daf bit: Bava Metzia 9

A mishna on today's daf talks about acquiring property through an agent, and this leads to a discussion in the g'mara. The g'mara discusses gleaning the corners of a field, which by torah law must be left for the poor. If a man gleans and says "this is for that (specific) poor person", R' Eliezer says this is permitted but the Sages say he must give what he gleaned to the first poor person he sees. In the end it depends on who is gleaning. If a rich man is gleaning for a poor man, the sages say that he couldn't acquire the gleanings for himself and so cannot then transfer ownership to another. If a poor man gleans for another poor man, however, all agree that he can bestow ownership on the other person because it was his to give away. (9b)

The difference isn't that R' Eliezer was talking about a poor man and the sages about a rich man. Both were talking about a rich man, according to the discussion, but R' Eliezer's argument was based on the idea that he could give away his property and become poor, at which point he would be eligible, so against this possibility he could be an agent. The sages appear to be more concerned with current state; they don't outright say "so let him do that and then we'll discuss it again", but to my reading it's implied.

(Today's daf is 10.)

on fighting cancer

I came across a thought-provoking post from Pieter Hintjens, who until two days ago was dealing with terminal cancer. I found it a cogent commentary on things that I have been blessed to never have to have thought through.

So this is my first point. Everyone fights cancer, all our lives long. From birth, our immune systems are hunting down and killing rogue cells. I grew up in the African sun, pale skin burned dark. Do I have skin cancer? No, thank you very much, immune system! Much of my adult life I drank a bit too much, ate too much red meat, too few vegetables. Do I have bowel cancer? No, thank you again, you over-active beast of an immune system, you! Hugs.

And most of us can say the same thing, most of the time. We are all cancer survivors, until we're not.

Secondly I want to attack that notion that we can and should "fight", as a conscious effort. Then third, I'll try to explain some of the real fights that we the terminally sick do have.

...

I'd much rather not die, yet if I'm going to (and it does seem inevitable now), this is how I'd want it to happen. Not fighting the cancer, with hope and positive thinking, rather by fighting the negativity of death, with small positive steps, and together, rather than alone.

Go. Read. Worth five minutes of your time.

pictures from Barcelona and Montserrat

I'm slowly sorting through the pictures from our trip. We spent a couple days in Barcelona, where we took two tours: a half-day tour of Montserrat, and a full-day city tour. The latter had lots of architecture by Gaudi. I've collected some pictures. I don't know why Google decided to make the very last photo the first one, nor could I figure out how to fix it, so...meh. One bit of Gaudi is out of place; people will manage. :-)

The last time I used Picasa it looked different. I don't know if people can still comment there, but you're welcome to comment here.

Inside the church on Montserrat:



Some Gaudi architecture:



Part of a ceiling in Sagrada Familia:



These buildings make me think of Hansel and Gretel: