Hidden Blessings | Moed Katan 9b
This is a part of 2019's Passover Talmud Study Series. The Gemara tells us a curious story about blessings and curses, or perhaps how we should understand the words of others. Rabbi Shim’on bar Yohai sends his son to Rabbi Yonatan ben Asmai and Rabbi Yehudah for a blessing. They say the following: May it […]
Learning from the Ants | Moed Katan 6b
This is a part of 2019's Passover Talmud Study Series. The gemara tells us that it is permissible to trap moles and to destroy ant holes on Hol Hamoed, the intermediate days of a Festival (i.e. either Sukkot or Pesah), to prevent these pests from causing damage to valuable crops. And then, the gemara takes […]
Two Fields, Two Kinds of Needs | Moed Katan 2a
This is a part of 2019's Passover Talmud Study Series. To start our Talmud learning, we are told about two different types of fields and the permissibility of watering them during the intermediate days of a holiday. For some context, intermediate days are the middle days of a long holiday like Passover or Sukkot, we call them […]