Talmud Comics News

R Eliezer ben Hyrcanus

2011-05-02T02:20:00.000-07:00

A new picture is up, this time of R. Eliezer ben Hyrcanus. R. Eliezer was born into a farming family, and was raised completely ignorant of Jewish practice and beliefs, but wanted to go study Torah anyway, much to the amusement of his family. His opportunity to leave came when he was ploughing a field and his ox's leg broke. Therefore, I drew him riding on an ox with a broken leg. Note: does not look like actual ox, more like scary cabaret nightmare cow.

To go with it, here's the second half of something I wrote about his life, the first half of which can be found here. This part is more from the perspective of R. Eliezer once he was put in cherem.

Part 2

oh, wind in the hair of the horse
of the new moon's messenger,
take me back to my family's house
where the Temple still crumbles
down their insensible cheeks
and patrol boots stamp their laughter hard

where they find my father, and drag him in,
where I lose my Torah, and stand mute at the door,
where youth means trouble, where I cannot know what happened,
where the air and knives are wet and cold -

or carry me away
to the kingdoms of the sea
I will swallow every well and wave
and drown tall ships inside of me.

Purim Dolls

2011-03-21T12:22:00.000-07:00

I am really more of a Tisha B'Av person than a Purim person. Therefore on my Shushan Purim, I spent less time making merry and more time making creepy dolls (which I ended up using as mishloach manot).

Here you can see the results. These Russian stacking dolls depict Shaul HaMelekh's visit to the Baalat HaOv, when he tried to summon the ghost of Shmuel (pictured, upper left, in fancy shroud).

Berachot 7b: Go To Minyan

2011-03-02T10:54:00.000-08:00

This comic, in which R Yitzchak pesters Rav Nachman to come to synagogue, was going to feature R Yitzchak holding a minyan roster with various contemporary amoraim. Sadly the formatting worked out so that only one name appears.

On the plus side, I did work in a video game of bi'ur chametz, inspired by a sugiya in Pesachim I studied early this year, and by my awesome chavruta, whose desire it was to have such a game. She wanted it such that the player would level up through stricter and stricter shitot. I want one of the final levels to be erev Pesach that falls on Shabbat according to Rambam, where you can only dispose of the chametz by eating it, but if you do so too quickly, you explode. There could be a little metre on the side showing your stomach capacity.

I keep wanting to adjust R Yitzchak's head tefillin, but it was so hard for me just to draw it with even the vaguest conformity with euclidean geometry. I cannot draw rotated cubes to save my life and it's kind of the worst.

Working...

2011-02-03T12:26:00.001-08:00

Dear readers,

I actually am working at the moment (for once) on another comic - a real one with speech bubbles and almost more than one frame. It illustrates the proper way to guilt a person into coming to minyan.

However, meanwhile,I wrote something about R Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, who has previously appeared in this comic. Here it is.

siman: memory ox food wife temple

my memory is a painted tent
my ignorance the corpse beneath it.

how long have I hated you
for never teaching me
waking and eating and working, collapsing
I pulled the plough for miles in circles
until I broke the ox's leg and ran.

was the dirt I swallowed in Jerusalem
black like lepers' gums,
or like the night of immersion?
I thought, at least
I am in the holy city,
at least I can
plug myself up.
on the second day of eating earth I vomited.
the other students complained
and I won the pity of my teacher.
at his burial
I choked down tears, furious
that he never did adopt me.

my wife does not mind
my fear of nakedness.
she says:
when God broke you,
he made you
the right shape for me.

when the temple is rebuilt
I will bring the old childhood ox.
on that day his leg will be whole
his horns crimson
his heavy head golden
his hooves annointed
his chest swollen.
I will lay my hand on his head
so that his throat will be like mine.

pour me out
cut me into my pieces
eviscerate my ignorance
wash it in water
turn it to smoke

I wrap fresh dates for the priests
I clap my hands to my ears
when my brothers curse Jerusalem
I press coins in the hand of the convert
and tell him to buy two doves.
It will be soon, now, very soon.

A Share in the World to Come

2010-10-26T10:34:00.000-07:00

A new comic is out!

This one comes not from Masechet Berachot but from Taanit, the reason being that it was done for a Talmud drawings contest which required you to select from a few stories. This was my favourite one.

The story describes how R Beroqa Choza'ah used to go to the shuk (open market) at Bei Lapat, where he would often encounter Eliyahu HaNavi. This time, R Beroqa asked Eliyahu if there was anybody in the shuk who would go straight to Olam HaBa, without having to atone for any sins first. Eliyahu says "no" and then, after further consideration, points out three people.

The first is a man dressed completely like a goy (no tzitzit - and black shoes!!). It turns out the man is a jailor in a non-Jewish prison who conceals his identity in order to protect the female Jewish prisoners from molestation and rape. By acting like a gentile, he also learns of actions planned against the Jewish community, and can warn the rabbis.

Eliyahu then points out two other people. And what makes them so great? They're clowns.

My picture shows the shuk, with R Beroqa and Eliyahu HaNavi sitting and playing shesh-besh at the bottom. R Beroqa is asking "Is there anyone in this shuk who has a share in the World to Come?" Eliyahu is pondering: "Hmmm..."

Translation

2010-08-03T12:42:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I've posted, and as it might be a week or two before the new comic is ready, I thought I would post my translation of a story in Masechet Taanith (25a). A reader recommended the masechet to me, and it was brilliant advice; I'm only going through the Ain Yaakov at the moment, but would love to do more serious study.

Since one of the primary images in Taanith is rain, please imagine that this takes place during a rainstorm. Two sidenotes: after bloodletting, the patient was supposed to eat a good meal; the Aramaic for "clove of garlic," ברא דתומא, literally means "son of garlic."

R Elazar ben Pedath, it was very hard for him
he went to get his blood let
and he had nothing to eat
he threw a clove of garlic in his mouth
his heart grew weak and he fainted

the rabbis came to ask after him
they saw him crying and smiling
a beam of light shot from his forehead
when he woke up they said to him
what's the reason you're crying and smiling?

he said to them, HaKadosh Baruch Hu
was sitting with me
I said to him, how long will I suffer in this world?
he said to me, Elazar my child, you want
I should restart the world,

so maybe you will be born
in a time of bread?
I said,
all that for only
"maybe”?

