#2- Rabbi YY Keller: Translator & author, Talmud manuscripts, Gaonim period- RC Dalfin

welcome to meaningful interviews part two with Rabbi y Keller uh the first part was fascinating we only got a glimpse of uh your knowledge about the AL my and um it also sheds life about his life and what type of sadic he was we're going to talk now a little bit about your uh knowledge and as an author of over 20 books these are just two of the books called famous family family many of them great rabbis Scholars so RAB Keller um put together their response in here and this one's these are questions that RAB Willam in Portland um asked RAB Keller who a maven a big expert in the rambam and he wrote this um up so what I want to get at um is I've had conversations with you over the years those topics like you know you don't find your averagea discussing in even in the greatest L whatever it doesn't make a difference can you tell me a little bit about what you've discovered in the talud the talmud everyone talks about the talud that fascinates you besides a good but tell me a little bit about the AR you know the the the circumference of the tal go ahead please okay so what's interesting about the talmud there's the as you say the of the tal in other words how was the talmud written was it written and so on and so forth which is a discussion in itself what does that mean what do you mean was it written so if you ask your typical rash or or lman and you'll ask him so who wrote the mishna and they'll say of course correct now actually what's interesting is that not only that Rashi andir insist that the mishna was not written but written by byes it was written by someone but not by himely over the years but according to them not only wasn't it written byes it wasn't even written during his era was written much later huh where does Rashi say this so it comes out from Rashi now about Rashi himself whether he holds that way or not theb wants to argue that there's no conclusive proof that rash holds so has it in okay but clearly states was preceded both the ra and Rashi and he he actually when we talk about learning and knowing something by heart usually nowadays it would mean a person took a written text memorized it and now he knows it by heart yes but rair tells us that he studied the talmud by heart from somebody who studied it by heart going all the way back to ra Rashi they didn't use written text period And in the times of rir and and ra it was already recorded in writing but they did not use that system H now the earliest record that we have about a written gamar talwood bavi is from a few hundred years after the talwood bavi was sealed and the taled yeah the talmud bav was sealed in the year 499 not only do we know the year which is the Hebrew year 5,260 not only do we know the year but we know the exact date and even how do we know that because tells us and what's interesting is there is a famous statement they're the end of directive of instruction of instruction of the basically instruction of the tal and what's interesting is that there are two deas there was a Rino who was at the same time a colleague of Rashi who passed away either a few years before or after and there was another ra who was a student of Rashi and ra seems to indicate that when we say is the one who a student of raashi who passed away 73 years later and his passing made it because it seems that he was the last student the last M from Rashi there was marashi other rash that were ma from Rashi but he was the last who ma from Nash and as such when he when he passed away that was okay so so so are we to walk away thinking that the talmud it wasn't recorded what is the conclusion by most okay so what is so here is is is a is an interesting thing uh that I noted obviously we learn rambam we keep learning Ram every year some people finish it once in three years that the ambam in his introduction makes it very clear that even he who states and insists as ra does that it was written in the days of Reb but Reb himself did not write it he merely taught it orally ah so this is interesting and Shir obviously was taught the mishna and the talmud orally ahuh so so and they had a whole system you can imagine that they had a whole system where you had 60 people that everybody memorized one M those that had tal with the those that didn't have the talud without the talmud and he would walk if you wanted to you had a question besides for The Who was the rash who knew all 60 masas right but if if if you had a question in one particular shabas for instance you would walk over to Mr shabas who was known for his backwards and forwards of shabas or Mr bras who would give you the backwards and forwards BR that's very interesting so the average person at the time was an ignorant right they had no idea about these things no what's interesting is that in the times of the gam and we know even at the times of the gamor that all the balaba your average person who was a farmer and throughout the year he was working two months a year they would stop work they called y kala kala means Gathering Y is the month of and these are the month of other and L where everybody would come all the farmers everybody would come to the to the Gathering and they would learn with the greatest sages how did they support their family during that time well obviously they make just like the TOA has a system of sh where basically it's meant to be that during the six years you you take care and it blesses theeven the same thing they came for y so you're saying that everyone learned at least two months a year two months a year they all come to Best Med uhhuh that's very interesting so so much so that Jaba was persecuted for that by by the