talmud geeking

I think talmud study has a lot in common with solving multi-variable equation sets. Today we attempted to follow a particularly twisty chain of reasoning that involved a lot of "this case equals that case" instances. We were both having trouble, and we're going to (independently) try to lay it out on paper before next time.

To give an example of the sort of thing I'm talking about, though you should assume that the details are ficticous:

Question: when is the correct time to say a certain evening prayer?
Rabbi Chanina: when priests can eat trumah (special meat).
Rabbi Akiva: when a poor man eats dinner.
Rabbi Yonatan: when a priest goes to the mikvah, which he has to do before eating trumah.
Rabbi Chanina: Yonatan is wrong, because it's not dark yet then.
Rabbi Yehoshua: when Shabbat starts.
Rabbi Meir: When a priest eats trumah and when a poor man eats dinner are the same time.
Rabbi Chanina: No it's not. When a poor man eats dinner and when Shabbat starts are the same time.
Rashi: These are all different times.

And so on. In this particular case there ended up being a lot of layers to wind and unwind, and I'm still confused by the outcome. (Yes, the subject is the time of the evening shema, and most of the positions I gave are in the discussion somewhere, though not necessarily with those names attached.)

On my way out my rabbi said that with my internet skills I can probably find someone who can tell me the answer, but I'd actually prefer the challenge of working it out. I don't need the answer; I do need to develop the skill.

governments (weekend happenings)

On Saturday I received a past-due tax bill -- for a house I no longer own. I didn't own it last year either, so this really shouldn't have happened. So today I tried to straighten it out, and it turned out that the bureaucrats in Swissvale had no clue that the ownership of the house changed (in 2001). The person I spoke with on the phone did not sound very clueful, and she ended by saying that she would leave a message for the correct person (who wasn't in today). She was not able to tell me whether this is still in any way my problem. (Obviously it's not my debt, but it can still be my problem.) I decided not to ask who has been paying the other taxes for the last two years.

I guess I'll call back tomorrow and see if I can talk with the correct bureaucrat. Meanwhile, I'm curious about whether this was yet more incompetence on the part of the realtors involved, or clueless bureaucrats not processing the notice of sale, or what.

Yesterday we had folks over for a game of Advanced Civilization (the board game, not the computer game). I played Crete for the first time. I thought I was doing well on the board (well, until the civil war two-thirds of the way through, from which I eventually recovered), but I got creamed in points. I don't know whether I'm bad at trading, or bad at optimizing purchases of civilization advances, or what. I still had a lot of fun, but I expected to do better.

Unfortunately, we couldn't do this on Saturday, so this collided with Sunday dinner. Oops. (The entire plan only hatched a few days ago.)