We Did It!! World’s Highest Terrestrial Daf Yomi Shiur!

As you can see from the commemorative T-shirt in the photo below, Talmudology gave a (brief) Daf Yomi Shiur yesterday, Tuesday Jan 28th at Uhuru Peak at the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, elevation 19,381 feet (5,895m)

An official request has been made to the Guinness Book of Word Records to record this achievement.

My thanks to several participants at the peak. I will edit this post to include their names in the future.

I hope Rabbi Meir Shapira would approve.

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Summit Day Special! ~ How High is Jerusalem?

Today, if all has gone according to plan, I summit Kilimanjaro as part of a group of 30 hikers raising money for Shalva. For those who were kind enough to sponsor me, many thanks. And of course there is still time to give. While at the summit we learned today’s daf, Sanhedrin 42, in what I believe is the world’s highest (terrestrial) Daf Yomi Shiur.

So in honor of climbing the tallest mountain in Africa with a group of simply amazing guides and wonderful fellow climbers, here is a post, a little early, all about mountains.

Picture of a mountain.jpeg

סנהדרין פז, א 

ועלית מלמד שבית המקדש גבוה מא"י וא"י גבוה מכל הארצות אל המקום בשלמא בית המקדש גבוה מא"י דכתיב ועלית אלא א"י גבוה מכל הארצות מנא ליה דכתיב לכן הנה ימים באים נאם ה' (לא יאמר) חי ה' אשר העלה את בני ישראל מארץ מצרים כי אם חי ה' אשר העלה ואשר הביא את זרע בית ישראל מארץ צפונה ומכל הארצות אשר הדחתים שם וישבו על אדמתם

"And you shall go up" [Deut 17:8] This teaches that the Holy Temple is higher than all other places in Israel...And from where do we now that Israel is higher than all other lands? From the verses [Jeremiah 23: 7-8] "Therefore, behold the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt,' But the Lord liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all the countries whither I have driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land."

This passage is unequivocal in its meaning: Jerusalem - that is, the Temple Mount -  is the highest place in Israel, and Israel itself is the highest place on earth. Now you don't need me to tell you that this is not a true statement. But I will anyway. It's not true. When I lived in Efrat it would often snow there while in Jerusalem, a mere twenty minutes away, there would be no snow. Why? Because Efrat is at a higher elevation than is Jerusalem. And if you have looked out from the Bet Midrash of the Hebrew University's Mount Scopus campus you will look down on the Temple Mount some three hundred feet below.

Google To the Rescue

Here are some other places, randomly chosen that are physically higher than Jerusalem.

Location Elevation (feet)
Jerusalem 2,424
Mount of Olives 2,710
Hebron 3,051
Efrat 3,150
Ben Nevis (UK) 4,413
Denver, Colorado 5,280
Johannesburg, South Africa 5,751
Mount Everest 29,029

Maharsha to the Rescue?

The Maharsha, R. Shmuel Eidels (1555 – 1631) in his commentary to Kiddushin 69a  suggests that since the Earth is a sphere, Israel and Jerusalem can be seen as if they were its "center."

מהרש"א חידושי אגדות מסכת קידושין דף סט עמוד א

 שהעולם הוא כתפוח ומקום בהמ"ק הוא מרכז עולם וכן א"י ולכך אמרו בא"י כיון דהוא מקום הממוצע אוירו מזוג ומחכים ויותר מקום המקדש שע"כ היו שם בלשכת הגזית חכמי סנהדרין וק"ל

Perhaps the Maharsha means that the spherical earth spins on its axis and that is the highest point, just like you might see a model of the earth on a bookshelf that spins on an axis with the North Pole at the top. But that cannot be, because the axis of the rotation of the Earth does not pass through Israel. It passes through the North Pole.  

No No. It is all metaphorical

Because the Talmud's claim is measurably incorrect, several commentators suggest a metaphorical explanation: Jerusalem is, spiritually speaking, the highest point on Earth. Perhaps. And if it isn’t, then let us make it so.  

