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Our Gemara on Amud Beis tells us that there is a distinction and potential stringency in regard to someone who employs a trick to cook from one day of Yom Tov to the other versus one who intentionally cooks. If one cooks a number of items on day one of Yom Tov rationalizing that it is all for day one, knowing full well that he really is cooking for day two, the food is forbidden. Yet, despite this, the Gemara considers that if one intentionally v …
Our Gemara on Amud Aleph weighs the ethics of whether one is obligated to inform another of a gift that is being given:
One who gives a gift to his friend need not inform him that he has given it to him, and he need not concern himself that the recipient might not realize who gave it to him. As it is stated: “And Moses did not know that the skin of his face was radiant” (Exodus 34:29); Moses received this gift unawares.
The Gemara rai …
Our Gemara on Amud Beis records a dispute between Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua about the correct manner in which to celebrate Yom Tov:
As it is taught in a baraita that Rabbi Eliezer says: A person has no way of fulfilling the mitzva of a Festival correctly apart from either eating and drinking, thereby fulfilling the mitzva of joy in a completely physical manner, or sitting and studying Torah, thereby emphasizing only the spiritual; and t …
Our Gemara on Amud Aleph tells us that Rav Sheshes was able to tell from the sound the pestle made, which substance was being grinded and the manner in which the pestle was being held.
An additional factor not mentioned in this Gemara is that Rav Sheshes was blind (Berachos 58a), and so like many persons with some disabled sense, we may surmise that another sense takes over and compensates. Rav Sheshes’ hearing was stronger to augment …
The Gemara on Amud Beis tells us that Rav’s and Rav Chiyya’s wife would prepare cups of peeled barley grains for their husbands. The Gemara cites this as a proof that such an amount is not considered too large as to be processing the food for later instead of impromptu eating on the spot. When it is impromptu, certain leniencies apply in regard to preparing food for Yom Tov, as well as leniencies in tithing.
Since Rav Chiyya was …
On Daf 43 of Succos we discussed some of the factors behind the strange practice of not blowing shofar on Rosh Hashana, and that the official reason of lest one carry seems to be only a surface level explanation.
Further in support that the official reason of fear of carrying is not sufficient, The Yismach Moshe (Emor 14) cites our Gemara where it is suggested that Bais Shammai could hold that carrying in a public domain is forbidden …