I said to him, what's more,
what I've lived or what I will live?
he said, what you've lived.
I said before him, if so,
I don't want it.

he said, because you don't want it,
I will give you thirteen rivers of pure persimmon oil
in the world to come, like the Euphrates and the Tigris
for you to enjoy.
I said to him, what, not more?

he said to me,
then what's left to give to your friends?
I said, I asked for something from someone with nothing?
he flicked me in the forehead with his finger,
he said, Elazar my child, my arrows in you,
my arrows in you.

What Dead People Feel

2010-06-09T10:49:00.000-07:00

This comic continues an interesting mini-theme in the third perek of Berachot: what dead people still experience of our world, and what we still experience of them. This means a lot of awesome ghost stories, but also more disturbing contemplations on just how much you can feel your own body's (painful?) decomposition in the grave.

I was working on this comic in a little park in Netanya, and a religious Teimani girl of about 8 or 9 came up and asked to look through. She asked what they were, and I told her comics of Masechet Berachot, and she was thrilled. It was really gratifying! "This comes from Talmud??" she asked a few times. I was suddenly very glad that I drew some (not enough) sages as people of colour and focussed on or drew in more (not enough) women. It's so important that religious Jews be able to see themselves in the text and the text in them.

For the Talmud Comics project, it's almost done. I want to do a few more pictures of Chaza"l and then work more on text to accompany the pictures. I should have enough drawings to do to last me several weeks, though.

Rashb"i

2010-03-20T12:02:00.000-07:00

I've started drawing again. R. Shimon bar Yochai (Rashb"i) is someone I have mixed feelings about. On the one hand, the huge amount of stories surrounding him are very moving and deep, but on the other, the cult of personality that developed around him is problematic; the praise the Zohar heaps on him verges at times on the ridiculous. However, as everyone knows, I'm all about the problematic.

This picture was inspired by an interesting discrepancy. In the Talmud, Rashb"i says that someone who puts off Torah study for a moment to exclaim "How beautiful is this tree!" forfeits his life. In the Zohar, on the other hand, he begins teaching under a tree with precisely this phrase.

The flower eyes represent two things. First, it references the story in BT Shabbat 33b-34a where he hides in the cave with his son. He spends 12 years doing nothing but eating carob beans and studying Torah there. When he finally emerges, he sees someone doing mundane work (instead of studying Torah). This enrages him and he burns the poor farmer with fire from his eyes. G-d is not impressed and sends him back to the cave for 12 months. After that, Rashb"i emerges with eyes that heal, rather than incinerate. So this drawing shows his healing eyes.

Secondly, the six-petaled flowers with two components in each one, totalling 24, comes from an image in Tikkunei Zohar about eyes of Torah. If someone is interested, email me and I will be happy to send the source.

lack of comics

2009-10-25T15:25:00.001-07:00

Hello,

This is just a note to say that everything is basically okay and that I haven't abandoned the comics project. Hopefully next week I'll have something! It's just been very crazy. I got swine flu and broke a rib from coughing, fell in love, and was saddled with a gigantic leyning assignment, any of which can easily kill free time for awhile - what little I have outside yeshiva.

But stay tuned! I miss this project very much and will b'ezrat Hashem catch up soon.

6 Tishrei, 5770: Yom Tov Art

2009-09-24T21:00:00.000-07:00

I was asked to bring fruit to a Rosh Hashanah lunch, but everyone else was an amazing chef, so I had to do something a little special. Here we have...

A pomello painted with the first day's haftarah (the story of Channa)

A pomello painted with an Akeida theme (here are some other pieces)

A guilded pomegranate. Since puns are traditional for Rosh Hashanah, may the rimono shel olam grant us a sweet new year.

Tzom kal to all my observing readers; g'mar chatima tovah.

Erev Erev Rosh Hashanah, 5769: R. Yishmael Omer

2009-09-17T06:50:00.001-07:00

Sorry for lateness; I have the worst cold. This week I decided I wanted to remember better R. Yishmael's 13 rules for interpreting Torah (you may remember them from birchot hashachar), so I made a small picture out of them. You can see the results here. It was done with green, blue, and gold and silver metallic paints.

I started also another comic, but I don't think this will be practical to finish until after the Yamim Noraim, so stay tuned after Yom Kippur. If you want notification or simply to be on the coolest awesomest mailing list of all time, simply send a blank (or otherwise) email to: yonah.lavery (@) gmail (.) com.

Shanah tovah,
Yonah

19 Elul 5769: More R. Yochanan

2009-09-07T13:51:00.000-07:00

Here is the new comic. Unfortunately, it's cut off at the bottom, but hopefully I'll get to scan it again later, maybe next week when if I'm lucky I'll also have another one finished. It's another one of R. Yochanan.

R. Yochanan really does merit two comics of him, since he lived in two eras: the time of the Bayit Sheini and the post-destruction era. This drawing is of the transition, when he escaped in a coffin out of Jerusalem during the siege (which is too nice a word for what happened). He is carrying the sayings of his teachers inside him, which are taken from Pirkei Avot.

On his right hand, from Hillel: "Be like the students of Aharon, loving peace and pursuing peace." (I think this showed Hillel learned well and compassionately from his teachers Avtalyion and Shemaiah, who first articulated this distinction between being sons of Aharon and learning from his example.)

On his left hand, from Shammai: "Make Torah habit; say little but do much."

On his left leg, from Shimon the Tzaddik: "The world stands on three things: Torah, service, and kindness."

On his right leg, from Shemaiah: "Love work, hate the rabbanut (!), and don't be friendly with authority."

On his left side, from Anshei Kneset HaGedolah (the men of the great assembly), "Be patient in administering justice," and below, from Yehoshua ben Prachyah, "Judge all people favourably."

On his right side, from Jose ben Yochanan ish Yerushalayim, "Let your house be wide open, and treat the poor as members of your family."

The blood on his ear, his hand, and you can't see because of the cutoff but it's dripping down also his right foot, is a reference to the kohen gadol, both the blood of the loss of the Temple and showing R Yochanan coming into a new position in the world, having to take leadership in an unexpected way.

Broken Links

2009-09-01T13:44:00.000-07:00

Oops. Sorry, the new comic is here. Before I was rushed on an internet timer and put up the wrong url; sorry.