Persian government at the time cuz they somebody told the king that he's nullifying the the the he's stopping all these people from working for those two months right okay now the talud as it developed yes you know were there periods where people were more involved and interested in it than people and then less involved in other words what we have today and today but already a long time is there's some that you know challenge the authentic of the tal which is ridiculous but I'm asking if that same idea existed at that time 2,000 years ago there was nobody to challenge because you could see the live Bas medes you walk into surra and you walk into padis and you see here is the live uh discussions that are taking place uh where is s padday okay so Pisa I uh I think it's Naf uh I believe Naf is Pisa Pisa means it's at the river of bisa pum is the opening the opening of bisa and and I believe nard carala uh I might be wrong on these specific but we know it's known where nard and Pisa are n yeah nard now what's interesting about nard is nard was an autonomy of the Jewish people in bille even before the great we know well the never stopped the Yeshiva when when the first Jews were exiled to in B at the end of B King it says the Carpenter and the woodworker and and and the uh tell us he took them to Exile yes started right away so but we the makes a whole thing in that from when came to B and says well wereas in B before came right but it seems that there were two different types of yeshivas because let's go back to the time of now what's interesting is about the Govern the Kings the rulers of that whole area of Babylonia whether it was the Babylonians or the parthians they recognized who are the parthians I don't know but they were people who were there before the Persians okay the Pary is May maybe named after the fedus river I'm not sure which is in Hebrew is called PR but in any case the uh these uh people they recognize that the Jewish people are loyal and if you allow them the autonomy that they can have their own judges and they they can work their own system they'll provide the protection they'll provide the Army to sard was a wall City so was was basically so where is this Nardo today where is it it's in Iraq it's in Iraq and Pad is we is also Iraq is also Iraq as a matter of fact Iraq is basically Northern Iraq is Asher Assyria Assyria and and and in southern Iraq is bille Babylonia which was used to be called Shiner in the the times ofish right so would you say that what most Jews lived in this area so this was the capital not most Jews but a lot of the wealthier Jews lived in in in but what inaq the Yeah in within Iraq the Yeshiva was aarda the big Yeshiva was in aarda so much so when naav who was a famous tal of f his name was of ABA and he was called affectionally by by by his students ra and when he came down he descended to bille in the year uh 29 tells us when he descended that's how we know when he descended to B right just about the time that rebba passed away uh before Reba passed away he already instructed already told uh that my nephew was coming down to B but in any case the famous when uh Rabbi receives SM we say y or y y yes it it's part of this conversation that that sends first when descends to B and he says when ra descends to B he says y should he teach yes y he should teach should he judge yes he should judge however we know the first born there's a whole issue he he shouldn't be involved in that and about he said he should also be M but in any case so RAV came down to Narda and raavil was the rash at the time uh RAV was a greater scholar but obviously when Aila passed away wanted ra to become Thea he was the greater student of re who learned by him for many years where shm we know he was in Israel he was RB's doctor but that maybe for a year or two he was what Reb's he was Reb's doctor at one point but that was maybe for a year or two but he was mainly studied in BB and raav says to you've studied here all the time you should be rash so R went to Suda which at that time was a place that didn't have to where the people as you say were rases as the G states certain things that happened over there andab established established the Yesa over there so he established the Yesa of balaba and people are involved with the world but they're learning also so that was a different type of Yeshiva uhhuh I want to ask you uh so these were the twois when we talk about theim why why do we call the gim and they call it the Gonic era what's what what why they call is the one of the L is the L going of an international stature we later afterwards but they didn't have international stature when I'm saying International stature it means that people us ask them questions from all over and that ended with ra High uh okay but what's your question you were asking why is he called why is he called go so we say that go is numerical value of 60 and it means that there's 60 meas but the real volumes of the 60 different meas of called volumes depends but in in any case the really the word it's a really abbreviation of the full title which is in other words the name of the academy at least in the onic era was going Jewish Pride the talwood was the Jewish Pride these are Scholars these are people who learned and and and where does it say this name in in in letters that were addressed to them you see when we have the original letters it's mentions interesting from them or to them so that's they were called that's why they were called go now let me ask you a personal question have you gone through the talud I've gone through many M do you have a a desire to learn the entire tal Absol absolutely okay um but you do not learn the Dai is that right that's