daf bit: Shevuot 2

(ShEvuot, as in "oaths", not ShAvuot, as in "weeks".)

The tractate opens with the mishna saying there are four types of oaths ("two, subdivided into four"), clarified by the g'mara: positive and negative, past and future: "I swear I shall", "I swear I shall not", "I swear I did", and "I swear I did not". It then talks about cases where information was known or unknown, and discusses the different ways that false oaths of different types are atoned for -- some by a sin offering he brings himself, some by the goat on Yom Kippur, some by the offerings brought on the new moon (Rosh Chodesh), and some by the offerings brought on festivals. Different rabbis assign them differently. In the g'mara, some rabbis say that there's no penalty for a future positive oath that turns out to be wrong ("I shall X" and you didn't X) because you didn't actually take an action. Others disagree. Given that we have positive commandments that you are liable for not doing, I'm not sure how that reasoning works (but I haven't read all the g'mara for this mishna yet).

The mishna talks mostly about oaths concerning actions taken while in a state of ritual impurity (tumah), distinguishing cases where you knew you were tamei but didn't know the action was prohibited, cases where you didn't know you were tamei but knew the action was prohibited to those in that state, cases where you knew but forgot, and more. The mishna occupies most of this daf (both sides), so I expect the g'mara to have more to say on all this.

anti-virus for less-technical users?

Somebody asked me this morning for help finding reliable advice about anti-virus software for his PC. He's currently using Norton (I don't know details, including what updates he's getting). I think he's going to need to find something simple -- fire-and-forget would be best (so automatic updates, at least). Who out there is currently doing reasonable neutral product comparisons in this area (Windows, not Mac)? If I could point him to one site where he could learn enough to make a decision, what would that site be?

I did talk with him about hygiene, it being far better to *avoid getting* viruses than to clean them up after. He says he's not opening unknown attachments or browsing in bad neighborhoods (though we didn't talk about how he would know, so I don't know if that's correct), but he's getting a lot of viruses and trojans. Or warnings about them, anyway; I haven't dismissed the possibility that he's picked up some malware that's doing that.