Swarthmore Beit Midrash

Next Friday from 11am - 1pm we are hosting an open house with bagels - visit our space in Bond hall and enjoy some bagels!

The Beit Midrash (located in Bond) is a center for the study of Judaism, Jewish history, and Jewish culture in their broadest expressions. We strive to facilitate conversations that explore—and expand—the boundaries of what Judaism is, who Jews have been, and who Jews are.

Anyone can attend this event.

For those who, in this exceptional time of crisis, are thinking in fours for tonight and tomorrow night:

I’ve been throwing these two together in my head:

CONSIDERING how common illness is, how tremendous the spiritual change that it brings, how astonishing, when the lights of health go down, the undiscovered countries that are then disclosed, what wastes and deserts of the soul a slight attack of influenza brings to light, what precipices and lawns sprinkled with bright flowers a little rise of temperature reveals, what ancient and obdurate oaks are uprooted in us in the act of sickness, how we go down into the pit of death and feel the waters of annihilation close above our heads and wake thinking to find ourselves in the presence of the angels and the harpers when we have a tooth out and come to the surface in the dentist's arm chair and confuse his 'Rinse the mouth—rinse the mouth' with the greeting of the Deity stooping from the floor of Heaven to welcome us—when we think of this and infinitely more, as we are so frequently forced to think of it, it becomes strange indeed that illness has not taken its place with love, battle, and jealousy among the prime themes of literature. Virginia Woolf “On Being Ill”

And:

Rav Anan said that Rav said: From where is it known that the Holy Blessed One supports the one who is sick? As it is stated: “God will support them on the bed of illness” (Psalms 41:4). It was also taught in a baraita: One who enters to visit the sick person should not sit on the bed or on a chair; rather, they should wrap themselves [in a tallit] and sit in front of the one who is ill—because the Shekhinah dwells above the head of the one who is sick, as scripture states, “God will support them on the bed of illness” (Ps. 41:4). Bavli Shabbat 12b

Inspired by Berakhot 27a-b

Daf Yomi: until midnight. Others: until evening. Rabbi says halfway between evening and midnight. The strict ones: one should finish by sunrise. Masters of Shields (!): there is no fixed time.
From when [can one begin] Daf Yomi? From the hour before children awaken. From the hour after the children go to school. Midday. Evening, For there was evening and morning one day. Four hours after the young children go to bed. 2 hours after a boy 13 years and 1 day goes to bed. An hour and a half after one’s partner goes to bed. Immediately after packing the kids lunches for the morrow—or is it already the day. From midnight.
It happened once that a woman, an androginos person, and a tumtum were learning the Daf. And some say they were with a person who is hearing impaired, a minor, and a half-enslaved half-free person.
A rabbi passed by and said “You are causing the Divine Presence to depart from Israel.” The HolyOne said, “You are strengthening the bond between Me and Israel.”

Midnight?! The beginning says [one has until] midnight [to finish Daf]. And the end [later in the passage] says one begins at midnight?! And it also says midday. How do I know that midnight [means midnight and] not midday and midday [means midday and] not midnight? And if one can end at midnight and begin at midnight, how does this differ from those that say there is no fixed time?

From the hour the children awaken? What is meant by this? Do [my own] children exist? [i.e., is their presence in the household of any impact on my life?].
What time does a young child go to bed? If you say at eight o’clock and so and so said in the name of so and so that a boy 13 and one day old goes to bed at ten o’clock then four hours after one and two hours after the other is the same. And moreover, isn’t that midnight? And if the partner goes to bed at 10:30, as so and so in the name of so and so daughter of so and so taught—again midnight?!

And when does one pack the lunches? If it is at the moment where the days [today and tomorrow] meet is that not midnight? Learn from this.

[A contradiction is brought from the same passage]: Evening. For there was evening and morning one day (Gen. 1:5). A day begins at evening. So how can one say midnight?! This is a difficulty.

According to those who say there is no fixed time. Isn’t it said, The day consists of twelve hours; during the first three hours the HolyOne is occupied with Torah study. When does the day begin for the HolyOne. If you say here teaches [the day begins with the] morning. But you say evening? For their was evening. Is it not obvious? [Midnight.] Does the day even begin for the HolyOne. And, Behold the one who watches Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep (Ps. 121: 4). Does sleep determine a new day? For their was evening. But At midnight I will rise (Ps. 119: 62) — the day begins at midnight.

And one should finish at sunrise. If you finish at sunrise must you begin at midnight? Rather, begin at halfway between midnight and sunrise. For those who maintain one may begin at evening, if they began halfway between the afternoon and evening do they need to learn it again [when evening comes]?

A woman, a tumtum and an androginos person...and some say...were learning [daf yomi].
When it came time for them to recite Shema, the hearing impaired person recited first: Hear O Israel.
What chapters [were they learning]? Of how the sages once removed a nasi (president) for excessive cruelty and abuse of power. This is obvious.