correct there was was a time I remember my father-in-law uh took me uh we came we came along to one of the and Madison Square Garden in uh 2005 I believe and then I I made a decision we I learned with my father-in-law who learns who's been learning D for many years and I learned with him bras and chabas and we started Arin so as long as I was learning with him I learned other than that I don't your fatheri my father-in-law isi the son of the former okay I want to ask your question what's the one the the the thing that most impressed you from your learning in the of the talud which which one thing if you had to say this is something that impressed you most so what's interesting about the talud is that everything is to be found in talud history geography creation physics if you want to know astronomy astronomy if you want to know Sayid the uh circumference of the world is 6,000 uh par par is 4 mil which would be you would say Okay 24,000 mile Mill mile seem to be thing but what's interesting is we know a mile is how many feet it's 5,280 ft now the word mile is a Latin word it means a thousand it's supposed to represent a thousand steps now nobody can take a step that's 5T not me not you not somebody else right so why would you take a unit of 5,280 ft and call it a a mile what what what what sense would it mean and it seems to me when I was studying the talmud that this is based on this statement in the talud because the rambam also mentions this amount that 24,000 mil but and he says that if you don't know this if you don't acknowledge this you don't know science so obviously he's not quoting from theor theor themselves they say that this statement they learned and obviously it means they learned from some science books so what is he referring to the the balas the the the astronomer the earliest astronomer that we have he was an an Egyptian astronomer he wrote in Greek and he was in the times of the famous Tan mayi in the year 3,900 which is uh in the English and the secular count it's 140 and in that year he wrote his astronomical book and he also wrote a book on geography and in his introduction to the book of geography he writes that the circumference of the world is 180,000 uh stadiums or what RAC tracks RAC tracks which were stadiums in in in Hebrew we call them Reese we say that a meal is 7 and A2 racetracks 7 and a half Reese it's brought in the mnas in Yuma and and so obviously 180,000 uh RAC tracks that's 24,000 mil now we if you look the circumference of the of the earth it's a little more than 24,000 mile why is is it so and this has to do with the concept of a ruler we all know if we want to measure something we go to a ruler now why do we call a measuring stick why do we call it a ruler because we would talk about feet everything is measured by feet and the question is whose's feet my feet are your feet are different so it the way it would work it would go by the feet of the ruler so imagine that there's a ruler who's ruling over England and then he dies and his son takes over and his son has shorter feet now the amount of of whatever uh yards and which is all multiples of feet is is shorter or longer so it was when that was standardized in somewhere in the 18th century they took the last ruler probably had one of those shorter feet and and so yeah because a foot really is related to the unit of an amama aama is explained am is the middle finger it's the amount that's from the the the tip of the middle finger till the elbow which is about just about 48 CM or drop less clocks it at 48 CM it it seems that according to the ram it's drop less okay but in any case so this is this is the unit of so the foot is 2/3 of anama the original foot okay and then but but what so what happens is what do we know about this number 5,280 and how it relates to a meal so we have we know a meal is a fascinating because it has to do with shabas we know that it says in what is shabas shabas means the boundary of shabas shabas a person should not be walking out more than 2,000 cubits from wherever he is unless he's in a city if he's in a city this limit is from the edge of the city right but if you're in in the desert it's from from wherever your from your for you have 2,000 right so there's a works that were written in the times going one verb shim which known as the big yes and another is which is a discussion whether it it proceeds from or it proceeds Slater but in any case there's over here a difference when it mentions The Mill versus the re and over there it says that 2,000 in it says 2,000 is a me and a mill is one is 7 and A2 Reese and it comes out that the re is 266 armor cubits in suus it says differently it says that the 2,000 amama is is is anama and 2,000 amama is is a meal and a RAC trck so it comes out that every racetrack is 234 amas so it comes out that the m is 1760 amama so 176 60 amama is exactly 2,6 and 40 ft which is a half of that meal so they took a meal and they doubled it and has to do with rashi inim rashi says that you would think that 24,000 is the circumference he says no 24,000 Mill is half the circumference but they thought that so why you telling me all this I'm saying because when Columbus you asked what was fascinating about the talwood other than the talwood I said when Columbus set sail for America he didn't know that the world was as big as it is or he would have never set sa he thought that it was half the size and the reason is because it said that it was 24,000 Mill which is 180,000 well thank you Rabbi Keller for this wonderful um discourse and uh this is just a glimpse a glimpse into the fascinating information in the talmud and uh it gives us the encouragement to study more the talmud thank you very much