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Sanhedrin 15b ~ Where the Wild Things Are

The opening Mishnah of Sanhedrin, way back on page 2a, lists the number of judges required for various kinds of legal cases, one of which is an animal that killed a person.

סנהדרין ב, א

הַזְּאֵב וְהָאֲרִי, הַדּוֹב וְהַנָּמֵר וְהַבַּרְדְּלָס וְהַנָּחָשׁ – מִיתָתָן בְּעֶשְׂרִים וּשְׁלֹשָׁה. רַבִּי אֱלִיעֶזֶר אוֹמֵר: כל הַקּוֹדֵם לְהוֹרְגָן זָכָה. רַבִּי עֲקִיבָא אוֹמֵר: מִיתָתָן בְּעֶשְׂרִים וּשְׁלֹשָׁה

A wolf or a lion, a bear or a leopard, or a cheetah, or a snake that killed a person: Their death is decreed by twenty-three judges. Rabbi Eliezer says these dangerous animals do not need to be brought to court; rather, anyone who kills them first merits the performance of a mitzva. Rabbi Akiva says: Their death is decreed by twenty-three judges.

This Mishnah is further analyzed in today’s daf, in a dispute between Resh Lakish and his brother-in-law Rabbi Yochanan:

סנהדרין טו, ב

הָאֲרִי וְהַזְּאֵב כּוּ׳. אָמַר רֵישׁ לָקִישׁ: וְהוּא שֶׁהֵמִיתוּ, אֲבָל לֹא הֵמִיתוּ – לָא. אַלְמָא קָסָבַר: יֵשׁ לָהֶן תַּרְבּוּת וְיֵשׁ לָהֶן בְּעָלִים. רַבִּי יוֹחָנָן אָמַר: אַף עַל פִּי שֶׁלֹּא הֵמִיתוּ. אַלְמָא קָסָבַר: אֵין לָהֶם תַּרְבּוּת וְאֵין לָהֶם בְּעָלִים.

The Mishnah had recorded a dispute with regard to the judgment of a lion and or a wolf: Does this judgment require twenty-three judges? Reish Lakish says: And that dispute concerns a lion or wolf that has killed a person. But if they have not killed, then no, they may not be executed. [Apparently, Reish Lakish holds that they have the capability of being tamed and domesticated, and consequently they might have owners, so it is not permitted to kill them without due cause.] And Rabbi Yochanan says: The dispute applies even if they have not killed. [Apparently, Rabbi Yochanan holds that they do not have the capability of being tamed, and therefore they do not have owners.]

According to Resh Lakish, a wild animal can be tamed, and therefore it is forbidden to kill them under normal circumstances (hunters and trappers, please note). But Rabbi Yochanan was more concerned about the dangers a wild animal could, one day, perhaps pose. He therefore allowed them to be killed wherever they are encountered (hunters and trappers, please note).

In that Mishnah on 2a, Rabbi Eliezer ruled that a wild animal that killed a person need not be judged by a court - anyone can (or perhaps should) kill it as soon as possible: “רַבִּי אֱלִיעֶזֶר אוֹמֵר: כל הַקּוֹדֵם לְהוֹרְגָן זָכָה.”

But Rabbi Eliezer was not trigger happy when it came to wild animals. He believed that they could be tamed and therefore be safe (ish) to be around. Here is a Mishnah in Bava Kamma, where Rabbi Eliezer expanded on his thoughts about whether wild animals can ever be tamed (as Resh Lakish also believed).

 בבא קמא טו,ב

הזאב והארי והדוב והנמר והברדלס והנחש הרי אלו מועדין רבי אלעזר אומר בזמן שהן בני תרבות אינן מועדין והנחש מועד לעולם

The the wolf, the lion, the bear, the leopard, the bardalis and the snake are considered to be forewarned [so that if they cause damage their owner must pay in full].  R. Eleazar says: if they have been tamed, they are not forewarned; the snake, however, is always forewarned.

So today, let’s talk about….

