JWST 10500 - What is Halacha?

Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the LORD your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; you shall not do any work [melacha]...

With regard to the matter itself, it was taught in a baraita in accordance with the opinion of the one who said that the thirty-nine labors of Shabbat correspond to the labors [melacha] performed in the Tabernacle. As it was taught in a baraita: One is only liable for performing a labor to which there was a corresponding labor in the Tabernacle. They sowed in order to grow dyes for the Tabernacle, and therefore you may not sow on Shabbat. They reaped, and therefore you may not reap on Shabbat.

You are to tie them as a sign on your arm and they are to be totafos [tefillin] between your eyes.

והיו לטוטפות בין עיניך, “they shall be as ornaments between your eyes.” The words “between your eyes,” are not to be taken literally but mean that they are to be placed on the forehead opposite the seat of the brain, seeing that it is the seat of our intelligence.
Our sages in Menachot 37 explain the wording “between your eyes” to mean that the phylacteries [i.e. tefillin] are to be placed on a spot, where the Gentiles tear out the hair as a sign of mourning their dead. (compare Deut. 14:1)...

The school of Menashe taught with regard to the verse: “And you shall bind them for a sign on your arm, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes” (Deuteronomy 6:8): “On your arm”; this is the bicep. “Between your eyes”; this is the crown of the head. The Gemara asks: Where exactly on the crown of the head are the phylacteries placed? The school of Rabbi Yannai say: Phylacteries are placed on the place where the bone above the baby’s brain is soft after birth.

(19) If anyone maims his fellow, as he has done so shall it be done to him: (20) fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. The injury he inflicted on another shall be inflicted on him.

MISHNA: One who injures another is liable to pay compensation for that injury due to five types of indemnity: He must pay for damage, for pain, for medical costs, for loss of livelihood, and for humiliation. How is payment for damage assessed? If one blinded another’s eye, severed his hand, broke his leg, or caused any other injury, the court views the injured party as though he were a slave being sold in the slave market, and the court appraises how much he was worth before the injury and how much he is worth after the injury. The difference between these two sums is the amount that one must pay for causing damage.

GEMARA: The Gemara asks: Why does the mishna take for granted the fact that one who caused injury is liable to pay compensation to the injured party? The Merciful One states in the Torah: “An eye for an eye” (Exodus 21:24). You might say that this means that the one who caused injury shall lose an actual eye rather than pay money. The Gemara responds: That interpretation should not enter your mind. The principle implicit in the mishna is derived from a verbal analogy in the Torah, as it is taught in a baraita: Based on the verse: “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot” (Exodus 21:24), one might have thought that if one blinded the eye of another, the court blinds his eye as punishment; or if one severed the hand of another, the court severs his hand; or if one broke the leg of another, the court breaks his leg. Therefore, the verse states: “One who strikes a person,” and the verse also states: “And one who strikes an animal,” to teach that just as one who strikes an animal is liable to pay monetary compensation, so too, one who strikes a person is liable to pay monetary compensation.

The Gemara presents another derivation: It is taught in another baraita that Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai says: “An eye for an eye” (Leviticus 24:20), is referring to monetary restitution. Do you say that this is referring to monetary restitution, or is it only teaching that the one who caused the injury must lose an actual eye? There may be a case where there was a blind person and he blinded another, or there was one with a severed limb and he severed the limb of another, or there was a lame person and he caused another to be lame. In this case, how can I fulfill “an eye for an eye” literally, when he is already lacking the limb that must be injured?

“And your brother shall live with you” (Leviticus 25:36)...

...If two people were walking on a desolate path and there was a jug of water in the possession of one of them, and the situation was such that if both drink from the jug, both will die, as there is not enough water, but if only one of them drinks, he will reach a settled area, there is a dispute as to the halakha. Ben Petura taught: It is preferable that both of them drink and die, and let neither one of them see the death of the other. This was the accepted opinion until Rabbi Akiva came and taught that the verse states: “And your brother shall live with you,” indicating that your life takes precedence over the life of the other.

