A met mitzva is a commandment done to honour the dead. One will become ritually impure for performing a met mitzva, but that mitzva is required regardless. The Gemara discusses whether or not this might be a general principle but decide that a principle cannot derive from something that overrides a Torah prohibition when that prohibition is contravened.
Why did miracles happen in the past but not now, asks Rav Pappa to Abaye? We do so much more than others in our study and our practice, but we have no miracles. Abaye says that the previous generations were wholly dedicated to the sanctification of G-d's name, unlike us. A story is told about Rav Adda bar Ahava who ripped a forbidden mixtured garment from a non-Jewish woman when he thought that she was Jewish. Taken to court, he was ordered to pay four hundred zuz for her humiliation, and he pointed out that her name was Matun, and the Aramaic word for two hundred, matun, is worth four hundred zuz.
Rabbis were said to degrade themselves in a desire to glorify G-d. Rav Giddel would sit at the gates of the women's mikva sites and instruct them about proper immersion. When asked about his evil inclination, he replied that to his eyes women were like white geese. Rabbi Yochanan also went to these gates. He said that when the daughters of Israel leave their immersion, "they will look at me and have children as beautiful as me". Don't you fear the evil eye for your immodesty, asked some? He said that he was descend from the seed of Joseph and thus he was immune to the evil eye. There is a proof text from Genesis (49:22) where Joseph is compared with a bountiful vine on a spring. The word for "spring" can be the word for "eye", and it is a simple homiletic twist for us to understand that Joseph transcended the evil eye.
A new Mishna teaches us that women, slaves and minors who have parallel obligations in many mitzvot are exempt from reciting the Shema and from laying tefillin. They are obligated in prayer, mezuza and Birkat haMazon, Grace After Meals.
The Gemara notes that the Shema is a time-bound positive mitzva and the halacha principle is "Women are exempt from any time-bound, positive mitzva". We learn that this is noted in particular in case people think that women are required to say the Shema because it says that we accept the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven.
The Gemara teaches us that the mitzva of tzitzit is next to the mitzva of mezuza (Deuteronomy 6:8 and 6:9), both mitzvot might be thought to be required for women to perform. However, our Mishna teaches that women are exempt. Thus women are exempt from this mitzva even though this goes against a principle.
Why are women, slaves and children obligated in prayer? Even though it would seem to be a time-bound mitzva, the Sages decide that prayer is not time-bound and thus everyone is obligated. And why are we obligated in the mitzva of mezuza? Because of the juxtaposition of the mitzva of Torah study with the mitzva of mezuza (Deuteronomy 11:19-20). Finally, we're told that women must recite Birkat HaMazon because meals are not in fact time-bound, despite Exodus (16:8), "...meat to eat in the evening and bread in the morning...".
The rabbis argue about how women are obligated to observe and remember Shabbat. We are obligated to recite the kiddush not by Torah law but by rabbinic law, says Rava to Abaye. Women are required to observe Shabbat, so we are also requred to remember Shabbat through reciting kiddush. The general principle is that one who is not obligated to fulfill a particular mitzva cannot fulfil the obligations of the many in that mitzva.
A new Mishna teaches that Ezra the Scribe decreed that one who is impure due to a seminal emission cannot engage in matters of Torah until he had immersed in a mikva. This halacha was accepted for years, but our Mishna considered the time for the recitation of Shema. If one is ritually impure at that time, he is permitted to contemplate the Shema in his heart but he cannot recite it or the surrounding prayers. When eating food, one only says the blessing after but not the blessing before, which is rabbinic in origin. Rabbi Yehuda said that in all instances one recites a blessing before and after in the cases of the Shema and in the case of food.
Our Gemara asks if contemplation is the same as speech. What is the difference between thought and actual speech? The Gemara tells us that we should be reminded of Sinai. And Rav Chisda says that contemplation is not the same as speech, They discuss what it means to sit idly while all others say the Shema. We should not engage in the study of something different just because we are ritually impure. Instead, Rav Adda bar Ahava taught that one should engage in a matter n which the community is engaged.
That last statement is a perfect proof text for the creation of Daf Yomi - the world-wide study of Talmud together.
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