Doing the Daf summary #1

To see this picture debunked, see here

So, it has been about a week of learning Daf Yomi. Over at my Daf Yummy blog, I've posted the following. Check them out:

Berachot daf 2: From what time does one say Shema בערבין? Considering all the different times given in braytot, and then trying to find a common theme.

Daf 3: Three watches -- Go and look! How can you have a machlokes in metzius of when each of the signs of watches occur, if they are meant to be reliable signs? Plus, the significance of having such signs, and parallels in the ancient world.

Rabbi Yossi ben Chalafta in a ruin in Yerushalayim: How the bat kol could be his inner voice, and the dispute between Radak and Ibn Ezra about whether Eliyahu Hanavi is indeed wandering among us. In the comment section, jake points out a relevant Abarbanel.

Why not enter a ruin to pray? And the reality of shedim, and rationalist and non-rationalist reasons in the gemara.

Daf 4: Whereas my hands are soiled with the blood [of menstruation] -- David Hamelech had a great merit in permitting wives to their husbands, yet today, we follow Zoroastrian ritual law, adopted as minhag and then as law, to forbid wives to their husbands. The Karaites have a strong point here.

Daf 5: Rationalist and non-rationalist reasons for Shema on one's bed.

Daf 6: Failure to return a greeting as גְּזֵלַת הֶעָנִי -- not as a pauper, but of an answer. Baruch shekivanti! It turns out that the Gra suggests the same.

Daf 7: Is it not good to punish a Sadducee? A delicious insight into the prooftext, but it is spoiled when we realize that we are most probably not with a Sadducee but with a Christian.

Daf 8: To each his own: Learning daf yomi during krias haTorah, as an optimal practice?

Daf 9: Kestrel of the sun-- It is hanetz hachama, never netz hachama! (I initially misidentified it as vulture; my bad.)