At the moment, I'm in Jerusalem, in my new place. I can't quite believe that it's real. The batim here really do look like tefillin batim... everything is so square, except for the streets, which are crazy and go up and down and never stay straight. For davening, I asked a flatmate which wall was east, and had to smack my head. It's not east anymore!

An encounter with some crazy boys made me feel sympathy with Rav Kahana, but so far nobody died because I got mad. There's another Yerushalmi Berachot anecdote I love where a rabbi comes up to Israel from Babylon, and goes to the butcher to buy meat. The butcher says it costs a certain amount of money, "plus a whipping." The rabbi says "How about double the money, and no whipping?" "WHIPPING!" Finally he submits, then goes back to the yeshiva, asking "is this normal?" They're all "We'll sort this out for you," and everybody goes to the butcher's. But just as they arrive, a coffin is coming out of the butcher's store! "Did you have to be that angry with him, that you killed him [with the force of the anger]?" they ask. "I swear I wasn't angry," he answers, "I thought that was just your custom here."

I wish I could find the citation and text for that, but had to leave my Yerushalmi in Canada. Anyway, the story rings very true, for many travellers to many countries perhaps. The guy who drove the sheirut from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem all but included a whipping in his price for sure.

aaaagh

2009-08-31T12:55:00.000-07:00

In Germany, no time for proper update, new comic here. Expect Talmud Comics to be sporadic in the next couple of weeks... like, really sporadic.

Slight Site Redesign

2009-08-27T11:54:00.000-07:00

It has been not-so-gently brought to my attention that the website kind of... sucks, in the design department, so I did something about that massive jumble of text in the middle. You can see the new, slightly cleaner layout here. Any recommendations are welcome, of course, although I'm the world's worst at html (in case you couldn't tell) and can't do much.

Pretty soon I hope to include links beside the comics to their corresponding blog posts - I guess that will only apply to the newer comics.

Thank you so much for being patient with me!

5 Elul 5769: Necromancer vs Rabbi, part 2

2009-08-25T12:11:00.000-07:00

This new comic is the follow-up to last week's 59a, part one, in which a necromancer and R. Kattina argue over the cause of earthquakes.

R Kattina says here that if it were true that earthquakes are caused by G-d crying, there would be "one rumbling after another." An obvious way to read this is as a response to the necromancer talking about "two tears" - there wouldn't just be one earthquake, there'd be two! Another way, which is the direction I took this comic in, is that there are so many sufferings that there should be much more earthquakes, no?

From reading around, I think many people are moving away from a focus on Jewish victimhood recently. There was this article at Jewcy talking about an Israeli man who tried very hard to find a strong instance of antisemitism in America and failed. I find all of this not good, not bad - I don't know. For myself, though, antisemitism has always been a part of my experience of Jewishness, and that comes out in the comics. I want to tell about one thing that happened which shows why I think it's important still to show these things.

When I was growing up in Saskatoon, I would go to the rabbi once a week to learn from him. One day I got to the shul and there was a strange smell. I started walking down the basement steps to the room where we normally met, and the smell and this smoke got stronger and stronger... I found him in a room with the secretary and a stack of books; they were sorting out which ones were so burned they had to be buried and which were salvagable. It turns out someone had thrown an explosive into the synagogue and it had landed in the library.

Seven years later I came back to Saskatoon and asked to learn Gemara with him - it was Masechet Berachot, these stories which I'm now illustrating. He sat in our usual room and told me to go find Berachot from the library. I found the shelf but the books were in such a condition - burnt in places, still smelling of that same smoke, some crumbling; I had to pull out different volumes and open them to see if it was right, and every one I pulled broke a little just at being touched. I realised that most things to do not heal on their own; history is so permanent, so immediate.

29 Av 5769: Rabbi vs Necromancer, part one of two

2009-08-19T14:40:00.000-07:00

OK, I just squeaked this in: new comic up.

Maybe my favourite thing about this story is how casually the necromancer comes into the story. Just your average local necromancer. The sign on his house, which sadly you can't read, says "Zombies 400 zuz, Dreams by donation" (in reference to Berachot 56a).

Part one of two.

Good and Bad News

2009-08-18T18:57:00.000-07:00

It's been a scary week what with visa applications and packing and flurries of travel preparations, so yet again, the comic should be a bit late - I think it should be up, bli neder, in the late afternoon tomorrow.

But on the plus side, I won MyJewishLearning's bad poetry contest! You can read my horrifying submission, built around rhyming "Tropicana" with "Meir Kahane," here.

quick update

2009-08-16T09:28:00.000-07:00

After a few comments about how the Merchant cartoon was little and almost impossible to read, I rescanned it; it's now in two parts, here and here (and accessible at the bottom of the main page).

21 Av 5769: four entered the garden

2009-08-11T13:23:00.000-07:00

This week's comic concludes (for now) the mini-theme of Acher, also known as Elisha ben Abuyah, or as my kid sister calls him, "Elisha ben a-BOO YEAH!"

It comes from the story of four entering the garden, and shows Acher beneath the angel, which he saw somehow "sitting" in the chair of Hashem and mistook for a second power in heaven. Around him are the broken shoots, inscribed with Greek, as "Acher's mouth was never tired of singing Greek songs." The words are from the beginning of Sappho's most famous poem, which I selected for a number of reasons. Here is my translation of the first few lines:

to me he seems like the gods
the man who sits beside you
and so close listens closely
to your honey voice your magnet laugh

and my heart staggers
-- I only glimpse you briefly
and I have no voice
my language is broken to pieces

There are many reasons why I chose this poem out of all the beautiful Greek poetry. There is the obvious gimmick of the first line - confusing what is sacred, misdirected awe. But also, I think one of the things that makes the endless gap between human and divine bearable is the knowledge that at least if there is a limit to our closeness with G-d, the same holds true for any creature. I think Acher might well have felt a painful jealousy at the idea that G-d had (G-d forbid) a partner after all.

The poem also reminds me of how it felt for me in the women's balcony when the Torah was taken out. I felt so jealous, depressed, awed at the separation, the giant distance between me and the Torah, while men below were hugging and kissing it. But no matter how far a person reached from the balcony, they would not be able to reach it, the most they could accomplish would be falling. One happy thing for me now is that at least the places where I go now, I can kiss the Torah when it comes out - but reaching still feels like falling.

