Talmud study

I am back to Torah and Hebrew courses since two weeks now.
I made more time available to study the Mishnah and the Talmud.

I learnt, and you can laugh at me, that Moshe Rabbenu is Moses. I never thought that Moses could have a last name and he could have a biography. My mistake! :-)
I already heard that name but i thought that he was a great sage.
He was a former Egyptian prince and known as the authorship of the Torah. That made me intrigued totally because Egyptians and Jews are not a good match so far.

Before Sukkot, Paris 19ème, 2015, ©emmarubinstein

Before Sukkot, Paris 19ème, 2015, ©emmarubinstein

I enjoy the idea waking up every morning and to go to bed less stupid than in the morning.

I am not going to elaborate the Mishnah class. The teacher is nice and funny. He is a Lubaba. But it's more like a literal translation of the Mishnah we are studying. We can ask questions. I need more time to make a better opinion of this class.

I would like to talk about the Talmud class.
There are two teachers who teach that class.
I have been to a class about messianism taught by one of them. I stopped going because he has a big ego and he always talked about his wife. It bothered me a lot. I made some attempts to ask questions. Each time, he said that he will reply to me. He never did.
You can be a real fan of this teacher or not. There is no grey!

Father and daughter, before Sukkot, Paris 19ème, 2015, ©emmarubinstein

I chose the other one.
Last week, i was so excited by this class and also by the teacher.
He is a rabbi and a teacher, not surprising!
From a point of view of a woman or female, he is very attractive for me: tall and hair. He has something  very elegant in the way he teaches. He is manly. I can't give him an age but maybe between 45 and 55.
And ashkenazi. :-)

Beyond the attraction i could have, the interaction he gives us during the class is awesome.
First thing, he said to us: "I want to be honest with you. I don't think that you will be able to study the Talmud at the end of the year."
The complexity of the Talmud and a lack of knowledge are the main reasons, but he is here to give us some clues and a way of understanding things.

I should say that he is a modern rabbi. He is often joking.
We are studying the Chapter 7 about Shabbos and the sacrifices.
I was not really enthusiastic to the idea of studying sacrifices of animals as you know.

I feel useful when i am following this class.

He talked about the intimacy of the Talmud study. The transmission is the main thing.
The difference between the study of the Torah and the study in secular school is that there is no beginning in the study of the Torah. Everything has the same value. That's disturbing.

There is a distinction between obligations and interdictions. For Kippur, there is no interdictions of not eating, but it said: "You will mortify yourself".
365 interdictions, and 2 obligations : circumcision and Pessah sacrifice.

Now, imagine the classroom. All the women around the rabbi.
You can talk at anytime, that's an open discussion.
But if you reply "Yes" or "No", you have to argue. He is a great listener. You can ask him lots of questions. he will take the time to reply to you. If he doesn't know nothing, he will tell us.
He makes us think and he makes himself think with our questions.
That's how i see useful education.

Before Sukkot, rue des Rosiers, Paris 4ème, 2015, ©emmarubinstein