Take One Daf Yomi

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Batra 126, raises a difficult question that begins with inheritance and sends us exploring the meaning of religious belief. Can the Torah tell us what we must and mustn't do with our personal property? And how does that question reflect on how we see ourselves and our role in the world? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send us a note...

Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Batra 123, 124, and 125, tells a sordid and complicated tale of inheritance gone wrong. At its core is this vexing question: Can a person have a say in what happens to something once he decides to give it away? And how does this seemingly theoretical conundrum shape our understanding of everything from law to family relations? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscrib...

Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Batra 120, 121, and 122, contain a charming discussion of Judaism's happiest days. One is the 15th of Av, the Jewish celebration of love; the other is... Yom Kippur? Singer, songwriter, and author Peter Himmelman joins us to talk about God, love, grief, joy, and other uneasy but necessary paths to happiness. Why would a budding rock star give up on fame and fortune for a...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Batra 119, delivers a direct warning for women not to marry too late in life. Faith Salie, author, actress, and panelist on NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! joins us to talk about her own later-in-life marriage, and why she wouldn't have it any other way. What unique insights do older adults have into life, marriage, and parenthood? Listen and find out. Like the show? Su...

Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Batra 116, 117, and 118, find the rabbis engaged in a conversation about childlessness. Is God angry with those who choose not to have children? Or with those who don't pass on their knowledge to the next generation? And how does this discussion touch on our current combustible political climate? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sen...

Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Batra 113, 114, and 115, continue the discussion of death, dying, and inheritance. Internationally acclaimed author Alice Hoffman joins us to discuss her new book, When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary, a bold and beautiful imagining of the lives of Anne Frank and her family members from the day of the Nazi invasion to the morning they go into hiding....

Dreyfus: A Very Modern Affair is an October 7th story, but one that begins not in 2023, but in October of 1894 with the arrest of French military officer Alfred Dreyfus, who also happened to be a Jew. The implications of his framing, arrest, incarceration and the fallout of his eventual exoneration reverberate today. Over this five-episode series, we examine how these events unfolded, and how they...

Today's Talmud page, Bava Batra 112, finds the rabbis talking about death, dying, burial plots, and questions of inheritance. And when we think about Jews who have left behind a legacy that continues to edify and inspire, few shine more brightly than Captain Alfred Dreyfus, whose arrest, trial, and exoneration forced Europe to question its hatred of the Jews and inspired the Jews to flock to Zioni...

Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Batra 110 and 111, dwell on an incident from the Book of Judges involving Moses's grandson, Jonathan, who found himself involved in idol worship. The rabbis discuss the three questions asked of Jonathan, three questions that still serve as an excellent guide to life. What are they? And why should we still be asking ourselves these questions every single day? Listen and f...

Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Batra 108 and 109, are all about family and inheritance, but today we take a brief break from the Talmud. Why? Because it's the eve of Yom Kippur, Judaism's holiest day, and we're thrilled to feature a beautiful audio essay by Yeshiva University's Dr. Shaina Trapedo, all about Shakespeare and Rachel Goldberg-Polin and the meaning of second chances. You can read a PDF ver...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Batra 107, starts out as a discussion of a complicated inheritance situation but blooms into a meditation on family. What, if anything, do we owe our nearest and dearest? And what are our responsibilities to each other when, God forbid, very bad things happen? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com....

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Batra 106, delivers a complicated case of two brothers splitting an inheritance and then learning that they've a third brother they'd never met. Showrunner Courtney Hazlett joins us to discuss this idea, and how it was captured in the hit TV show Succession. Are family dynamics primarily about rules or feelings or some measure of both? Listen and find out. Like the show?...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Batra 105, tells us what happens when a business dealing contains two unclear and contradictory statements. It remains a very concrete problem, costing companies tens of millions of dollars each year. So how can the Talmud teach corporate America to communicate more clearly? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send us a note at takeone@...

Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Batra 102, 103, and 104, spend much time discussing rocky fields. But there's more to the debate than merely figuring out how to sell and buy land fairly; the wise rabbis give us a masterclass in how to avoid big, abstract, and ultimately meaningless terms and instead learn how to really think. Why do we abhor uncertainty, and how may we come to live with it, if not love...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Batra 99, gives us a glimpse at the Cherubs, those heavenly creatures there to guard the Ark of the Covenant. But which way, exactly, were they looking? And how might answering this seemingly technical question help us understand just how we're supposed to approach Rosh Hashanah? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send us a note at tak...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Batra 98, discusses who is at fault when good wine goes bad. Is it the seller, who probably failed to keep it in proper conditions? Or is it the buyer, punished for his ignorance and arrogance? And does this debate finally decide the awkward question of whether or not you're ever allowed to send a bottle of wine back at a restaurant? Listen and find out. Like the show? Su...

Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Batra 96 and 97, teach us that when making Kiddush on Shabbos, one must use wine that would've been good enough to be offered in the Temple. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to explain this curious idea, and how it elevates each Jewish home into a place of great passion and intentionality. What's the secret to transforming your own home into a sacred space? Listen and find...

Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Batra 94 and 95, tell the story of a strange way to resolve a financial dispute involving locking some of the money up and waiting for the Prophet Elijah to return to earth and adjudicate. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to explain why waiting for the Messiah is really an invitation for all of us to mend our ways here in this world. What would you do differently in your o...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Batra 93, shares an old custom they used to have in Jerusalem, punishing anyone who messed up dinner. Why is the meal so important? And what can us moderns do to take it more seriously? 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 conversation in the Ta...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Batra 92, finds the rabbis talking about guarantees. Does a seller owe the buyer anything should a product not meet the buyer's satisfaction? And how might the answer help the retail industry deal with more than $800 billion lost each years to customers sending back stuff? And just what, pray tell, is "wardrobing"? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our week...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Batra 91, contains a difficult prohibition: the prohibition on living outside the land of Israel. How are we to grapple with this difficult notion? 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 conversation in the Take One Facebook group. We think that y...

Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Batra 89 and 90, explore ethical practices in the market place. Producer Josh Kross joins us to discuss fair business practices. According to the Rabbis, how should we purchase Taylor Swift tickets? 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 conversa...

Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Batra 87 and 88, ponder a question that is every parent's nightmare: Who is responsible when your kid breaks something valuable? As a recent story from Israel, involving a 3,500 year old vase and a very curious toddler, demonstrates, it's a profound question about parenthood, education, and what kind of society we want to be. So why should we let children touch things ev...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Batra 86, discusses the manner of acquiring small animals, and concludes that they do not like being manhandled. It's an insight that modern science, addressing the same questions millennia later, confirms. Why do dogs really, truly hate being hugged? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Batra 85, dives deep into the difference of commercial transactions occurring in the private versus the public domain. It's a tension that's still alive and well, as a new show, hosted by Rabbi Diana Fersko and producer Josh Kross explores; called Re-Form, it looks at the history of Reform Judaism in America, and how it navigated challenges of private versus public, tradi...