The Oral Talmud

“In my book, I refer to ‘The Talmud's Golden Old Age.’ I was a little reluctant to use this terminology, because who knows if it's the golden old age? This could be the Midlife Period of the Talmud. We have no idea where we are historically!” - Barry Wimpfheimer Welcome to The Oral Talmud, our weekly deep dive chevruta study partnership, discovering how voices of the Talmud from 1500 years ago can...

“Is it inevitable and necessary to get the Rabbi Eliezers out of the room? Or is part of the story saying, ‘You actually need to keep him in the room. We understand that unity or progress or getting everybody rowing in the same direction is important, but you don’t take people out of the room.’” - Benay Lappe Welcome to The Oral Talmud, our weekly deep dive chevruta study partnership, discovering...

“What the sages had was imagination and boldness. They were deeply rooted in the inherited tradition, and, rather than that rooting holding them back, the rooting allowed them to go forward.” - David Kraemer Welcome to The Oral Talmud, our weekly deep dive chevruta study partnership, discovering how voices of the Talmud from 1500 years ago can help us rethink Judaism today.  This week Dan & Benay...

The rabbis must have been leaving us a message. It says, "Please do to us what we did to God and whoever put the Torah together. We played fast and loose with what they were saying directly, and we understand that that means you’re going to do that to us, and we want you to." - Dan Libenson Welcome to The Oral Talmud, our weekly deep dive chevruta study partnership, discovering how voices of the T...

“Maybe the reason they were undoing the original covenant was to give themselves a little breathing room, saying, ‘God actually gave us permission to play.’” - Benay Lappe Welcome to The Oral Talmud, our weekly deep dive chevruta study partnership, discovering how voices of the Talmud from 1500 years ago can help us rethink Judaism today.  Access the full Sefaria Source Sheet with additional show...

“If you pay attention to the folks for whom the system isn’t working, you’ll know how the system will eventually not work for everybody.” - Benay Lappe Welcome to The Oral Talmud, our weekly deep dive chevruta study, discovering how voices of the Talmud from 1500 years ago can help us rethink Judaism today.  Access the full Sefaria Source Sheet with additional show notes via this link .  Last week...

“I am responsible for my chevruta’s learning and my chevruta is responsible for my learning. I am invested in you.” - Benay Lappe Join study partners ( chevruta s) Rabbi Benay Lappe & Dan Libenson as they reflect on five years of The Oral Talmud, and celebrate its transition from a video series to a podcast!  What do lasting study partners recognize in each other? How do they decide how and what t...

The Oral Talmud is a weekly deep dive study partnership between Dan Libenson and Benay Lappe where they try to figure out how voices from the Talmud – voices from 1500 to 2000 years ago – can help us think in new ways about Judaism today. They have been releasing The Oral Talmud as a video series since they first started learning together five years ago, but are now making the jump to podcast plat...