4 Iyar 5769

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.