Today’s daf is sponsored by Becki Goldstein to celebrate her granddaughter Sarai’s eight birthday and the anniversary of her parents Kobi and Rotem. “Born at week 25 at 890 grams Parshat Chaye Sara, rabbanim suggested to name her Sarai, a stronger name than Sara. So began weeks of tfilot across the globe for a refua shlaima while Sarai tested our emunah and won our hearts. I know that her guardian angel has always been Sara Imenu”. Mazal tov!
This week’s learning is sponsored by Terri Krivosha for a refuah shleima for Elisheva bat Ora.
If someone was a witness to an event, can he be a judge in that case? It appears from the Mishna that one can. But how does this fit in with the opinion of Rabbi Akiva who holds that one cannot? Perhaps there is a distinction between murder cases (which is where Rabbi Akiva stated his opinion) and the sanctification of the new moon. Tana Kama holds that a horn of a cow cannot be used as a shofar but all other animals’ horns can be used. He says it is because a horn of a cow is called a keren and not a shofar Rabbi Yossi disagrees, based on the verse “When the keren of the ram will sound” where shofar is also called a keren. His proof seems strong – if so, how would the sages respond to his claim? The gemara brings a possible explanation. Ulla and Abaye each bring an additional reason to explain the opinion of the Tana Kama, beyond what is already written in the Mishna. Ulla explains it is because of the sin of the golden calf, we do not want to use a shofar from the cow family so as not to have the “prosecutor become the advocate.” The Gemara brings a series of difficulties on Ulla and answers them. Why did Abaye and Ulla bring an explanation to the sages when their reason was already mentioned in the Gemara? Where does the Gemara explain to us that when it is written in the word hayovel, from the verse mentioned in the Mishna, it means ‘a ram.’ From there, they digress from the subject and talk about many words that they did not know what they meant and they explained from where they learned the definition. The Mishnah brings two different opinions regarding the type of shofar (from an ibex and straight or from a ram and bent) that should be used for Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur of the Jubilee year and for fast days. In the Temple on those days they also blew from trumpets. What was more central – shofar or trumpets? Levy brings an opinion that is slightly different from the two opinions in the Mishna.
