The Gemara discusses Jubilee (Yovel in Hebrew), the fiftieth year, on which we free all slaves, even those who chose to stay on after six years, and return ancestral lands to their original family.  This is a reminder that subjugation never lasts forever.  The default situation for human beings is freedom and independence.

Remember, slavery was considered normal and essential in the ancient world. In ancient Sparta, they had 70 slaves for each free citizen, while in classical Rome slaves were a third of the population. But being considered acceptable does not make a thing moral.

The Jewish concept of slavery was limited to men who stole or became debtors and could not repay the debt. Jewish civilization had no jail, the punishment was to earn the money and pay back the victim. However, even without working off their debt Jewish slaves were automatically freed on the next Sabbatical year, every seventh year (Exodus 21).

Unlike in other ancient societies, Jewish slaves had to be treated in a dignified and humane manner. Our sages rule that if there is one bed in the house then the “slave” gets to use it. He also receives parting gifts after his term (Deut. 15, Kidushin 17a). The Talmud quips “one who buys a slave in truth buys himself a master” (Kiddushin 22a).

In Jewish theology, every human being is made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). Therefore, no man should enslave or dominate another. Jewish slavery was humane and temporary, since every Jew is really a servant of God and should be free to do that job.

Please see our comparison of Jewish “slavery” to modern criminal “justice”.  The quotes on both are appropriate.

On today’s Daf our sages note that sometimes there were no slaves to free or lands to return, but that we still blow the Shofar to signify the Yovel year.  The language used is “שֶׁאֶפְשָׁר לָעוֹלָם בְּלֹא שִׁילּוּחַ עֲבָדִים” it is possible for a world without sending free slaves.

This hints to a greater concept.  Some men are “slaves” to an ideology, or a job, or even to another person.  Their life is so tied into this one thing that they cannot even imagine their world without it.

It is possible to live in a world like this, but in such a situation a man often loses his most valuable resource – his sense of self.  To live a rewarding life, a man needs to be free to work on his own chosen mission.  A man enslaved to anything else is working towards his someone else’s mission, not for himself.

The first step in a compromised situation is to realize your condition.  Start to rebuild your sense of self, think about who you are now and who you want to become, what you want to accomplish.  A man must gradually build himself up, and seek a greater degree of freedom.  But what is freedom?  The Gemara digs into the verse about the Yovel year:

“And you shall sanctify the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants; it shall be a Jubilee for you” (Leviticus 25:10).

Liberty in Hebrew is “Deror”.  Rabbi Yehuda said: What is the meaning of the word Deror? It is a man who dwells [medayer] in any place [dayara] and can sell his merchandise around the entire country.

So freedom is the ability to live wherever you want and do business wherever you want.

If a man is tied down to a specific place, with a certain employer, he is not really free, even if he has money in the bank and can afford to go on vacation.  A man who can be successful anywhere he chooses to be is free.  Such a man has broken away of whatever form of “slavery” was holding him back, and makes his own choices for his own benefit, wherever that leads him.

The same applies to a man who felt enslaved to an ideology or relationship. Once he realizes that he can live without it, he is free to choose his own destiny.  Such a man has broken away of whatever form of “slavery” was holding him back, and now makes his own choices for his own benefit, wherever that leads him.

With this freedom comes the responsibility to carefully consider your goals and ultimate mission in life. Once you are working for yourself, the only one holding you back is yourself.

The first Mishnah mentioned that the month of Tishrei contains the new year for years, and now our sages ask what that means.

Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak said: When the Mishnah says that the first of Tishrei is the New Year for years, this is regarding judgment, as it is written: “A land that the Lord your God cares for; the eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year until the end of the year” (Deuteronomy 11:12); meaning that from the beginning of the year judgment is passed as to what will happen at the end.

The Torah itself never actually tells us that Rosh Hashanah is the day of judgment, we learn that here, and support this concept from “Blow shofar at the New Moon, at the covered time for our Festival day.  For this is a statute for Israel, a judgment of the God of Jacob” (Psalms 81:4-5).

Rosh Hashanah, when we blow the shofar, is the day of judgement since on that day God judges the world for the whole year, and yet the Torah does not clearly state this, but merely hints at it.

There is a good reason for this.  If you focus on what God is deciding and why God does certain things in this world, you won’t get a clear answer.  Moses famously asked to understand God’s plan, why bad things can happen to good people and good things to evil people (Exodus 33: 18). 

