Podcasts by Take One Daf Yomi
As Jews around the world engage in a seven-and-a-half year cycle of Daf Yomi, reading the entire Talmud one page per day, Tablet Magazine's new podcast, Take One, will offer a brief and evocative daily read of the daf, in just about 10 minutes. New episodes will be released daily Monday through Friday.
Further podcasts by Tablet Magazine
Podcast on the topic Judentum
All episodes
Take One: Chagigah 21 from 2022-03-02T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Chagigah 21, wants us to think about keeping our vessels clean. Stephanie Butnick, mother of seven-month-old Edith, joins us to talk about washing bottles and gaining a new a...
ListenTake One: Chagigah 20 from 2022-03-01T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Chagigah 20, kicks things off with a cautionary tale of just how important it is to stay focused and mindful. But isn't such a level of intentionality, like, really hard? And...
ListenTake One: Chagigah 18 and 19 from 2022-02-28T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Chagigah 18 and 19, ruminate on ritual bathing. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to muse on the physical and spiritual cleansing you get when you dunk in a mikvah, and whether ...
ListenTake One: Chagigah 16 and 17 from 2022-02-25T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Chagigah 16 and 17, gift us one of the most beautiful insights in all of the Talmud: When offered a lot of something or a little, always go for the latter. Rabbi Diana Fersk...
ListenTake One: Chagigah 15 from 2022-02-24T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Chagigah 15, finds the rabbis discussing intercourse. Batsheva Marcus returns with more insight on how the Talmud viewed human sexuality, and what advice it gives that we can...
ListenTake One: Chagigah 14 from 2022-02-23T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Chagigah 14, introduces us to what may be the most famous story in all of Jewish mysticism. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to tell us this Talmudic haunted house story, and wh...
ListenTake One: Chagigah 13 from 2022-02-22T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Chagigah 13, mentions electricity, a few good centuries before Ben Franklin gazed longingly at his kite. DC Comics legend Jordan Gorfinkel joins us to discuss a page full of ...
ListenTake One: Chagigah 11 and 12 from 2022-02-21T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Chagigah 11 and 12, give us a master class in lewdness and a throwback to the 1990s. Mark Oppenheimer joins us to talk about the world-historical significance of Zima, and w...
ListenTake One: Chagigah 9 and 10 from 2022-02-18T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Chagigah 9 and 10, take to task one of the best-known bits of advice about whether, and how much, practice makes perfect. Stephanie Butnick joins us to talk about her days a...
ListenTake One: Chagigah 8 from 2022-02-17T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Chagigah 8, informs us that the only real joy you could have while eating comes from eating lots and lots and lots of meat. But what is the connection between meat and happin...
ListenTake One: Chagigah 7 from 2022-02-16T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Chagigah 7, tells us, in a famous passage, that some things, including some mitzvot, just can’t be measured. Rabbi Mordecai Finley joins us to explain this mystical concept, ...
ListenTake One: Chagigah 6 from 2022-02-15T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Chagigah 6, kicks things off with a charming image of a small child partaking in the festival and taking in the sights and feelings. Historian and our very own Presidentisher...
ListenTake One: Chagigah 4 and 5 from 2022-02-14T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Chagigah 4 and 5, give us a shockingly candid conversation about God’s tears. Rabbi Sari Laufer joins us to ponder whether the Almighty indeed weeps, and, if so, who might G...
ListenTake One: Chagigah 2 and 3 from 2022-02-11T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Chagigah 2 and 3, introduce us to a brand new tractate, all about the obligation to make the pilgrimage to the ancient Temple in Jerusalem thrice a year and celebrate. Rabbi...
ListenTake One: Introducing Tractate Chagigah from 2022-02-10T21:02:04
We are about to start a new tractate, masechet Chagigah. It’s the thirteenth tractate, out of the sixty three in the Talmud. Before we start, join us to get a sense of the topics that we will explo...
ListenTake One: Moed Katan 29 from 2022-02-10T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Moed Katan 29, brings this gorgeous and mystical tractate to an end. What did it teach us about life, death, and everything in between? Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us with on...
ListenTake One: Moed Katan 28 from 2022-02-09T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Moed Katan 28, reflects on history and its judgment. Presidential historian Tevi Troy joins us to assess which Oval Office occupants were celebrated in life but reviled by po...
ListenTake One: Moed Katan 27 from 2022-02-08T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Moed Katan 27, teaches us just how important it is to listen to those less powerful and privileged, and to do whatever you can to ease their anxiety. In this episode, Liel pa...
ListenTake One: Moed Katan 25 and 26 from 2022-02-07T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Moed Katan 25 and 26, ponder the question of what happens when a really famous person passes away. Erin Ben Moche, host of the Bagel Report podcast, joins us to talk about w...
ListenTake One: Moed Katan 23 and 24 from 2022-02-04T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Moed Katan 23 and 24, bring us a heady mixture of sadness and joy, reminding us that for each tragic event, a simcha, or a joyous occasion, is sure to follow. Shira Hecht-Ko...
