Very early in the Daf Yomi cycle, way back in Tractate Berakhot, I remember reading about the principle that in sacred things, we elevate and do not lower. In a debate over the right way to light candles on Hanukkah, Beit Shammai argued that we should start with eight candles on the first night and then reduce the number each night; Beit Hillel, by contrast, said that we should start with one candle and build up to eight. As usual, Hillel’s interpretation prevailed, because of the principle that we should always try to increase our sanctity, rather than lessen it.
With candles, this is straightforward enough. But what happens, the Talmud asked in this week’s Daf Yomi reading, when we are talking about the sanctity of a piece of real estate—for instance, a synagogue or a study hall? To take a place where Jews worshipped God and turn it into something else, like a store or a house, would clearly mean lessening its sanctity. Yet if a building that once served as a synagogue had to remain a synagogue forever, then it could never be sold, even if the Jewish community dwindled and it wasn’t needed any longer. And a community or an individual might be less inclined to build a synagogue in the first place if there was no chance of ever recovering the initial investment. How can we respect both the sanctity of the synagogue and the practical needs of the Jews who built it?
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