Briefing the case
Getting Started
As we stated earlier, most halachick statements in the גמרא are presented as "What is the דין in this particular case?" The first step a learner must take is to understand what case is being discussed. As a case describes a particular set of circumstances you can think of it as a story. At the simplest level we can tell ourselves the story of what is happening. You can tell yourself the story, visualize the story or even place yourself as a player on the stage where the story is being acted out.
As with any story, there will be background information that is necessary in order to understand what is going on. The background information can be divided into:
- Halachik background - what halachot do I need to know before I can understand the story? For example, the first משנה in ברכות discusses from what time can I recite קריאת שמע at night. In story form this would be "Once upon a time ראובן recited קריאת שמע at 10 o'clock at night. Was he יוצא his מצווה?" The halachik background would include that there is a חיוב to recite קריאת שמע at night. Without knowing this information the question posed in this case would not make sense.
- Story background - what happened in the story before the halachik question was posed? For example, the first משנה in the second פרק of בבא מציאה discusses which types of lost objects the finder can keep. In story form this would be "Once upon a time ראובן found some apples lying on the floor. Can he claim them for himself?" The literary background would include that שמעון went to the store and bought apples. His bag opened up on the way home and some of the apples fell out without שמעון realizing. The literary background of the story allows you to have a fuller visualization of the story. As the halachik discussion develops that literary background may become halachikally relevant (or it may not).
Very often the case being discussed in the משנה is a variation of an idealized case. Part of the background information would be to identify the ideal case and the outcome in that case. Needs more explication
To focus the reader to have a full understanding of the story there are a series of questions that provide a comprehensive encapsulation of the relevant information about a case. Answering these questions will be the next step in the learning process. We call this step briefing the case.
Briefing the Case
If we look at the Rambam's ספר המצוות we see that he divided all of הלכה into עשה and לא תעשה - do or don't do. The focus of the דין is determining the status of a particular action. Thus the first question we will ask is "What action (פעולה) are we discussing?"
Below is the list of questions to ask about each case. When you first encounter a case not all of the information may be available. This is one of the functions of the גמרא - to fill in missing information. Some of the information will be relevant to the decision making process while some of the information may not. Making that determination is a second stage of the analysis.
- Facts - (מציאות)
- What action are we discussing? About what halachic activity in the story are we ruling? (What act generates the דין?)
- Who did the action?
- When was the action done?
- Where was the action done?
- With what was the action done?
- How was the action done?
- To whom or to what was the action done?
- What effect does the action produce?
- Are there any other relevant conditions?
- What is the דין in this case? (In one word) See here for a discussion about the possible outcomes of a case.
- What is the source of the דין? See here for a discussion of the possible sources for a דין.
- What is the rationale? (סברא)
- What is the precedent value? (חידוש)
- Who is the author?
We use these questions to move the discussion from a story line to a legal discussion. The answers to these questions, especially the ones focused on the מציאות, we call the input conditions. This set of input conditions produces the halachik outcome (דין) in this case. The next step will be to determine which of the input conditions are at play in the halachik decision making process.
What is the דין?
There are three basic categories of דין:
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אסור vs. מותר (Is the act allowed or disallowed?)/Forbidden vs. Permitted
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חייב vs. פטור/Obligated vs. Exempted
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Is this (pre-) act required or not required? e.g.eating matza on Pesach; e.g. returning a lost object where there is a distinction between a "regular" person(who is obligated) vs. an elderly sage (זקן ואינו לפי כבודו who is exempted)
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Is there a required (or optional) halachic activity as a consequence of the (preceding) act (that was done in the case we are studying? e.g. galut for rock throwing which unintentionally killed?
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מוכשר vs. פסול
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(Is the outcome of my act valid or invalid?)/Approved (for some halakhic purpose) vs. Rejected or Deficient
- This creates a halachik reality which will be relevant to a subsequent act to which we would adjudicate as מותר / אסור / חייב / פטור
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מקור
The answer to the question "What is the מקור for this דין?" can be answered in one of the following ways:
- Explicit פסוק - i.e. Don't wear shatnez
- דרשה מי"ג מדות
- הלכה למשה מסיני - i.e. how much you need to eat in order to be חייב
- פירושים המקובלים - i.e. עין תחת עין means כסף
- תקנה או גזירה דרבנן
- מנהג - i.e.
- מעשה רב
Hebrew Worksheet template
- מציאות
- איזה פעולה נעשתה?
- מי עשה את הפעולה?
- מתי הפעולה נעשתה?
- איפה הפעולה נעשתה?
- עם מה נעשתה הפעולה?
- איך נעשתה הפעולה?
- למי או למה נעשתה הפעולה?
- איזה תוצאות יצאו מהפעולה?
- האם יש עוד תנאים רלוונטיים במקרה?
- מה הדין במקרה? (במילה אחת)
- מה המקור של הדין?
- מה הסברא?
- מה החידוש?
- מי בעל המימרא? (מחבר של ההלכה)