15 Av 5769: Like glass, so easy to break

2009-08-05T11:44:00.001-07:00

This week's Talmud comic is finally done!

This piece from 17b is a bit of mishnah. We normally attribute anonymous mishnayot to R. Meir, who taught extensively. R. Meir himself was a devoted student of Acher, the famous apostate (more on him in coming weeks, I think) - even after Acher was put in what is best described as Mega-Cherem, R. Meir followed him, tried to comfort him, and learned as much as possible. There's a story about Acher galloping around on horseback on Shabbat (forbidden!) and R. Meir hurrying after him trying to pick up some words of Torah.

It's an important story to me personally at the moment. I was recently declared off the derech for wanting to go and learn from improper people (non-Orthodox scholars) and without going into it more, it's reassuring to see that despite feeling sometimes alone, the tradition is still there solid under my feet.

This contains some good background material on Acher. I'll update with something better if I find it.

The comic is exploring a couple of themes, the big one being the loss of a teacher (and how you try to restore them to you through the memory of learning). But also apostacy. The mishnah here is about how having a dead family member before you releases you from certain obligations. Many people, confronted with something that shakes them off the derech or simply disillusions them in a painful way, similarly often spend a period of time in mourning, not performing mitzvot. It is as if a corpse (of their past self, or of their conception of the Torah) is lying before them and they are unable to confront anything else. But mourning is, and should be, a temporary state...

15 Av 5769

2009-08-04T17:49:00.000-07:00

This week's Talmud comic still needs some finishing touches; it should be up tomorrow afternoon. It's one with quite a few frames - those always take more time and effort.

Meanwhile, you could try reading this, which I never actually made for public consumption but I guess it might as well go up. I drew it during a conversation with a friend about the Merchant of Venice, and what it meant to us. This is just a quick scribble about a childhood encounter with reading the play in school (it's already pretty weird that we read it in class... and without any follow-up discussion on the antisemitism, either. crazy).

"Medbh" is my unpronouncable goyishe name.

Also, it has been brought to my attention that some people do not know what a fivehead is. You guys are missing out! A fivehead is a forehead, but bumped up a whole new level in size.

Yonah

8 Av 5769

2009-07-28T20:34:00.000-07:00

The new comic is about the body of wisdom.

The text is part of a larger discussion about the five worlds in which King David lived (which are striking: inside the womb, under the night sky, beside his mother's breasts, the day of destruction, the grave).

In the text, breasts are associated with wisdom, which is nice since I think mainstream culture associates breasts with stupidity (bigger breasts supposedly = dumber girl; breasts make men dumb; endless source of stupid jokes; etc). Quite the opposite here: they're metonymy for the mother, who opens her mouth with wisdom and is frequently a metaphor for understanding. For this reason, the rabbis later say, if you dream that you have sex with your mom, don't panic; it means you will receive wisdom. As part of a lover's body, I think equally so, but I don't want to get into that.

Bonus points to whoever guesses what the arrow in David's name represents.

Tomorrow night is Tisha B'Av; tzom kal to everyone observing. This week's comic is not very topical, but last year around this time I did a much more appropriate one: loss and comfort for Israel. My thought for the holiday is this... back in Temple times, nobody thought their hatred was baseless - no doubt they thought it was extremely righteous and had a thousand justifications about their behaviour. I hope we stop rationalising about our own sinat chinam, and put it away altogether.

Placeholder

2009-07-21T19:34:00.000-07:00

Sorry to say, but due to unhappy life events this week the comic is postponed until next week.

However, August is predicted to be a fantastic month (bli ayin hara) for Talmud Comics as I'll have a lot more time on my hands.

22 Tammuz 5767 - miscellaneous art

2009-07-14T14:32:00.000-07:00

I have far too much clunky art to take with me, so on Sunday I lugged it all into the neighbourhood park to sell it.

I'm extremely attached to my neighbourhood. If I walk past my insane landlady and into the street, before the end of the block comes I've passed five houses where I know somebody. Lou, an old man with a moustache, lives with his wife and their why-isn't-she-officially-a-daughter-in-law-yet-what-is-the-matter-with-boys-today. There are towering horsechestnut trees lining the sidewalks. During the day, babies wail and hipsters tinkle by on vintage bicycles; during the night, the same crazy drunk walks up and down the middle of the road screaming obscenities. People get into heavy brawls. Two nights ago a fleet of police cars pulled up, hung around, then slunk away. Some mornings the gabbai comes by and yanks Lou into shul to make a minyan.

The synagogues are all named after towns in the former Soviet Union; strung at random around the blocks, it's as if some sort of Frankenstein map of the USSR is pushing up through the ground. To the north, there's Anshei Narayev (people of Narayev), aka the Narayever (where women can and are encouraged to, for example, lead weekday shacharit and lay tefillin); to the south, Anshei Kiev (mechitza I consider bearable, women lead kabbalat Shabbat but not Maariv); even further to the south, Anshei Minsk (the draft in the women's balcony sends the pages of antique prayerbooks circling lazily down towards the men). I have been a part of all of these shuls; may they all continue, I value each of them and will miss them terribly.

Towards the south is Kensington Market, where once a year during the night of the Winter Solstice there is a fire celebration. A sculpture all of flames is burned - a bear... People twirl fire poy. Stiltwalkers dressed as giant flames carry 7-foot torches. During normal days, though, booths randomly open with crappy wooden jewellery and expensive, beautiful body oils; hippies pile onto the park; incense burns through the summer air. On Lag BaOmer the Kiever rabbi takes his drum into the park and sings.

It was in that park that I set up shop, and I would say it was a success, although I was a little depressed to part with some of them. The best part was when Steven Bergson arrived, and a bent old man with a suitcased asked him "[mumble mumble] time?" Steven started to look at his watch, but the old man clarified, "Time will eat away your physical body" before lurching away.

What with all the hustle and bustle, there has been no time for a comic, although I did work at some pieces for the event.

This chamsa is a map for winding the end of the shel yad tefillin around your hand - at least the way I do it. The white is actually silver.

This painting, on the other hand, represents erev Shabbat. The birds between the hands of the Sabbath queen are the coming together of male and female which is supposed to occur on human and divine levels on Friday night.

