About this episode
Siyum Chagiga & Moed is sponsored by the Ahuza Women's Shabbat Shiur in loving memory of Rabbanit Dr. Naomi Cohen, who passed away on Sunday February 13. "She was a woman ahead of her time. She taught a Gemara class to women in Haifa, starting in 1978, way before any other class of women studying Talmud. Courageously, she made Aliyah alone at the age of 19, right after the war of independence. She was a university professor, a mother, a founding member of Kolech, an educator, and also a rabbanit: the wife of the chief rabbi of Haifa Sha'ar Yeshuv Cohen. Our study group, who had the great honor to study with the Rabbanit on Shabbat afternoons, and in some cases, learn with her Gemara, believe that sponsoring a siyum in her memory a fitting tribute to an amazing woman. May all women studying at Hadran find Rabbanit Dr. Naomi Cohen a role model and may her memory be a blessing to all." Siyum Chagiga & Moed is sponsored by Michael Fishbane and sons, Eitan Fishbane and Elisha Russ-Fishbane in honor of Mona Fishbane's 75th birthday. "With gratitude to Michelle Farber for the wonderful daily podcasts which guide Mona on her daf yomi journey." A verse is brought from Ezekiel 41:22 to show that the table is considered wood even though it is covered in gold. The verse there opens by calling the table "altar" and ends by calling it a table. We can learn from here that when there is no Temple, the table is our altar, meaning opening our table to guests, etc. is our way to receive atonement. All the vessels in the Temple have substitute vessels other than the altars as they are considered like the ground. From where is this derived? The rabbis said the altars are covered and therefore didn't have substitutes. The Gemara tries to understand that cryptic line and suggests some other possibilities as to how to read it. The Masechet ends with two different statements about types of people to whom the fire of hell does not reach – either Torah scholars as their bodies burn from the fire of Torah or the sinners of Israel as despite their being sinners, they all full of mitzvot/good deeds like a pomegranate is full of seeds. Hadran Text for the Siyum