God explained to him that as a mortal he would not be able to understand the whole picture (Talmud Brakhot 7a), and instead gave Moses a hint in a vision of God passing before him (34:6).  This was not a physical passing as God has no physical body or form, but instead a philosophical communication.

The point of Rosh Hashanah is not to focus on God’s judgment, but to work on our own exercise of judgment, especially self judgment.  Don’t spend your time questioning how God runs the world, instead think about how you run your own life.  And how you manage your own business, your family, time and money.

We are expected to work on emulating God, see Deuteronomy 28:9, see also 8:6, 13:5, 30:6.  This includes exercising rational judgment to improve our lives.  While God judges the entire world on Rosh Hashanah, a wise man is expected to judge his own life and actions every single day, to root out what he should strengthen and what to discard (see Mesilat Yesharim by the Ramchal, section 1).

Be the judge of your own deeds and character, and use your God-given intellectual abilities to improve your life and accomplish more.  In addition, when you honestly confront your own failings and work to improve, you will be less bothered when other people bring up any shortcoming you have.

 

The Talmud continues examining the various new years in Jewish law.  The new year for the animal tithe is the first day of the month of Elul, according to Rabbi Meir.  This is exactly one month prior to the month of Tishrei, the official new year (Rosh Hashanah).

The Gemara explains that Rabbi Meir bases his opinion on the fact that most animals become pregnant in the spring and give birth just before the month of Elul.  Therefore it makes sense to have all these animals be in the same cohort for tithing.

There is a deeper message.  Man has both an animal aspect, our physical body, and a purely spiritual intangible soul.  Many of us tend to invest more time and effort into feeding, clothing, entertaining and protecting our bodies than on developing our minds and personalities.

Elul, the month before Rosh Hashanah, is the time to evaluate your own inner animal, and think about if you are putting too much emphasis on the physical and not enough on your intellect and character.  Then when Rosh Hashanah arrives, you have already sorted out your animal needs and can focus on improving your intangible or spiritual qualities.

Judaism is not an ascetic faith that denies man’s physical nature and bodily urges.  After all, God put us into bodies He designed to have strong desires.  However, we understand that in order to succeed in life, a man needs to get his physical, animal side sorted out and under control of the mind.

The Talmud is describing the punishment for delaying vows, and brings an amazing statement that the sin is in the one who made the vow, not his wife:

It might enter your mind to say (she would be punished): Since Rabbi Yoḥanan said, and some say that it was Rabbi Elazar who said: A person’s wife dies because others demand of him money he owes and he is not able to pay, as it is stated about one who guarantees a loan: “If you have nothing with which to pay, why should he take away your bed from under you?” (Proverbs 22:27).

Here “bed” is a euphemism for his wife.  This man owes money, either since he stole and cannot pay back (as the Talmud in Zevahim says) or he made a vow and cannot pay it.  Our commenters in Zevahim explain that the wife is only punished when she had some part in this financial misdeed or benefited from it.

Keeping your word is a commitment, and so too marriage is a commitment.  A man breaking his commitment to pay his vow shows that he lacks the demanding level of commitment needed to sustain his marriage.  He also shows he is not a giving person, and makes promises he does not intend to keep.

We have a general concept in Jewish wisdom that people are not punished for the sins of others.  Therefore, the wife in question here must have had her own issues that made her worthy of being taken, but she was being kept alive in the merit of the benefits she brought her family.  When her husband demonstrates that he does not value commitment, including her commitment to him, it undermines that merit and makes her vulnerable.

The Talmud also questions if a woman is guilty of delaying her vow to bring an offering.  A woman is not required to appear at the Temple on the holidays, but is required to rejoice on the festivals.  The Gemara brings a debate over if her obligation to be happy is actually her husband’s responsibility – he has to gladden her.

Some of our sages state that the husband should make his wife happy by buying new clothing for her to wear on the festival.  It is interesting to note that one of the examples given is “bigde tzivonim” colored garments.  Women did not normally wear eye catching clothing our in the streets (see Brakhot 20).  Therefore this may refer to clothing the wife would wear when alone with her husband – lingerie.

