I hate eating with Harry.... Pesachim 89b

The gemara discusses a very practical issue on this page. Eating the Passover sacrifice was a communal meal. What if one person tends to be a bit, well, piggish with the Paschal lamb? How do you make sure everyone gets a share? Maimonides summarizes the issue nicely:

In the case of a communal group where one member eats a tremendous amount habitually, the rest of the group has the right to tell that member, 'Take your entire share [now] and go eat it by yourself. '

Some things don't change: Pesachim 91b

There's a pattern that is so common that it is the stuff of jokes. The gentile half of an interfaith couple converts to Judaism, and becomes much more strict than the Jewish-from-birth half, sometimes to the point of tension in the relationship. Converts in the time of the Babylonian Talmud showed great, perhaps excessive piety, as is shown by the below passage:

Rabbi Ya'akov says in the name of Rabbi Yochanan: One may not make a group [that shares a Passover sacrifice offering] which is wholly composed of converts, lest they be very particular and improperly determine the sacrifice is flawed.

Got milk? Pesachim 87A

One of the stranger lines in the erotically charged Song of Songs is (Song of Songs 8:8) "We have a little sister who has no breasts." The Talmud interprets this in a novel way:

Rebbe Yochanan said, 'This is the city of Elam, which merited to learn Torah, but not to teach it. 'I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers.' [Song of Songs 8:10]. Rebbe Yochanan said, 'I am a wall,' refers to Torah. 'My breasts are like towers,' refers to the sages.

Rabbi Varon, who gives a lesson on this page, says that just as a woman's breasts share the life within it, so too teachers of Torah share life with their students. Just as a woman without breasts doesn't nourish other life, so too those Jews who learn but don't share their learning are not nourishing others. Also, a wall offers some protection, but a wall with towers is much more formidable as a means of defense.

Souls and Words: Nefesh HaChaim 2:16

It is known that a person's soul has three levels, known as Nefesh, Ruach, and Neshama, that are connected to three aspects of existence: actions, speech, and thought. These three aspects are the complete human being.

So too each word has three aspects related to deed, speech, and thought, as well as Nefesh, Ruach, and Neshama. They are the letters, the letter, vowels, and cantilation marks. As it is said in the introduction to Tikunim (a mystical work), the cantillation marks are the Neshama, the vowels Ruach, and the letters are Nefesh.

The letters have the aspect of action, for the letters can only come into existence by means of action, such as writing. such as writing a Torah scroll without the vowels. A word cannot come from the mouth without the vowels. Thus letters alone, without vowels, relate to the soul's aspect 'Nefesh,' and with regard to existence, letters relate to the aspect action.

Vowels relate to Ruach, for vowels come with letters by means of words from a person... A person lives by means of the Ruach within him or her, and when the Ruach leaves the person is dead, and when a portion of the person's Ruach is left the person still lives. So too the essence of the life and motion of letters is the vowels, for without them letters cannot come out of the mouth...

The cantillation marks of words are related to the thought and the heart's intention, which are the Neshama. They move the vowels and letters.

How Will Heaven Look?

Here's a beautiful midrash courtesy of my teacher Rabbi Mordechai Silverstein.

We find ten things which the Holy One, blessed be He, will renew in the Time to Come. The first is that He will illuminate the whole world, for it says: The sun shall be no more thy light by day . . . but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light (Isa. 60:19). Is there a man able to look at God? But what will God do to the sun ? He will make it give forty-nine times as much light, as it says: And the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold (ib.30:26).' When a man shall be sick, God will order the sun to heal him; as it says: But for you that fear My name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings (Mal. 3:20). The second thing is that He will bring out living water from Jerusalem and heal with it all those who have a disease, as it says: Every living creature wherewith it swarms, where the rivers comes, shall live ;. . . for these waters are come here, that all things be healed (Ezek. 47:9). The third is that He will make trees yield their fruit each month, and when a man eats of them he will be healed, for it says: And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow every tree for food, . . . it shall bring forth new fruit every month, because the waters issue out of the sanctuary ; and the fruit thereof shall be for food, and the leaf thereof for healing (ib. 12). The fourth is that they will rebuild all the destroyed cities so that not a single place will remain destroyed; even Sodom and Gomorrah will be rebuilt in the Time to Come, as it says, And thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate (ib. 16:55). The fifth is that He will rebuild Jerusalem with sapphire stones, as it says: Behold, I will set thy stones in fair colors. .. And I will make your pinnacles of rubies (Isa. 54:11-12). These precious stones will shine like the sun, and the heathens will come and see the glory of Israel, as it is said: And nations shall walk at thy light (ib. 53:3). The sixth is that The cow and bear shall feed (ib. xi, 7).' The seventh is that He will bring all the wild beasts, birds and creeping things and make a covenant with them and with all Israel, for it says: In that day, I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air (from this week's haftarah). The eighth is that there will be no more weeping or wailing in the world, for it says: And the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying (Isa. 65:19). The ninth is that there will be no more death in the world, for it says: He will swallow up death for ever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the reproach of His people will He take away (ib. 25:8). The tenth is that there will no longer be any sighing, wailing or anguish, but that all will be rejoicing, for it says: And the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion (ib. 35:10). (adapted from Ex. Rabbah 15:21)

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Rewards: Pesachim 50b

It is always fun to see a famous line in context. In the middle of discussion as to whether there is a reward for good deeds, we find the following:

Rabbi Yehuda says in the name of Rav: A person should always involve himself in Torah and good deeds, even if he is not doing the Torah or good deeds for their own sake. For by means of doing them not for their own sake, he comes to do them for their own sake.