Mesechtas Kinim

Tractate Kinim has three chapters and three and a half pages. Tractate Kinim is the eleventh and final tractate in Seder Kodashim, the fifth order of the Mishnah. It contains three chapters that deal with kinim - pairs of birds designated for offerings - that became mixed with each other. This tractate has no Talmud Bavli (or Talmud Yerushalmi), but it is printed in most editions of the Babylonian Talmud together with the tractates Meilah, Tamid, and Middot (pages 22a-25a in the Vilna Shas).

The Rebbe's Explanations

At the end of the tractate, it states that the understanding of Torah scholars becomes settled upon them. The explanation is that learning in old age is when the understanding of Torah scholars becomes settled upon them, and they learn with a settled mind rather than with pilpul (sharp analysis). The intent is not that wisdom is added to them, but rather that mental composure is added to them.

For this reason, Rabbi Yosi ben Kisma says in Tractate Shabbat that "two are better than three," meaning that the two legs of a young man are preferable to the three legs of an elderly person (two legs and a walking stick). According to the simple meaning, this statement is difficult to understand, because certainly the two healthy legs of a young person are preferable to an elderly person who walks with a cane.

The Rebbe explains that his intention is to emphasize the advantage of youth when learning follows the path of pilpul, compared to learning in old age when the understanding of Torah scholars becomes settled upon them, and they learn with a settled mind rather than with pilpul, despite the other advantage that exists for the elderly - their friends and students who make them wiser "more than all others."

Additional Explanations

• End of the tractate. The woman who said, "I pledge a ken (bird offering) when I give birth to a male child." Likkutei Sichos Volume 16, page 131 (page 144)

External Links

• Tractate Kinim
• Likkutei Sichos on Tractate Kinim