Wild Animals gone...Wild

In July 2012, while touring a hospital in Johannesburg, I was given a brutal reminder of the dangers posed by the wild animals we were about to see on safari. In the Intensive Care unit and fighting for his life was a young American named Andrew Oberle, who had come to South Africa to study the chimps. Oberle, a twenty-six year old student, had left the group he was guiding and entered a 'no-go' zone. Two chimps interpreted this as an act of aggression, grabbed the young American, and dragged him into their enclosure. By the time he was finally rescued, Oberline had suffered these injuries

The chimps tore away his scalp down to the skull. His ears and nose are gone, and he can’t close his right eye. He has wounds on his trunk and all four limbs. He’s lost most of his fingers, and his right forearm has been eaten, the tendons gone. He’s lost parts of his feet, and his right ankle is destroyed.

(Oberle survived his attack, and in December 2017 he talked about it on a podcast which you can listen to here.)

Then there was bear enthusiast Timothy Treadwell (who later became the subject of an excellent 2005 documentary by Werner Herzog).  Treadwell was a self-described bear conservationist, although he lacked any formal training in the field and was frequently at odds with the Park Service. In October 2003, Treadwell and his girlfriend were mauled and eaten by a Grizzly bear in Alaska's Katmai National Park. Thus far, two examples of wild animals acting, well, wild.  

What about training these wild animals to perform tricks?  Well, there's a cautionary tale in that, too. Do you recall the great illusionists Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn, the pair of magicians who became world famous for their performances with white lions? For over thirteen years Siegfried and Roy performed at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas, until um, they stopped. On October 3, 2003 Roy was bitten in the neck by a seven year old tiger named Manticore, who dragged him off the stage "like a ragdoll." He almost bled to death, and remains partially paralyzed as a result of the attack.  So how could Rabbi Eleazar possibly claim that animals as wild as a lion or a bear ever be considered tame or domesticated? Well, read on...

Domestication

The Encyclopaedia Britannica defines domestication as

the process of hereditary reorganization of wild animals and plants into domestic and cultivated forms according to the interests of people. In its strictest sense, it refers to the initial stage of human mastery of wild animals and plants. The fundamental distinction of domesticated animals and plants from their wild ancestors is that they are created by human labour to meet specific requirements or whims and are adapted to the conditions of continuous care and solicitude people maintain for them.

Thus we speak of domesticated horses and wild horses, domesticated bees and wild bees, and domesticated plants -(think tobacco, and corn)- and wild plants. What turns a species from a wild to a domesticated form is human patience and careful breeding. But the late professor of anthropology Charles Reed (d. 2000) wrote that many animals are naturally tame - or at least not afraid of human contact:

Among these are manatees, who may not even move aside as one swim among them; sea-otters, from whom one can take the young without any defense by the mother; various basking seals, elephant-seals and sea-lions, among whom (other than the males in breeding season) one can walk unconcerned, and whose young, if they've lost their mothers, will follow any human hoping to be fed; various of the porpoises and dolphins, who seem to have no fear of man, and even the great whales.

Can Wolves be Tamed?

The Mishnah we cited from Bava Kamma 15b stated that six species of animal can never be relied upon to have been domesticated. One of these is the wolf, which seems kind of reasonable, even allowing for the fact that our dogs are descended from them.  But wolves have also been successfully raised as family pets, (though you should probably check with your spouse before bringing home a wolf cub for the family). "Actually" wrote Charles Reed, "wolf pups reared as a group in Alaskan isolation or a single pup brought up with children and dogs in an urban family are wonderfully affectionate, social, dynamic, interesting, and of course intelligent fellow citizens." Which sounds rather like the opinion of Rabbi Eleazar, who believed that wolves, (and bears, lions and leopards) may be tamed so successfully that they end up about as aggressive as domestic goats.

Wild animals ain’t so wild, as shown again by a wild-caught penned wolverine in Alaska, which, within a few days of capture, was taking food from the hand...when the hand was empty, the wolverine gently, with its incisor teeth, held the lady’s fingertips without braking the skin.
— Charles A. Reed. Wild Animals Ain't So Wild, Domesticating Them Not So Difficult. Expedition 1986. 28 (2) 8-15.

