#rav huna

[dadyomi]

Daf Yomi Week 153: Gourd-Fearing

I love it when the amoraim warn us against foods that will trouble the digestion. It’s very much “Yes, granddad, we know you can’t eat corn anymore” only across thousands of years. 

Shabbat shalom and welcome! I love seeing new “faces” each week. We’re coming up on 300 readers...I have no idea what we ought to do to celebrate if and when we reach 300, but it definitely will not involve gourds or porridge. Maybe we should just plan to hold the gates of Thermopylae against the Persians? 

In any case, Nedarim is really picking up; this week has been full of legends and cautionary tales, very reminiscent of Berakhot in my opinion. I feel like there’s a concordance to the Talmud to be written based solely on vibe, but it won’t be written by me. 

The World Cup is in all the news lately and I keep thinking I should discuss how the Cup match on Sunday will be between two countries not known for their enthusiasm about Jews, but instead I’ve decided to put on my Mickey Mouse Menorah shirt and be content in the idea that noted anti-Semite Walt Disney is spinning in his grave. Yes, I know I did technically give the Disney company money while buying it, but I feel like the message I’m sending in giving them money for a nonbinary Jewish t-shirt is probably helping more than it’s hurting. 

233 weeks to go! It seems like a very small number somehow, even though it’s well over two years. 

[guiltywisdom]

Every one among us has a thousand [demons] on his left hand and ten thousand on his right hand.

Rav Huna, Babylonian Talmud Brachot 6a

[jdsquared]

Ketubot 69a

[barefoot-gothic]

don’t even understand why a thousand of you are following me…every one among us has a thousand demons on his left hand and ten thousand on his right hand

[woman-loving]

Commentary on Lesbianism in Jewish Tradition

Selection from Like Bread on the Seder Plate, by Rebecca Alpert, 1997.

The Prohibition Against Lesbianism “You shall not copy the practices of the land of Egypt where you dwelt ... nor shall you follow their customs” --Leviticus 18:3

This biblical passage also says nothing about lesbianism. Yet it was used by later Jewish legal sources to prohibit lesbian behavior: “What did they do? A man would marry a man, or a woman a woman, a man would marry a woman and her daughter, or a woman would marry two men.” This textual reference is from Sifra (Aḥare Mot), a compilation of commentaries on Leviticus from the Roman era, second century C.E.[11] It links the biblical prohibition against “the practices of Egypt” with, among other things, lesbian marriage. The biblical text itself does not suggest that the prohibition of behaviors that are “like those of the Egyptians” have anything to do with same-sex marriage, and we have no evidence to assume that there were same-sex marriages in Egypt during that time when Leviticus was being written.[12] But it is very likely that the author of Sifra knew of same-sex marriages from the Roman culture in which he lived and interchanged the identities of Rome and Egypt without regard to historical accuracy.

Female homoeroticism was considered the ultimate depravity in Roman society. Women who loved other women were seen as seeking male privilege and attempting to usurp the authority of men.[13] But lesbian marriage was known in Roman society, and we do have other examples of references to women-women marriages in the second-century Roman empire. A novel by Iamblichus, a contemporary of Lucian, tells the story of a marriage of a queen of Egypt, Berenice, who is said to have loved and married a woman named Mesopotamia.[14] And Church Father Clement of Alexandria condemns female-female marriage as an unacceptable practice, contrary to nature.[15] 

More evidence of the awareness of female homoeroticism from Jewish sources of the early Roman period (probably for the beginning of the common era) is found in the fragmentary extra-canonical work, The Sentences of Pseudo-Phocylides. It was probably written by a Jew living in the diaspora. in this text, women are forbidden to imitate the sexual roles of men.[16] We do not know if this text refers to positions during heterosexual intercourse, to same-sex lovemaking, or to marriage.[17] But like the Sifra text, it reflects the era’s awareness that such activities existed.

