loaves of the Shavuot offering (namely, 2 or 3 days from the baking of the loaves, depending on how the holiday falls out in proximity (or lack thereof) to Shabbat). Plus, when the loaves can be baked on the holiday, though not on Shabbat or Yom Kippur.
- TTApril 20 · 21 min
Menahot 99: On Honoring Torah and the Influence of the Sages' Own Experiences
More on King Solomon's 10 tables, and how the kohanim put the shewbread on Moses' table and not Solomon's (or was it one table at a time, including Solomon's tables?). Also, the concept of increasing in holiness and never diminishing it - as familiar from Chanukah, and applied here. Plus, not mocking one who has forgotten his Torah, but treating such a person with respect -- and a key example of how a sage's own life story may have impact on the positions he takes in the Gemara. Also, a new mishnah! Of the tables, and of two at the entrance of the sanctuary, one was marble and one was gold - with the preparation for the shewbread and then the staged removal of the old shewbread. Plus, the pageantry of switching in the new shewbread for the old. And the brief days during which eating the bread was valid (and how two days of not cooking led to Babylonian returnees eating raw meat). Also, the question of when to learn non-Torah subjects like Greek philosophy.
- TTApril 19 · 18 min
Menahot 98: When King Solomon Furnished the Temple
More on the set-up of the Temple, including a larger "amah," that was the one of Shushan, and also a smaller measure, which was most significant for the craftsman building the Temple. With an open discussion about representation of the foreign king in the Temple, which seems difficult. Could it be metaphorical? Maybe, but it sounds more literal. Also, healing trees. Plus, presenting the actions of King Solomon, in terms of setting up 10 tables and 10 menorahs in the Temple, with specific placement in the north and south of the courtyard respectively.
- TTApril 18 · 13 min
Menahot 97: What's a Cubit? An Imprecise Mishnah
All of the mention of "amot," the measure of a forearm, that are mentioned in the Temple are "medium-sized" cubits -- which was 5 or 6 handbreadths, depending on what was being measured. Also, the application of those amot of different lengths, as concluded from the description of the Temple's measurements in Ezekiel.
- TTApril 17 · 20 min
Menahot 96: All the Technical Details You Ever Wanted about the Shewbread
Opening with a very (very!) long mishnah on the 12 loaves of the shewbread, including their process and their location and their shaping and their measurements and their placement. Also, how some of that processing overrode Shabbat rules, and some did not. Rabbi Akiva's general principle here is that if something can be done before Shabbat, it will not override the laws of Shabbat, but if it cannot be done before Shabbat (and not because a person ran out of time), those practices would override Shabbat. Plus, some of the comments of the Gemara - specifically on the way the shewbread was bent upwards but a significant measure, and set up on rods to allow the air to circulate and prevent mold.
- TTApril 16 · 15 min
Menahot 95: The Traveling Shewbread
On the lehem ha-panim, the 12 loaves of the shewbread - what happened to this offering when the Israelites were traveling in the wilderness, and need to switch the loaves from shabbat-to-shabbat? Would the bread become invalidated through the moving? Also, a new mishnah on how the 2 loaves of Shavuot and the 12 loaves of the shewbread are the same in processing. Including what is consecrated and requires the Temple courtyard for processing in vessels. Plus, a backhanded compliment for Rav Sheshet.
- TTApril 15 · 17 min
Menahot 94: Fresh Bread Baking
Closing chapter 10: A new mishnah! On the ways that semichah (laying on of hands) is more stringent than the requirement of waving the animal parts, and the ways that the waving is more stringent than semichah. And a potential contradiction as to whether the laying on of hands was as limited as the mishnah makes it sound (with a very nice resolution, too). Opening chapter 11! With a new mishnah - back to the 2 loaves of Shavuot and the lechem ha-panim, and the process by which they are kneaded and baked. Including safeguards to prevent mold. Plus, a puzzling apparent mismatch between the shape of the pans and that of the loaves.
- TTApril 14 · 15 min
Menahot 93: The Metaphysical Side of Sacrifices
Yesterday's mishnah raised the case of heirs bringing a sacrifice on behalf of someone who died before being able to offer it - and whether they would do the laying on of hands. Here, we are privy to a contradiction in the materials over whether they do it. Plus, another mishnah, with the list of all those who can, under the right circumstances, do the laying on of hands (semichah). Also, more on the semichah - specifically, how it was done with 2 hands, and how we know that it is supposed to be done with 2 hands. Plus, Resh Lakish's stance on this halakhah and the way he argues for and against it, with some frustration.
- TTApril 13 · 14 min
Menahot 92: The Atonement of the Laying of Hands
On the requirement of "semicha" - the laying on of hands before slaughtering an animal, and how it's the subject of the first recorded debate in the Oral Law. Plus, the way the placing of hands is part of the process of offering the sacrifice, together with atonement. Also, which animals require that laying on of hands? It's not all of them - where a bull does require it, but the goats brought in atonement for idolatry, well, that's a machloket. And what is the province of the elders, as compared to Aharon/the kohen gadol?
