Bizarre Talmudic Scenarios
talmudology.com
Bizarre Talmudic Scenarios
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Re: Bizarre Talmudic Scenarios
#2Whenever I see something about the Talmud in gentile-dominated spaces I tense up a bit. I'm not orthodox anymore, but I was orthodox for the first 20-odd years of my life so I'm in the unique position of being around a lot of gentiles but knowing a lot about Judaism and Jewish law. This article is pretty ok, but its format is probably confusing for a gentile audience. For reference:
a large number of Jews do "daf yomi" (translated: a page a day), where they learn a page a day of talmud, everyone being on the same cycle and thus learning the same page in paralel. Many publications, talmudology.com included, put out daily (or sometimes weekly) pieces on the daily page of talmud, often aimed at working and/or unlearned people who don't have the time or ability to learn through a page of talmud (and draw an idea or two out of it) every day. That's why the article starts with "On tomorrow’s page of Talmud". The page of talmud that everyone's going to read tomorrow on the 30th is the 54th page of tractate Yevamot.
Re: Bizarre Talmudic Scenarios
#3Whenever I see something about the Talmud in gentile-dominated spaces I tense up a bit. I'm not orthodox anymore, but I was orthodox for the first 20-odd years of my life so I'm in the unique position of being around a lot of gentiles but knowing a lot about Judaism and Jewish law. This article is pretty ok, but its format is probably confusing for a gentile audience. For reference: a large number of Jews do "daf yom…
I like how the Talmud asks people to think about a problem and create their own solution. They give other examples of Rabbis doing the same. It's an exercise in thinking, not dogma.
So don't tense up about it. The Talmud is appreciated for its thought provoking questions by many people, both Jews and Gentiles.
Re: Bizarre Talmudic Scenarios
#4Actually, some real cases are as weird as the hypothetical ones. A couple comes to mind: a guy rents a house in the middle of nowhere with the condition that he won't play the grand piano that's in the middle of the living room. And another one, a guy suicides after his doctor diagnoses him with a terminal cancer.
In case you didn't guess: the first guy played the piano and the doctor was having an affair with his patient's wife.
So is playing the piano a valid cause for termination if nobody can hear it? Of course what every student ask is how the hell did the landlord know it was played?
And, providing suicide is not illegal where the second case happened, is the doctor guilty of incitement to a non-crime?
Re: Bizarre Talmudic Scenarios
#5Actually, some real cases are as weird as the hypothetical ones. A couple comes to mind: a guy rents a house in the middle of nowhere with the condition that he won't play the grand piano that's in the middle of the living room. And another one, a guy suicides after his doctor diagnoses him with a terminal cancer. In case you didn't guess: the first guy played the piano and the doctor was having an affair with his pa…
These cases feel like some kind of zen koans
Re: Bizarre Talmudic Scenarios
#6Whenever I see something about the Talmud in gentile-dominated spaces I tense up a bit. I'm not orthodox anymore, but I was orthodox for the first 20-odd years of my life so I'm in the unique position of being around a lot of gentiles but knowing a lot about Judaism and Jewish law. This article is pretty ok, but its format is probably confusing for a gentile audience. For reference: a large number of Jews do "daf yom…
Why does it make you tense up?
Re: Bizarre Talmudic Scenarios
#7If you enjoy this, you'll probably also enjoy Scott Alexander's slightly less serious Talmudic scenario of the implications of vampirism:
Re: Bizarre Talmudic Scenarios
#8While these particular cases are bizarre (isn't every case bizarre?), they can help inform new scenarios not envisioned yet, e.g.
> If one threw a knife to embed it in the wall and in the course of its flight the knife went and slaughtered an animal in its proper manner
If a mistaken slaughter can be kosher, then so can a machine conducted slaughter, since we can assume that human intention is not required.
Re: Bizarre Talmudic Scenarios
#9Whenever I see something about the Talmud in gentile-dominated spaces I tense up a bit. I'm not orthodox anymore, but I was orthodox for the first 20-odd years of my life so I'm in the unique position of being around a lot of gentiles but knowing a lot about Judaism and Jewish law. This article is pretty ok, but its format is probably confusing for a gentile audience. For reference: a large number of Jews do "daf yom…
Many Christians do something similar where they read a bible verse a day, so it's not as weird concept for many.
Re: Bizarre Talmudic Scenarios
#10Ah excellent, I read about the fish and donkey conundrum on an email list years ago and have hunted and asked well versed folks if they knew the reference but no luck. And hey, good luck doing a search for a specific talmud reference ;-0
It's a really fun thought experiment at the level of Schrödinger's poor cat, with interesting nontrivial moral and ethical paradoxes.