Shabbat 114: How to be a Good Torah Scholar, Priestly Responsibilities

We are told that Torah scholars should behave in very specific ways, especially in the public domain.  He should not go into the market place in patched shoes, for example. And when it is said that Rabi Acha bar Chanina do this very thing, we are told that the actual prohibition is on wearing shoes with a patch upon a patch.  

Torah scholars can't wear clothing that is stained with fat or blood, nor can they be naked or barefoot.  However, naked is interpreted as wearing tattered clothing, and barefoot refers to patched shoes.  Torah scholars should not use a donkey's saddle that is stained.  Torah scholars are considered to be bonim, builders, who are leaders in the community.  Such a Torah scholar will have lost objects returned to him based on visual identification alone.  A Torah scholar who is appointed as a leader in the community is one who is asked about halacha on any topic and is able to answer, even if about masechet Kalla, and he is able to answer.  Rabbi Yochanan says that if one is an expert in a single masechet, he can be a leader.  But if he is an expert in all of his learning, he may be appointed head of the yeshiva.

What are the garments mentioned in the Mishna, asks Rabbbi Shimon ben Lakish?  One cannot be buried in white garments, for one might be acquitted in judgment and with the wicked like a groom amount mourners.  And not in black, because one might be acquitted in judment and like the righteous like a mourner among grooms.  Instead, one should be married in the clothing of the bath attendants, which is red.  However, they wear white undergarments which might have been Reish Lakish's intention.  

At the end of today's daf, the rabbis turn back to an earlier converstaion about vows and free-will offerings offered on a Festival.  If sacrifices that fulfill vows can be postponed to a weekday but are brought on a Festival, the fats from Shabbat can also be offered on a Festival.  Yom Kippur is still a prohibited day regarding sacrificing the fats from Shabbat on a Festival that follows it.