While there are other discussions of lesbianism in ancient Jewish texts, this connection to the biblical text is not mentioned again until the twelfth century. Other ancient texts took lesbianism less seriously. In the Talmud (c. 500 C.E.), female homoeroticism is referred to as engaging in mesolelot. Modern english translations define mesolelot as “practicing lewdness.”[18] But there is no indication from the context that such a pejorative definition is warranted by the term. Apparently, this term was used for sexual behavior that did not involved penetration.[19] It is probably the Hebrew equivalent of “tribade,” the ancient term used in Greek and Roman cultures for women who engage in sexual activity by rubbing their genitals against one another.[20]

The rabbis of the Talmud were concerned about mesolelot only insofar as this behavior might change a woman’s status from that of virgin (betulah). Nonvirgins lose their eligibility for marriage to men of priestly descent (who were restricted to marrying virgins). The Talmud records two opinions. Rav Huna argues that women who practice mesolelot should not be eligible for priestly marriage; Eleazar says they should, and the law follows Eleazar. The text suggests that such behavior does not warrant punishment because it is priẓut. This is generally translated as “mere obscenity” but might better be understood as “minor infraction.” 

The Babylonian Talmud refers to mesolelot in one other case. In Shabbat 65a, it is reported that R. Samuel prohibited his daughters from sleeping together. The question is raised in the text as to why he would enforce such a prohibition. The commentators suggested that he was following Rav Huna’s interpretation and assuming that his daughters would be prohibited from marrying priests if they were engaging in mesolelot (in this case, incestuous mesolelot). But the conclusion of the text indicates that Samuel did not agreed with Rav Huna. It suggests that he prohibited his daughters from sleeping together so that they would not grow accustomed to “a foreign body.”

While I am tempted to argue that Samuel feared that his daughters might enjoy female homoeroticism so much that they would refuse marriage to a priest (or anyone else), it is more likely that these two texts illustrate a different point. The rabbis who wrote and edited these passages clearly knew of female homoerotic behavior but assumed that the women involved would certainly marry men. Thus their concern is probably with stopping this behavior, so that the women in question would be prepared for marriage. Samuel’s daughters should not get used to sexual pleasure either because they were not yet ready for marriage or because when they did marry they would have to sleep separately from their husbands. Husband and wife were not allowed to share one bed because of the laws of niddah, which prohibited touching between husband and wife while the woman was menstruating and for seven clean days after. So sexual pleasure, while encouraged, was limited to approximately half of the month because of the demands of niddah. That is not to say that the daughters in question might not have preferred each other’s company to a husband; of this we cannot be certain.

In the Middle Ages the Jewish laws found in the Talmud and other texts were codified by subject so that it would be easier for people to understand and gain access to Jewish legal precepts. One such codification, aptly titled Mishneh Torah (a second Torah) was compiled and edited by Moses Maimonides (1130-1205). Maimonides’ compilation did not only reiterate the legal precedents. His text also reflects his analysis and gives us some information about mesolelot in his era that sheds light on the question of lesbianism in later Jewish societies: 

“Women are forbidden to engage in mesolelot with one another, these being “the doings of Egypt” against which we have been warned, as it is said: “You shall not copy the practices of the land of Egypt ...” (Leviticus 18:3). Our Sages have said: “What did they do? A man would marry a man, or a woman a woman, or a woman would marry two men.” Although such an act is forbidden, the perpetrators are not liable for a flogging, since there is no specific negative commandment prohibiting it, nor is actual intercourse of any kind involved. Consequently, such women are not disqualified from the priesthood on account of prostitution, nor is a woman prohibited to her husband because of it. It behooves the court, however, to administer the flogging prescribed for rebelliousness since they performed a forbidden act. A man should be particularly strict with his wife in this matter and should prevent women known to indulge in such practices from visiting her and her from visiting them.[21]”

From the text it appears that Maimonides’ main interest is not with a hypothetical situation about marriages to priests, which he deals with perfunctorily, but with the problems of men who are married to women who keep company with women known to engage in mesolelot. Maimonides makes a connections not mentioned in the Talmud text between mesolelot and “women who marry [nosin, the technical legal term for Jewish marriage] one another.”

