חגיגה - Chagigah

Chagigah 3b ~ Werewolves, Lycanthropy, and Mental Illness

On the connection between depression and turning into a wolf.

Chagigah 4b ~ Pandemic Theodicy

Why do pandemics happen to good people?

Chagigah 12b ~ Rabbinic Cosmology and Rabbinic Allegory

On what does the world stand? God’s arms, or turtles?

Chagigah 13a ~ On the Origins of the Modern Hebrew Word "Chashmal"

How Ezekiel’s chashmal came to mean electricity in Modern Hebrew.

Chagigah 16b ~ Wrongful Executions

Rabbi Yehuda ben Tabbai applied the law mistakenly and executed an innocent man. Wrongful executions still happen.

Chagigah 27a ~ The Fireproof Salamander

Why the rabbis (and lots of other people) thought that the salamander was born in fire.