Today is the day. The first day of our Daf Yomi cycle. My previous posts help set the stage for today. If you do not know what he Mishnah or Gemara, you may want to start here. If you do not know hat the Shema is, you may want to start here.

I am going to start with one insight before summarizing today’s Daf. The Rabbis knew human psychology and apparently it has not changed much in the last 2,000 years. The Rabbis knew that people procrastinate. They also knew that since they know people procrastinate, they can re-frame obligations to make people more likely to fulfill them. This re-framing is very similar to the modern study of behavioral economics. Read Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Khaneman for an example of how behavioral economists use lessons from how people think to change their behavior. Daniel Khaneman won a Nobel Prize for these insights.

We need just a couple of more concepts before we are able to dive right in. When the Temple stood in Jerusalem, the high priests were called the Kohanim (Kohen in the singular). They were the patrilineal descendants of Aaron, Moses’ brother. In order to perform the Temple rites, a Kohen had to be ritually pure. Later in the Talmud we will learn lots about ritual purity and impurity. For now, know that contact with certain things like a dead body can make a Kohen ritually impure. To become pure again, a Kohen must immerse himself (the high priests were all men) in a ritual bath called a mikvah and then wait until nightfall. On the next day, the Kohen who was ritually impure had to bring an atonement offering. The Kohanim ate from the produce and meat brought by the Jews as sacrifices in the Temple. When the Temple stood, Jews had certain obligatory sacrifices including terumah, a portion of each crop.

Ok. I think we are ready. As we previously noted, a page of the Talmud begins with statements from the Mishnah. In reality these statements are debates, and that is true of our first portion today.

The Mishnah starts by asking when from when may we recite the Shema in the evening. The Mishnah states that we may begin to recite the evening Shema from the time when the Kohanim who were previously impure may come into the Temple to eat the terumah.

I am going to interject a comment here. The Mishnah in the actual written words just says “From the time that Kohanim enter to eat their terumah”. The Mishnah says nothing about a Kohen actually having to be impure, but every translation and commentary I reviewed includes the requirement that the Kohen have been impure. I don’t know where this reading develops. Perhaps this will be clarified later.

The Mishnah then says that the evening Shema can be said until the end of the first watch. Immediately after stating that the Shema can be said until the end of the first watch, the Mishnah states that some Rabbis believe it can be recited until midnight and other Rabbis believe it can be recited until dawn. That is Talmud. There are opinions and debates. There are very few clear answers. Kind of like life.

The Mishnah them goes on to talk about the sons of Rabbi Gamliel. Rabbi Gamliel was the grandson of one of the greatest Rabbis of the ancient period, Hillel. He was president of the Rabbinic court in the first century of the common era. Rabbi Gamliel also appears in the Christian bible as an authority figure. Apparently, Rabbi Gamliel’s sons came home very late after partying. Maimonides states that they literally were at a house of drinking. My own kids are home from college on winter break and I understand this passage very well. The sons told their father that they had not yet recited the evening Shema. He told them, “No worries. If dawn has not yet come, you are required to recite the evening Shema.”

The Mishnah states that this is not the only commandment that can be performed until dawn, when the Rabbis state it must be performed by midnight. The Mishnah lists other examples of commandments that the Rabbis state must be performed by midnight, but actually may be performed until dawn. The Rabbis then ask themselves a very reasonable question, “If the commandment can be performed until dawn, why did we just say it has to be performed by midnight?” (Actually, they said by the end of the first watch or midnight and could not agree, but who cares?) The Rabbis answer their own question by stating that we will tell people they must do it by midnight so they don’t procrastinate and then end up not performing the commandment, but really we can do it until dawn. Masterful!

The Gemara then reads this debate in the Mishnah and asks its own questions. The Gemara first asks, “Hey. Who said we have to recite the Shema in the evening in the first place? And, why do we start with the evening Shema? My day starts in the morning. Why don’t we start with the morning Shema?” The Gemara goes back to Deuteronomy 6:7, which states, “Impress them upon your children. Recite them when you stay at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up.” The Torah talks first of when you lie down, so the Mishnah starts with the evening Shema. The Talmud also refers to the story of the creation of the world in Genesis. At the end of thefirst day of creation, Genesis states, “And there was evening and there was morning, a first day.” (Genesis 1:5).

Ok. Question answered.

Not so fast! The Gemara then points to another example (which we will reach in a several days), where the Mishnah starts with blessings required in the morning after saying the Shema and then discusses blessings required in the evening after saying the Shema. The Gemara looks to harmonize everything. We just derived a principle that we talk about evening obligations first, and now we have a counter example. It’s ok though. The Gemara notes that the passage about the morning blessings comes right after the discussion of when we need to say the morning Shema, so it just flowed naturally. Dilemma resolved. We will not always be so lucky.

The Gemara then looks at when the Kohanim can come back to the Temple and eat the terumah. The Gemara notes that the Kohanim who were impure must wait until three stars appear in the sky before they can eat the terumah. The Gemara then asks,”Why didn’t the Mishnah just state that we may recite the evening Shema from when three stars appear? Why did the Mishnah have to answer about when Kohanim can eat their evening meal?”

The Gemara notes that the Mishnah has now taught us two lessons in one. First, the Mishnah teaches us that we may recite the evening Shema from when the Kohanim who were ritually impure can come into the Temple to eat the terumah. Second, the Mishnah teaches us that the Kohanim were pure enough to come into the Temple and eat the Terumah, even though they had not brought the atonement sacrifice the next day.

The Gemara is troubled, though. A teaching of a revered Rabbi not in the Mishnah, referred to as a Baraisa, states that the evening Shema can be recited from when a poor person comes home to eat his bread with salt until the time he completes his meal. If this Baraisa is correct, then the Mishnah must be incorrect. The Gemara then tries to assume that the poor come home to eat at the same time that the Kohanim go into the Temple to eat the terumah. The Gemara does not find its own resolution convincing, however, particularly because another Baraisa states that we can recite the evening Shema from the time people go home to eat their Friday night meal. This Sabbath dinner typically earlier than other days.

The Gemara tries to reconcile all of these views, but fails to do so. At least so far. Life is messy.

We did it. We finished our first day and our first page of Talmud.