What is Talmud Tweets?

What is Talmud Tweets? A short, personal take on a page of Talmud - every day!

For several years now, I have been following the tradition of "Daf Yomi" - reading a set page of Talmud daily. With the start of a new 7 1/2 year cycle, I thought I would share a taste of what the Talmud offers, with a bit of personal commentary included. The idea is not to give a scholarly explanation. Rather, it is for those new to Talmud to give a little taste - a tweet, as it were - of the richness of this text and dialogue it contains. The Talmud is a window into a style of thinking as well as the world as it changed over the centuries of its compilation.

These are not literal "tweets" - I don't limit myself to 140 characters. Rather, these are intended to be short, quick takes - focusing in on one part of a much richer discussion. Hopefully, I will pique your interest. As Hillel says: "Go and study it!" (Shabbat 31a)

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Berachot 6 - We Are One


There is an extensive discussion of demons – which are seen as invisible creatures surrounding each of us “a thousand on one his left hand and ten thousand on his right” – and the magical potion for being able to actually see them. 

But I love another image from this page: the idea that just as religious Jews wear t’fillin as a sign of binding ourselves to G-d, G-d wears t’fillin as a sign of binding to us! If ours has the Sh’ma  (G-d is One) as our text, G-d’s t’fillin uses I Chronicles 17:21: And what one nation in the earth is like thy people Israel. . . As we make G-d unique, G-d makes us unique.

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