Megillah 10b, part 1

The Gemara now begins its exegesis on the book of Esther.

“And it was in the days of Achashverosh” Esth. 1 Rabbi Levi (and there are those who say it was Rabbi Yonatan) said: The matter we are about to cite is a tradition in our hands, from the Men of the Great Assembly. In every place where it says “And it was” at the beginning of a narrative it is nothing but the language of trouble.

We will now adduce all such passages as proof.

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Excerpted from Megillah 10 at Dafcast.net. Copyright © 2008 Dafcast.net; all rights reserved.

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Megillah 10a

MISHNA: There is no difference between Shiloh and Jerusalem except this: In Shiloh, one eats sacrifices of lesser holiness and second tithes (ma’aser sheni) in all places where one can still see Shiloh, but in Jerusalem they could only be eaten within the walls. And here and here in both Shiloh and Jerusalem the holiest of holy sacrifices were eaten within the curtains.

The sanctification of Shiloh — even after it, there was permission for other places to be designated for sacrifices; the sanctification of Jerusalem — after it, there was no permission for others.

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Excerpted from Megillah 10a at Dafcast.net. Copyright © 2008 Dafcast.net; all rights reserved.

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Megillah 9b

MISHNA: There is no difference between a kohen who became kohen gadol when he was annointed with oil of annointing and one who became kohen gadol by donning additional garments, except this: a bull that comes to expiate error on account of all the mitzvot. I.e., the kohen gadol who was inaugurated only by wearing the special garments does not bring the bull of expiation.

There is no difference between a kohen who is currently serving his term as kohen gadol and a kohen who has passed out of service and is now retired except this: the serving kohen gadol offers a bull of Yom Kippur and the tenth-ephah of flour that the kohen gadol offers as the daily minchah.

( Gemara, and a second Mishna and its Gemara, behind the cutCollapse )

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Megillah 9a

Mishna: There is no difference between sacred books on the one hand and tefillin and mezuzot on the other hand, except this: the sacred books are written in all tongues, but tefillin and mezuzot are not written in any tongue except Ashurit a specific way of writing the Hebrew aleph-bet. Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says: even in the case of sacred books, they did not permit that they be written in foreign tongues except for Greek.

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Excerpted from Megillah 9a at Dafcast.net. Copyright © 2008 Dafcast.net; all rights reserved.

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Two questions about this blog
There aren't a lot of people reading this LJ community, as far as I can tell. So question 1 is: now that I'm on track again, do you want I should continue posting these here, or is it sufficient to post them at dafcast.net and mention in my main blog when new dapim are up there? (At some point I'll create an RSS feed, no doubt.)

And question 2 is: which style do you prefer: all roman with brackets to designate insertions, or the bold for the gemara's words and normal weight for the interpolations? (That's machine-generated, so it's easy to switch.)

Thanks for the feedback!

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Megillah 8b

Mishna: There is no difference between a zav who sees two emissions and a zav who sees three emissions, except bringing an offering.

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Mishna: There is no difference between a metzorah who has been isolated for observation to see whether the tzaraat is fullblown and a metzorah who has been confirmed, except this: letting the hair grow and tearing the clothing. There is no difference between one who is tahor after being isolated and one who is tahor after being confirmed except this: shaving and offering birds.

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Excerpted from Megillah 8a-b at Dafcast.net. Copyright © 2008 Dafcast.net; all rights reserved.

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Megillah 8a

Mishnah: There is no difference between one who has vowed not to derive benefit from his fellow and one who has vowed not [to benefit from his fellow’s] food, except this: setting foot [on the other’s land], and [the use of] vessels that are not used for the preparation of food.

( Gemara, and a second Mishna and its GemaraCollapse )

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Excerpted from Megillah 8a at Dafcast.net. Copyright © 2008 Dafcast.net; all rights reserved.

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Megillah 7b, part 2

[The previous Mishnah ended with the formula “There is no difference between X and Y, except Z”. As it does, the Talmud will now bring out a series of other teachings whose only connection is that their wording follows the same formula.]

MISHNA: There is nothing between Yom Tov and Shabbat, except the preparation of food alone.

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MISHNA - There is no difference between Shabbat and Yom Kippur except this: one who deliberately violates [Shabbat is executed] by human hands, and one who deliberately violates [Yom Kippur is punished] with karet.

