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

Send us Fan Mail Three hundred foot talking waves? Yes sir.  Humongous charging bison doing balancing tricks on the city's battlements? Yes ma'am. We have it all in this week's daf, as we start the fifth chapter and delve into the Talmud's version of Sinbad the Sailor—Rabbah bar bar Hannah. This week's daf can be found in the following places: 1. Vilna page (Hebrew and Ara...

Send us Fan Mail So this week we finish the fourth chapter!! Turns out its harder to force a bunch of Tannaitic and Amoraic statements into a stammaitic framework than you would have thought.  But we crack it. So, come along for the ride, and for the hadran. 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...

Send us Fan Mail Short and sweet. More on what do you sell when you sell a field? or when you gift it? or when you dedicate it? We look behind the curtains a bit this week. 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...

Send us Fan Mail Getting back in the weeds this week with "What do you mean to sell when you sell the field?" Some significant variant readings. A little side-eye between rishonim. And a whole piece of the sugya which doesn't seem to belong here. All in this week's daf! This week's daf can be found: 1. Vilna page (Hebrew and Aramaic) from Hebrewbooks.org 2. Hebrew and Engl...

Send us Fan Mail This week we confront and embrace the Talmud's translation of the mishnah. What is translation locally? and what is it globally? Also when Abraham bought a plot for Sarah, little did he know that he was setting legal precedent for acquisition of property for ever. All in this week's daf! This week's daf can be found: 1. Vilna page (Hebrew and Aramaic) from Hebrewboo...

Send us Fan Mail So what happens when you buy a CITY? Okay well not really a city but a large estate with houses and wells and fields and stuff. What have you actually bought? This is a question that I know troubles all or our imaginations, and it is the central question of our daf this week. (Along with an excursus on slavery in Sassanian Persia and other stuff.) So, grab a chair and a cold one,...

Send us Fan Mail We continue our conversation about what it is that you buy when you buy something. However, we also peek behind the curtains a bit to ask after the construction of this sugya. So, grab a chair and a cold one, and join us. This week's daf can be found: 1. Vilna page (Hebrew and Aramaic) from Hebrewbooks.org 2. Hebrew and English from Sefaria.org 3. Hebrew and Aramaic with many...

Send us Fan Mail More on the great Rabbi Eliezer - Sages debate over things which are attached to the land (are they considered land?) and how that intersects with the Rabbi Aqiva - Sages debates about what you are selling when you sell (everything, or you can retain something). All in this week's daf. This week's daf can be found: 1. Vilna page (Hebrew and Aramaic) from Hebrewbooks.org...

Send us Fan Mail Sticking  with the debate over how much you sell when you sell, we start off with a debate about the debate, and actually two versions of that debate (one in the Bavli and one in the Yerushalmi). Its a little bit of pulling back the curtains of the conversation and going behind the daf. Come join us! This week's daf can be found: 1. Vilna page (Hebrew and Aramaic) from Hebrew...

Send us Fan Mail When a seller sells what does he sell? What is his intention in his sale? This is the question for this week's daf. This week's daf can be found: 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, criticisms, or witticisms at t...

Send us Fan Mail Can you buy or refuse to sell the air rights and/or subterranean rights to your property? Can you buy "futures"? Well these are the questions that are dealt with in this week's daf. This week's daf can be found: 1. Vilna page (Hebrew and Aramaic) from Hebrewbooks.org 2. Hebrew and English from Sefaria.org 3. Hebrew and Aramaic with many commentaries from Alhato...

Send us Fan Mail Legalese. Its a problem in English and its also a problem in Aramaic. How do we deal with ambiguous contract language? To what extent do we trust each other? All in this week's daf: This week's daf can be found: 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 Pl...

Send us Fan Mail WE BEGIN THE FOURTH CHAPTER! This chapter begins with an investigation into sales and by way of that, an investigation into legal definitions, and the accuracy of legal language, and the question of what really is a house? All in this week's daf: This week's daf can be found: 1. Vilna page (Hebrew and Aramaic) from Hebrewbooks.org 2. Hebrew and English from Sefaria.org 3...

