Take One Daf Yomi

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Batra 163, continues the tractate's discussion of documents, signatures, and forgeries. But it also delivers a surprising and potent meditation on true freedom, and on how to live authentically. What's the great lesson Abraham taught us about keeping it real? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. F...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Batra 162, deals mainly with how to make sure your documents aren't forged. But as the history of philosophy teaches us, sometimes a little fakery is necessary for brilliant ideas to break through. Who was the great thinker Johannes de Silentio, and how come you've never heard of him yet know his work? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Batra 161, gives us what may very well be the first ever documented appearance of... emoji. Why did some rabbis sign their names using pictograms? And how can emoji sometimes succeed where all words fail? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeonedafyomi and join the con...

Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Batra 159 and 160, contain a ruling that the Talmud considers one of the most difficult cases of civil law. What can it teach us about family? And was Don Corleone really living out some core Talmudic values? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeonedafyomi and join th...

Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Batra 155, 156, 157, and 158, usher us into Thanksgiving. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to explain the strange but undeniable connection between America's favorite holiday and one of the Talmud's most demanding tractates. Why is Bava Batra perfect Thanksgiving reading? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send us a note at takeone@tabl...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Batra 154, delivers a key lesson in political philosophy disguised as a meditation on inheritance. What's the real difference between conservatives and progressives? And why do both do best when they walk hand in hand? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeonedafyomi an...

Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Batra 152 and 153, the rabbis continue to contemplate our wishes as we lay dying. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to talk about the Kittel, the special white and shroud-like garment when we wear not only as we're buried, but also for special festivals like Passover and Yom Kippur. Why wear the same outfit on the saddest and happiest of occasions? Listen and find out. Like...

Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Batra 150 and 151, are a touching tribute to the sanctification of life. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to explain the concept of a Shechiv Mera, a person on his deathbed, and why we should pay special attention to his final wishes. What can these deathbed decisions teach us about the meaning of life? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Batra 149, begins with a heartbreaking scene of a father on his deathbed navigating halachic inheritance laws so that he could leave behind his fortune to his son. But study the biographies of these two, and a dark, troubled, and ultimately inspiring story emerges, a story of a man who had done very bad things yet went on to repent. What can Issur the Convert teach us abo...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Batra 148, asks a thorny question: What happens if someone, on their deathbed, promises to give away all their property but then miraculously recover? Much more than a hypothetical, the question gets to the very bottom of fairness, teaching us much about the promises we must keep and the ones we can safely break. What lesson do the rabbis have for Elton John? Listen and f...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Batra 147, finds the rabbis talking about... the wind, and how it sometimes blows this way and sometimes that, and sometimes makes some people sad and others happy and at other times vice versa. Producer Josh Kross joins us to explain why the passage is actually a perfect political metaphor for our fractured time. What can the Talmud's discussion of the wind teach us abou...

Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Batra 145 and 146, give us a quizzical passage trying to decipher the secret to happiness. How can we make sure we're always feeling joyful? And how did one famous rabbi learn the answer to that question the hard way? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeonedafyomi an...

Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Batra 143 and 144, negotiate the central tension in Judaism between divine determinism and free will. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to explain what catching a cold has to do with our sense of agency in this world. What is divine responsibility, and what is ours? Listen and find out.  Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag....

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Batra 142, revolves around a curious question: can an unborn child receive gifts? It's not just a hypothetical thought exercise; it is, as the rabbis teach us, a lesson in prioritizing the real over the ideal. Why should we stop pursuing the perfect and learn instead to grapple with reality in all its complications? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our wee...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Batra 141, shows us the rabbis once again arguing that God is furious with anyone who doesn't leave behind inheritors. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to explain this curious passage, and give us insight into the Talmud view of what truly matters in life. How is having children a reflection of one's values? Listen and find out.  Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsl...

Today’s Talmud Page, Bava Batra 140, raises a dilemma: As the Torah tells us that sons inherit their fathers, and as Jewish tradition instructs us that fathers must support their unmarried daughters, what happens if a man with both sons and daughters dies and has no money to sustain them both? It's a drama that touches on so much that is human, from family dynamics to the sometimes tense relations...

Today’s Talmud Pages, Bava Batra 138 and 139, dip in to the age-old battle between introverts and extroverts. Is this distinction even real? And what's the one thing Talmud and science alike tell us you need if you're going to go ahead and grow and change? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeo...

Today’s Talmud Pages, Bava Batra 136 and 137, treat us to a complicated case of inheritance law that's really about making sure that we remain forever hopeful. Tablet Magazine's Editor in Chief Alana Newhouse joins us to discuss why all American Jews, no matter who they voted for, see this week's election as a beacon of hope. What's the one thing history teaches us about American politics and inst...

Today's Talmud Page, Bava Batra135, teaches us that a will means nothing unless it was passed down to the next of kin. Tablet podcast producer Josh Kross joins us to discuss how this insight shaped his parenting sensibilities, and how it inspired his son, Miles, who voted this week for the very first time. What must we pass down to our children, and how to make sure we do so properly? Listen and f...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Batra 134, tells us about two of Rabbi Hillel's students, one of them the greatest and one the least impressive. What can we learn from this story about the nature and essence of genius? And what does Isaiah Berlin's most famous essay have to do with it? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Batra 133, shows us something we rarely see in contemporary politics: A senior official refusing to play the blame game and instead being kind and supportive of his errant colleagues. Dr. Tevi Troy, our very own Presidentischer Rav, joins us to discuss in a very special election day episode. What should the McCain and Clinton campaigns have learned from the wise rabbis of...

oday’s Talmud pages, Bava Batra 131 and 132, ask what we may or may not do with things that don't physically exist yet, like trading futures or, somewhat more spiritually, banking on our share in the World to Come. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to explain why Jews don't consider heaven an ephemeral entity but rather a very concrete thing that exists, in part, right here in this world. Which famou...

Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Batra 129 and 130, pose a difficult question about Halacha, or Jewish law. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to explore this profound and beautiful insight into how Halacha is not a stringent set of rules but a language that helps all Jews figure out their connection to each other. How do we learn to speak Halacha? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Batra 128, asks the question that has baffled psychologists for a very long while: can people really change? And if they do, will they necessary change for the better? The rabbis already figured it out, and their insights are supported by modern science. So what's the verdict on hope and change? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Batra 127, delivers a small and sweet lesson about the mechanics of kindness. Why should we always believe good things we hear about people but not the bad things? And what are the benefits of giving everyone the benefit of the doubt? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @t...