We have discussed how a man should make an effort to help his wife feel attractive to him, which includes getting her proper clothing that will enhance their intimate life.  Tosafot here also points out that in the time of the Temple a husband would gladden his wife through lavish meals with meat from festive offerings and aged wine.  A man should enhance his marriage both through improving physical attraction and displaying that he can provide abundantly for the family.

The Talmud is analyzing the Mishnah’s statement that the first day of the month of Nissan is also the new year for festivals.  Our sages explain this means that if a man vowed to bring an offering to the Temple, he has a time limit to do so before violating the verse Deuteronomy 23:22 “When you make a vow to the Lord, your God, you shall not delay in paying it…”

On this topic we point out that if a man came to Jerusalem for a festival and did not bring his offering the first day, he can bring it for the entire week of the festival.  For the holiday of Shavuot which lasts only one day, he has the following week, because during the seven weeks between Passover and Shavuot we count both days and weeks.

Counting both days and weeks is an inspiring message.  A man can put real effort into work on himself but see absolutely no results after one day.  If he stays the course then after a week he will begin to notice he is changing.  When you are seriously trying to improve your life, you must make every day count. 

Do something for your own benefit and try to evaluate your performance every day.  However, if you don’t notice you are getting better then check in each week to see obvious gains.  If you are not growing in a certain area after a week, check in after a month.  If you have not improved, reevaluate what you are doing each day to accomplish your goals.

Our sages point out that even if a man delayed his offering, Deuteronomy 23:22 states that the man has a sin, but does not teach that the offering itself becomes invalid.  We know the our feeling of accomplishment is dampened when we delay or miss a deadline.  The job got done, but we don’t feel so good about it.

Letting a deadline pass is a great way to undermine your confidence in yourself.  Maybe you bit off more than you could chew, or did not plan on other things getting in the way.  Figure out why you did not stick to the timeline and fix it.

The Talmud discusses king Darius the Persian, and if he “soured” during his reign, which would impact from which Jewish month we count the years of his reign.  Our sages point out that Darius ordered supplies to be given to the Jewish Temple, but that he only gave on condition that his reign and his son’s reign would be successful.

Why is this a problem?

If someone does an act of charity on condition, then if they don’t get what they wanted as a reward they may question God, and possibly reject the concept that there is any reward for righteousness.

Rashi points out that there are people who, when they do not get what they wanted, will assume that some deficiency on their own part prevented this.  If you are such a man then you can indeed ask for specific things.  Not gaining the reward will not destroy your faith, and it may even inspire you to work harder and reevaluate yourself.

But when not getting what you ask for is going to undermine your faith, then you should not give charity on condition to get something in return.

How do you react when you don’t receive what you think you deserve?  Do you place the blame on others or examine yourself to see if you were even potentially worthy of the reward?

It is worth noting that sometimes God brings about a horrible punishment on someone by giving them exactly what they asked for.  Some people win the lottery or become famous only to eventually become miserable and suicidal drug addicts.

The best prayer is to ask God to give you what is good for you.  God knows what is really good for you in the long run.

The Gemara brings another proof about king Darius from Nehemiah 2:6, which mentions that the “shegel” was sitting next to his throne.  One sage explains that this shegel, which normally translates to consort or concubine, was a female dog that the king would lay with.

The Gemara notes that Psalms 45:10 states prophetically that Jews will have a shegel, so this should not be a dog.  Our sages explain that the Psalm means that the Jews will be attached to learning the Torah to the same degree that idolators were attached to their bestiality companions.

The Netziv (Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berli, 1816-1893) explains based on Deuteronomy 23:19 that the love the Jews have for learning wisdom is similar to how other people become attached to their beloved pet dogs.  Someone on the outside does not understand the depth of love and loyalty are involved.

The Malbim (Meir Leibush ben Yehiel Michel Wisser, 1809-1879) says that the “Shegel” in this case was actually the king’s mother, who advised him to assist the Jews.  It also be true could be that Darius was indeed consorting with a dog, or perhaps that he loved his pet dog so much he sat her next to the throne where the royal concubine should sit.

The practice of some ancient idolaters to sleep with female dogs could be the origin of the modern linguistic practice to use a word for female dog as an insult to a woman.

While working out which month is the “real” new year, the Talmud notes that Aaron the high priest died in the fifth month of the fortieth year from the Exodus (Numbers 33:38), which led to an attack in the Jews by Canaanites led by Sihon.