Send us Fan Mail We are finishing off the third chapter with a BANG! More privacy law, more discussion of impacting ownership, and then are we mourning for the Temple too much? too little? All in this week's daf. This week's daf can be found: 1. Vilna page (Hebrew and Aramaic) from Hebrewbooks.org 2. Hebrew and English from Sefaria.org 3. Hebrew and Aramaic with many commentaries from Al...

Send us Fan Mail More in the Babylonian Talmud's series on "won't you be my neighbor? no you are using my property!" Answering questions like: How much of my property do I not actually control? How much of your property do I have control of? What about privacy rights? All in this week's daf. This week's daf can be found: 1. Vilna page (Hebrew and Aramaic) from Hebrewb...

Send us Fan Mail I'm pretty excited about this week's daf. It is basically stories of R. Bena'ah, a Palestinian Sage, and his encounters with Abraham, and Adam, while marking gravesites. Also bit of a tussle between a dead rabbi and a Magian who wants to move him. And R. Bena'ah again as the Solomonic answerer of riddles. Its all in this week's daf. This week's daf ca...

Send us Fan Mail More conspiring witness! More ways of acquisition / or not! The estates of converts! And, finally, Sages leering or not at women doing laundry down at the river. Its all in this week's daf. This week's daf can be found: 1. Vilna page (Hebrew and Aramaic) from Hebrewbooks.org 2. Hebrew and English from Sefaria.org 3. Hebrew and Aramaic with many commentaries from Alhatora...

Send us Fan Mail More conversation about boundaries - boundaries between spaces, boundaries in intentions, crossing boundaries. We also start on a whole new conversation about conspiratorial witnesses/ eidim zomemim . Its all in this week's daf. This week's daf can be found: 1. Vilna page (Hebrew and Aramaic) from Hebrewbooks.org 2. Hebrew and English from Sefaria.org 3. Hebrew and Arama...

Send us Fan Mail Dina deMalkhuta Dina. The law of the State [lit. the kingdom] is the law. What are the legal and cultural implications of this law? Is it a law or a general principle? Is this an ideology that is new to the Sassanian/Babylonian context? Or, is this an older trend that is perhaps articulated here for the first time? All this in this week's daf. This week's daf can be foun...

Send us Fan Mail We continue a conversation about acquiring things. Some stories about how the system runs up against some folks, and how the outcomes are gendered. And we begin a conversation about dina demalkhuta dina / the law of the land or kingdom is the law. Its all in this week's daf. This week's daf can be found: 1. Vilna page (Hebrew and Aramaic) from Hebrewbooks.org 2. Hebrew a...

Send us Fan Mail This week we unpack both textual/historical and philosophical or ideological questions in order to understand a conversation which explores, defines, and highlights the possibly porous boundaries of the Jewish community around converts. All this and more in this week's daf. This week's daf can be found: 1. Vilna page (Hebrew and Aramaic) from Hebrewbooks.org 2. Hebrew an...

Send us Fan Mail We delve deeper into the thorny issue of who can give what to whom and who can accept what from whom? Who has the authority to be an owner or to convey ownership? Also how do we deal with the thorny issue of family money? Can one person go solo buying and selling? Then what? All this and more in this week's daf. This week's daf can be found: 1. Vilna page (Hebrew and Ara...

Send us Fan Mail Last daf podcast of the year! What is the status and legality of commercial relationships between romantic partners? That is the central question that this week's daf struggles with. Come and find respite in the bet midrash in the closet! This week's daf can be found: 1. Vilna page (Hebrew and Aramaic) from Hebrewbooks.org 2. Hebrew and English from Sefaria.org 3. Hebrew...

Send us Fan Mail Property. Husbands. Wives. Enslaved people. The way these interact and intersect can drive you crazy and yet this too is Torah. All in this week's daf. This week's daf can be found: 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 comm...

Send us Fan Mail We finish one conversation about contract and coercion, and we start another one about property and coercion and marriage. All in this week's daf. This week's daf can be found: 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,...