PS: about that menacing bag...

2009-07-08T21:55:00.000-07:00

There's something I forgot to mention about the heavy sack Reish Lakish is carrying in the previous comic. It relates to a story which is told about the nadir of his life, found in Gittin 47a:

"Reish Lakish once sold himself to the Lydians. He took with him a bag with a stone in it, because, he said, it is a known fact that on the last day they grant any request [of the man they are about to kill] in order that he may forgive them his murder. On the last day they said to him, What would you like? He replied: I want you to let me tie your arms and seat you in a row and give each one of you a blow and a half with my bottle. He bound them and seated them, and gave each of them a blow with his bag which stunned him. [One of them] ground his teeth at him. Are you laughing at me? he said. I have still half a bag left for you. So he killed them all and made off."

15 Tammuz 5769: R. Yochanan in the river

2009-07-07T16:41:00.000-07:00

More for portraits of chazal: this time, R. Yochanan (with bonus Reish Lakish in background).

The instant being captured here comes from Bava Metzia 84a:

One day R. Yochanan was bathing in the river. Reish Lakish saw him and jumped into the river in pursuit. R. Yochanan said to him: “Your strength should be for Torah!” Reish Lakish replied: “Your beauty should be for women”! R. Yochanan said: “If you return [ie become observant] I will let you marry my sister, who is more beautiful than I am.” Reish Lakish accepted this condition. Reish Lakish tried to return across the river to retrieve his clothing, but was unable to return. R. Yochanan taught him the Written and Oral Torah, and made him a great man.

So far so good, but the story goes on to become unbearably depressing. People die of broken hearts and lost minds. Essentially, R. Yochanan pointlessly reminds Reish Lakish that he used to be a robber (a huge halachic no-no), and then sadness kills first one and then the other. Yehoshua November wrote a beautiful poem called Baal Teshuvas at the Mikvah which I think everybody should read. Through the river depicted in this comic, there's a similar transformation of a body from powerful to shameful: Reish Lakish loses his physical strength when he agrees to become observant, unable even to swim back to retrieve his clothes. I don't think it's because his muscles suddenly, miraculously atrophied; it has to do with the powerful shame that comes from rejecting your past self, becoming unable to touch it or use it even to your advantage.

R. Yochanan is poised between Reish Lakish and a pomegranate tree, which stands for Torah (five branches, two fruit - for the oral and written - on each branch, seven leaves on each for the parts of the neshama). The fish around him represent his students.

8 Tammuz, 5769

2009-06-30T15:00:00.001-07:00

New comic.

I find Reish Lakish often makes kind of weird connections between verses and whatever he's trying to say. I wish I understood his thinking better.

Anyway, some people say that when it talks about killing yourself for Torah, it means studying as if you were dead, i.e., not responding to the real world, but being fully absorbed in study. This means that my ignoring the bills, completely failing to pack, spacing out at work = religious brownie points, yay! But I think it's also an interesting statement coming from Reish Lakish, who did essentially try to kill his former self for the Torah.

As a point of interest, I believe that Reish Lakish's former self is one of only two men in this comic to ever have an uncovered head. The other is the suicidal student from 23a, who removes his kippah and tallit katan before jumping from the roof.

It's pathetically easy to guess my mood while I was making this comic.

1 Tammuz 5769: Avtalyion drinks the bitter waters

2009-06-23T15:07:00.000-07:00

חודש טוב

The new comic is in the portraits-of-sages categories, this time of Avtalyion. Normally I think I trust the interpretations of my readers and leave a lot open, but this comic was drawn when I was upset about the way the Rabbinut is presently treating geirim, and it's a serious enough issue that maybe I should be explicit. So I apologise if this is too pedantic/specific/dictatorial.

Avtalyion and Shemaiah were chevruta partners in the time of the zugot, teachers of the more famous Hillel and Shammai. They were awesome for many reasons, including how amazingly confident they were (when the high priest insulted them for being converts, they basically laughed in his face, pwned him, then stole his fanbase - man, those were the days). That beautiful lack of apology makes my picture misrepresentative and I hope to remedy that maybe next week.

Avtalyion's kippah has a crown pattern on it, since it is said that the crown of Torah is higher than that of the kahana (priesthood) or malchut (monarchy). You'll notice anyway that Shaul wears a similar but not identical one when davening (as opposed to freaking out and killing people).

The text is a saying of his quoted in Pirkei Avot: "Sages, be careful with your words lest you incur the penalty of exile and are called to a place of evil waters." The evil waters here are faulty teachings; however, it also links to an episode in Masechet Berachot, where the rabbis are discussing ways to incur cherem. One case mentioned is where someone said that the ritual of sotah is only applied to women who were born Jewish. When another person says "Actually, Avtalyion and Shemaiah administered it to converts," the guy says they only did it because they were converts, too. For such a dumb and insulting statement he was put under cherem, and when he died, the beit din sent a stone to his coffin.

Here, however, Avtalyion is not administering the bitter waters, but drinking them. The comment is about loyalty tests, suspicion and rejection where there should be love, and the nausea of not knowing one's place, or being told one ought not to be certain of it. And for me this is underscored by such a bold, awesome chacham appearing frightened and humiliated - it is wrong.

Poster Testimonials

2009-06-22T09:19:00.000-07:00

Are my posters really worth it? Read these testimonials and decide for yourself. Plus, as I wrote in a comment, they come in a cardboard tube, which can be used for striking fools a la Beit Shammai. So what are people saying?

When the posters arrived in the mail, I wept, kissed them, and recited shecacha lo baolamo.
- Sven in B.C.

