This week, so far, we’ve had the following posts:
Non-Overlapping Timelines, where Rava didn’t live at the same time as Rav Yehuda, and Rav Ashi didn’t live at the same time as Rava. So how are we to understand that Rava said “to him” or Rav Ashi said “to him”?
Rava said (to him), and the Yad HaRav Herzog manuscript, where the error discussed in the preceding post appeared in printings and in the manuscript I just named. Other manuscripts, no. It turns out this is a 16th century manuscript, around the same time as the early printings, even though it copies from the earliest described manuscript. We also discuss other common manuscripts for Sanhedrin.
In Which Amoraim are not Reed-Cutters? I explain the pros and cons of considering the speakers in defining the limits of to’eh bidvar Mishnah. Are they Rav Hamnuna and Rav Sheshet, or are they Ravina and Rav Ashi. I disagree with Rabbi Dr. Binyamin Lau, and explain why I prefer the latter. I discuss manuscript evidence and structure of the sugya.
Also on Sanhedrin 33, Bovines with DRM, and whether both stories in fact involved animals from (Piran of) Beit Menachem.
I explore a hidden derasha or two on Sanhedrin 35 and 33. For instance, about a court executing on Shabbat.
Rabbi Tarfon Declares It Treif — and why this eponymous position does not mean that his name was based on his statement / position.
My (paywalled) article for this week, Ben Zakkai. I may follow with a summary post, but you can always find it open at the Jewish Link website.
Saving One (Jewish) Life, about a famous text and a famous variant girsa. Is it saving a Jewish life or any human life? And I point to Munich 95 as an example of many texts, which have maaleh alav, which could give rise to miyisrael.
In a Shemot posting, how Seforno describes the devolution of the Bnei Yisrael, and how Eliyahu Munk translates the same. Essentially, he turned their sin into assimilation into Egyptian culture.
In a post on Vaera, I discuss a censored Chizkuni, and Rashi saying that Moshe’s kal vachomer was one of ten Scriptural kal vachomers. Must a Biblical kal vachomer indeed be unassailable? Also, it is bad to say that Moshe had limited knowledge, so he didn’t know the pircha? In other words, can we give peshat based on a theory of mind?
Week in review
