פירוש על עבודה זרה 15:16

The Talmud now suggests that the dispute between R. Joshua and R. Eliezer was really connected to whether we learn from Moses’s behavior. Moses first praised God and then he asked for his needs. R. Joshua says that we too should act in the same manner. But R. Eliezer says that Moses is different. His greatness allows him to sincerely praise God first. But with any other human being, it is better to simply first ask for one’s needs.

While one generally asks for one’s needs during “who hears prayer,” it is permitted to add on to each blessing personal requests connected to the theme of that blessing. Thus, for instance, if one had a test, one could add a request to have the wisdom to do well on the test, at the end of the blessing for wisdom.

Hiyya b. Ashi adds in some good opportunities to recite other supplications for common needs.

One can also pray after prayer. This is what many people do today, since it is probably a bit easier than interrupting in the middle of the mandatory prayers.

Kalenda, from which the English word calendar derives, refers to the first day of the month, and especially to the first day of the year. Saturnalia was a popular Roman holiday on the 17th of December, dedicated to the god, Saturn. Kratesis, which was on the first of August, commemorated the day that Augustus conquered Alexandria in Egypt. Note that I have used the names of these holidays as Albeck states that they should be read. Medieval scribes often did not know what these holidays were or what their names were and different forms of the words can be found in other versions of the mishnah.
The anniversary of the accession of the king to the throne is also considered to be a day of celebration full of idolatrous practices.
The final two days of idolatrous celebration are personal: one’s birthday and the anniversary of the death of a close relative. On these days non-Jews would make idolatrous celebrations. Interestingly, Jews did not traditionally celebrate birthdays because it was seen to be a non-Jewish custom.

The opinion in the previous section was that of Rabbi Meir, who held that pagans commemorate the anniversaries of all deaths. The rabbis disagree with Rabbi Meir and hold that only deaths where the body and clothes were burned on a funeral pyre are celebrated by idolatrous acts. If the body was not burned on the pyre then the day is not accompanied by idolatry and it is therefore permitted to conduct business with the non-Jew three days before.

As was previously stated it is forbidden to conduct business with non-Jews during the three days before the personal holidays mentioned in section two. Here the mishnah lists pagan holidays that Jews can conduct business during the three days before and are only forbidden from doing so on the holiday itself. These include the day that the non-Jew shaves his beard and lock of hair, which refers to a lock of hair grown at the back of one’s head and is shaved once a year; the day of return from a long trip by sea; the day that one is released from prison and the day in which one marries off one’s son and makes him a celebratory feast.

Hanan b. Rava identifies when these two Roman holidays fall, and provides a mnemonic for remembering which is before and which is after the equinox. Note that the mnemonic makes sense only if you remember the Mishnah. The odd thing about the Mishnah is that it lists the second holiday first.

This is an etymological story of the origins of Kalenda and Saturnalia. Some scholars also point to this story as the origin of why we light candles on Hannukah. Holidays around the winter solstice are often associated with fire, as a way of noting the beginning of the days getting longer, or to at least bring light to the darkest days of the year (in the northern hemisphere). There is also a sense here of cultural expropriation—your holidays were originally our holiday (in a sense) and you corrupted them. While there is of course a negative side to this phenomenon, the supremacist ideology it espouses, it also seems to me quite natural.

There is a dispute in rabbinic literature over when the world was created—Tishrei or Nisan. If the world was created in Tishrei, then Adam had never seen a long day, so we can understand why he was afraid. But if it was created in Nisan, then he’d already seen short days which grew longer and then began to grow shorter. Couldn’t he have figured out what was going on?
The (somewhat weak) answer is that he had not yet seen such short days.

Poor Adam, always getting afraid of the dark! This story seems to explain a curious verse from Psalms. Why would the verse say “a bull that has horns and hooves”? Don’t most bulls have them? Is there any reason to note that the bull has these features? The midrash reads this as a bull whose horns were created before its hooves. Now there can only have been one such bull in all of history—the first bull. And who else could have sacrificed the first bull—Adam. So Adam must be saying this verse. And why would Adam offer thanksgiving—because the sun went away and the came back again. It’s actually quite a remarkable piece of exegetical thinking.

Here is the origin of the Jewish version of the unicorn. There was once a unicorn in the world. But alas, Adam sacrificed it. This would seem to explain a difficult point with the earlier midrash. If Adam sacrificed an animal then there would be no other descendants of that animal. So what animal must that have been? The unicorn! Another great story.

This is an amoraic disagreement as to whether one may engage in business with towns that are subject to a Roman city that is observing the Kalends festival.

This baraita accords with R. Yohanan.

This baraita provides more details as to the prohibition of engaging in business with idolaters around their festivals.

Ashi cites proof from the mishnah that the three day prohibition does not precede private festivals.

Simply living outside of Israel forces Jews to participate in idol worship, even if they have no intent of doing so. This is, I think, one of the deeper sources expressing a severely negative attitude towards living outside of Israel. Even if the Jew attempts to live a life of “purity” and not to eat the food of others, it is as if he is eating sacrifices to the dead.

The Talmud asks a strong question—why has the Jew transgressed just because the idolater calls him to the meal? Why not say that he has transgressed only if he actually eats of the sacrifice? Rava reads this out of the verse, which says “and he will call you.” But I think that there is more than a midrash at work here. There is a deeper statement—even if the Jew does not actually transgress, the fact that he lives in an idolatrous environment, in a place where idolaters will be inviting him to participate in their celebratory meals, is already a ticket to transgression.

This piece outlines when a Jew can accept the invitation from the idolater. When do we assume that the invite was part of the wedding celebration, in which case it is prohibited? And when can we assume that it is safe? The prohibition of participating in the meal begins from the time that the barley was thrown into the tub, in order to make beer.
We should note that this same exact sugya appears in Ketubot concerning reciting the special wedding blessings (today called the sheva berachot) When do we recite the special blessings and when do we not? That was probably the original context of this material.