After a brief teaching discussing the issue of the Torah that Moshe received, the Gemara continues teaching that there is a great power to reading the Keriat Shema before one goes to sleep. Two unrelated issues (on the surface at the least!) but then this is the way of the Talmud – to jump from one issue to another within just a sentence.
It’s as if if the previous point has no relationship with the new concept. It’s for us to learn what we can from each discussion – or perhaps if we are able to, to find a way to unite different parts of the unrelated issues…
Our page discusses the issues of pain and suffering. Why do we suffer? Why does God punish us? Did we have to do something wrong in order to receive a particular punishment, pain or suffering in our lives? Is there a way we can work out what we might have done wrong? If not, could it be that God punishes for another reason known only to Him?
If so, why would He do that?! Perhaps there is more that happens in life than what we can see with our eyes? If there is another world when we leave this world, perhaps the sufferings we undergo now will be understood then!
We learn about the importance of Torah study on our page. It’s a must. We need to involve ourselves in it as much as we can because ultimately, it is here where we can understand more about life and what it is that God wants from us. We are studying from the beautiful Koren Talmud Bavli written by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz.
You can see the text on the screen together with me just as it appears in the original. We learn at a pace so that everyone can follow the discussion, hear the points being discussed and even learn some of the vocabulary and how to learn the Gemara itself. There’s time for Halachah, biographies and general discussion. We’re not in a rush to get through the Daf Yomi. Instead, we focus on learning the Gemara so that we can come away with a message that speaks to us for our entire lives.