While lesbian behavior was only a minor sexual infraction, lesbian marriage as a subversion of heterosexual norms would have been a serious threat to the legal system and would receive more attention, as Maimonides’ comments suggest. The focus on the biblical source rather than the comments from the Talmud allowed Maimonides to view this behavior as serious and gave more license to punish it. Yet Maimonides still chose to define lesbian behavior as a minor crime of rebelliousness. This leniency is remarkable given his awareness of lesbian behavior in women married to men and his association of these practices with lesbian marriages, which he categorized among the biblically prohibited “doings of Egypt.” Maimonides saw lesbianism as the problem of a husband who could not control his wife’s behavior. But that behavior was not despised nor considered sinful. Lesbian behavior was not a serious crime, especially in comparison to male homosexuality, which was subject to capital punishment. It was taken lightly but not overlooked entirely. Punishment was to be meted out by the authorities of the community, the court, not simply by the man who was wronged by his wife. 

In contrast to modern European practice, Jewish law punishes the wife and not the partner, the presumed lesbian, who entices her. The person presumed to initiate sexual contact is not the one who is blamed or punished. Lesbian behavior itself is not considered problematic unless it threatens the institution of heterosexual marriage. 

Ancient Jewish sources were aware of, but not threatened by, female homoerotic behavior. This stance created a silence around he subject, for there was little to discuss. Now that lesbianism has become a more open topic in recent times, the neutrality of earlier sources tempers to some degree negative contemporary attitudes toward lesbianism.

In contemporary times there has been a limited response to lesbianism in Orthodox circles where the Jewish legal tradition has ultimate authority. In Norman Lamm’s definitive 1974 article on homosexuality, he did not examine lesbianism in early Judaism in any substantial way. He devoted one paragraph to rabbinic sources on women, in which he denied that such behavior had any significant impact on Jewish life.[22] In Lamm’s opinion, lesbianism is a lesser offense but is also not tolerated.

More recent awareness of the prevalence of lesbianism has led to stricter interpretations in traditionalist writings. In a 1994 book about women from an Orthodox perspective, Michael Kaufman briefly discusses lesbianism in a section on married women. Kaufman does not qualify lesbianism as a lesser offense but states boldly that it is prohibited by Jewish law, deriving the prohibition from the biblical injunction against Egyptian practices. According to Kaufman, lesbianism is not only legally prohibited but is “a perversion of nature and the divine order” and “intrinsically repulsive.”[23]

Reading traditional Jewish legal texts on lesbianism leads to the conclusion that the private sexual behavior of women was viewed as trivial. As feminists, we reject the rabbinic sensibility that claims our sexual activities don’t count and don’t matter. However, now that lesbianism has become public and challenges heterosexuality, the response form tradition circles is anger and revulsion.

Taken together, these biblical texts are deeply troubling for Jewish lesbians. They make our existence invisible, pejoratize and trivialize our sexuality, and proclaim norms for human existence that leave out our way of life. These factors are enough to make some lesbians decide to leave Judaism entirely. Others choose to ignore the texts while  maintaining their connections. But as I suggested a the beginning of this chapter, many Jewish lesbians feel a deep commitment to struggle with these texts and to find ways to counteract them.

[femmchantress]

Rav Giddel, Rav Huna, and Rav Sheshet: You prayed so hard a demon died?!

Rav Aha: Yes… I’m sorry… I’ll stop peeing and die, I’m sorry

[dafyomilimerick]

Kiddushin 5

Said Rav Huna, "Not three ways, but four: For the chuppah provides one way more; Only then she can eat From the man's terumah meat." "That's derabbanan, so we can ignore."

