Daf Shvui/Weekly Daf: Give me forty minutes or so and I'll give you a daf or so

Send us Fan Mail One more conversation about wine fragility, at least in market exchanges. Who is responsible for my wine going bad? A surprising mussar interjection from the Meiri, and Ben Sira also makes an appearance as we move away from wine and toward place and space. All in this week's daf. This week's daf can be found in the following places: 1. Vilna page (Hebrew and Aramaic) fro...

Send us Fan Mail So this week we continue asking after what makes wine, wine and not water. Water into wine being a seasonal theme and all. We also ask after the thingness of wine. And other stuff. This week's daf can be found in the following places: 1. Vilna page (Hebrew and Aramaic) from Hebrewbooks.org 2. Hebrew and English from Sefaria.org 3. Hebrew and Aramaic with many commentaries fro...

Send us Fan Mail Wine, gross wine, and really gross wine, and its historical or, at least legal implications. We continue our discussion of buying, and defining wine, and asking whether it is the fault of the stars that wine spoils. It'll be a blast. This week's daf can be found in the following places: 1. Vilna page (Hebrew and Aramaic) from Hebrewbooks.org 2. Hebrew and English from Se...

Send us Fan Mail We are continuing with our conversation about how much stuff which isn't the stuff i bought should I be expected to accept along with the stuff I bought. When we finish with that we move on to discuss the knotty problem of what level of wine do I expect when I buy wine. (Also Rashbam is up in his feels about store bought wine…) Its a hoot. Trust me. This week's daf can b...

Send us Fan Mail Hey, we're back. Missed y'all. In this week's daf we ask the evergreen question: "How much crap can you put in my wheat and I'll still pay full price it?" Its a question that will take us through a discussion of definitions and boundaries. Buckle up, grab a beverage and join us. This week's daf can be found in the following places: 1. Vilna page...

Send us Fan Mail One last daf before Rosh Hashanah. We continue to interrogate the tension between rov/ majority and hazaqah /the assumption of fact. And we end up with a couple of interesting principles of hosting. Its all in this week's daf. This week's daf can be found in the following places: 1. Vilna page (Hebrew and Aramaic) from Hebrewbooks.org 2. Hebrew and English from Sefaria.o...

Send us Fan Mail This week we finish the fifth chapter and start the sixth. The fifth chapter ends as it started with a midrashic flourish, and the sixth chapter begins diving in right away with the parameters of legitimate commerce. This week's daf can be found in the following places: 1. Vilna page (Hebrew and Aramaic) from Hebrewbooks.org 2. Hebrew and English from Sefaria.org 3. Hebrew an...

Send us Fan Mail This week we follow the logic of guarding against criminal overcharging - taking advantage of drought conditions - (not) selling basic necessities - is wine a basic necessity? - exporting foodstuffs out of the Land of Israel - all the characters in the Ruth story - and in the "news you can use" category, what was Abraham's mother's name? All in this week's...

Send us Fan Mail This week we go further into the weeds of measures, measurements, and measuring implements and then take a step back to talk about how the "just scales" of Rabbinic discourse is different than the "scales of justice" of contemporary discourse. Its all in this week's daf. This week's daf can be found in the following places: 1. Vilna page (Hebrew and A...

Send us Fan Mail This week we dive into and interrogate the slippery idea of accurate weights and measure, and fair trade in the marketplace. This week's daf can be found in the following places: 1. Vilna page (Hebrew and Aramaic) from Hebrewbooks.org 2. Hebrew and English from Sefaria.org 3. Hebrew and Aramaic with many commentaries from Alhatorah.org Please be in touch with any comments, cr...

Send us Fan Mail Clear mishnaic text will be amiguified and then disambiguified in this weeks daf which follows and queries the tale of a child whose father sent him to buy some oil and then drama erupts.  The ambiguity is where this text lives. So come, pull up a beverage and blintz (or other dairy delicacy) (for shavuot) and join us as we try to make clarity out of chaos. Hag sameach. This week&...

Send us Fan Mail So… it's been a minute, but we're back. This week we go down a bit of an interesting rabbit hole about rural day labor in late antiquity. We also look at how our sugya was constructed. This week's daf can be found in the following places: 1. Vilna page (Hebrew and Aramaic) from Hebrewbooks.org 2. Hebrew and English from Sefaria.org 3. Hebrew and Aramaic with many co...

Send us Fan Mail Several facets of acquisition are interrogated in this week's daf. What completes acquisition—measuring? agreeing on a price? introducing the stuff into one's domain? Then, what type of acquisitive choreography should be employed—picking up an item? pulling an item? Is one better than the other? Then, is the item bought all at once (in the case of grain or oil, for examp...

