Pesachim 80a - Time and Place

Analyzing a Tosfot this episode highlights the two most important capacities for learning Torah: 1) The capacity to distinguish between two ideas that seem to be the same; 2) to understand the similarities between two ideas that seem to have nothing in common. A pesul (disqualification) caused by time or place is different from one caused by a deficiency in the individual him or herself. A disqualification resulting from being in the wrong time frame is similar to the disqualification o...