Take One Daf Yomi

Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Metzia 53, 54, and 55, make us contemplate the priests and the practices they upheld to keep us whole and holy. Rabbi Jeff Salkin joins us to talk about the sacred ritual of Pesach, and why we should take some time this year to think about Armenia and its struggles, so much like our own. Why must we see the Exodus as a universal event rather than the exclusive property o...

Today's pages, Bava Metzia 51 and 52, discuss prohibitions on financial exploitation. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to ask: Why do markets exist? What do they have to do with societal redemption? Why do we chase things we don't really want, and certainly don't need? And what does Martin Shkreli have to do with the Talmud? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sen...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Metzia 50, discusses the important of honesty in the marketplace. Producer Josh Kross joins us to discuss the importance of being able to trust your debate partners. What can the Talmud tell us about modern discourse? 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...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Metzia 49, discusses whether your intentions and your actions should match in business dealings. Comic book creator and cartoonist Jordan B. Gorfinkel, aka Gorf, joins us to to discuss whether only our actions need to be good, or do our intentions matter as well. Also, he shares his attempt to use the power of Batman to rescue some of the hostages that have been held by H...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Metzia 48, talks about reneging on your previously agreed upon transactions. Rabbi David Bashevkin tells us what this daf has to do with Sodom and Gomorrah, the Tower of Babel, and the Egyptians standing before the splitting Red Sea. Why shouldn’t we call everyone we don’t like Hitler? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send us a note...

Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Metzia 46 and 47, are all about the asimon, a token that, back in Talmudic times, gained you entry into the bathhouse. What is the deal with this strange form of currency? And what can it teach us about video games, sex, and the fundamentals of our economy? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Fo...

Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Metzia 44 and 45, ponder whether it's right to punish someone for merely contemplating committing a sin. Tablet Magazine's Armin Rosen joins us to discuss this idea and how it inspired some of science fiction's finest works. Can our thoughts sometimes be even more consequential than our actions? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Metzia 43, gets very specific about how we ought to calculate the compensation someone ought to pay when they misappropriate something that then either grows or diminishes in value. What's the correct answer, and what does it have to teach us today? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us o...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Metzia 42, delivers a bit of financial advice so sage and timeless that, thousands of years later, it is still cited by investment gurus as the Golden Standard. What is it? And why do so many Wall Street hot shots ignore it, with disastrous results? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us o...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Metzia 41, delivers a strange ruling: A person, it tells us, doesn't have to cause another financial loss or damages in order to be guilty of misappropriation. What, then, does misappropriation truly mean? And what does it have to do with a recent and highly controversial decision by McDonald's? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send...

Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Metzia 39 and 40, talk about the assignment of property when people are taken captive. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to discuss the Rabbis’ perspective on what matters most when Jews are taken prisoner. How do we take care of both survivors and captives? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Foll...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Metzia 37 and 38, uses the case of a prolific thief to teach something far more fundamental about justice and Jewish law. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to discuss how the law is for everyone, from the lowest of the thieves to the holiest among us. Should we consider the law the ceiling or the floor of our responsibilities? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Metzia 36, uses a somewhat complicated transactional discussion about paid and unpaid bailees to deliver a gorgeous lesson for the ages about the importance of always trying and doing and being our best. Why should we never, ever cut corners and shirk our duties? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.co...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Metzia 35, speaks of the relation between debtor and creditor. Is it enough for a creditor to lend his wealth to debtors because he is an "upright person"? The producers of our sister podcast, Unorthodox, visited the Social Grocery Store in Tel Aviv just last week, a food pantry filled with upright volunteers that serve asylum seekers and migrants struggling to get by. Wo...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Metzia 34, unpacks the mystery of the shomer hinam, a person who agreed to watch over something free of charge and then, maybe, coveted the item for himself. Is it still a sin if he agrees to pay for it in full? And what does this seemingly dry, legalistic case teach us about remaining pure-hearted and kind? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly news...

Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Metzia 32 and 33, weigh in on the question of who deserves more respect: Our parents or our teachers. It's a hot-button political issue in our never-ending culture wars, and the rabbis offer a definitive, and surprising, take. What is it? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter...

Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Metzia 30 and 31, stress the importance of teaching things in a way people can actually understand. Rabbi Dr. Stu Halpern joins us to shed light on why this passage is crucial to the Passover Haggadah, and how it inspired America's Founding Fathers. How did the Exodus story resonate with Washington et al? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsle...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Metzia 29, instructs us that we should learn to take really good care of our possessions. What's the approach known as soulful materialism? And what does it teach us about radically rethinking the way we shop for and care for our stuff? 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...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Metzia 28, introduces us to a magical place: The Claimant's Stone, a spot in ancient Jerusalem where anyone who had lost or found anything would come to hang out and connect. It was, if you will, a sort of Facebook before Facebook; but did digital technology rob the idea of its meaning and purpose? And what advice, while we're at it, does Judaism have to offer us about na...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Metzia 27, is a masterclass in deductive reasoning. What's deductive reasoning? Why did the rabbis of the Talmud cherish it? And what does any of it have to do with a certain famous British detective known for his deerstalker hat and his cranky companion? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follo...

Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Metzia 25 and 26, raise a terrifying proposition: That no matter how firmly we believe there's always time to do the right thing and make amends and fix what we've broken, sometimes we may simply and sadly be too late. How do we extract something positive and sweet from this bitter teaching? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send us...

Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Metzia 23 and 24, ask what makes an item immediately and distinctly recognizable. As it happens, the same exact question occupied some of our finest trademark lawyers as they did battle in court to protect their clients' unique and immediately recognizable brands. What makes something distinct enough to merit a trademark? And why did the Beatles duke it out with Steve Jo...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Metzia 22, discusses one of society's most pressing, and most tragically misunderstood, topics, namely how to host a dinner party. What solemn responsibilities do hosts, and guests, have when breaking bread? And why is a good dinner party more like a shootout than like a picnic? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send us a note at take...

On today’s episode, we again take a break from Talmud and today's page, Bava Metzia 21, to play you our brand new podcast, Sivan Says: Taking the Torah Personally. It’s a weekly parsha podcast with me, Liel Liebovitz, and Israeli journalist and Torah scholar Sivan Rahav Meir. In our debut episode, Sivan tells us all about the story of Purim; explains how this year's Taanit Esther - Esther's Fast -...

On today’s episode, instead of bringing you an episode about Bava Metzia 20, we take a break from Talmud to tell you about a new podcast we’re launching tomorrow called Sivan Says: Taking the Torah Personally. It’s a weekly parsha podcast with Israeli journalist and Torah scholar Sivan Rahav Meir. Sivan joins us on Take One to tell us about the 2000 year old “home page” of the Jewish people. You c...