(5) Polygamy is not banned by Scripture but was forbidden among Western Jews following an edict prohibiting plural marriages promulgated in approximately the year 1000 by the renowned Ashkenazic authority, Rabbeinu Gershom. He further decreed that, except in certain limited extenuating circumstances, a woman may not be divorced against her will.

§ The Sages taught that Ezra the Scribe instituted ten ordinances [takanot]: He instituted that communities read the Torah on Shabbat in the afternoon; and they also read the Torah on every Monday and Thursday; and the courts convene and judge every Monday and Thursday; and one does laundry on Thursday; and one eats garlic on Shabbat eve. And Ezra further instituted that a woman should rise early and bake bread on those days when she wants to bake; and that a woman should don a breechcloth (i.e. underwear); and that a woman should first comb her hair and only then immerse in a ritual bath after being ritually impure; and that peddlers of cosmetics and perfumes should travel around through all the towns. And Ezra further instituted the requirement of immersion for those who experienced a seminal emission.

Uncovered beverages [left out overnight or for a prolonged period of time] were forbidden by the rabbis because they feared that snakes would have drunk from them, and left behind venom. But now when snakes are not found amongst us, it is permitted.

It is necessary to be careful to refrain from eating meat and fish together [in one meal] because of the risk of suffering from tzaraat [a spiritual illness that afflicts the skin].

Rema's gloss: And similarly one should not roast meat with fish because it imparts a foul odor to one's breath, but ex post facto (i.e. if you mistakenly already did it) it is not prohibited.

[Later commentaries also note that there was a health concern with eating meat and fish from one plate, as people are accustomed to removing the larger bones of the meat, but may neglect to remove the smaller bones in the fish and potentially ingest them, which can be dangerous as a choking hazard.]

When the place is distant from you that Hashem, your God, chooses to set His Presence there, you may slaughter some of your cattle or your flocks that Hashem gave you, as I have commanded you; and you will eat in your cities with all your appetite.

וזבחת … כאשר צויתך THEN YOU MAY SLAUGHTER … AS I HAVE COMMANDED YOU — This teaches us that there was already a commandment regarding the slaughtering of animals — as to how one should slaughter; it is not written in the Torah but it comprises the traditional regulations regarding the slaughter of animals that were given orally to Moses on Mount Sinai (Sifrei Devarim 75:7; Chullin 28a).

Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi says: The Torah states: “And you shall slaughter of your herd and of your flock, which the Lord has given you, as I have commanded you” (Deuteronomy 12:21). This verse teaches that Moses was previously commanded about the halakhot of slaughter, even though they are not written explicitly in the Torah. He was commanded about cutting the esophagus and about cutting the windpipe (i.e. trachea), and about the requirement to cut the majority of one (of these) for a bird, and the majority of two (of these) for an animal.

And these words that I command you today shall be upon your heart. You are to teach them to your children and you are to discuss them, when you sit at home, and when you journey on the road, and when you go to sleep, and when you rise. You are to tie them as a sign on your arm and they are to be totafos [tefillin] between your eyes.

There are eight rules for the making of phylacteries; all of them are traditionally ascribed to Moses who received them on Sinai [halacha l'Moshe mi'Sinai]. Hence the observance of all of them is indispensable. A variation from any of them renders the phylacteries unfit for use.

The rules are as follows:

1) The phylacteries (that is, the external leather containers) must be square; 2) they are to be sewn in such a way as to retain the square shape; 3) their diagonals must be those of a square so that all the angles shall be equal; 4) the leather container of the phylactery for the head shall have the letter Shin embossed on the right and on the left side; 5) each of the slips of parchment on which the sections from the Pentateuch are written is to be wrapped in a cover; 6) this is to be tied with hair, and then the slips are placed in their respective compartments which are sewn up with sinews; 7) a border with a fold open at both ends shall be made of the skin of the base for the strap to pass through freely; 8) the straps shall be black, and have the special knot, that is known to all, in the shape of a Daleth.