Rosh Hashana 18

When are we judged?  How does G-d judge?  Amud (a) looks at our rabbis explanations of G-d's actions.  Of course, in my mind any attempt to understand G-d's actions is suspect; how can we possible understand something that is not in our realm of understanding?  Despite this gaping question, I'll present some of the rabbis' major points:

• prayer, Torah study and acts of kindness encourage G-d to change his decree (Avot 1:2)
• when two people are sick and both pray with one recovering and one remaining ill, what has happened:
• Rabbi Elazar: one prayed before the sentence and one prayed after the sentence was sealed
• Rabbi Yitzchak: crying out at any time can change G-d's sentence of an individual
• Gemara: we must consider the timing of the sentence and whether or not an oath was uttered
• Rabbi Yochanan told people to study Torah when they desperately asked for help because all family members died at age 18.  This strategy worked.  
• Of course, I wonder whether these family members had heart conditions that were aggravated by work that was physical in nature - Torah study would keep them alive!
• A 'stain' (sin) might remain even after it is washed (repented)
• We should repent when G-d is near (Isaiah 55:6)
• Does this mean that G-d judges us both individually and as a community?
• Does G-d "scan" us once; perhaps twice?  When? One by one, or all at once, or both?
• Are all of our hearts scanned as one heart?
• When is G-d near us?  The 10 days between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur (I Samuel 25:38)

Amud (b) begins with discussion about a new Mishna: "In the six months the messengers go out - Nisan, due to Pesach; in Av, due to the fast [of the 9th of Av];in Elul, due to Rosh Hashana; in Tishrei, due to the Festivals [of Tishrei: Yom Kippur and Sukkot], in Kislev, due to Chanukah; and in Adar, due to Purim.  And when the Temple was standing, they would go out  in Iyyar due to small Pesach [the second Pesach on the 14 of Iyyar for those who missed the offering on Pesach]."

The Gemara wonders about many of these statements. 

• As told in Zachariah 8:19, can fasts also be times of joy and gladness?
• When the Temple is standing and there is thus joy and gladness, do we fast because of persecution?
• Does the 9th of Av differ from other fast days because of the stringency around it?
• Is the death of the righteous equal to the burning of the Temple? (Zachariah 7:5) Are their fast days also equivalent?
• Should we be allowed to choose whether or not we participate in the fasts?
• The fasts are according to Akiva: 17 Tammuz, 9 Av, Fast of Gedaliah on 3 Tishrei, 10 Tevet
• There was conflict regarding what the fasts were marking, in which months, and whether they were mandatory
• Chanukah was different in many ways, including its popularity
• Megilat Ta'anit listed Festivals days when one cannot fast nor eulogize
• The rabbis debate about whether or not Megilat Ta'anit was nullified, as it was the first Masechet of the Oral Law to be written down.