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 from entering Israel?This attribute is worth special note, it would appear that Moses possessed all knowledge except one ‘little’ bit:

Fifty portals of insight were created in the world, and all were imparted to Moses, except one. The final, reserved, portal, which no creature can enter, is knowledge of G-d’s essence. For the verse says: “but you withheld him, by a small measure of wisdom, from a true comprehension of G-d.” (Psalm 8:6)

A portal is a esoteric science that governs an aspect of natural order, as defined in the note below.I have been about 10-14 days behind in Nedarim, but is turns out to be somewhat interesting. Not much agadah, but the concepts of an oath and the rules around them, as well as the types are rather simple to understand. Or perhaps I should say they are straightforward. I am still not sure I understand why so much needs to be said about them.

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 and the shavings of a hide, a lilly, the calyxes that cover red dates, i.e. immature dates; and boil them well together. The take the patient into a house made of marble (where there is no draft). And if there is no marble house available, take him instead into a house whose walls are seven bricks and a half-brick think. then pour three hundred cups of this potion on his head until the surface of his skull softens. Then, tear open the skull to expose the organism standing on the membrane. Bring four myrtle leaves, lift up each leg and insert one leaf underneath. Remove the organism with tongs and burn it. For if the organism is no destroyed, it will return to the victim.

The notes suggest that this parasite lives on the brain membrane, is contagious through flies, and may puncture the membrane. We know from modern medicine that puncturing the arachnoid membrane is not good!

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: when a woman has to marry her brother-in-law when her husband dies before they have a child. The problem starts because this relationship is otherwise forbidden unless the exact conditions are met. What happens is the son and husband are traveling together and the son dies before the husband? What happens to the co-wives? What is the criteria for establishing the death of the husband (or son)? Who can testify? What can they say that will suffice?

The ability to properly separate a husband and wife is paramount because her second union can be nullified by the husband’s return, rendering her an adulteress and any children from the second union illegitimate and unable to marry into the children of Israel.

This was the the hardest tractate to slog through thus far. It was highly technical and I kept thinking this was a great application for a computer program that asks a series of questions and then tells you if you can marry the other person. Sorry Rabbi’s but even doctors are faced with expert systems replacing them for common ailments.

Another very notable issue brought up in Yevamot: The ability of the Rabbi’s to suspend Torah law for the sake of the community. This so called ‘nuclear option’ appears in chapter 10. From what I can tell this option can be applied to relieve a conflict in stringency or to prevent greater sins from being committed. A common example is the ban on blowing the Shofar on Shabbat for fear someone might mistakenly carry the items into the public domain. A modern example my Rabbi provided (thank you) is the Conservative revocation on the ban prohibiting a Kohen from marrying a divorced woman. FYI, Kohenim have even more stringencies due to additional biblical bans and requirements.

Then, and much more to my liking, Yevamot ends with a discussion on how large a wound a person can sustain before a witness can assume he is dead (leg amputation above the knee), how long a person can be in cold water without being bloated and deformed enough to be no longer recognizable (over 3 days) and how long a wound can be in water before it kills a person (under 3 days).

And my favorite: if a person hears a mystical voice telling him the husband is dead, how do you know it was the person’s ghost, a demon, or sheidim? They have to have 2 proper shadows. A note on 122 states that the ability to discern the details of shadows has been lost. Could this be the Jewish equivalent of the aura?

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 cycle a bit late, but have caught up. To help me keep track I created a iCal compatible calendar that will insert a reminder for each day’s reading. It also has some links to common resources. It is configurable to take 2 URL parameters and will subscribe the item for 2 days in the past and 12 days in the future. Once in iCal edit the URL to change to your needs. There are other options available to use this application in others applications. Write to me if you want to use the webservice or plain HTML.

Right now I am reworking this in PHP from Java. I have some bugs to work out for it to run correctly on my shared server. It works fine locally on my dev box. If you want the code, let me know.

The basis of this work is a derivative of the code by Bob Newell and I thank him for sending me his C code.

Some useful links to Talmud study:

• Daf Notes
• Daf Digest
• Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
• Orthodox Union
• http://ohr.edu/yhiy.php/this_week/the_weekly_daf/
• http://www.webshas.org/

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 am going to have to figure out a plan - new shelves, keep them boxed up until I read them, or?

No mater what I choose, I have enough reading material for a while. The next completion (Siyum HaShas) will take place on 2 August 2012.

I have created an program that creates an iCal calendar for the Daf Yomi cycle - Talmud Bavli. It still needs some features added, but it is up and working. To subscribe go to iCal and add the URL http://www.freshmilk.com/icaldafyomi/ and set it to refresh daily.

Features:

• 2 days in the past + 11 days in the future - that is 14 days in total
• Hebrew date, with important holidays, in the summary of the event
• Reports Yoma 34 and so forth
• Provides links to OU, Aleph Society & Daily Daf for more reading

Things I want to add/notes:

• Only works for current cycle
• Ship dates of Schottenstein volumes (so you know when to look for the UPS guy)
• Support for future cycles
• Error checking
• Boundary checking (it will throw and error at the end of the cycle, need to fix this)
• Number of days until end of cycle - so when you are near you can get excited!

Let me know if there if you have any other ideas.