daf bit: Ketubot 23

(Today's daf is 24.)

The last several pages have been talking about testimony and who is believed under what circumstances. Today's daf presents two cases. First, if two women were taken captive and later each one says "I am (ritually) pure", they are not believed. However, if one says of the other "she is pure", she is believed in the absence of other witnesses. But if one says "I am impure" she is believed. Claims about one's own purity are rejected; claims about one's impurity are accepted; claims of another's purity are accepted; and claims of another's impurity are rejected. In other words, you can say something beneficial about another or limiting about yourself and be believed, but not the reverse.

Lest we think this is just about women, the next mishna concerns two men who claim to be kohanim (priests) but have no other witnesses. Again, a man saying "I am a kohein" is not believed, but one saying that another is a kohein is believed. The g'mara then enters into a discussion about different levels of priesthood -- maybe we believe one's claim for the purposes of some functions but not for others. That is beyond the scope of this daf bit. (23b)

the Internet is made of people

Yesterday we got word that one of my fellow Stack Exchange moderators (not on a site I moderate, but a different one) had died. I didn't know him well, but we had talked in our moderator-only chat room intermittently, we'd read each others' posts, and I felt like I'd gotten to know him some. It seems like that was mutual. The last conversation we had started with him telling me he respects me "a heck of a lot" (that's mutual) and ended with plans for him to come to Mi Yodeya with a question he was forming. And now he's gone. We found out because somebody -- we don't know who -- updated his profile, and investigation showed it not to be a cruel prank.

I've been on the net a long time, and I still manage to be surprised by how much I grieve people who I may have only known as names and gravatars. But they are still people, people who shared their thoughts and knowledge and aspirations, people I got to know, and online communities -- the ones that are really communities, not drive-bys and transient places to post comments and stuff like that -- cause us to form connections that are every bit as real as those we form with the people we see, speak with, hug. It blows my mind.

And as we grow more and more connected, and frankly as I get older and have online friendships that stretch from years to decades, I know there's going to be more and more of this. Affable Geek wasn't the first in my digital life by far, he won't be the last, and we knew each other only casually, and yet his passing still touches me deeply. I still expect to see his digital face pop up on the network, but it won't any more.