[avirosenthal]

Gittin 87b logos

Rav 🐟 R. Hanina 🌴 Rav Hisda ס Rav Hoshaya ע Rabba bar Rav Huna ⛵️

[hostia]

midrash or slash fic?

As it is written: “How have you fallen from heaven, O day-star, son of the morning! How have you been cut down to the ground, casting lots [ḥolesh] over the nations!” (Isaiah 14:12), and Rabba bar Rav Huna said: This verse teaches us that he, Nebuchadnezzar, would cast lots [ḥolesh] for the royal leaders of the nations he had captured, in order to know whose day it was to service him with homosexual relations. And it is written: “All the kings of the nations, all of them sleep in glory, every one in his own house” (Isaiah 14:18). And Rabbi Yoḥanan said: The meaning of this verse is that they rested from homosexual relations.

[benevolentbirdgal]

let’s talk about Jewish demonology texts [Berakhot 6a.2-4]

Okay, so the Talmud can be a bit weird sometimes, at least to our modern sensibilities. For example, here we can see a belief in demons physically surrounding us. The source explains that there are many more demons than people, and that at any given moment, they are above and to our left and right, and that there are a thousand demons on are left and ten thousands on the right. The source is around 1800 years old, and most Jews in the modern world don’t view this text literally, if at all. 

However, I had a realization today, upon further reexamination of this text: there are a multitude of tiny, aggressive, deadly non-animal things in the air to our right and left, up and down, outnumbering us by a wild margin. 

We just call them viruses. 

[Image Description]

A screenshot taken on android device of https://www.sefaria.org/Berakhot.6a.2-6?lang=bi with 6a.2-4 visible. There is text in Hebrew and English for each verse. Text below: 

תַּנְיָא, אַבָּא בִּנְיָמִין אוֹמֵר: אִלְמָלֵי נִתְּנָה רְשׁוּת לָעַיִן לִרְאוֹת — אֵין כׇּל בְּרִיָּה יְכוֹלָה לַעֲמוֹד מִפְּנֵי הַמַּזִּיקִין. 

In another baraita it was taught that Abba Binyamin says: If the eye was given permission to see, no creature would be able to withstand the abundance and ubiquity of the demons and continue to live unaffected by them.

אָמַר אַבָּיֵי: אִינְהוּ נְפִישִׁי מִינַּן, וְקָיְימִי עֲלַן כִּי כִּסְלָא לְאוּגְיָא. 

Similarly, Abaye said: They are more numerous than we are and they stand over us like mounds of earth surrounding a pit.

אָמַר רַב הוּנָא: כֹּל חַד וְחַד מִינַּן, אַלְפָא מִשְּׂמָאלֵיהּ וּרְבַבְתָּא מִיַּמִּינֵיהּ. 

Rav Huna said: Each and every one of us has a thousand demons to his left and ten thousand to his right. God protects man from these demons, as it says in the verse: “A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; they will not approach you” (Psalms 91:7).

[End of image description]

[judaic-myth-n-mysticism]

Rituals and Segula of the Talmud, Part 5:

Today’s verse actually may be one of the most helpful incantations and rituals mentioned in the Talmud, that being one to sober up! This ritual appears in Shabbat 66b:14 where Rav Huns tells of his method to sober up his fellow rabbis when they were getting ready to leave. The verse offers two options to accomplish this effect, each with its own symbolic incantation.

• NOTE: This trick is not a substitute for responsible drinking, and even less one for sobering up so you can drive. Don’t be dumb!