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Excerpted from Megillah 7 at Dafcast.net, copyright © 2008 Dafcast.net. All rights reserved.

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Megillah 7b, part 1

[The Mishna stated] “And gifts to the poor”. Rav Yosef taught, [we learn from the exact wording of the Megillah,] “and sendings of food, each man to his fellow,” [that the minimum obligation is] two sendings to one person [because the word “sendings” is plural and the word “fellow” is singular. The wording of the Megillah continues] “and gifts to the poor” [from which we learn] two gifts to two people [because “gifts” and “the poor” (evyonim) are both plural].

( Some stories about the Rabbis' Purim feastsCollapse )

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Excerpted from Megillah 7 at Dafcast.net, copyright © 2008 Dafcast.net. All rights reserved.

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Megillah 7a, part 3
[So it's been almost two years. Sorry about that. Let's pick up from where we left off....]

Rav Yehuda said that Shmuel said: [The scroll of] Esther does not make the hands tamei. [The issue here is whether the book of Esther is part of the biblical canon; by Rabbinic decree, holy texts render the hands tamei in the second degree.]

( Was the book of Esther divinely inspired?Collapse )

Tomorrow, we'll continue with one of my favorite sugyas in the entire Gemara.

Excerpted from Megillah 7 at Dafcast.net, copyright © 2008 Dafcast.net. All rights reserved.

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Man tracht.... or, "So, nu?"
I've been spending lots of time chopping ice, which means I haven't been getting much else done (including keeping up-to-date with the Daf.)

So here's the plan: I'm going to catch up with the Daf offline. Once I've caught up, I'll start blogging again from that point. As time permits, I'll double back and fill in the dapim that we've missed.

Everyone OK with that?

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Megillah 7a, part 2
Rav Shmuel bar Yehudah said: Esther sent to the sages: "Establish Purim for me for the generations." They sent to her: "You will bring the wrath of the nations upon us by rubbing their noses in it." She sent to them: "I'm already written in the annals of the kingdoms of the Medes and the Persians." so what difference does it make? ( MoreCollapse )

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Megillah 6b, conclusion; Megilllah 7a, part 1
Rabbi Chiyya bar Avin said that Rabbi Yochanan said: the law is like Rabban Shimon ben Gamilel, who spoke in the name of Rabbi Yose that everything must be done in the second Adar. And that is the halacha as we follow it today. ( MoreCollapse )

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Megillah 6b, part 2
The third mishna will address what happens if a leap year is declared after the 14th of Adar. ( MoreCollapse )
When we continue, we'll pursue this topic further.

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Megillah 6b, part 1

The learning for 27 Shevat is in honor of the yahrzeit of my grandmother, Frieda Bissinger, Feygl bat Chayyim v'Ella

Continuing with Rabbi Yitzchak's teachings... ( MoreCollapse ) how much greater will the glory of Jerusalem be when it is restored, may it be speedily and in our days.

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Megillah 6a, part 2

The learning for 27 Shevat is in honor of the yahrzeit of my grandmother, Frieda Bissinger, Feygl bat Chayyim v'Ella

A geopolitical section, discussing Israel and Rome. ( MoreCollapse )

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Megillah 6a, part 1
Now we will spend a few moments thinking about the origins of the names of the city-forts in that verse from Joshua. Each will be identified with a "modern" town, and then the biblical name will be explained based on some paranomasia relating to a characteristic of the location. ( MoreCollapse )

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Megillah 5b, part 2
Gufa! Where were we before Rebbi's planting distracted us? Oh, yeah: Chizkiyah read megillah both on the 14th and on the 15th, because he had doubts on whether or not it was walled in the days of Joshua bin Nun. ( MoreCollapse )

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Megillah 5b, part 1
Rabbi Elazar said that Rabbi Chanina said: Rebbi once planted a seedling on Purim, and washed himself in the springs of Tzipori on the fast day of the 17th of Tammuz, and he tried to erase the extra stringencies of the 9th of Av; but they (the other rabbis) do not acknowlege his position on this last point. ( MoreCollapse )

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Megilah 7b -- a special posting
We're running a little bit behind here, but I didn't want to miss the chance to post on time one of the things I'm proudest of: a special version of page 7b. If you're also studying the daf with a regular shiur, you may want to print this out and bring it with you tomorrow. (Large image behind the cut) ( ImageCollapse )

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