Today's daf focuses on my one of my favourite parts of the Talmud: the grey. The in-between, the undefined. Not black and not white. So much of the Talmud is an attempt to create and define clear lines designating the differences between this and that. But what of those things that live in the grey? And what of those of us who strive to live in the grey?
When a vow or an oath is unclear, are we stringent and demand that that promise be kept? Or are we lenient, allowing for error? The rabbis examine this question in a number of ways. One of those involves an animal called a koy. It is unclear what a koy is, exactly. It seems to be considered part wild and part domesticated animal. However, whatever it is, it is 'grey'. And so if a person makes a vow regarding all of their wild/domesticated animals, what is done about the koy?
The rabbis even created genders to capture (literally?) the reality of different bodies. If it exists, it was intended by G-d and thus it is our job to understand, to classify, and to create boundaries around it. But the rabbis were brilliant. They must have known at a very deep level that they could not classify everything and everyone. There would always be grey.
The study of vows and oaths and other promises is not particularly engaging. It is repetitive and logical and, to me, boring. But the introduction of this confusion is meaningful to me.
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