I have not blogged in approximately one month. All I can say is that life got in the way. We have been dealing with illness of our kids, illness of our parents, a particularly nasty re-election campaign for my wife and the general pressures of day-to-day living. A few times I tried to pick back up and keep going, but could not do it. However, today we start a new order, a new tractate and a new chapter and I decided to restart. The truth is, I really enjoy my study and I enjoy the need to systematize my thoughts by writing a blog post. I really enjoy getting a comment or two as people challenge my interpretation or assumptions, answer my questions, look at an issue from a different viewpoint or just tell me hello. Please do comment. Please do criticize. Talmud is meant to be studied in a pair or a group.

So where are we, anyway? If you go back to my second post from before the start of the Daf Yomi cycle (we were so young and innocent), we can locate our current place. Recall that the Talmud is divided into six orders. Each order is further divided into tractates (63 in total). Tractates are divided into chapters and each chapter has numbered pages of Dafs.

We were previously studying tractate Berakhot in Order Zera’im. Order Zera’im (seeds) deals with agricultural laws, particularly laws applicable to the land of Israel. Berakhot (blessings) is the only tractate in order Zera’im. Berakhot deals with the laws of the Shema and the Shemoneh Esrei. For an explanation of why the order on agricultural laws starts with a tractate on blessings, see my new year’s eve post.

Today we start a new order, order Mo’ed (appointed times). Mo’ed contains 12 tractates, not just one. These tractates deal with the laws of festivals and temple worship. We start with tractate Shabbat (sabbath), which details the laws of the Jewish sabbath, particularly the laws around what labors are forbidden on the sabbath. Tractate Berakhot had nine chapters with 63 Dafs. Tractate Shabbat has 24 chapters with 156 Dafs. I completed blog posts on 33 of the Dafs in Berakhot. I currently hope to intersperse posts on the 30 Dafs I missed with my posts on Shabbat, but no promises.

Before our first Daf, I thought I would lay out a few preliminaries about the Jewish sabbath. Shabbat is biblically ordained, indeed the commandment to keep Shabbat is one of the Ten Commandments. Exodus 20:8-10 states “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days shall you labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of your Lord your God: you shall not do any work – you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, or your cattle, or the stranger who is within your settlements.” Our tractate will explain these verses. What does it mean to not do any work? What can we do? As the world develops, how do we know what is permitted and what is forbidden?

Our Rabbis develop the rules for Shabbat by analyzing the construction of the Mishkan, which was a portable sanctuary that the Jews carried on their Exodus and used until the first Temple was built. The construction of the Mishkan is described in Exodus 25. Our Rabbis find 39 forbidden categories of labor. From these 39 forbidden labors, the Rabbis derive from other activities that are also forbidden. A forbidden labor is a Melachah. If a Melachah is one of the 39 forbidden labors, it is called an Av (father). If a Melachah is derived, it is called Toladah.

Importantly, the intention of these laws can get lost in the hyper-technicality. We are to rest on Shabbat. To avoid technical compliance with the law, but no rest, our Rabbis enacted more rules to ensure we actually rest (as biblically required) on Shabbat. I find this mirrors my concerns about prayer that I noted several times in the posts about Berakhot. In many places, the exact ritual of prayer seemed more important than the content or understanding of prayer. I struggle a little with this concept as the hyper-technicality of the rules seems to remove the idea of praying with one’s heart and soul. The Rabbis apparently recognized this danger and prohibited a whole category of activities just because they were not consistent with the purpose of Shabbat.

Before we dive right in, we need to talk about carrying. One of the Melachah of Shabbat is transferring something from one domain to another. The whole first chapter of tractate Shabbat will deal extensively with the laws of carrying. Carrying relies on dividing the world into four domains: the private domain, the public domain, a semi-public domain (Hebrew: Karmelis), and an exempt area. If you kept up with the previous tractate, you know we are in store for a lot of very technical debate on how to distinguish between these various categories. I will do my best to summarize these debates. We will also have a lot of debate about the rules of transferring from one type of domain to another. We also need to carefully derive the rules of what constitutes “transferring”.

One last thought before we dive in – the importance of Shabbat to observant Jews cannot be overstated. The whole week is organized around Shabbat and much mystical thought arises from the nature of Shabbat. Shabbat is so important that when other holidays fall on Shabbat, the rules of Shabbat frequently take precedence over the rules for the other holidays. I close this intro with an extended quote from Jacob Neusner about the nature of Shabbat from his introduction to the tractate:

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The Israelite household at rest recapitulates the celebration of God at the moment of the conclusion and perfection of creation, at the end of the sixth day of creation and sunset on the evening of the seventh day. Then the Israelite household, like creation at sunset marking the end of the sixth day of creation, is sanctified: separated from the profane world and distinguished as God’s domain. With all things in place and in order, at the sunset that marks the advent of the seventh day, the rest that celebrates the perfection of creation descends. The sanctification takes place through the very act of perfect repose that recapitulates the one celebrated at the climax of creation. Like God at the celebration of creation, now man achieves perfect, appropriate rest. That takes place when time and circumstance, but space, too, come together. The advent of the Sabbath marks the time; the household, the space; and the conduct of home and family life, the circumstance.

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Even those of us who are not traditionally observant (or Jewish) could learn a lot from Shabbat. In our 24-hour, hyper-connected world, separating a sacred space at a sacred time (regardless of what “sacred” means to you) to enjoy with our families (regardless of what “family” means to you), ironically allows us to find what is most human in us and give meaning to our world. While the rules of the Talmud may appear obtuse, overly technical, applicable to a society that no longer exists and restrictive, remember that we are trying to create an experience where we rejoice in the world, in our connection to our loved ones and which organizes and gives meaning to the daily grind of the rest of the week.