Matmonim: Daf Yomi by Rabbi David Lapin

There are two dimensions in the mitzva of peru u’revu (have children): One is specific to the Jewish people, the other is a universal obligation of humankind to cultivate civilization.

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The primacy of the right hand (or leg) over the left, is a factor in hilchot tefillin, halitza and in avodat beit hamikdash. Does a leftie have a mum (disqualifying imperfection)? What about someone who is ambidextrous? Is a mum a function of appearance or of impaired capacity? According to the Rambam and rabeinu Gershon, impaired capacity (compared to the norm) in a visible organ or limb, is a mum.

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Chosenness applies not only to the sacrifices we bring (מבחר נדריכם) and the mitzvot we do מצוות מן המובחר)). Yisrael itself was chosen. However once chosen, chosenness needs to be preserved or it can be lost. Shmirat hamitzvot preserves Jewish chosenness, Jewish sanctity.

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Beauty and wholeness are aspects of the object. Being the best, the qualitative dimension, is an aspect of the individual bringing the korban, not the korban itself.

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The measures for beauty and wholeness in korbanot, are objective. Quality is a comparative idea.

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We cannot add to or reinforce our assets by drawing on that which belongs to others.

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In our superficial society appearance is often seen as more important than wholeness. In Torah this is not so. Wholeness is what always counts, appearance only sometimes.

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Self interest makes it impossible to be sure of deep intention.

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Intentionality of the agent transforms his action from that of an agentic robot to a human action.The intentionality of the owner makes that action his.

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When we create an opportunity by doing something wrong, the opportunity itself becomes un-kosher.

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An object owned by a Jew is subject to more halachot than one owned by a non-Jew, and is therefore part of a higher system of kedusha.

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Often we find that principles of spirituality and of economics overlap. That is an indication of their Truth. The value of things is expressed not only by how we handle them but also by the price we are willing to pay for them.

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The seller of a cow that has not previously given birth is conflited between preserving the price by not revealing the fact to the buyer, and the piety of potentially causing the buyer to transgress by eating kodshim outside the beit hamikdash. Can the buyer rely on the seller’s piety? The Rambam and the Rosh disagree (as do the Shulchan Aruch and the Ramah in 316)

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Intimacy within the system of the human couple is more natural than it is for random male and female animals in a herd.

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The key to understanding the special status given to the first born in the Torah and its linkage to yetziat mitzrayim (the Exodus from Egypt), lies in the truthfulness of translation.

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Our hurried lives focus on getting things done. But growth happens from doing the right things not just from getting them done. This is especially true with respect to Torah and Mitzvot.

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The Gemarra explores the statistical chances of exact coincidence both in nature and in humanly engineered events, and our ability to measure it. It emerges that the human capacity of certainty and exactitude is inherently limited.

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Although the Torah is critical of a person who protects his assets against the rights of the kohein to the redemption of his first born donkey, nevertheless the Torah itself is protective of a person’s money wherever possible.

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The instruction to behead an unredeemed first-born donkey is one of the stranger ones in the Torah. Yet in it we will appreciate the depths of the Torah’s understanding of the extent of human meanness and its root cause.

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