Tractate Taanit reminds us that, in the world of the rabbis, fasting was a regular practice — not for the sake of a cleanse or some other health fad, but for spiritual and material benefit. Most often, to avert disaster. Tractate Taanit deals with all kinds of fasts that Jews
Today’s daf continues to present incredible stories about times that people prayed to God to intercede and prevent a disaster — and what happened. Why does God choose to avert some tragedies and not others? Why does God seem more willing to answer some people and not others? The rabbis
The premise of this tractate is that by instituting public fasts in a time of drought, the people can change God’s mind about withholding the rains. It’s a bold move to think that by denying ourselves food and calling out to the heavens we can compel God to act, yet
Some Jewish scribes have a custom to never write a sefer Torah with a metal implement because metal is an instrument of war. Rather, a Torah scroll is written with a goose feather quill or a reed because these materials are soft, pliant. It’s an interesting idea — that the
As we learned back in Tractate Sukkah, the priests who served in the Temple were divided into 24 groups, or watches, that served for a week at a time. Each watch was further divided into families, and each family was assigned to perform the Temple service on a particular day
Unless we’re farmers, most of us probably don’t fully appreciate the blessing of rain. How could we? Here in New England, where I live and work, we are blessed with an abundance of lakes, rivers and streams. Even during the summer, we rarely experience the kind of devastating droughts that
Some people can’t get enough of traveling for business. They love traveling around the country, visiting new locales, seeing the sites, and sampling new cuisine, among other things. Others can’t bear the thought of sleeping anywhere but their own bed, preferring the comfort of home and all of its amenities.
Today’s page takes us through interesting and varied material, from a debate about the water cycle (with the conclusion that the rain is evaporated ocean water that has been “sweetened” in the clouds) to a discussion of when different communities begin to pray for rain (many weeks later in Babylonia , which