Gemara Clarity

Pesachim 2b

פסחים ב׳ ע״ב

Learn Pesachim 2b step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

Open Pesachim 2b in Gemara Clarity

Topic

What does "אור" mean in "אור לארבעה עשר": evening or daytime? The גמרא tests פסוקים and ברייתות, and two proofs show that אור means evening.

Overview

The גמרא keeps testing what "אור לארבעה עשר" in the משנה means: the evening that starts the 14th, or daytime. Three פסוקים (from איוב and תהלים) seem to use אור for day. Each one is explained as a metaphor or as plain light. רבי יהודה's list of checking times puts אור before "the morning of the 14th", so the גמרא concludes that אור means evening. Next, a ברייתא about when work stops on the 14th seems to prove the same thing. That proof is pushed away by reading אור as dawn, and the long debate between רבי אליעזר בן יעקב and רבי יהודה about splitting a day is explained to fit that reading. A ברייתא about signal fires lit "לאור עיבורו" proves again that אור means evening, since fires are lit at night. A challenge about a כהן washing "לאורה" is answered: אורה is a different word. The amud ends as מר זוטרא begins a new objection, which continues on the next amud.

Opening lines

הָא מִדְּקָאָמַר ״וּבַלַּיְלָה יְהִי כַגַּנָּב״ —

But from the fact that it says "and at night he is like a thief"

אַלְמָא ״אוֹר״ יְמָמָא הוּא!

apparently "or" is daytime!

הָתָם הָכִי קָאָמַר:

There, this is what it is saying:

אִי פְּשִׁיטָא לָךְ מִילְּתָא כִּנְהוֹרָא

If the matter is as clear to you as light

The steps (26)

  1. ChallengeThe thief verse seems to show that אור means day
  2. RejectionThe thief verse uses light and night as metaphors for certainty and doubt
  3. ChallengeChallenge from איוב's curse: looking for אור and finding none
  4. Rejectionאיוב is cursing: may he seek light and not find it
  5. ChallengeChallenge from תהלים: darkness envelops me, light becomes night
  6. Rejectionדוד speaks of this world and the next, not day and night
  7. Proofרבי יהודה's order shows that אור comes before morning
  8. ConclusionConclusion: אור means evening
  9. ProofA ברייתא about when work stops on the fourteenth
  10. Challengeרבי אליעזר בן יעקב attacks a split day
  11. Resolutionרבי יהודה: the fourteenth itself is split
  12. ProofThe inference: אור must be evening
  13. RejectionMaybe אור means dawn
  14. ChallengeThen his own view also splits the day
  15. ResolutionHis real complaint: the Rabbis separate night from day, as in the rule for a public fast
  16. ChallengeThe challenge restated: where do the Rabbis split the daytime itself?
  17. Resolutionרבי יהודה's answer: the fourteenth itself shows a split day
  18. ChallengeWas רבי יהודה's answer a good one?
  19. ResolutionA Torah law can split a day, but a rabbinic law does not
  20. Challengeרבי יהודה's comeback: the hours for חמץ are rabbinic
  21. ResolutionThose hours are only a fence around a Torah law
  22. ProofSignal fires for the new month are lit at the אור of the extra day
  23. ConclusionThe גמרא accepts the proof
  24. ChallengeA כהן who served all night must wash again at אורה
  25. RejectionThe word אורה is different
  26. Challengeמר זוטרא begins a new objection