What does extending credit have to do with the evolution of sentient life? And what does either concept have to do with karma and conservation laws? The answer depends on whether your interlocutor is a cat.
Havruta with a One-Eyed Cat: Philosophical ramblings through the Talmud with a feline study partner
"What is the meaning of that which is written: “Iron sharpens iron (Proverbs 27:17)?” asks Rabbi Hama ben Hanina. "To tell you that just as these iron implements sharpen one another, so too, Torah scholars sharpen one another in halakha. (Ta'anit 7a)
But in Pixel's case, it's her claws that she sharpens!
Of Property Law & Mortality: Pixel on Bava Batra 29a
With a single line of commentary, a discussion in the Talmud about property law suddenly becomes a glimpse into time, eternity, and mortality. And what better discussion partner for such things than a cat?
Pessachim 10a and Quantum Uncertainty
Pessachim 10a deals with questions of doubt and the limitations of knowledge. Trust a one-eyed cat to explain how these questions are answered by quantum mechanics.
Gemara Sanhedrin 73a – Saving the victim or saving the perpetrator?
Humans are complicated, and constantly in need of fixing, says Pixel. Everything they do sets up ripples–chains of consequences. Only humans have to be protected from themselves even at the cost of their lives, because only humans have so great an impact that the world fights back. Humans are loose cannons!
Pixel’s Secrets of Google Indexing
I had locked up and was happily ensconced in my chair, a warm quilt wrapped around me, when I recalled that I had left my phone outside. I looked around for the key. It was nowhere to be found. I looked under my books, under the pillow on the couch, under the unfolded laundry on the dining table (gotta do something about that before Shabbat). No keys.
“Have you tried googling them?” asked Pixel.
Sanhedrin Perek 3 – Grass roots vs. rule from above
Should litigants have any say in choosing the third judge? R’ Meir favors governance from the grassroots level, the sages not so much! One thing about studying Talmud with a feline havruta–you end up with some irreverent insights to the daf!