Many posters have done mightily, but yours has surpassed them all.
- David in Jerusalem

At first I thought the poster was a total ripoff, but I stuck it on my fridge anyway. However, since then, my fridge has never been empty, and the food within never goes stale. Now I have to say sheasa li neis every time I reach for the 2%. Thanks… thanks a lot.
- Myrtle in Teaneck

For most of my life, I was blind in one eye and deaf in one ear. One
leg was shorter than the other and I totally had crushed stones. But
then I bought a Talmud Comics poster and now everything is better!
Plus I have laser beam eyes.
- K.S. in Toronto, who had the crown of kahana restored to him by a poster
Note: Talmud Comics cannot guarantee laser beam eyes without a steady diet of carob beans

I just purchased some of the Talmud Comic prints from Yonah Lavery. I think the detail in them is so fine and intricate. Some looks like filigree. I have been using the comics as a way to reflect on my own life and some of the contradictions presented to me by my own faith and value system. I am going to frame the prints and hang them in my office. I’m sure this will attract discussion and debate. I can hardly wait!
- Catholic bigshot in Toronto

If you look at my poster (20a) for long enough, the face of the Blessed Rebbe zt"l clearly emerges. It’s like Magic Eye, but with extra kedushah.
- Moishe, who wanders the streets by my house

27 Sivan 5769: Bavli vs Yerushalmi, the Remix (feat. Onkelos)

2009-06-16T18:35:00.000-07:00

You can tell the new comic is from Yerushalmi because of the lurid prints and other assorted fashion disasters.

This mixes some text from Yer.Ber.29a with images from Bav.Avodah Zarah 11a, which you can find here.

I knew this story, but what I didn't know was that the tradition of kissing the mezuzah, to which I'm very attached, actually comes from Onkelos's behaviour here. It actually means a lot to me to know that.

Hmm: "Onkelos bar Kalonymus" - was he called by this name, for example, to the Torah?

18 Sivan 5769

2009-06-09T19:08:00.000-07:00

Masechet Berachot is filled with these incredibly vivid dreams* the sages have of the Temple - when they tell them to each other, there are often no markers to indicate that whatever they're saying is not the literal truth. To me, this indicates an immediacy and reality to the Gemara's imagination which is enviable and poignant (as associated as it so often is with loss).

In this comic, R. Yishmael tells a story about sacrificing incense in the Kodesh haKodashim on Yom Kippur. I have him drawn as the Kohen Gadol, the High Priest.

In the bottom panel are more of the עשרת הרוגי מלכות, the ten martyrs: L->R: Yishmael, Shimon, and Yeshevav haSofer; below, Akiva, who only seems to own one outfit. Eh, what could he afford on his wife's salary (famously, his wife Rachel even sold her hair to keep him studying Torah). It's kind of moving that this episode ends with G-d assenting to be merciful and to spare b'nei Yisrael, because (to finish this post on a positive note) as we know, everybody's hopes are crushed and people get tortured to death.

*I say "dreams" not to suggest that they were asleep, or to emphasise whatever ways in which the stories were not literally true, but rather because "dreams" indicates a certain longing, and because dreamscapes are so important in this tractate (Chazal spend a good deal of time analysing what dreams mean and what to do about them).

9 Sivan 5769

2009-06-02T19:28:00.000-07:00

With Shavuot knocking out an extra day and night, and some work madness also hijacking my schedule after normal business hours, sad to say I'm still in the middle of a comic. But, I do have some art, and some Talmud... just not put together.

This is one of my favourite passages from Berachot, but I am at a total loss of how to make something out of it. I've tried before, but it always ends up a crumpled scribble. If you can think of anything, tell me! But meanwhile, please enjoy, and any commentary on this is welcome:

Ulla was once at the house of Rav Nachman. They had a meal and he said grace, and he handed the cup of benediction to Rav Nachman, who said to him: Please send the cup of benediction to Yalta (my wife).
Ulla said to him: Thus said R. Yochanan: The fruit of a woman's body is blessed only from the fruit of a man's body, since it says, "He will also bless the fruit of thy body. (Deut. 7:13)" It does not say the fruit of her body, but the fruit of thy body. It has been taught similarly: Whence do we know that the fruit of a woman's body is only blessed from the fruit of a man's body? Because it says: He will also bless the fruit of thy body. It does not say the fruit of her body, but the fruit of thy body.

Meanwhile Yalta heard (that Ulla refused to send her the kiddush cup), and she got up in a passion and went to the wine store and broke four hundred jars of wine. Rav Nachman said to him: Let the Master send her another cup. He sent it to her with a message: All that wine can be counted as a benediction. She returned answer: Gossip comes from peddlers and vermin from rags.

It's great how Chazal give Yalta the last word in this story.

Meanwhile, the art is not much. Once a week I go visit this kid named Leora, and we have an hour to draw together. Last week the "assignment" was to draw eight people, so we folded our piece of paper into eight and got to it; this is my attempt (hers was way better, but ethics restrain me from stealing her stuff and posting it on the internet).

Leora was shocked that the first two people were fighting. "Jews wouldn't do that! They must be drunk. Add some bottles," she directed. What could I do? I added bottles, and was a little depressed at how untrue her statement was.

New comic should be up next week.

5 Sivan 5769

2009-05-27T18:26:00.000-07:00

This comic continues the discussion of when one is allowed to recite the evening Sh'ma.

I think it's fairly self-explanatory given my overly long note to the previous one. R. Meir and Beruriah are below the kohanim, who are emerging from the mikveh to see the stars, marking the end of their impurity (and thus ability to eat terumah).

Sorry for the delay!

Yonah the Yeshiva Boy

2009-05-26T20:38:00.000-07:00

First, I have to apologise. I finished a comic on time, but missed the boat on getting to a library scanner - it will bli neder be up before 11 pm tomorrow night.

Second, I'm off to Jerusalem this fall to study Torah. Sadly, I'm ridiculously broke, and unlike R. Jochanan, I don't have copious amounts of real estate to sell. But, maybe you or someone you know wants a Talmud Comics poster. Here are some great potential uses:

A strategically placed 11x17 portrait of the traumatised-looking R. Meir in your bedroom could ensure you never have opportunity to transgress sexual halachot again. WIN!

Berachot 43b (laws for Torah scholars) will remind you not to wear scented products in the gayborhood and lessen your guilt about shoe shopping.

Try taping R. Yose to the ceiling above your bed to make your parents cry with grief and confusion and wonder where they went wrong.

Berachot 20a: for the tovelet in your life who has everything!

See these and unfortunately many more at http://www.talmudcomics.net/; you have your pick of what's up there.

Let's say $10 plus shipping if there is any, and any additional poster in the order only $3. I know, you're thinking: "Why should I pay this ridiculous amount for the scribblings of some loser?" and you're right, you shouldn't, although I promise at such a price I'm not making heaps of profit, as the print store gouges me. But if you are a person strongly motivated by pity, please consider getting one or two. Also, I have paypal. If you might want a poster, please email me: yonah [dot] lavery @ gmail [dot] com.

