Take One Daf Yomi

Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Metzia 18 and 19, are a master class in paying attention to detail. Do details really matter? And is it better, when doing anything from looking for your keys to handling your legal documents, to sweat the small stuff or look at the big picture instead? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow...

Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Metzia 16 and 17, begin as an ordinary sounding discussion of legal documents but soon blossom into a profound, and profoundly relevant, life lesson. Why does Rabbi Yohanan urge us to slow down and take a closer look at life's seemingly most ordinary interactions? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag....

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Metzia 15, we're actually going to take a look at a new anthology from Tablet colleague Menachem Butler and co-editor Aviad Hacohen. The anthology, called Praying for the Defenders of Our Destiny: The Mi Sheberach for IDF Soldiers, was prepared in response to the October 7th massacre. It collects over seventy contributions from scholars, rabbis, and thinkers, that investi...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Metzia 14, ponders why so many of us, from Talmudic times onwards, have been so obsessed with owning real estate. Scott Harris, real estate agent and the host of a new podcast about the spiritual side of home ownership -- The Pursuit of Home -- joins us to talk about how property assuages our longing for permanence and about why no piece of real estate is ever without its...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Metzia 13, has the rabbis doing some creative recycling. What to do with a bit of papyrus that's no longer a useful legal document? And how could the ancient world's habits teach us a very valuable lesson about being less wasteful? 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 @take...

Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Metzia 11 and 12, raise a question that troubles many of us: What, precisely, makes a person an adult? Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to shed light on the meaning of growing up and becoming a man or a woman in full. How was Moses the ultimate practitioner of adulting? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send us a note at takeone@tablet...

Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Metzia 9 and 10, wonder how we truly assume ownership of an animal, which is really another way of asking how we assume ownership of our own lives. Do the rabbis want us to devote our days to study and contemplation? Or should we focus on constant and fruitful action instead? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send us a note at takeon...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Metzia 8, asks us to ponder what it actually means to ride a horse. Lily Leibovitz, a 12-year-old master equestrian, joins us to share the magical sensation of bonding with a strong, enormous animal, and why this connection had enchanted humans for millennia. How do you get the animal to listen to your wishes, and how do you tune in to its needs? Listen and find out. Like...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Metzia 7 discusses the validity of a bill of divorce if it is handed to a woman by her husband while he still holds on to it with a string, indicating that if he can pull the string and take it back, the bill of divorce is not legitimate, but if the string is too flimsy, or he can not pull it back, then the divorce is final. Tevi Troy returns to focus on the question of p...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Metzia 6, interrogates that old chestnut of TV cop dramas, namely that a guilty suspect is always cool and in command when interrogated while an innocent one is distressed. Is that true? And what impact did this prevalent theory of policing have on wrongfully convicting people of crimes they didn't commit? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsle...

Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Metzia 4 and 5, tell us a story of theft and accusation riddled with uncertainty. Producer Josh Kross joins us to talk about what we can do when we simply don't have enough information to go on, and why sometimes doubt isn't the worst thing to experience. What to do when you're trapped on a mountain with no power and no clue? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Metzia 2 and 3, introduce us to a brand new tractate. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us with a preview of what's in store. What life lessons are we to learn from the famous story about two dudes holding on to a Tallis, each insisting that it belongs to him? 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 is Bava Kama 119, and it is the ending of tractate Bava Kama. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to reflect on how all the rules about cows tell us really how we should treat each other. Should we really sweat the small stuff? Listen and find out. If you would like to read Rabbi Bashevkin’s essay about the end of this tractate, you can read it here. Like the show? Subscribe to our...

Today’s Talmud pages are Bava Kama 118, gives us a long list of transactions that can and do go awfully wrong. And while not many of us these days buy calves from women in the Sharon region of Israel, we do shop on apps that frequently leave much to be desired. What do the rabbis of the Talmud have to teach us about shopping experiences gone bad? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to ou...

Today’s Talmud pages are Bava Kama 117, tells a story of a Jew harassed for being visibly Jewish, a problem that, sadly, plagues many of us today. Gayle Kirschenbaum joins us with a moving personal essay addressing this question precisely. Should we wear our Stars of David proudly and openly? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send us a note at takeone@tabletma...

Today’s Talmud pages are Bava Kama 115 and 116, but they inspire us to ask a bigger question. With thousands of years of Talmud study already in the books, why do we need new translation and new editions to study? Rabbi Menachem Evan-Israel, son of famed Talmud scholar and translator Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz, joins us to discuss. Why, in 2024, do we need to keep revisiting the work? Liste...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Kama 113 and 114, asks whether Jews can use prohibited fabrics to protect ourselves from paying customs duties levied only on Jews. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us and explains that this kind of subterfuge is generally frowned upon, but also a garment that helps save a life through trickery may be the best choice. How can a story about American soldiers in World War II hel...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Kama 112 asks what is a child’s obligation if their parent borrows a cow to use for agricultural work, and then dies. Hudson Leibovitz joins us to discuss a more modern version of this quandary, and shares what he thinks about being responsible for the deals that his father made. He also shares the difference between what he is responsible for versus what might just be an...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Kama 111 asks whether a child is responsible to pay back a debt left by a parent who has robbed. Tablet’s Executive Editor Wayne Hoffman joins us to discuss his book The End of Her in which he attempts to solve the murder of his great-grandmother. He discusses the double agenda in writing his book of setting out to solve the mystery of this murder, and to figure out the v...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Kama 110 continues the conversation of repaying a debt to a convert to Judaism after they have died. To our modern ears, it is difficult to consider the idea that a convert is different than one born a Jew. Instead, perhaps we should consider how we all make the choice to be Jews each day as we go through our lives. The food we choose to eat, the prayers we choose to take...

Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Kama 108 and 109 ask what should happen if a robber needs to repay a debt to someone who has converted to Judaism after they have died, as while most debts can be paid to an heir, a convert (who has not married and had children of their own) has no heir. The Talmud answers this question by saying that the debt should be paid to a priest. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin introduces...

Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Kama 106 and 107 ask why a debtor must take an oath when they claim that the money owed is some portion of the debt that the lender indicates is owed, but does not have to take such an oath when they claim that they don’t owe any money at all. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to explore why someone might admit to some of the debt because admitting to none of it is too diffi...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Kama 105 explains that a Nazarite who is obligated to shave their head, has not fulfilled their obligation if two hairs remain on their head. To our modern ears, this determination appears extreme, but the Rabbis ask us to consider that there are times when compromise is not the appropriate response, and the strict adherence to certain principles is. Are there certain lin...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Kama 104 continues the conversation about whether one can designate an agent to accept payment on your behalf, and the Rabbis are not in agreement. Tevi Troy returns to discuss the many agents that Presidents must appoint to aide them in their administration, and the correct ways that such an agent should behave if they do not agree with the policies of the President that...

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Kama 103 begins by explaining that a robber must travel across the world in order to repay a debt for something they stole, indicating that they are not able to send someone else to repay it, or give it to a family member instead of directly to the person they stole from. But then, they say that a debt can be paid by giving it to an agent of the court. This piece of Talmu...