Take One Daf Yomi

Today’s page of Talmud, Yevamot 59, gets very technical about virginity and its meaning. Kylie Unell, host of the new podcast 49 Days to Stretch My Soul, joins us to talk about Spinoza, the mind-body connection, and how purity of thought is just as important to understanding the idea of virginity as anything else. Can you remain in a true state of purity in a society flooded by explicit images? Li...

Today’s page of Talmud, Yevamot 58, tells us that the moment in which two people stand underneath the wedding canopy is magically intimate. Noah Salomon, a Jewish musician who has played at more than a thousand weddings, joins us to talk about what it feels like to watch so many people enter into this joyous and sacred space. How do you summon that loving feeling even when you're playing your umpt...

Today’s page of Talmud, Yevamot 57, introduces us to the sanctity of the wedding canopy. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to discuss the chuppah, or the traditional canopy for the bride and groom, and why it represents more than just the union of two people in love. Was Mount Sinai the first chuppah? Listen and find out. Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at...

Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Yevamot 55 and 56, find the rabbis asking a real tough question: What, exactly, do we mean when we talk about having sex? Rabbi Chaim Brent Spodek joins us to share some thoughts about intimacy, the ways in which we understand and misunderstand sex, and what we can to become better (Jewish) lovers. Why is a kiss so important? Listen and find out. Like the show? Send us a no...

Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Yevamot 53 and 54, give us a NSFW meditation on the mechanics and psychology of the male organ. Mark Oppenheimer joins us to discuss the philosophy of the penis from the Talmud to Montaigne, and how it has surprising connections to some of our most pressing philosophical and political discussions today. How does the Talmud's raunchy passage inspire the way we think about bo...

Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yevamot 52, kicks things off with an exhortation to watch our manners. Kylie Unell, host of the new podcast 49 Days to Stretch My Soul, joins us to talk about the ancient practice of counting the Omer, and how it can still inspire and improve us today. How can something as mundane as counting shape our spirits? Listen and find out. Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@ta...

Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yevamot 51, gives us a moving meditation on the power of speech. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to talk about how one word influenced and inspired the rabbis' view of marriage, and how it can apply to everyone, from teachers to lovers. Why is speaking with intention so powerful? Listen and find out. Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitte...

Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yevamot 50, finds the rabbis opining on how sex can change a relationship between men and women. Erin Carlson, the author of a book about screenwriter Nora Ephron, joins us to talk about how the writer's legendary romantic comedies, and especially When Harry Met Sally, continue to address the same question today and have surprisingly more in common with the Talmudic mindset...

Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Yevamot 47, 48, and 49, tell a story of a beautiful woman taken captive by Jewish warriors. Rabbi Sari Laufer joins us to talk about the prisoner's plight, and why the Talmud's particular guidelines award her a touch of agency in dark times. Why must the beautiful woman make herself repulsive? Listen and find out. Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Foll...

Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Yevamot 45 and 46, warn us against deferring to the opinion of experts. Tablet Magazine's editor in chief Alana Newhouse joins us to share an essay she'd written about the Exodus, about the contemporary state of our politics and culture, and what Jews must do to survive and thrive. Why is it important for Jews to always remain outsiders? Listen and find out. Like the show?...

Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yevamot 44, shares a bit of pedagogical wisdom, urging us to teach each child according to his or her way. Educational entrepreneurs Simone and Malcolm Collins join us to talk about what's broken in our current educational system, and how we may go ahead and fix it. Could Pokemon teach you STEM skills? Listen and find out. Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.c...

Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yevamot 43, asserts that there are limits to how long we must mourn the death of a loved one. Writer Amy Bloom joins us to talk about her latest book, In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss, detailing the journey she and her late husband took after a grim diagnosis led him to choose to end his own life. How do you prepare yourself for the end of life? Listen and find out. Like t...

Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Yevamot 41 and 42, give us a rare bit of thick description, with one rabbi leaning on another. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to explain this touching moment, and what it can teach all of us today about learning, friendship, compassion, and other things crucial to human happiness. How is studying Talmud like leaning on a good friend? Listen and find out Like the show? Send...

Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Yevamot 39 and 40, give us a very timely shout out to some sacred matzah. Kylie Unell joins us with a sneak preview of a new podcast, counting the Omer and preparing herself spiritually for Shavuot and the receiving of the Torah. What's the Omer all about, and why count it? Listen and find out. Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at ...

Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yevamot 38, insists that even in a patriarchal society, women, too, are entitled to their own property and agency. Amy Zitelman, the CEO of Soom Foods, joins us to talk about the thriving tehini business she launched with her sisters, and how being a female entrepreneur influenced her Jewish growth. What aisle of the supermarket should tehini be on, really? Listen and find o...

Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yevamot 37, sings the praises of the first born, a subject of much discussion in the Bible itself. But why does being first matter? Why are first borns commanded to fast right up to the seder? And how is reading a book instead an acceptable substitution? Listen and find out. Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeonedafyomi and j...

Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yevamot 36, raises the thorny question of how you should go about dividing your earthly possessions among your children. It's the stuff of much drama, and Mark Oppenheimer, one of four siblings and himself the father of five, joins us to shed light on the age-old family-rattling question of who gets what and when. Can grandpa get back that heirloom he gave you if he decides...

Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Yevamot 34 and 35, deliver the story of Er and Onan, among the Talmud's most NSFW tales. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to explain this R Rated discussion of spilling one's seed, and find profound insights in the profane subject matter. What urgently needed modern wisdom might we find in this ancient debate? Listen and find out. Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabl...

Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Yevamot 32 and 33, instruct us that the place of our burial matters. Rivkah Slonim, the Associate Director at the Chabad Center for Jewish Student Life at Binghamton University, joins us with a primer on souls and what happens to them when we pass from this world to the next. So why does it matter where a person is buried, and what's the point in visiting a gravesite? Liste...

Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yevamot 31, deals with what to do when the circumstances of a person's death are uncertain but his widow wishes to remarry. Rabbi David Yosef joins us to talk about his late, great father, Rav Ovadia Yosef, who, after Israel's 1973 Yom Kippur War, presided over a major undertaking to help that war's widows. How did the celebrated rabbi reconcile ancient rabbinic rulings with...

Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yevamot 30, grapples with divorce, and when it is and isn't truly final. Author Judith Ruskay Rabinor joins us to offer some concrete insights and reflections on what to do and not to do when a marriage ends. Can you still stay friends with your ex? Listen and find out. Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeonedafyomi and join t...

Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yevamot 29, asks that most ageless of questions: What makes a marriage a marriage? Tablet Magazine's Samantha Hacker joins us 36 hours after her wedding to share her thoughts as the newest member of the married club, and offer some of the advice she and her husband received as they prepared for their joyous day. What is the one insight nearly all happily married friends and...

Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Yevamot 27 and 28, reiterate that old chestnut about never getting a second chance to make a first impression. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to talk about why the first things we say or do when we meet someone new matter so much, and why so many human relationships revolve around these magical and unplanned first moments. What did the Talmud know about babies and attachmen...

Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Yevamot 25 and 26, give us a journalism master class on sorting out rumors and telling fake news apart from the real deal. Tablet Magazine's Editor in Chief, Alana Newhouse, joins us to talk about what the ancient rabbis understood about reporting and tell us how to be savvy news consumers in the age of mis- and disinformation. What did Abaye's mother get about Tik Tok? Lis...

Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yevamot 24, kicks things off with a shocking statement: Only those who converted when the Jews were suffering can truly become part of the Jewish people. Quinn Waller, this show's editor who is herself currently in the process of converting to Judaism, joins us to document her own journey, and how she decided to cook her way into better understanding Jewish life and culture....