Yevamot 72 - May 18, 17 Iyar

Study Guide Yevamot 72

Today’s daf is dedicated by Becki Goldstein in loving memory of Joe Aminoff, Yosef ben Reuven v'Leah. “Joe's way to extoll the glories of Hashem was to photograph His creations. Through his artistic and sharp eye for detail, his photographs of simple sights and scenes would translate into beautiful sublime paintings whether they were pictures of faraway places or landscapes of his beloved Gush Etzion. Every sunrise or sunset from a moving car felt like he was part of it and told a story coming alive as you witnessed it. He invoked in me feelings of "ma gadlu maasecha" with every new picture and for that gift I thank him. His photography books gracing his table during his shiva focused on his own personal journey for all to appreciate for that was the genuine quiet ish emunah he had become. Every scene depicts both a simple, beautiful and natural moment and at the same time he shares an intimate interpretation of what that picture meant to him and transcends to us, the observer. Blessed is his family left with all those beautiful picturesque memories, the legacy Joe left behind. Priceless. Yehi zichro baruch. 

Why didn't the Jews circumcise themselves in the desert? There are two possible answers - because they were weak from the traveling (or concern that at any moment they could be traveling) or because the pleasant Northern wind wasn't present while they were in the desert. Rav Huna rules that one whose forseskin is pulled down and it looks like he is uncircumcised can't eat truma by rabbinic law. Two tannaitic sources are used to raise difficulties against his position. One is resolved, the other is not. The Gemara delves more in depth into the second source which talks about a tumtum and his wife/slaves and whether they can eat truma. From where does he have wives if he is a tumtum? Rava and Abaye each offer a possible answer. Is Rav Huna's ruling a subject of debate among tannaim? Can an uncircumcised person sprinkle the red heifer waters?