Berakhot 21

In addition to the discussions on deriving an “a fortiori” inference through the analysis of two laws where one is stronger than the other and the opportunity to "add a little extra" when you enter a synagogue that is in the middle of a prayer that you have already said, there is an underlying theme of impurity in today’s reading. The text incorporates more discussion of “seminal emissions,” and the treatment of menstruating women who are engaged in intercourse and the requirement of ritual immersions for purposes of purification. The Talmud is full of so much kindness, including the earlier text on the importance of remembering our elderly as they once were and the comparison with the broken tablets, and seemingly cruelty from a modern perspective, which includes today's text on the stoning of wizards and sorcerers (were innocent people stoned to death based on false premises, like what happened in Salem, Massachusetts?) and the symbolic stoning of people who do not follow ritualistic laws by placing stones on their graves.