Proceeds, all projected $2 worth, will help keep a young Toronto am haaretz learning Talmud instead of weeping and panhandling in Emek Refaim.

25 Iyar 5769

2009-05-19T15:11:00.001-07:00

So for the first time, I'm not making a stand-alone page; this is the first of two (possibly more, but I hope not) pictures about determining when evening is evening enough to recite the night-time Sh'ma.

The short answer is from when the Kohanim go in to eat trumah, but the short answer provokes a wtf response in most people. The Kohanim are members of the priestly caste, whose duties including eating certain sacrifices, one kind of which is trumah. You have to be ritually pure to do that; if you do something to make you impure, you immerse in water and wait until the stars come out.

So why did they say "from when the Kohanim go in to eat trumah" and not just "when the stars come out"? The idea is to teach as much as possible using as little as possible. Example: you want to tell someone that Country X allows people of opposite and same sexes to marry. You don't say that; you say "In Country X, same-sex marriage is legal." From that, you can infer that a) marriage in general is a cultural institution to some degree, and b) men and women can also marry each other (in this world you don't find the other way around, that only same-sex marriage is legal). The reader response is basically supposed to be "If this, how much more that?"

I tried to do that in this comic. It is pretty obvious that "kohanim" includes male priests. However, unmarried daughters of kohanim also ate trumah, so this story about them as well as their brothers; for this reason, I show a woman immersing.

Since the rabbis were talking after the destruction of the Temple, it was also important to remember as much as possible about its functioning - there is a beautiful anxiety about memory and forgetfulness.

Finally, the pose of the bat kohen is supposed to mimic the married couple reciting the Sh'ma in 24a.

18 Iyar 5769 - ל"ג בעומר

2009-05-12T19:23:00.001-07:00

Noah G. in America requested a comic from the Yerushalmi, so here it is! It's actually my first time looking into this mirror-universe masechet, and wow. It has at least 50% more death than the Bavli, and an extensive section where people die because they caused a scholar pain or embarrassment. CSI: Yerushalayim must have been totally nuts (template here).

In Yerushalmi Berachot, I learned that Kahana is not just a slightly prurient Torah nerd, he gets into backalley fights, and... let's just say it's kind of hard for me to get over so much casual necromancy in the sages.

I tried a slightly different style to reflect the different feel and origin of the Yerushalmi writing.

11 Iyar 5769: אָחוֹת רְחוֹקָה

2009-05-05T18:36:00.001-07:00

All the cool kids are starting with B"H these days, so I wrote one for a title page.

There's a Beit Shaul theme going on here - I've been rereading Shmuel after the rabbis mention him in 12b.

Shaul is teaching his daughter Michal the blessing for tefillin (she is mentioned in midrash as keeping this mitzvah). His crown is off and hovering above the letters, so its eyes are blank and his are in his head. In the stories, it seems like proximity to God is what stops Shaul from being horrifyingly depressed and/or homicidal and/or suicidal; so here, praying, he is his old self again.

I do find that narrative a little upsetting - God taking away his presence from Shaul, driving him crazy-sad, so that the only thing that makes him feel better is the second-hand divinity floating up from David, whom he of course also loathes as the new favourite; the nearest point of God is also the farthest point.

It's also interesting that Michal, of all women, is associated with tefillin. It makes sense in a way; that family is master of the unasked-for sacrifice.

9 Iyar 5769: Fun Times

2009-05-03T14:06:00.000-07:00

The U of S, they should have my luck, finally locked me out of editing the old site, so I shed a few tears and got a new site. Tell all your friends! It's www.talmudcomics.net - very under construction, as it turns out I didn't have a lot of my files backed up. The main page is pretty much okay, but not all the links are completely working.

4 Iyar 5769

2009-04-27T17:57:00.000-07:00

This is a day early, but there's been a long enough lull between the last comic proper.

The current Israel/Iran tension is depressing, but things weren't always the way they are now - in Berachot 8b, the tannaim gush over Persians being awesome. (Oy, amol, amol...)

One of the things Akiva likes about them is that when they cut meat, they do so only on the table, ie, they aren't dumb enough to cut it directly on their hand. Seems obvious, yet enough sages worry about this happening (see Rava and his children in 8a) that you have to wonder what people's problem was. A little later they warn that if you cut meat on your hand, you could cut your hand, and the blood could get in the meat, treifing everything, and then you would gross out everybody at your party and they'd leave and you'd feel like such a loser. Which is what you are, if you cut meat on your hand.

I'm still waiting for the TV show based on the rabbonim's food-related advice... R. Ramsey's Kosher Kitchen Nightmares.

The thing about kissing is also interesting. Someone once told me a midrash about how when Esau and Yaakov reunite and kiss, the kiss is insincere, because Esau was really searching Yaakov's mouth for gold. If it's true (I have yet to find a source), that tells you something about the way brothers said hello... a kiss on the hand really does look professional and modest by comparison.

Also, I got reviewed! Things could be going worse for me on the internet. I'm just happy that a search for talmud comix finally turns up this site and Jweekly's review ahead of the Vanguard News Network ("No Jews. Just Right.").

26 Nissan 5769

2009-04-21T05:44:00.001-07:00

It's been awhile, what with the chag and all its attendant restrictions, so here is a painting I just finished. It's too bad it looks so yellow - it's about 90% gold paint and 10% feeble attempt at design. I'm the kind of person that gets lost coming back from the corner store, so a mizrach is actually quite useful.

I realise that asking a question on a blog where people rarely comment can make you look stupid fast, but I have a semi-serious dilemma. Should I just suck it up and get a different domain? I've heard from some that things load partially or very slowly on this site, and for an image-heavy project that's really not good.

The current host is the University of Saskatchewan, where I once did grad school for a year. I don't think they've quite realised I left that beit avadim, but whenever they do, I'll probably be cut off without notice. On the other hand, money. Bleh...

If you decide that you do want to be an awesome, helpful reader and give me some advice, feel free to request comic subjects, too. I'll do my best to look for them in Masechet Berachot (you'd be surprised at how much you can find in there).

