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

Send us Fan Mail If a coerced contract is enforceable, how do we think about contracting in general? Are all forced contracts enforceable? What about marriage contracts? Divorce contracts? What does contracting mean at the end of all this? These are questions that raised by 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 If at its heart commerce is about communication, how do we effect commercial transactions when we cannot trust each other? This is one of the questions that is raised by 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.o...

Send us Fan Mail What do you do when you forgot your pie pan at the potluck and somebody else takes it home? Is somebody responsible? Also tenant farmers. And dishing on Pumbeditha. 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...

Send us Fan Mail Selling stuff. Buying stuff. Lying? Fraud? Jews and nonJews. Its all here 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, criticisms, or witticisms at thewidowandthebrothers@...

Send us Fan Mail So many questions. What responsibility does a seller have to the buyer of her property? How does one work through the web of ownership in the case of a stolen piece of property which is also sold? What claim does a lender have on the borrower—does that claim extend beyond the borrower to the buyer of the borrower’s property? Can I put under lien stuff that I might buy in the futur...

Send us Fan Mail Conflicts of interest, defaults on loans, shady real estate deal. This is what's happening this week when we study Shmuel's statement as a mishnah! It's all so exciting! So, pull up a chair, grab a beverage, and join us 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 f...

Send us Fan Mail This has been some week even in a year in which every week seems to have lasted a few months. Whew! Lets learn some Torah in the memory of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Breonna Taylor. So, pull up a chair, grab a beverage, and join us 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 Se...

Send us Fan Mail Four stories of ownership, claims of ownership, false claims of ownership, and disputed property. Narratives about the narrative of owning. All in this week's daf. So, pull up a chair, grab a beverage, and join us 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...

Send us Fan Mail Rava teaches R. Nahman's Torah. (How) Can one be forced to sell something? How might one undermine a contract written under duress? Two stories: one about a buyer behaving badly; one about a demanding lover and jilted adult son. So, pull up a chair, grab a beverage, and join us in the bet midrash in the closet. This week's daf can be found: 1. Vilna page (Hebrew and Aram...

Send us Fan Mail Continuing our discussion of hazakha/ownership. We digress into the difference between wronging and crime. Property ownership as a communicative act. Its all here in this week's daf. So, pull up a chair, grab a beverage, and join us 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 Englis...

Send us Fan Mail Land, territory, and claims of ownership. Presence, distance, and the commutative principle of Jewish communication. These are all in the introductory sugyot to the second mishnah in the third chapter which we start this week. So, pull up a chair, grab a beverage, and join us in the bet midrash in the closet. This week's daf can be found: 1. Vilna page (hebrew and aramaic) fr...

Send us Fan Mail Let's say you buy the trees but not the land that they are planted in. Lets say someone else buys that land without the tree. When you sell, is the legal assumpltion that you are intending to sell generously or stingily? What does that mean? Come and join us as we continue to figure out what it means to own property. This week's daf can be found: 1. Vilna page (hebrew an...

Send us Fan Mail This week's daf exists under the shadow of slavery and slave owning. What did the rabbis have to say about owning slaves? Why didn't they say different things? More things? And how do we move ahead with studying this material without resolving these issues? Important questions. Join us for the journey. This week's daf can be found: 1. Vilna page (hebrew and aramaic)...

Send us Fan Mail What is the extent of judicial discretion when there is little alternative? What are the drawbacks of compromise? We ask some final questions about cases where there seems to be equal evidence on both sides. Then we start looking at the mishnah and presumptive ownership all over again. Please grab your favorite Tu b'Av beverage and join us! This week's daf can be found:...

Send us Fan Mail This week we finish Raba's casebook and ask: What was that? Also, the one who is stronger wins? Not what you usually hear in those pearls of Judaism classes… In any event, this week's daf is totally worth it. So, grab your favorite Shabbat Nahamu beverage, kick back and join us in the daf shvui bet midrash. This week's daf can be found: 1. Vilna page (hebrew and ara...

Send us Fan Mail Raba bar Sharshum thinks he is a good guy, and a smart guy. Turns out he's not. Yes, he did use the produce of the orphans' fields when we shouldn't have. We are continuing with the legal and ethical conversation around ownership and testimony and believability. So, come join us in the safer at home bet midrash. This week's daf can be found: 1. Vilna page (hebr...

Send us Fan Mail This week we confront head on the issue of the finality of a judicial decision. Can you just keep coming back with more evidence? Also, dramatic cases with evidence whispered into Rava's ear. Is somebody who produces a forged deed really all that bad? Please join us. This week's daf can be found: 1. Vilna page (hebrew and aramaic) from Hebrewbooks.org 2. Hebrew and Engli...

Send us Fan Mail What is the relationship between truth and law? Is it the job of the court to decide epistemological truth or ontological truth, or legal truth? Is there a difference between those two truths? We continue with law school a la Rava, in this week's daf. Please join us. This week's daf can be found: 1. Vilna page (hebrew and aramaic) from Hebrewbooks.org 2. Hebrew and Engli...

Send us Fan Mail This week we delve into Rava's casebook of disputed ownership. It is the Law and Order of private property dispute—less the bodies and the pithy opening scenes. So please, come in and take shelter from the storm. 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 com...

Send us Fan Mail To celebrate the completion of the second chapter of Baba Batra, I invited Charlotte Fonrobert , a professor in the Religious Studies department at Stanford University whose current research focuses on the rabbinic eruv, or Shabbat boundary, and the way that the laws and culture of eruv define Jewish identity. Our wide ranging conversation delved into the 2000 plus years of eruv—f...

Send us Fan Mail And we are still grappling with the question of possession. How does one come to own something that cannot be moved? Why are the rabbis talking about enslaved women? What is the story with land that lies fallow? Do the fallow years count? All in this week's daf. So … join me in the "safer at home" bet midrash. Shelter in Torah for a bit. This week's daf can be...

Send us Fan Mail This week we start on the third chapter of Baba Bathra. What does ownership mean? How does it happen? So … join me in the "safer at home" bet midrash. Shelter in Torah for a bit. 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

Send us Fan Mail So this week we finish the second chapter of Baba Bathra. This episode we get an anthropomorphized tree, math, and the continued discussion of the edges and boundaries of ownership. So… join me in the "safer at home" bet midrash. Shelter in Torah for a bit. This week's daf can be found: 1. Vilna page (hebrew and aramaic) from Hebrewbooks.org 2. Hebrew and English fr...

Send us Fan Mail More discussion in this week's daf of negotiating property rights with neighbors. Stories of rabbis who were and were not good neighbors. And if the public uses the edge of your property over time does it become public property? These questions and some looking behind the scenes and under the hood of the text in this week's daf. So… join me in the "safer at home&quo...

Send us Fan Mail So a legal discussion about where one can build a tannery in relation to a city leads, in the inevitable logic of the Talmud, to a discussion of astronomy and meteorology, and of course theology. Where is God? In what direction should one/must one pray? So… join me in the "safer at home" bet midrash. Shelter in Torah for a bit. This week's daf can be found: 1. Vilna...