Doing the Daf summary #7

To see this picture debunked, see here

It has been difficult posting lately, especially because of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and now Succot. It is not for lack of thoughts on the Daf but for lack of opportunity to write them down. But we are coming soon to the end of masechet Berachot.

Here are some recent posts on the Daf Yummy blog.

Daf 54: Miracles personal and non-existent. A seeming machlokes between the Bavli and Yerushalmi about personal miracles. Also, the brayta lists miracles which are non-existent, and tells the bracha for them. If Og was not so large and did not lift a mountain, but it is rather allegorical, as some Rishonim have it, then how can there be a bracha for seeing that rock? If Lot's wife was not turned into a pillar of salt, but rather she saw that the city was turned into a pillar of salt, as Ralbag, a rishon, writes, then how can the brayta give a bracha for seeing Lot's wife?

Daf 58: Censored texts -- min and goya become Tzeduki and Mitri, perhaps.

For 59, a repost from parshablog about causes of earthquakes.

For daf 60: Regarding vain prayers, see what I wrote here. Regarding the prayer for bloodletting, see what I wrote here.

For daf 61, about the counsel of the kidneys, see this parshablog post and this post at Rationalist Judaism. I think it was intended literally. About common descent (part of evolutionary theory), see this post.