- TTApril 12 · 16 min
Menahot 91: Specifying the Korban Olah (Burnt-Offering)
The Torah mentions offerings that are voluntary, and that theoretically could come to include a burn-offering, but the Torah also specifies the burnt-offering so that the details of accompaniment are also learned (for example, the libations). And we see the halakhic hermeneutical principles of deriving the general, the specific, and the general -- which concludes with a narrower application that one might have thought. Also, the specifics of offerings that indeed involve accompaniments -
- TTApril 12 · 14 min
Menahot 90: More on the Holy Measuring Cups
2 new mishnayot! 1: All the dry measures used for measuring in the Temple were expected to be heaping measures. But one of the liquid measures for a unique usage (the kohen's grain-offering) was explicitly larger to be used as a level measure. Plus, the question of whether the measuring vessels were consecrated on the inside and on the outside or only on the inside - and the ramifications of that for any overflow and whether it becomes sanctified. 2: The animal sacrifices that are accompanied by libations. With the variations per different purposes of the offerings.
- TTApril 10 · 18 min
Menahot 89: On Lighting the Menorah and Libations
It took 3.5 log of oil to light the menorah - half a log per cup (with 6 branches, plus the shamash). That's the precise amount of oil to burn through the night, but did they figure that out by using excess oil and working the amount down, or did they start with a little and keep adding until they made it through the night? Also, a new mishnah: where libations that accompany the animal sacrifices were transferrable or combinable among some specific sacrifices. Plus, the lamb that was brought by the person recovering from tzara'at for the guilt-offering needs libations together with it.
- TTApril 9 · 19 min
Menahot 88: Measuring Oil
More on the measures of liquids - and how the "hin" measuring cup was made by Moses in the wilderness, and then it wasn't used. Plus, a new mishnah - on the quarter-log and its uses, including the ratios of oil to flour. Also, the measure for the menorah's cups, and the process of removing them to fill them.
- TTApril 9 · 17 min
Menahot 87: Sourcing Wine
A final mishnah for chapter 9: On sourcing the wine for libations in the Temple. With limitations on the practices that would damage or sour the wine. Also, the checked the wine for impurities. Plus, speech was understood to be detrimental for wine. And the first two mishnayot of chapter 10: Listing measuring vessels for dry goods, with 2 measures, and for wet, with 7 different measures.
- TTApril 7 · 18 min
Menahot 86: EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
On "shemen ha-mor" - the oil of myrrh, which a discussion of how Queen Esther beautified herself among the other girls in the beauty contest, until the king chose her to be queen. With the question of defining what this oil was used for (an anointing or a depilatory). Also, a new mishnah - with a focus on olives and the several harvests and various pressings of them, attesting to the various qualities of oil too. And another mishnah - 9 degrees of oil, where the top level would be just prohibitive for the grain-offerings, but were always taken for the menorah oil.
- TTApril 6 · 9 min
Menahot 85: An Olive Travelogue (Beginning with Tekoa)
2 mishnayot! 1 - Which grain is not acceptable - in this case, specifically listed, but after the fact, the grain would be accepted if used. Plus, how one works the land to grow good grain - from sowing to plowing to timing. 2 - The olive trees in Tekoa were the main source of olive oil for the Temple. After that, the trees in Regev. And after that, any other olives were still kosher, as long as they weren't coming a fertilized grove or an irrigated grove, as above regarding grain.
- TTApril 5 · 14 min
Menahot 84: The First Fruits of the 7 Species
Which barley is to be used for the omer offering? During a sabbatical/shemitah year, they couldn't plant, but they could collect the natural growth, which they did. That collection needed to be as for food, however, and not for fuel -- because shemitah produce could not be burned. But it wasn't quite burned either.... Also, a deep dive into "first fruits/bikkurim," and how they were to be brought from the 7 species from the land of Israel. Plus, refinement of the details of the bikkurim as brought, based on the verses, and also the basic growth and whether it was in a field or elsewhere, for example. But why weren't bikkurim offered for all fruits and not just the 7 species?
- TTApril 4 · 12 min
Menahot 83: The Timing of the Pesach Offering
On the sanctification of the many kinds of offerings, including the absorption into the sanctity. Plus, leading into the Pesach sacrifice, and when it might be invalidated as the korban Pesach, but still work as a peace-offering. Also, beginning chapter 9! Grain, oil, and wine, as used in the Temple service - from the new mishnah specifying where the grain can come from. The best grain, and from the land of Israel were required for the omer offering and the 2 loaves of Shavuot, but for most grain-offerings, there was a great deal of flexibility.
- TTApril 3 · 15 min
Menahot 82: Sacrifice Expenses
The case of one who designates ma'aser sheni money towards a peace-offering, can that work? The Gemara delves into the level of sacredness of the various properties. Also, a new mishnah! One who takes an oath to bring a sacrifice... which leads us right into the Passover offering, in perfect timing. Really, on the question of what funds can be used to purchase the offering. Also, more on the purchase of the all mandatory offerings - which are bought with non-sacred funds.