Various psalms mention this “new song”, but then the same old psalm follows. The solution: just as you can’t step into the same river twice, you can’t sing the same song twice. Every time a song is sung, it is different in intensity, stirs different airwaves and different emotions. So, there is no such thing as a “same song”. All songs are new.
As we read daf after daf and are taken on this amazing journey we can’t even start to think about learning that what we read in just over 7 years, when we read it for a second time and see new things in what we are reading now as we gained more insights and have more experience in dissecting and understanding the discussions.
The daf is ruthless and the daf is applicable, even though we don’t learn the applicable laws of today. And todays Daf is no different. First of all: Rabbi Eliezer makes a distinction between holy and holy. Suppose you have a business meeting with an informal meeting afterwards. Do the same rules apply? Not according to Eliezer. And what do we make of the beraita that teaches that four rabbis agreed with Eliezer, but one of them may be someone else and two of them possibly didn’t agree. Leaving only Eliezer to agree with Eliezer. How often didn’t that happen to you? “Everyone agrees with you”, but in the end you will lack support. It only shows how to have to foster support and how we are all prone to mistakes.
The question is not if I can take anything away from these dapim that I can put into practice; it is how I can use the dappim to get me through the day and see that what I see like I see it with more depth. Like I see it for a second time.
