Welcome to new students, and welcome back to returning students!
I am excited to be learning gemara with you! You may have noticed (and this is for the first time in WebYeshiva history) that my gemara shiur and Rabbi Brovender’s are not learning the same masechet. This means that in theory a student can study in both classes without experiencing overlapping material. It is part of our effort to adapt to the needs of the online learning community and the demand for variety.
In this course we will be continuing to study Masechet Avodah Zarah as we did in the previous semester, but we are moving forward to chapter 2, where the gemara discusses certain prohibitions of food produced by עובדי עבודה זרה. This material is actually part of the large body of halacha that has to do with kashrut, what we generally call “issur ve-heter”.
We will begin in this shiur with mishnayot of Perek ב. After that we will begin studying the gemara and rishonim from the mishna on Daf 29b.
As usual, we will emphasize a methodological approach to understanding the text of the gemara itself, and look for insights into the approaches of the rishonim printed on the page, namely Rashi and Tosafot.
Looking forward to studying with you!
Yitzhak Zuriel