A Pet Grizzly Bear called ben franklin

In the Mishnah in Bava Kamma Rabbi Eleazar spoke not only of a tame wolf - but of a tame bear.  While our modern sensibilities would be outraged at the notion of raising a wild bear as a pet, these sensibilities are, to be sure, modern indeed. In a charming article published in the American Naturalist in 1886, John Caton described the domestication of the grizzly bear. Just to remind you- a small grizzly bear weights 400 pounds and stands about six and a half feet tall. Now read on:

Among others he [a certain James Adams] fairly domesticated quite a number of the grizzly bear (Ursus ferox Lewis and Clark) with complete success. This is the largest and fiercest known of all the species, and it might be expected the most intractable or unsubmissive to human control, yet such appears not to have been the case.

The first specimens experimented with were two cubs, over a year old when caught, taken in Washington Territory, between Lewis and Clark's fork of the Columbia. They were brother and sister; the latter was retained by Adams, and his experiments were principally conducted on her, which he called " Lady Washington." She seems to have been the more tractable and submissive. The male he parted with to a friend, after he had received but the rudiments of his education. At first they were chained to trees near the camp-fire, and resisted all attempts at familiarity and kindness; then severity was adopted, until they finally submitted.

Soon after the male was parted with, and we have no account of his subsequent career. The female was always after treated with the utmost kindness, and in a few months became as tractable as a dog. She followed her master in his hunting excursions, fought for him with other grizzlies, and saved him from the greatest perils.

She slept at his feet around the camp-fire, and took the place of a most vigilant watch-dog. He taught her to carry burdens with the docility of a mule, and as she grew up her great strength enabled her to render him great assistance in this way.

Another bear of the same species he captured in the Sierras in California before its eyes were open, and raised it on a greyhound bitch in company with her own pup. This he called Ben Franklin, and proved more docile even than the first. He never found it necessary to confine in any way this specimen, but he was allowed to roam and hunt with his foster brother, the grayhound [sic]. They were inseparable companions, and seemed to have as much affection for each other as if they had been of the same species, Before he was full-grown, when his master was attacked by a wounded grizzly, he joined in the fight with such ferocity as to save his master's life, and though he was severely wounded in this contest, with careful nursing he survived, and ever after showed as much courage in attacking his own species as if he had not met with this severe punishment.

I know what you are thinking: grizzly bears are found only in North America, but bears in Israel were a species of the brown bear called Ursus arctos syriacus, or the Syrian Brown Bear. Well that's true, but it's not only grizzly bears that make cuddly pets; the same owner of Ben Franklin, the pet grizzly, also kept black bears (and who knows, perhaps brown ones too):

He found the black bear, when raised in camp, as readily domesticated as the grizzly, and as fond of his society, following him about the camp and through the woods with fidelity and attachment.

So there we have it. Evidence to support Rabbi Eleazar's opinion that many wild animals may become as domesticated as a dog or cat. But in today’s daf, Rabbi Eliezer clarifies that once these animals become a danger, domesticated or not, they are not given a second chance. So best to stick with dogs and cats as pets.  They take up far less space than the enormous, though very cute, grizzly bear.

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Sanhedrin 11b ~ The Tekufot

The Jewish leap year

The Jewish year usually contains twelve lunar months. In this page of Talmud we learn the reasons that the rabbis may add an extra month to the Jewish calendar, and proclaim a thirteen month leap year:

סנהדרין יא, ב

תנו רבנן על שלשה דברים מעברין את השנה על האביב ועל פירות האילן ועל התקופה על שנים מהן מעברין ועל אחד מהן אין מעברין

The rabbis taught in a Baraisa. We may intercalate a month and declare a leap year on account of three things: On account of the grain's ripening after the month of Nissan, on account of the fruit ripening after Shavuot, and on account of a season [tekufah] that is scheduled to begin in the wrong calendar month. We intercalate the year if two of these reasons are present, but for just one of these reasons we do not intercalate.

Let's look at the last reason. If the season is scheduled to being in 'the wrong month', the rabbis adjust the length of the year to bring it back into line.  Pesach must always fall in the Spring, so if the 15th of Nissan is part of the season of winter, we add another lunar month to the previous year and so push Pesach into Spring. 

