“The day of his healing is like the day of his birth.” 

I have been told that I am a bit of a “bleeding heart.” I cry during movies. I even cried throughout the “Babe: Pig in the City” film when Babe was lost and could not find his way home. Yes, I cry over the thought of a lost pig in a foreign city and tears still well up in my eyes when I hear the words “That'll do, pig. That'll do."  I am certain if there ever was a kosher little Pig, it is Babe who saved the lives of many animals regardless of their species and helped win back his owner’s farm.

“What practical difference is there whether or not the baby is considered to have been alive?”

Today’s discussion is an existential one on life and death and grief. The text considers if a stillborn baby is a soul who should be grieved if he dies within thirty days, and if he should be circumcised if the viability of his life is uncertain. The Talmud takes a rather clinical view on the question of grieving for a stillborn child, but there is an opening in the text, through two stories of fathers who lost their children, for an understanding of pure grief.

“And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.”

I am learning more about circumcision from the past few days of readings than I ever anticipated when I entered this Daf Yomi cycle or have ever wanted to know. Undertaking the daily readings always delivers surprises and a lot of perplexity. And there are images in my head that I will most likely carry with me the rest of my life, such as the woman who asks for blue eye-shadow and a comb from the grave and the student hiding under a Rabbi’s bed in order to learn about marital relations.

“Although there is no absolute proof for this matter, there is an allusion to this matter.”

Today’s Daf Yomi continues with a protracted discussion on circumcision, and I must confess, I am as queasy as they come on the topic of cutting of any kind. The last few days have been a journey though bloodletting, cutting of the foreskin and the white spots of leprosy.

“If you cut off its head, will it not die?”

Today’s text provides an important perspective on intention and unintended consequences. We have all been there – we have the right intentions in our head but for whatever reason things do not turn out as planned. Maybe we were not thoughtful enough in how we expressed ourselves and inadvertently caused someone pain. If you are like me, you sometimes do something in a hurry and one thing after another goes wrong and you are left with an outright mess.

“It is a sign between Me and you throughout your generation.”

I have learned from my more than six months of reading daily passages from the Talmud that it has a unique logic all its own. Frequent a fortiori inferences appear in the text between two seemingly unrelated concepts. Today’s text extends yesterday’s discussion of conducting circumcision on Shabbat to an analogy that compares the rite with saving a life.

“Each and every moment is its proper time.”

We learned in yesterday’s Daf Yomi that circumcision can be performed on an eight-day old baby on Shabbat. We learn today that there are other mitzvahs that are permitted on Shabbat because they are time-bound. These principles are articulated by Rabbi Eliezer, who was considered one of the great conservative scholars of this time.

“You shall shine as the wings of a dove covered with silver and her pinions with yellow gold.”  

The topic of circumcision makes me just as uneasy as I was during yesterday’s discussion of bloodletting. I have always found the circumcision ceremony difficult to watch and have wondered why my religion inflicts pain on eight-day old babies as part of its sacred covenant.  

“One who lets blood should engage in drinking immediately.” 

Today’s discussion of bloodletting is definitely not for those who have delicate constitutions, and I count myself among them. It does provide insight into the practice that was prevalent 1,500 years ago as a treatment for specific ailments such as high blood pressure. It was performed by either cutting into someone with a knife to let out blood or through the use of blood-sucking leeches.

“Ostriches are common, whereas elephants are not common.”

There are a lot of contradictions in the Talmud, but the respect for one’s animals appears consistently throughout the text (although admittedly, there are places where this is less evident.) We were told in Berakhot that one must feed animals before oneself. We learned in the Shabbat Tractate that like people, working animals are afforded a day of rest on Shabbat.

“One who judges another favorably is himself judged favorably.”

Today’s Daf Yomi discusses a principle I have tried to live my life by (and sometimes failed miserably): always assume positive intent. We are provided with several stories involving Rabbis in questionable circumstances. On the surface they might be engaging in behavior that would be worthy (with some embellishment) of coverage by the New York Post.

“The rabbinic decrees are not in effect in the Temple.”

I am reminded throughout much of the Daf Yomi readings of word analogies that compare two different things that have a relationship, like cat and dog, fork and spoon, chair and table. The Talmud makes these comparisons throughout much of the text.

Shabbos125: “Thought alone will be sufficient.”

Reading today’s Daf Yomi is like wandering through a dusty antique shop like the ones my family used to visit when I was growing up in Lambertville, New Jersey. We frequened the Golden Nugget flea market every Sunday morning. (And it is still there after surviving for fifty years,) There was an indoor pavilion with shops that sold all kinds of wares. The objects examined in today’s reading would fit right in.

“It is inappropriate to permit one to perform an action that he considers prohibited.”

If we thought we were home free yesterday when we were told that utensils can be moved on Shabbat, as in all matters Talmud, there are nuances and stipulations and contrary points of view that are discussed by the Rabbis today. Despite the fact that the Talmud tells us over and over again that “it is not difficult,” in fact, it is. Among all the back and forth in today’s reading, we finally come to an important concept: “it is inappropriate to permit one to perform an action that he considers prohibited.”

“They permitted, and then they permitted again, and then they permitted again.”

Today’s Daf Yomi reading provides us with insight into how Rabbinic laws can become more lenient over time in response to the everyday needs of people. It is as if we are on the journey with the Rabbis as they determine how to best modify their laws in order to make them a little more tolerable. This is not unlike how today our legal system is modified over time in order to keep abreast with the challenges of modern life.

“To resolve the difficulty, emend the text.”

Today’s Daf Yomi extends the discussion on the role a non-Jew plays in allowing an observant Jew to benefit fortuitously from his actions. Although there has been some ambiguity lately in the concept of intention, today it is what matters most. In today’s Daf, a Jew can take advantage of the actions performed by a non-Jew only if there was no actual intention to help him out.

“Nothing can be inferred from this mishna.”

I repeat what I wrote in yesterday’s blog: it might be disrespectful to say so, but the text of the Talmud could use a good editor. This is especially true today, with the text meandering all over the place, from tales about Rabbis who are denied a bed, more discussion on rescuing items from a fire on Shabbat, feces that are suggested to be appropriate for a dog’s meal, the killing of creeping animals and protocols for immersions by zavs and zavas. 

“If the fire is extinguished, it is extinguished.” 

I know this is probably a irreverent suggestion but sometimes I think that these daily Daf Yomi readings would benefit from a good editor who could better structure the text and do a consistency check. One day we are told that intentions matter, and the next we are told there are work-arounds.

“A person does not find fault in himself.”

Today’s Daf Yomi is replete with activities associated with preparing for Shabbat: sweeping, cooking, making beds, salting fish, cutting beets, carrying wood on one’s shoulders in and out of the house. I imagine a Rabbi in every kitchen preparing his special dish for Shabbat. And whiffing through the air is the wonderful smell of dill, which conjures memories of a warm bowl of chicken soup.

“Eat it today.”

Today’s Daf Yomi continues the discussion from the previous day of how much food one should rescue from a fire that ignites on Shabbat. One is allowed to rescue just enough food for three meals if the fire breaks out on Shabbat eve, two meals if the flames ignite on Shabbat morning and one meal if the blaze appears mid-day on Shabbat. At the center of all this carrying out of food from a fire on Shabbat is the concept of just enough.