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

Send us Fan Mail Why was R. Yirmiyah kicked out of the study hall? Another resolution this week, along with imaginary women's anatomy, wine casks on a river, and hiding wine in a vineyard. Ultimately the question is not the question, the question is about authority. All in this week's daf. So… join me in the "safer at home" bet midrash. Shelter in Torah for a bit. This week&apo...

Send us Fan Mail Doves or pigeons, at home and away. Posing questions of boundaries and ownership, flight paths, theft, inside and out. The doves, and Rabbi Yirmiyah who is kicked out of the study hall. Join me in this study. 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 Ar...

Send us Fan Mail We continue urban planning. The mishnah and gemara interrogating the issues between neighbors of walls, windows, dovecotes, and mongeese, bloodletters, and ravens. Is the end of your property actually the end of your property? These issues and more in this week's daf. So...Come on in to the bet midrash /the study hall! Pour your favorite beverage, get your favorite snack, put...

Send us Fan Mail When Sages compete in the war of Torah, does this competition bring in its wake more and greater wisdom? Or more and greater pain? This is perhaps one of the subtexts of this week's daf, woven in and about the question of who has access to the market, and who grants access to that market. So...Come on in to the bet midrash /the study hall! Pour your favorite beverage, get you...

Send us Fan Mail Daf Shvui afficianados come for the Talmud but get hooked by the ads. Responding to the general clamor (okay, I'll admit it wasn't so general nor so very clamorous) for these bite size bits of buffoonery and banter, here are all the ads in one montage.  The world is insane. Here's something you'll laugh at. I hope.

Send us Fan Mail The rabbi's central preoccupation, to quote Daniel Boyarin, is reproducing rabbis. Rabbis' sons who went "off the derekh/path" were considered "vinegar son of wine." However, how early does one start to teach the children; the future Sages? Is there any basis to the truism that universal Jewish education was a thing already during the time of the seco...

Send us Fan Mail Talmud is an ancient text, a product of late antiquity, but also an artifact of early modernity and burgeoning technology of the printing press, which also brought it into conflict with the Church which controlled the presses to some extent. This week's daf forces us to dip into this also. So...Welcome! Pour your favorite beverage, get your favorite snack, put your feet up, a...

Send us Fan Mail One of the fascinating characteristics of Talmudic debate and discussion is that it does not distinguish between the material and the spiritual; between the rote and the extraordinary—everything is attended to by the discourse, the give and take, of the Sages. This week's daf is a prime example of a sugya/ a discussion which centers and lifts up the seemingly mundane aspects...

Send us Fan Mail To what extent should a person's use of her own property be regulated? If my tree's roots grow into your land and ruin your cistern, am I responsible? Or should you take the tree into account before you plant, or dig a cistern? Anyway, these are some of the questions that this week's daf poses. So welcome. Pour your favorite beverage, get your favorite snack, put yo...

Send us Fan Mail Another week, another daf/page of Talmud. Welcome to the no prerequisites, no judgement, no commitment, Talmud study podcast. Grab your favorite beverage, or step into the great outdoors, and dive into the sea of Talmud with me. This week we start the second chapter of Baba bathra. This chapter deals with interactions, negotiations, arrangements, and potential points of conflict b...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to the no prerequisites, no judgement, no commitment Talmud study podcast. Grab your favorite beverage, or step into the great outdoors, and dive into the sea of Talmud with me. In order to mark and celebrate the completion of the first chapter of Baba Bathra, we invited Prof. Alyssa Gray to discuss her new book  Charity in Rabbinic Judaism: Atonement, Rewards, and Righteo...

Send us Fan Mail Another week, another daf/page of Talmud. Welcome to the no prerequisites, no judgement, no commitment Talmud study podcast. Grab your favorite beverage, or step into the great outdoors, and dive into the sea of Talmud with me. This week we explore the end of the Job tale and reflect on what it all means. We reflect on the fact that the rabbis have many pictures or understandings...

Send us Fan Mail Another week, another daf/page of Talmud. Welcome to the no prerequisites, no judgement, no commitment Talmud study podcast. Grab your favorite beverage, or step into the great outdoors, and dive into the sea of Talmud with me. This week the Talmud grapples with the meanings of the story of Job, that wealthy God-fearer who ended up a pawn in a game of theodicy between God and Sata...

Send us Fan Mail Another week, another daf/page of Talmud. Welcome to the no prerequisites, no judgement, no commitment Talmud study podcast. Grab your favorite beverage, or step into the great outdoors, and dive into the sea of Talmud with me. In this week's daf we meet the council of 10 Sages who were King David's collaborators in writing Psalms; we answer perennial questions like &quo...

Send us Fan Mail Another week, another daf/page of Talmud. Welcome to the no prerequisites, no judgement, no commitment Talmud study podcast. Grab your favorite beverage, or step into the great outdoors, and dive into the sea of Talmud with me. This week's page (Baba Bathra 13b-14b) gives you a DIY primer on make a Torah scroll, which naturally leads into a discussion of the dimensions of the...

Send us Fan Mail Another week, another daf/page of Talmud. Welcome to the no prerequisites, no judgement, no commitment Talmud study podcast. Grab your favorite beverage, or step into the great outdoors, and dive into the sea of Talmud with me. This week's page (Baba Bathra 13a-13b) explores a principle of social/financial intercourse. (How) can two partners arrive at a mutually satisfying di...

Send us Fan Mail Another week, another daf/page of Talmud. Welcome to the no prerequisites, no judgement, no commitment Talmud study podcast. Grab your favorite beverage, or step into the great outdoors, and dive into the sea of Talmud with me. This week's page (baba bathra 11b-13a) takes on the theory and practice of public claim on private spaces and vice versa, the relative merit of prophe...

Send us Fan Mail I know that all the cool kids are jumping on to the daf yomi bandwagon. However, if you are looking for something a bit more mellow, a bit more curated, less a part of the rough and tumble of the daf yomi speedway—I invite you to daf shvu'i. This week we learn through Baba bathra 7b-8b, the begining of what might be called masechet tzedakah/the tractate of poverty relief. For...

Send us Fan Mail I know that all the cool kids are jumping on to the daf yomi bandwagon. However, if you are looking for something a bit more mellow, a bit more curated, less a part of the rough and tumble of the daf yomi speedway—I invite you to daf shvu'i. No prior experience necessary. This week we continue with what I call masechet tzedakah/the tractate of poverty relief, of the two longe...

Send us Fan Mail I know that all the cool kids are jumping on to the daf yomi bandwagon. However, if you are looking for something a bit more mellow, a bit more curated, less a part of the rough and tumble of the daf yomi speedway—I invite you to daf shvu'i. No prior experience necessary.   This week Rabbi Aqiva throws down midrash with a Roman general, as one does, and the "yay tzedakah...

Send us Fan Mail I know that all the cool kids are jumping on to the daf yomi bandwagon. However, if you are looking for something a bit more mellow, a bit more curated, less a part of the rough and tumble of the daf yomi speedway—I invite you to daf shvu'i. In about 40-50 minutes you can learn a page of Talmud.  This weeks episode is Baba Bathra 10b-11b.