Kollel Shorts: Beginner Tools for Talmud Study (The Mechanics of A Page and Halacha)

[Music] sh me that really every Jewish man should know about because it really is a foundational text for us to understand the Theology of what we're supposed to be doing as Jews how we're supposed to be learning Torah how we're supposed to be thinking about Torah comes in paa Chapter 2 4 and this is from Rabbi Zara Rabbi Zarah was one of the great amarim who came from Babel over to Israel to go learn with Rabbi yanan who wrote the Yami who was a student and he's saying in the name of Shu Shu was one of the heads of the Babylon of the three Babylonian cies he was one of the heads of Israel and by the way schuell was the gamar calls him a spicy pepper he's very very sharp in terms of mental capacity and thinking and being able to remember and understand things and explain it in a clear way and by the way the monetary law goes by schu in other words when when this Amar is explaining monetary law his explanation that's that's going to be the halaha so even if he's going up against rabbis that might be uh bigger with bigger explanations in terms of monetary law goes by schuel this is who he's quoting this is how schuel is understanding this says like this says that we do not derive practical halaha not from oral laws transmitted to Moses at SII now let me explain this so the maraa the great commentator in the Yi says like this that the the way it works is that when you have a halaha lalis seni that that's a uh it's explaining a one-time law and the law the logic of that law works exactly like this and no other way you can't take this logic and apply it to other cases that in gamar learning is called a heish where or bav where you're where you're using this as an example to go and to extrapolate it out to other cases the very famous example of a banav is or heish is where where you have in the Torah about returning lost objects and the torah's example is a donkey now it doesn't apply every possible case of what to return just as a donkey but we understand if somebody loses a wallet you got to go find and do lost and found to return it to the rightful owner if somebody has a backpack that they lost right it's not just a donkey okay so so what they're saying is that if you have a very specific law okay that that only applies in that case and the logic that's used there applies only in that case and it doesn't come to other cases we don't apply law that way okay so when you're looking at the Halal moisi in Torah learning that's a very narrow application it's that case that's what Rabbi Zera is saying name he also says we don't learn practical halaha from aadada AGA are very deep mystical explanations of of scripture and text and Zohar is very famous for it midrash Rah which I highly recommend every Jew to learn every day is an example of it um it's it's more like a mystical explanation of what's going on with this law how to understand the law why it's happening how the scriptures read the connections between scripture but we don't learn halaha from that and especially if it if it contradicts the the the b or the Yami with the T we don't we don't learn it but it does it's a tool to help us to understand the the secrets of how Hashem is running the world or how Hashem built the world or the way the Torah is is to be read it's part of the tradition of how we read and understand Torah and then it says we don't learn from tadas tadas are a collection from a contemporary Rabbi mea balines who who put together a collection of of the tanay uh sayings writings laws it's a lot like the mishna but it's not authoritative and you can find it in the back of every B and basically it and it's quoted all the time in the B but if you have a disagreement between a mishna and a TPA you put more weight on the mishna right mishna is is is is really what we're going by but nonetheless we do care about what the seist say and it it does it does factor in with trying to weigh it but what's happening is when we're looking at a mishna when we're looking at a tepa when we're looking at other tanic writings like a barisa what they're doing they're doing something very specific they're coming and they're taking the tradition and they're they're putting forth the tradition and it's up to another set of rabbis after that to sort out and say okay well this Rabbi has this tradition from here and this Rabbi has this tradition from this teacher and this is more authoritative than this one this particularly happens and most of the time happens with laws that are der Robin on usually with um rulings from a Sanhedrin to explain finer points of the rulings of a Sanhedrin that's usually where it's happening and sometimes maybe one of the tanum didn't hear the ruling and so that's why you'll put more weight on this one who who is is uh going by a majority that did hear the ruling you know they didn't have telephones they didn't have fact messages and it's possible that one of the San heden rulings on something that's a rinic thing maybe maybe one of the rabbis didn't hear one of the nuances about it so they're reporting everything they're reporting the Traditions that they had and then the job of the amarim were also in in the gamar right those are those are the the Next Generation after the tanum that reporting the tradition their job is to come and sift and to explain okay this is what this Tana means this is what this Tana means this is how the tradition works for here this is the way it's put together and we understand how Jewish law is applied especially with rabic things right so then this this Kamar says and we only derive practical halaha only from the Talman now what this is trying to say says the vones rebi this is the vones rebi this is the pan mosha the Von Reby says it like this that mishas and veres and tadas were not established as a tool for final Hala but is to preserve and transmit a discussion and a tradition so that that they got from their teachers and in contrast the main objective says the P mosha of the amarim who that that next Generation after the tanum is to sort out the different views and then to establish a final Hal OFA so the am amaric rulings of sitting down and learning the the garas is really really valuable because that's that's going to be how you actually interact in Judaism with with what's going on now some of the rulings in the tud might might unclear that's why you need the next set Theon to explain like no no no the is like this because it takes those ones that are not so clear or maybe they're cases that are close to a case in the in the talmud but not exactly a case and they'll they'll they'll they have the knowledge to come from all the garas and the Shas and to say like no no in this particular case it's going to be like this so that's a tool that you can have as a really basic theological tool for you as a Jewish man to come and to and to sit and to start to understand what's going on with this fabulous amazing text called the Talman it's a tool but you have to learn how to read it and you have to learn how to read the missiona the missioners are written in a very specific way that take some education on how to do it so you can understand what's going on with it and then the garas which is also going to take some education to learn how to do now very important to join a structured learning program and to as a Jewish man to do doomi if you're not in a structured learning program set a time learn every day but you don't just open up and learn by yourself you want to learn the tradition you want to learn how to learn and you want to sit down and get the basics of how to sit down and read a page of gamar read how to read a mission how to understand what's happening with it how how's Hala going to be determined so that really what happens is once you start to see it the the rules that how we operate as Jews starts to make a lot of sense and you can see the beauty in it and the understanding of it and you can get appreciation of so have a great day