Pesachim 68 a, b

Today's daf seemed somewhat longer than usual, and a number of interesting concepts were discussed. I won't share the details of those discussions, but here's an overview:

• Which ritual impurity is the worst?  The rabbis debate the similarities and differences between different sources of ritual impurity and their prescribed consequences.  In particular the rabbis are interested in how a ritual impurity might affect a person's ability to be present in the camp of the Divine presence and/or the camp of the Levites when the mishkan was the centre of our religious observance.

• We cut out the waste from the Paschal lamb's intestine.  We learn that the disgusting nature of this part of the sacrifice was threatening to the process of offering and thus must be removed.

• Once we begin to interpret Isaiah, we have to go all the way.  To explain the point above, Chiyyah bar Rav uses Isaiah 5:17, where the word mechim is translated as wicked; something with similar qualities to the stuff removed from the intestine of the Paschal lamb.  However, the rabbis elaborate on that full passage, making connections far beyond those first intended.  They transition to speaking passionately about the World-to-Come (hints about prophets who will indicate the messiah's arrival, everlasting - or, perhaps, just extended - life, differences for Jews and Gentiles, changes in the light of the sun and the moon, healing at the time of the messiah compared with healing in the World-to-Come, to name a few).  Of course, the rabbis pull in many other proof texts in this discussion.

• Time and place matter, particularly when removing warts from our sacrifice.  Different rules for moist and dry warts.  Different rules for inside and outside of the Temple.  Does a wart disintegrate?  When and where can we use an instrument (as opposed to our fingers) to remove a wart from the sacrificial lamb?  Why are our rules different for lambs and priests with warts?

• How and when do we rejoice on a Festival?  Since we are allowed to override Shabbat rules to sacrifice the Paschal lamb on Shabbat, and we are commanded to rejoice on Festivals/feasts (Deuteronomy 16:14), how do we behave on Festivals?  Does "to rejoice" really mean "to eat and drink"?  Or does it refer to the soul (Rav Sheshet)? Does it matter whether the Festival is Sukkot or Pesach or Purim or Shemini Atzeret -- or even the day before Yom Kippur (Mar ben Ravina)?  How do we balance the joy of eating/drinking with the joy of learning?

Far too much to capture.  Fascinating... and continually inspiring other questions.  Some off of the top of my head: how often did people lie about their state of ritual purity?  Why would we model our society after our time in the desert (ie. camps surrounding the mishkan) when the Temple service was in place -- and why would we continue to model our rituals after the Temple service after the Temple was gone?  Did the rabbis - and the rest of the community - ever question whether the World-to-Come existed? Why warts?  Why not tumours or dandruff or another ailment - did this indicate the ubiquity of warts?  How did people balance their attempts to control their appetites with the mitzvah to rejoice?  Were those who fasted excessively like Mar son of Ravina lauded for their discipline or chided for their failure to rejoice as commanded?

And those are just a few...