13 Nissan 5769

2009-04-07T14:51:00.000-07:00

Just in time to help you start freaky conversations at the seder table is Berachot 54b, Reish Lakish's bizarro midrash about Moshe. If you think this is unexpected, wait until you read what comes right before this passage:

The stone which Og, king of Bashan wanted to throw at Israel: This has been handed down by tradition. He said: How large is the camp of Israel? Three parasangs. I will go and uproot a mountain of the size of three parasangs and cast it upon them and kill them. He went and uprooted a mountain of the size of three parasangs and carried it on his head. But the Holy One, blessed be He, sent ants which bored a hole in it, so that it sank around his neck. He tried to pull it off, but his teeth projected on each side, and he could not pull it off.

Well, then.

You can read my comic off the main page, but please excuse its roughness. I feel so bad about throwing away food and tried to eat all my chametz including some very sketchy old stuff, and was finishing this drawing in-between highly classy barfing. Oy, my stomach, my head... Don't be like me, kids. :(

!חג כשר ושמח

6 Nisan 5769

2009-03-31T15:07:00.000-07:00

Here's my spoiler for Talmud Comics: they die.

The account of the deaths of the עשרת הרוגי מלכות on Yom Kippur were always disturbing, but never freaked me out until I started studying Talmud (and thus had some idea of who these people were). Rabbi Akiva's death is recounted in Berachot, but I've avoided doing it since it's very difficult to do something so graphic/sad without making it stupid. And it shouldn't be stupid.

But here's my attempt (top link on the main page).

I've also been re-scanning some of the old pictures, which were uploaded when I had a really terrible scanner. Not that they're such gems now, but at least you can read the text.

29 Adar 5769

2009-03-24T19:24:00.000-07:00

So it seems that the unbecoming student has been identified as Zeiri. His presumed chevruta partner, who has appeared with and without him, also has a cameo. Increasing familiarity with characters is good; also, this is one of two comics to pass the Bechdel test. Yay?

Note also the demon friends in the second panel, who have chicken feet in accordance with Berachot 6a.

21 Adar, 5769

2009-03-17T13:08:00.001-07:00

The Gemara is asking about embarrassment, and can it be atonement for one's sins. Someone brings up as an example King Shaul and this weird little event involving the Witch of Endor, not pictured because I can't draw Ewoks. She summons for him the spirit of Shmuel the prophet to tell him what to do, since he's crippled with guilt and indecision. Shmuel ends up just telling him off, and it all ends with suicide.

The final frame - Shmuel is remembering happier days, when Shaul was just announced as king. Shmuel went up to him, broke a jar of oil over his head, and kissed him at a time when Shaul's biggest distinction was being pretty tall (for an Israelite).

Everything degrades, I guess, and that's a theme of Talmud, too - each generation is supposed to have less than the last: knowledge shrinks, good behaviour slips, and more and more doors to the divine close on us.

16 Adar 5769

2009-03-11T20:02:00.000-07:00

I don't normally write anything except on a Tuesday night, but felt bad for skipping a week. Fortunately, I attended a presentation where markers were provided, and this doodle was the result (I added sparkles to her eyelids, dress, and crown after raiding the art cupboard at work). And so Queen Esther makes a belated Purim entrance! She is linked to from the main page.

9 Adar 5769

2009-03-03T15:45:00.000-08:00

The much-anticipated (hah) and highly speculative conclusion to Raba and Abaye, pt.1 is up on the main page.

Rabbah and his wife are reciting the blessing for children over Abaye. It's a really beautiful bracha (the one for girls and for boys equally so), and a very very easy one to get jealous over.

The next comic will be up not next week but the week after - I'm horribly swamped right now.

Finally, if all goes well, anonymous commenting should be possible on the blog.

2 Adar 5769

2009-02-24T14:43:00.000-08:00

חודש טוב לכולם

This is #1 of a two-part miniminiseries on Raba and Abaye, heavy on the midrash, and by midrash I mean reading a lot into the text (a traditional activity). This half is mostly straight-up, though.

Fake halachah of the week:

It is forbidden to strengthen your legs, but as for arms, it is permissible. From where do we learn this? "Hashem delights not in a warrior's legs" (Tehillim 147), but "the children of Israel went forth with an upraised hand" (Bamidbar 33:3).

24 Shvat 5769

2009-02-17T18:43:00.000-08:00

Berachot 17 is the first daf I ever learned. On Friday mornings when I didn't have class, I would run to the shul and learn with the rabbi there. The physical tractate should probably have been buried, since it was so damaged by age and a firebombing incident - every time it was taken from the shelf, a piece fell off. The rabbi referred to this section as "Rabbis with low self-esteem."

R. Yochanan, or as I'm used to spelling it, Jochanan, had a bad enough life to justify this. At least ten of his children dead and surviving the fall of Jerusalem can't have been great on his mental health. Appropriately, this episode finds him reading the book of Job.

I was working on this comic when I visited the nearby Orthodox shul for mincha - it was by my purse. Since nobody seemed to be around, I went looking. Still nobody. But when I returned, I heard some old guy calling to his friend, "Moishe! It's rabbi Yochanan... he's in a comic!" Unfazed by privacy concerns, he noticed me and told me I could be the next Art Spiegelman. Overly complimentary, you'd think, right? Turns out, as he confessed later in the conversation, "I hate Art Spiegelman." Oh well.

For next week, I'm working on something about Abaye and Raba. (Every time I write that last name, I get annoyed. Why did I start transliterating him as "Raba"? Properly it's Rava, and only very oldschool texts, like the one I started off from, would use the b. Oh well, it's too late now...)

21 Shvat 5769

2009-02-15T14:17:00.001-08:00

So, my sister browbeat me into doing a blog for the comics, I guess so that you can see all the previous news and maybe to put more commentary into the new postings. It seems a little gratuitous, but she's smarter than me, so I yield to her judgement.

In the meantime, some people have reviewed my stuff!

After a dream in which I put on tefillin with Shmarya Rosenberg (is that too creepy?), FailedMessiah mentioned me here. "A dream is one sixtieth prophesy" indeed! Or in this case, maybe more like 1/600 prophesy.

Jewschool also reviewed me, way too nicely even.

This guy made my day. He has a whole Talmud blog which is worth reading.

I kind of suspect there's a totally different, way better Talmud comics website out there which these people are really reviewing...