Send us Fan Mail This week's sugya dance deftly on the private/public/shared domain-- buyer/seller matrix, in the process interrogating what all that means.   This week's daf can be found in the following places: 1. Vilna page (Hebrew and Aramaic) from Hebrewbooks.org 2. Hebrew and English from Sefaria.org 3. Hebrew and Aramaic with many commentaries from Alhatorah.org Please be in touch...

Send us Fan Mail When defrauding is not defrauding, but its non not defrauding. The narrow space of  ona'ah , in the larger space of fraudulent selling and buying. Also, the role of the flowers of paradise and the fires of hell in the color of the sun. Its all in this week's daf. This week's daf can be found in the following places: 1. Vilna page (Hebrew and Aramaic) from Hebrewbook...

Send us Fan Mail What is a vineyard? What constitutes a piece of land? What is the connection between the prohibition of planting mixed crops and deciding if you bought the land with the trees? More fascinating definitional questions and we end with a somewhat theoretical beginning to a conversation about fraud. All in this week's daf! This week's daf can be found in the following places...

Send us Fan Mail We're back!! We continue the conversation around buying trees and land, and how the traditions about the trees and land went from Palestine to Babylonia and back again, perhaps. This week's daf can be found in the following places: 1. Vilna page (Hebrew and Aramaic) from Hebrewbooks.org 2. Hebrew and English from Sefaria.org 3. Hebrew and Aramaic with many commentaries f...

Send us Fan Mail There are still more ways to think about owning land. In this week's daf and pod we consider how first fruits/bikkurim works and how it impacts our understanding of land ownership. This week's daf can be found in the following places: 1. Vilna page (Hebrew and Aramaic) from Hebrewbooks.org 2. Hebrew and English from Sefaria.org 3. Hebrew and Aramaic with many commentarie...

Send us Fan Mail Apiary and Aviary ho ho! We do a moderately deep dive into beekeeping and dove keeping this week, continuing the dual streams of what you buy when you buy stuff, and can you buy or sell stuff that does not yet exist (i.e. futures)? It's all in this week's daf. This week's daf can be found in the following places: 1. Vilna page (Hebrew and Aramaic) from Hebrewbooks.o...

Send us Fan Mail So… is selling stuff like dedicating stuff to the Temple? What is sacrilege? How does this daf question the legality of futures trading? This and more in this week's daf.   This week's daf can be found in the following places: 1. Vilna page (Hebrew and Aramaic) from Hebrewbooks.org 2. Hebrew and English from Sefaria.org 3. Hebrew and Aramaic with many commentaries from A...

Send us Fan Mail So … fraud. What do you do about it? Is it fraud? Also what comes with that donkey? Are donkeys essentially riding animals or pack animals? These questions and more in this week's daf. This week's daf can be found in the following places: 1. Vilna page (Hebrew and Aramaic) from Hebrewbooks.org 2. Hebrew and English from Sefaria.org 3. Hebrew and Aramaic with many comment...

Send us Fan Mail "Words cannot be bought with words." This is the principle that the Talmud uses to navigate the thorny issue of a secondary market in debt. Can you buy acquire something which is basically just words on a piece of paper? Well, probably, but how? and why? In this week's daf. This week's daf can be found in the following places: 1. Vilna page (Hebrew and Aramaic)...

Send us Fan Mail From the fantastical world of sea monsters we dive back into the constructed world of law. First, how does one buy a ship? But then, even more problematic, how does one buy something that cannot be touched—such as debt? We are also going a bit into the weeds of later Sages editing and rewriting earlier Sages and other such anomalies. All in this week's daf.   This week's...

Send us Fan Mail Leviathan, Sukkot made of the skin of the Leviathan, a dispute between angels about the meaning of a verse, rabbinic resentment and reward, and then back to buying ships. Its all in this week's daf! Please join us. This week's daf can be found in the following places: 1. Vilna page (Hebrew and Aramaic) from Hebrewbooks.org 2. Hebrew and English from Sefaria.org 3. Hebrew...

Send us Fan Mail Last podcast of 5781. More stories of the travels of the Rabbis down to the sea, out to the desert, to meet monsters, to see those who died in the Desert, to hear God lament at Sinai, to hear the wailing of Korach and his community. Its quite a trip. Join us. This week's daf can be found in the following places: 1. Vilna page (Hebrew and Aramaic) from Hebrewbooks.org 2. Hebre...