The Gemara explains that the clouds of Divine glory that had surrounded the Jewish camp departed when Aaron died (see also Taanit 9).  This is implied by Numbers 20:29 which states they saw that Aaron had died, but can also be read they, the Jews, were seen because Aaron had died.

The same verb for were seen is related to the word for fear.  The Jewish people were not only revealed to potential enemies, but they were now afraid since they had lost the clouds that had protected them in Aaron’s merit.

When a man is afraid, he becomes more vulnerable.  Having the mindset that you are likely to suffer actually invites suffering.  We see this in hypochondria, where someone believing they will get sick really becomes sick.  This is true in other areas of life as well: a man who sees himself as a failure more likely to fail.

This is an aspect of life you can work on.  Assuming that you are unfortunate or unlucky brings you more misfortune.  Constantly looking out for problems means you will see a lot of problems.  Be aware of these behaviors and actively work to change them.

It takes targeted work to focus your mind on the positive.  Think about your accomplishments, personal victories and positive attributes.

Modern mainstream culture often tells men to be vulnerable.  This is misleading advice.  While you must become aware of your weaknesses, both men and women innately respect and admire strength and accomplishment and look down on weakness

Mazal Tov on beginning a new tractate in the Talmud: Rosh Hashanah, the new year.  This volume focuses on the Jewish new year, called Rosh Hashanah.  Our first topic is a list of various dates of different new years and what practical application these dates have.

In addition to the Rosh Hashanah we celebrate as the new year, Jewish culture has a political new year for counting the reign of the king, a new year for animals and trees to allow tithing within the same year.

In modern life, we have a concept of making resolutions to improve in the new year.  This is based on the Jewish new year being a day of judgement, on which undertaking to do more helps with your judgement.

However, we see that there is more than one new year, with various dates of renewal for different areas of life.  If you missed your chance to improve when January arrived, that does not mean you can’t start right now.

You can actually begin renewing your goals and aspirations right now.  Don’t wait for a certain day or season, think today about your life mission and evaluate what you need to do today to help you accomplish your plans.

We conclude Beitzah with some teachings about objects following the domain of their owner.  If you have produce stored in another town, outside the boundary of where you can personally travel on a holiday, then other people cannot bring it to you.

If on the holiday you host guests from beyond the boundary, you cannot give them leftovers to being home.  The tangible items were yours before the holiday, and cannot leave the area you can travel to.  The common factor is that someone’s physical property follows their personal domain.

Jewish wisdom teaches that what you own is what you are supposed to have in order to succeed in life.  This has two practical ramifications.  First, don’t be jealous of what other men have.  If you needed to have something to accomplish your own personal mission, then you would have it.

Second, whatever you do have should be put to good use and not wasted.  A man who has only an extra $100 to invest should be as thoughtful with that as a day trader managing millions.  Everything you have was given to you and you are responsible to make effective use of it and not waste it.

This concept applies not only to physical possessions but also your time an energy.  You may only have time to read one book this month, make the most of it.  It is better to focus on one book or concept than to spread yourself thin.

Don’t be jealous of a man who can do 100 pushups while you can do 10.  Go ahead and do those 10 with pride, and build your own ability.

Mazal Tov gentlemen on completing Beitzah.

Looking back, we see that the unifying concept of Beitzah is how a man relates to objects around him on a Jewish holiday.  While holidays allow much greater use of items than Shabbat, there are still restrictions that often require planning ahead or designated certain objects or animals for holiday use.

The greater idea of this tractate is that a man must be mindful when he interacts with the physical world.

We study a Mishnah comparing coals and flame.  The key distinction is that a burning coal, or any fuel source, is tangible and potentially subject to restrictions on a holiday.  The flame itself is considered non physical, so we could utilize a flame belonging to the Temple or from a idolatrous source.

In Jewish wisdom, a flame stands for a flash of inspiration.  We all need inspiration to motivate us to achieve and grow.  However, if it is not connected to a source of fuel, inspiration quickly burns out and is gone.  Often we find ourselves trying to remember and recapture moments and events that gave rise to powerful feelings and energy.

When we have inspiration, we need to harness it.  Write it down, figure out how to make it lasting and practical.  A man may get a burning motivation to work out every single day without fail, only to have this last just a few days.  Maybe a more modest goal is sustainable and you can keep it going without exhausting your personal reserves.