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Which blat Gemara (Bavli, Vilna edition) has the largest quantity of Talmudic text or the most complex and difficult to understand concepts?

yoel
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  • I ask because Berachos 32a looks pretty scary. Help with tags also appreciated. – yoel Sep 02 '12 at 22:38
  • Related: http://judaism.stackexchange.com/q/2672/1569 – b a Sep 02 '12 at 23:06
  • as an off the cuff response I'd say that the page as it is laid out would have more text because there is less rashi/tosfos. thus, a page with more text might be significantly less dense than on with a minimum of text and maximum of meforshim. – rosends Sep 02 '12 at 23:28
  • this would depend on which printing (can't remember exact word that should be there) i.e. vilna or warsaw. – shachna Sep 03 '12 at 00:03
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    I'm talking Vilna, but good point. @dan I really just mean "this daf would take the longest to read", not "take the longest to chap". – yoel Sep 03 '12 at 00:48
  • Interesting. But...relevance? – Seth J Sep 03 '12 at 01:44
  • @SethJ is curiosity insufficient? – yoel Sep 03 '12 at 03:01
  • Actually, though, I could be wrong, but I think that Shalom's answer to the linked question more or less answers mine, albeit with regards to daf rather than blat, but I'll take it and vote to close the question as a duplicate. – yoel Sep 03 '12 at 03:04
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    How do you define "densest" such that it can be measured? – Double AA Sep 03 '12 at 03:19
  • @DoubleAA words per page. – yoel Sep 03 '12 at 04:17
  • @yoel How is that different from "longest"? – Double AA Sep 03 '12 at 04:21
  • @DoubleAA maybe one would say "longest" could mean most lines. – yoel Sep 03 '12 at 04:25
  • @yoel Maybe: it's not like you clarify anywhere if you mean lines or letters or words. Why don't you pick one general adjective and then spell out exactly what you want in the question? – Double AA Sep 03 '12 at 04:31
  • @DoubleAA It occurred to me well after I dashed this question off that it could be significantly improved, but as I've said, I think it's a duplicate and should be closed. – yoel Sep 03 '12 at 04:44
  • Per your new edits, I think this should be closed as Not Constructive as it is too subjective. See also http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/09/good-subjective-bad-subjective/ – Double AA Sep 03 '12 at 16:20
  • @DoubleAA maybe that was my goal all along... not really, though. It is very subjective, I agree, but there must be a way to ask this question in a way that is less so. "Which is commonly regarded as...", maybe? – yoel Sep 03 '12 at 17:49
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    Totally different question now, and I'm surprised it was your own edit. I was going to revert it for you till I noticed it was. Concur with @doubleaa. What's your question, exactly? – Seth J Sep 03 '12 at 17:54
  • @SethJ my feeling was that the question as it was originally asked was an (almost-)exact duplicate of this one, so I changed it to match Aryeh's answer. That's probably not very good s.e practice, I know. – yoel Sep 03 '12 at 18:31
  • @yoel, I'm going to close this based on the comments here. The question as asked is pretty subjective and a little unclear; I understand that you edited to fit the answer you got, but if left open it could cause future readers to be confused. If you disagree with closing (I don't think you do) and you want to edit it, you can do so and ping me in a comment. If you still have a question it might be better to ask fresh. – Monica Cellio Sep 03 '12 at 20:41

1 Answers1

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If you're just looking for long talmudic text, there are others in Brakhot with little commentary: See Brakhot 56b, 58.

Difficult sugyas with little Talmudic text and plentiful Tosafot/Rashi are qualitatively longer (and scarier!) than the more aggadic, pshat texts. There are a few in Niddah that make you hold your breath when you first turn the page onto them: See Niddah 10a, 18, 67a.

The longest battle, imho, are the four days studying masekhet kinim.

Aryeh
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  • An excellent answer! Out of curiosity, what do you mean when you refer to four days spent studying Kinim? Did you mean a different masekhta? Kinim has no gemara in the Bavli (nor Yerushalmi, for that matter), and has only three chapters in the Mishna. Why would it be studied in four days? – Shimon bM Sep 03 '12 at 09:57
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    Thanks Shimon. Kinim is embedded in Masekhet Me'ila (it starts on Daf 22). Just look at all of the rishonim and their very different approaches to the text to see what the challenge. The language is difficult, and for those mathematically challenged (certainly myself included), it's ain't no picnic. – Aryeh Sep 03 '12 at 10:08