Sotah 33 - May 1, 10 Iyar

Today's daf is sponsored by the Lebi family in honor of Maytal Melamed for finishing her year-long study of Masechet Megillah as part of her bat mitzvah preparation. "We're very proud of you!"

Prayer can be said in any language as it needs to be meaningful and understood, as we are asking God for mercy. However, Rav Yehuda said that one cannot pray in Aramaic as the angels don't understand Aramaic! A distinction is made between individual prayer, where an angel is needed to bring the prayers to God, and prayer in a public forum which goes directly to God. A difficulty is raised against Rav Yehuda as a story is told of a heavenly voice that spoke from the Holy of Holies in Aramaic on two different occasions. Two possible solutions are suggested. Verses are brought to show how we derive that the other cases listed in the Mishna can be said in any language. The Mishna had derived from the case of the blessings and the curses that when the Torah uses the wording "and they answered and they said" it means it must be said in Hebrew. From here they derived the law for chalitza and bikurim. But from where do they derive that the blessings and the curses needed to be said in Hebrew only? There was a debate regarding the derivation for chalitza. How does each deal with the proof from the verse of the other opinion? What are the different opinions about the location of Mount Grizim and Mount Eival? How does each one explain the description of the location in Devarim 11:30? What did Rabbi Elazar b'Rabbi Yosi claim to the Shomronim (Kutim) against their traditions regarding the location of Mount Grizim and Mount Eival? How exactly did the Jews cross the Jordan River on their entry into Israel?