non-parsha bit: Yom Kippur

On Yom Kippur afternoon we recall the service of the high priest on the day of atonement. The mishna tells us of the preparations made on behalf of the high priest: seven days ahead of time he is secluded, and a back-up high priest is appointed lest anything cause the original one to become unfit for duty. Rabbi Yehudah said that in addition, another wife is prepared for the high priest in case his wife dies in that time, because it is written "he shall make atonement for himself and his house"; "his house" includes his wife. (Yoma 2a)

(As you might expect, the mishna also discusses in a fair bit of detail the preparations on the night before and day of the service.)

I think after Simchat Torah, instead of doing parsha teachings for another year, I'm going to switch to teaching something from talmud, following the daf yomi (page a day) cycle. We'll see how that goes.

timely study

Today in our talmud study my rabbi and I reached the passage in B'rachot (16b) that records the concluding prayers of several sages. The t'filah, the central prayer, has a fixed text, but there is a place to insert personal words at the end. (Over time, some of these have in turn become fixed.) On this day before Yom Kippur, let me share some of these prayers that struck me most strongly.

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humor: not quite the talmud

From gnomi: Rabbis, it is time for the morning posts, which I found hilarious. This is what happens when Jewish geeks meet fanfic, I gather.

If you know even a little about talmudic tradition, I recommend it.