Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Tuesday's Thoughts on the Daf - Sotah 45

Sotah 45 continues the discussion of the process of "eglah arufa" - the process by which a city atones for the death of a person who is found killed in proximity to the city. There are a number of interesting points that came up in today's daf that I would like to discuss:

On Sotah 45b, the mishna states that although the measuring is performed to determine which city (that has a beis din) is closest to the body, the city of Jerusalem is not taken into the equation. The gemara explains that the reason that Jerusalem is exempt is that the pasuk discussing eglah arufa uses the word "L'rishta" - to inherit. Since the city of Jerusalem (according to this de'ah) was not the property of any particular tribe (and thus not subject to familial inheritance rules), it is also not to be considered when measuring for proximity purposes. The problem with this is that other sources indicate that Jerusalem was in Yehuda's nachala. It can be suggested that according to those sources, Jerusalem might be factored into the measurement.

On the topic of measuring, the gemara on Sotah 45a learns from the word "umad'du" that even if it is clear cut which city is closest in proximity to the body, the measurement is still performed as there is a mitzva to be involved in the actual measuring.

Within the context of the discussion of eglah arufa, there is a sidebar to review the rules of shichicha. [This is one of my father's favorite trivia questions - which mitzva cannot be fulfilled if it is intentionally performed - shichicha]. Within this discussion, the gemara towards the bottom of Sotah 45a talks about the standing grain that is left (accidentally) in the field. In so doing, the gemara present two different opinions (R' Yehuda and the Chachamim) as to why the standing grain is subject to shichicha. As was pointed out by R' Ephraim G. in our chabura this evening - the concept that standing grain is subject to shichicha is counter intuitive, as one would expect that this would fall within leket, not shichicha.

If you have seen this post being carried on another site such as JBlog, please feel free to click here to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

No comments: