Halakhah for Shabbat 19:4

מאימתי התחלת דין רב ירמיה ורבי יונה חד אמר משיתעטפו הדיינין וחד אמר משיפתחו בעלי דינים ולא פליגי הא דעסקי ואתו בדינא הא דלא עסקי ואתו בדינא

Said he, They forsake eternal life and occupy themselves with temporal life.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' They spend time in prayer which might be more usefully employed in study: the former, which is a petition for health, sustenance, etc., he called temporal life — not with great exactitude, as it also contains prayers for knowledge, repentance, and forgiveness. This is interesting as shewing the high place occupied by study as a religious observance in itself, ');">⁹</span> But he [R. Hamnuna] held, The times for prayer and [study of the] Torah are distinct from each other. R. Jeremiah was sitting before R. Zera engaged in study; as it was growing late for the service, R. Jeremiah was making haste [to adjourn]. Thereupon R. Zera applied to him [the verse], He that turneth away from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Prov. XXVIII, 9. ');">¹⁰</span> When is the beginning of a lawsuit? R. Jeremiah and R. Jonah one maintains: When the judges wrap themselves round;<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' In their praying shawls (tallith), that they might be duly impressed with the solemnity of dispensing justice, ');">¹¹</span>

Explore halakhah for Shabbat 19:4. In-depth commentary and analysis from classical Jewish sources.