While not exactly equivalent to the Talmud, there are many such "impossible what if" cases in Islamic jurisprudence (FiQh) that are recorded in some ancient scholarly books.
Bizarre Talmudic Scenarios
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Re: Bizarre Talmudic Scenarios
#22Ah 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.
could you clarify why it's a conundrum? it seems that two different animals is just two different animals, both mammals or otherwise.
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Re: Bizarre Talmudic Scenarios
#23Whenever 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?
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Re: Bizarre Talmudic Scenarios
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
For the piano - I think it's perfectly reasonable to end the lease if the tenant violates the terms of the agreement. The owner may want the piano to remain undisturbed for sentimental reasons, personal belief, or playing the piano might degrade it. The question of how the owner knows the piano was played may be a separate wrong doing (either the owner falsely claims the piano was played or is improperly spying on th…
> (either the owner falsely claims the piano was played or is improperly spying on the piano or tenant) Grabbing the wheel and jerking hard left... If the owner installs camera/microphones to check the piano status, that would be very creepy and leaning into the spying realm. If the owner installed sensors on the keys/hammers/strings/etc to detect movement, then I think I'd be okay with that. Those sensors would not…
Supposing the owner installed really invasive spying tools - the cameras and microphones, and used those to discover the tenant played the piano. Then, I think the owner would be guilty of whatever invasion of privacy law or tort is relevant, but the tenant would still be in breach of the contract. It would be right to punish the owner and tenant for their respective misdeeds, not say that because the owner did bad the bad action of the tenant should be forgiven or ignored.
Re: Bizarre Talmudic Scenarios
#25Whenever 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.
Another common Christian error is to think of the Talmud as representative of the Judaism that they think they understand from the Old Testament, when it's actually a phenomenon from a couple hundred years later.
Re: Bizarre Talmudic Scenarios
#26For those who want to study the Talmud, but like me have no access to formal Jewish education, the Steinsaltz edition is good.
Bava Metzia in the Steinsaltz edition is a good starting point.
It can be read online, free at: https://www.sefaria.org/Bava_Metzia
Sefaria is really, really good. Chabad have some great resources too.
or bought at ( Hebrew version ) https://korenpub.com/products/the-steinsaltz-talmud-bavli-ba...
English version at : https://www.amazon.com/Adin-Steinsaltz/e/B008F6AFJ2?ref=sr_n...
Some other great books by Steinsaltz: https://www.amazon.com/Adin-Steinsaltz/e/B008F6AFJ2?ref=sr_n...
For those who want something non-Halachic, his Tales of Rabbi Nachman would be good. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003S9VNQU/ref=dbs_a_def_r...
Re: Bizarre Talmudic Scenarios
#27Whenever 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?
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Re: Bizarre Talmudic Scenarios
#28Whenever 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?
On occasion through out history people misquote, misunderstand or misrepresent stuff about Jews and their writings for a variety of reasons, sometimes with rather negative consequences. Innocuous discussions can turn into Happy Tree Friends real quick.
Re: Bizarre Talmudic Scenarios
#29Whenever 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…
If you don’t mind answering, why did you stop following the law?
Also, I can relate because I feel that same tensing when I hear gentiles talking about Kabbalah.
Re: Bizarre Talmudic Scenarios
#30Whenever 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?
Gentile here, but even I tense up when I see discussions about the Talmud show up in "Gentile spaces". Some reasons:
1) Conspiracies. There's a millennia-long history of conspiracy theories involving the Talmud, and talk about the Talmud often see conspiracy theorists surface which sidetracks any rational discussion.
2) Religion. To this day, there is a significant group of religion Jews who take the Talmud extremely seriously as Scripture or at least as Scripture-adjacent. This annoys some people and tends to cause aggressive conversations.
3) Politics. Anything that can be connected to politics turns into a political argument. The Talmud seems to serve as easy fodder.
4) Misunderstandings. The Talmud is a complicated set of documents written for a very specific in-group and isn't easy to understand without a lot of help. There are various misunderstandings of it which often someone decides they need to share as though they were facts. Trying to correct or nuance these misunderstandings often then quickly devolves into a discussion of conspiracies, religion, or politics.