The Solar Year, according to Shmuel

Here is the thinking behind this.  The rabbis of the Talmud, led by Shmuel, believed that a solar year was 365.25 days long, or 365 days and 6 hours. No more and no less. (This is also the length of the Julian calendar, adopted by Rome and all of Europe, including the Catholic Church.  It was the prevailing calendar in Europe, so Shmuel was in good company. ) Shmuel also believed that each of the four seasons was precisely one quarter the length of the solar year, or 91 days and 7.5 hours. Jewish tradition taught that the Sun was created on what would have been a Tuesday at 6pm. This time was also considered by the rabbis to have been the vernal equinox and the start of Spring in the first year of creation. Summer would therefore have started 91 days and 7.5 hours later, and fall another 91 days and seven hours after that.  The cycle repeats itself every 4 years, at which time the start of Spring will once again be at precisely 6pm, though not on a Tuesday. (It takes 28 years for the start of Spring to once again fall on a Tuesday at 6pm - and the next day is when we celebrate the rare event of Birkat Hachama. But I digress.)

Two Problems with Shmuel's Jewish Calendar

The first problem is that the solar year is not exactly 365 days and 6 hours in length. In fact it is 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds - or 11 minutes and 14 seconds shorter than the Julian/Talmudic year. That's a small difference to be sure, but it adds up to three days every 400 years.  As a result of this difference, Spring, as measured by the day of the equinox, kept falling behind. In the days of Julius Caesar it had started on March 21, but by 1582 it had fallen behind and coincided with March 11. To bring the calendar back on track, Pope Gregory XIII knocked ten days out of the calendar, declaring the day after October 4, 1582 to be October 15th.  He also instituted a leap year of one extra day every four years, (except for years divisible by 100).  Shmuel's calendar had no similar fix, and the start of Spring in that calendar is about two weeks away from the actual, measurable Spring equinox.  

Path of the sun as seen over the northern hemisphere. On June 21, the start of summer the sun is at its most northern position. On Dec 21, the start of winter, it is at its most southern position.    

Path of the sun as seen over the northern hemisphere. On June 21, the start of summer the sun is at its most northern position. On Dec 21, the start of winter, it is at its most southern position.    

 A second problem with Shmuel's calculation is that he attributed the same length to each of the four seasons, when in fact the seasons are not of equal length. This is because the earth does not revolve around the sun in a perfect circle, but instead has an elliptical orbit.  When the earth is closer to the sun it speeds up, and when it is further away it slows down.  In fact not one of the four seasons are 91 days and 7.5 hours in length. Here are the actual lengths:

Spring - about 92 days

Summer  - about 93 days

Fall - about 90 days

Winter - about 89 days

Shmuel's orderly system has no astronomical basis, and his seasons do not follow an orderly and predictable pattern. If you were to ask, "what happens in the sky at the beginning of Spring according to Shmuel?"the correct answer is nothing.  If you were to ask the same question of the actual day and time on which Spring begins, the answer would be "on that day and at that precise moment, the tilt of the earth's axis is exactly perpendicular to the sun."

Here are the actual start days of the seasons for this coming year, 2025 and their start according to the calendar of Shmuel.  

Start of the 2025 Seasons
Season Astronomical Shmuel
Times are for Jerusalem
Spring March 20
5:01 A.M. EDT
April 7
6.39pm
Summer June 20
10:42 A.M. EDT
July 8
2.09 AM
Fall September 22
2:19 P.M. EDT
Oct 7
9.39AM
Winter Dec 21
10:03 A.M. EST
Jan 6, 2026
4.09AM

Shmuel's calendar is pretty accurate, but over time, small discrepancies become larger.  Pope Gregory instituted a fix, but we have yet to do so. By not tweaking our Jewish calendar, the average date of the first day of Pesach is one day later every 216 years compared to the Sun, and one day every 231 years compared to the Gregorian date. This may not seem like a problem now.  But around the year 15,000 CE [sic] the first day of Pesach will occur on June 22, which is clearly not in the Spring. But I guess by then it will be somebody else's problem to fix.

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