Avigail - Page of Pentacles

The Prophet Avigail in Tarot Yehudi by Betzalel Arieli suggests a very different meaning that the usual Page of Pentacles in European decks. The figure is shown as giving rather than receiving. It parallels the Aces in this deck, which show human hands engaged in the Havdallah ritual, rather than a divine hand offering gifts.

Daf Yomi

Talmud. So engaging, frustrating, and fascinating!

Were the rabbis artists, inspired to recall verses of Torah in connection with ideas in the Mishnah, and only later justifying the connections? Or was there a method of thinking that lead them to these connections?

Sefaria.org

I've been enjoying the first few days, but was surprised to find something pretty in the Talmud. (It's actually a quote from Proverbs...) "Mitzvah is a lamp, Torah is a light..." That seems to imply that our actions carry God's Torah into the world.

My friend, who introduced me to Daf Yomi, is frustrated by assertions in the Talmud that prayer only counts if it takes place in a shul. It seems that at least some rabbis didn't consider this assertion binding. Rabbi Nachman said, "When a person meditates in the fields, all the grasses join in his prayer and increase its effectiveness and power." The kabbalists of Tsfat, lead by Rabbi Isaac Luria, went out in the hills of Galilee as the sun was setting each Friday evening; we reenact this when we sing Lecha Dodi and turn toward the setting sun to greet the Shabbos bride. 

I can't begin to gather together all my questions about the content, however I do wonder why the Talmud seem to quote baraita, "outside material," more often than Tosefta, "supplementary material." (Capitalization per the English on Sefaria.) I could research that-- or I could finish reading yesterday's page...

I'd like to think poetically about Torah having been given with five voices, but again, I need to finish the page and move on to today's page.

This is taking much more than the 15 minutes a day that was promised! It's not easy to understand what's being said. I'm making an outline so at some point I may be able to see why we jumped from topic to topic. And I find it's often (but not always) important to look up the biblical verse being cited. For example, Psalm 94 does not say "happy is the one you afflict." It actually says, "happy is the one you instruct." So, the rabbis had already assumed that affliction and instruction were connected before they began discussing the verse.

I can't imagine myself continuing with this every day for the next seven and a half years, but I am tantalized.