Masechet Chullin Daf 76

Note: Unabashed recommendation for Wlad Marhulets's "Concerto for Klezmer Clarinet", David Krakauer as soloist.


Daf 76

For some reason the Mishna here is about treifos, which really ought to have been in the previous perek, but, um... it's all connected? Some of the halakha here is related to some of the halakha about the ben pekuah on previous pages, as the Rabbis found a connection between Rabbi Meir's position on ben pekuah and his position on hanging limbs.

The halakha is that if an animal breaks a bone on its hind leg below a certain point, it's not a treifa, but if it's above that point, it's a treifa. The point in question is called the 'arkuva', and there is a debate in the Gemara about what exactly it is. Rav Yehuda says it's the knee, Ula says it's a joint above the knee.

The Mishna also covers the previously mentioned hanging limb. If the animal were to become a neveilah, the partially severed limb would not only be neveilah, it would also convert in the process of death into ever min hachai. Meaning that not only was it forbidden to Jews, but Jews also couldn't sell it to non-Jews. But if shechita is done, it renders the limb kosher, provided the majority of the skin/meat around the break is intact. Rav teaches this is only if the break is above the arkuva, but if it's below the arkuva shechita renders it kosher even if it's less than the majority. Shmuel teaches that the same law is true both above and below the arkuva.

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A Midsummer Night's Dream by Benjamin Britten, staged at the Philadelphia Opera


I really love Britten's score a lot. The harps and the bells and the strings, ohhhhh, the glissandi. It's a music of enchantment and it conjures up Oberon and Tytania's magical forest so vividly.

This seems to be the first time I've seen the thing live in its entirety- I missed the first act when I saw it at the Met because of traffic. But the version I imprinted on is David Daniels's Oberon in a Barcelona production on DVD. Daniels manages an incredible fey masculinity that is perfect for the role. I haven't always loved Daniels's singing, but he is perfection there, and that production is what I measure Midsummers against.

Robert Carsen's production sets the action on the border of dream and magic by conjuring up the forest as a mess of green and white bedding. In the first act, the set is a single massive bed the size of the stage, with megapillows for flopping onto and a green topsheet representing the forest. In the second act, the single bed is replaced by seven normal sized replicas, all the better for bedswapping confusions. In the third act, three beds float above the stage, with each of the entranced couples on one, suspended on wires, until they are lowered to the ground one by one as the lovers are awakened. It struck a nice balance for me for an economical production design that still delivered the imagery you need to enjoy the Dream. If you're not going to commit to full-on magical forest on stage, this was a nice way to go.

Tim Mead's Oberon did not match the standard set by Daniels- he was not overpowering in the same way- but he was spooky and otherworldly and he was well balanced by Anna Christy's Tytania, who managed at different moments to be petty or sexy or ethereal as needed. Matthew Rose's Bottom was the comic anchor the show needed. Miltos Yeromelou, a stage actor hopping over to the opera for the spoken role of Puck, was delightfully puckish, though perhaps not the conventional operatic Puck.