Megilla 26 Does Sanctity Last? Creating - and Discarding - What is Meaningful

Based on a new Mishna, we learn about two issues today.  First, the rabbis discuss village shuls that are to be sold. Does a synagogue maintain its sanctity after being sold?  Are we permitted to sell a synagogue or other things that have been imbued with sanctity?  The second discussion focuses on sanctity in general.  Do items lose their sanctity?  Which items?  How can we reuse articles that protected G-d's name?  Does anyone own property in Jerusalem?

Although the specifics of the rabbis' conversations are fascinating, today's daf stirs up questions about today's practices of ownership, sanctification of animate objects, and the nature of holiness. 

Can an item hold on to its sanctity?  Why would some items maintain their quality of holiness while others can not?  

I have wondered about the seder plate.   The maror, the beitza, the charoset - these foods became much larger than foods during the seder. They were metaphors, representations of our physical, psychological and emotional states.  The meaning imbued upon those foods created a sanctity; a power surrounding them.  And at the end of the seder, what are we to do - throw them into the compost with other wasted food?  I have been told in the past to hold on to those items, watch them wither, and note when and how their meanings change over time.  According to today's daf, though, we should be composting those foods without a second thought.  They are not directly protecting the name of G-d, and thus they lose their sanctity at the end of the seder.

When the rabbis worry about selling a synagogue in a village, they are not worried about the potential desecration of a sacred place.  They are concerned that a publicly owned property might be sold without the consent of the myriad of owners/community members.  

The rabbis do note that an old or broken synagogue should not be torn down until a new synagogue has been built.  This can become problematic if the new synagogue is being constructed using materials from the old synagogue.

The idea of sanctity is particularly fraught with challenges within Jewish thought. Other than G-d's name, we are not to think of sanctified objects as particularly powerful.  That fleeting power suggests that we are the ones who create holiness with our intentions and our conscious use of items.  

G-d's name is different - and so Torah scrolls and anything used to protect the words written in Torah are to be used with great care.  When old or broken, those items must be reused in a role that is similarly sanctified.  For example, Torah covers that protect G-d's name can be ripped and used to cover the body of one without means who has died.  But frayed fringes on a tallit need not be buried; they did not protect G-d's written name and thus they can be discarded.

Today's daf is exactly what I hoped to learn when I began learning Talmud.  Hopefully tomorrow's learning will continue along this line of questioning!