"As in this case of Rav Huna, who departed from the house of Rav, and Rav, who departed from the house of Rabbi Ḥiyya, and Rabbi Ḥiyya, who departed from the house of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, when they were drunk, the rabbi would bring oil and salt and rub them on the palms of their hands and the soles of their feet and say: Just as this oil is clear, so let the wine of so-and-so, son of so-and-so, his mother, become clear. In other words, let them become sober. And if he could not bring oil and salt, or if they did not work, he would bring the sealing clay of a barrel and soak it in water and say: Just as this sealing clay is clear, so let the wine of so-and-so, son of so-and-so, become clear." (Shabbat 66b:14)

[dadyomi]

Friday 11/11, Nedarim 17: New Phone Huna Dis

This sentence is the Talmudic equivalent of

[drjayr78]

“A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭91:7‬ ‭TLV‬‬

Berakhot 6a

In another baraita it was taught that Abba Binyamin says: If the eye was given permission to see, no creature would be able to withstand the abundance and ubiquity of the demons and continue to live unaffected by them. 2

Similarly, Abaye said: They are more numerous than we are and they stand over us like mounds of earth surrounding a pit. 3

Rav Huna said: Each and every one of us has a thousand demons to his left and ten thousand to his right. God protects man from these demons, as it says in the verse: “A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; they will not approach you” (Psalms 91:7). 4

Summarizing the effects of the demons, Rava said: The crowding at the kalla, the gatherings for Torah study during Elul and Adar, is from the demons;those knees that are fatigued even though one did not exert himself is from the demons; those clothes of the Sages that wear out, despite the fact that they do not engage in physical labor, is from friction with the demons; those feet that are in pain is from the demons. 5

I hold this to be truth. This why there is a vail or hedge around us to keep us from seeing these things. It will not only frighten us but extinguished our spark of faith. This why God tells us to not seek conversation with the dead. We must be vigilant of our own actions that can create negative energy. This the energy on which demons feed on. This part of the hidden midrash that Jesus speaks of in Matthew 12:43-46.

[jdsquared]

Pesachim 86a

[Thor hands Rav Huna a cup of wine]

Thor: Excellent work today at the hall of study, Rav Huna.

Tony: Thor, no, it’s impolite to drink that much wine.

[Thor hands Rav Huna two cups of wine.]

Thor: You are a polite rabbi.

[savageone007]

Recent Commercial Real Estate Transactions

Recent Commercial Real Estate Transactions

Recent Sale $4.5 MILLION 310 East 89th Street (between First and Second Avenues) Manhattan Built in 1920, this 8,340-square-foot, five-story building in Yorkville has 20 apartments: 18 studios and two one-bedrooms. It is fully occupied and last changed hands in 1976. Buyer: Rav Huna Seller: Verco Properties Brokers: Lev Mavashev and Shai Egison of Alpha Realty Recent Sale $2.5 MILLION 555…

[orbemnews]

Recent Commercial Real Estate Transactions Recent Sale $4.5 MILLION 310 East 89th Street (between First and Second Avenues) Manhattan Built in 1920, this 8,340-square-foot, five-story building in Yorkville has 20 apartments: 18 studios and two one-bedrooms. It is fully occupied and last changed hands in 1976. Buyer: Rav Huna Seller: Verco Properties Brokers: Lev Mavashev and Shai Egison of Alpha Realty Recent Sale $2.5 MILLION 555 Liberty Avenue (at Schenck Avenue) Brooklyn Built in the 1930s, this two-story, 13,000-square-foot building in East New York has a side yard and a garage. The property was last sold in June. Buyer: Chad Nelson Seller: Moshe Simpson Seller’s Brokers: Dan Marks, Daniel Lebor and Robert Finnerty of TerraCRG Recent Lease $204.62/SQ. FT. $186,000 approximate annual rent 397 Bleecker Street (between Perry and West 11th Streets) Manhattan Pink Chicken, a children’s clothing company, signed a lease for 909 square feet on the ground floor and lower level of this mixed-use building, which was built in 1899 in the West Village. Tenant: Pink Chicken Landlords: John Lamb and David Stutzman Landlord’s Brokers: Louis Puopolo, William Etheridge and Hillel Horovitz of Douglas Elliman Commercial Source link Orbem News #Commercial #Estate #Real #Transactions