ListenTake One: Moed Katan 22 from 2022-02-03T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Moed Katan 22, contains a particularly curious fashion tip, telling women they're free to mend their clothes immediately after ripping them while mourning a loved one. Leandr...
ListenTake One: Moed Katan 21 from 2022-02-02T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Moed Katan 21, reads a bit like the plot of a particularly dark episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Stephanie Butnick joins us to reflect on why we spend so much time minding th...
ListenTake One: Moed Katan 20 from 2022-02-01T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Moed Katan 20, ponders what one must do when a spouse's parent passes away. Rebecca Cynamon-Murphy joins us to share the story of her father's sudden illness and death, and h...
ListenTake One: Moed Katan 18 and 19 from 2022-01-31T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Moed Katan 18 and 19, kick things off with a stunning cautionary tale about gossip. Karen Swallow Prior, host of the new podcast Jane and Jesus, joins us to talk about what ...
ListenTake One: Moed Katan 16 and 17 from 2022-01-28T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Moed Katan 16 and 17, warn us against studying Torah with rabbis who aren't pure and upright in their ways. Mark Oppenheimer joins us to share stories from his days as a rel...
ListenTake One: Moed Katan 15 from 2022-01-27T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Moed Katan 15, dives deep into the profound question of how we ought to mourn the passing of a loved one. Rabbi Sari Laufer joins us to explain what the Talmud teaches us abo...
ListenTake One: Moed Katan 14 from 2022-01-26T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Moed Katan 14, raises the question of prison. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to explain why the rabbis compared the prison to a womb, and how this imagery continues to influe...
ListenTake One: Moed Katan 13 from 2022-01-25T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Moed Katan 13, treats us to a reminder that preparing for a festivity is often just as important, if not more so, than the party itself. What might we do to master the art of...
ListenTake One: Moed Katan 11 and 12 from 2022-01-24T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Moed Katan 11 and 12, suggest that important people are just different than you and me and ought to be held to a higher standard. Historian Tevi Troy, the Presidentisher Rav...
ListenTake One: Moed Katan 9 and 10 from 2022-01-21T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Moed Katan 9 and 10, tell a very curious story about the year they canceled...Yom Kippur. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to tell us how this miraculous occurrence happened, ...
ListenTake One: Moed Katan 8 from 2022-01-20T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Moed Katan 8, introduces us to the Talmudic figure of the professional eulogizer. Rabbi Jonathan Morgenstern joins us to discuss the subtle, spiritual art of saying farewell....
ListenTake One: Moed Katan 7 from 2022-01-19T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Moed Katan 7, asks the big question: How should we live life? Pursue our own pleasures, no matter what, or sacrifice for the sake of others? Michael Scott Alexander, the auth...
ListenTake One: Moed Katan 6 from 2022-01-18T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Moed Katan 6, finds the rabbis extolling the virtues of taking risks. What happens when you live life with caution always on your mind? What's the price we pay for trying to ...
ListenTake One: Moed Katan 4 and 5 from 2022-01-17T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Moed Katan 4 and 5, tell us about Rabban Gamliel and his decision to... overrule the Torah? Rabbi Meni Even-Israel, the executive director of the Steinsaltz Center in Jerusa...
ListenTake One: Moed Katan 2 and 3 from 2022-01-14T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Moed Katan 2 and 3, launch a brand new tractate, all about those magical days in between holidays, which are neither ordinary nor entirely sanctified. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin ...
ListenTake One: Megillah 32 from 2022-01-13T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Megillah 32, brings us to the end of Tractate Megillah. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to recap what we've learned, and what powerful lessons the tractate still offers us tod...
ListenTake One: Megillah 31 from 2022-01-12T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Megillah 31, surprises us with a tender insistence that you can't mention God without mentioning his humility. Sheikh Faiyaz Jaffer of NYU's Islamic Center joins us to discus...
ListenTake One: Megillah 30 from 2022-01-11T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Megillah 30, brings up one of the thorniest questions in all of Talmud, the question of the dreaded Amalek. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to explain why this enemy is so ter...
ListenTake One: Megillah 28 and 29 from 2022-01-10T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Megillah 28 and 29, raise the essential question of how to live a long, happy, and healthy life. We went out and asked some of our favorite older folks what they'd recommend...
ListenTake One: Megillah 26 and 27 from 2022-01-07T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Megillah 26 and 27, raise the surprisingly thorny issue of...nicknames. Presidential historian Tevi Troy joins us to talk about how and why our commanders in chief have alwa...
ListenTake One: Megillah 25 from 2022-01-06T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Megillah 25, discusses one of the most difficult decrees in all of the Talmud, the one commanding us to bless the bad things that happen to us just as eagerly as we give than...
ListenTake One: Megillah 24 from 2022-01-05T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Megillah 24, details what we should and shouldn't wear when stepping in front of the ark in shul. Mark Oppenheimer, the Corduroy Rav, joins us to talk about dress codes as sp...
ListenTake One: Megillah 23 from 2022-01-04T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Megillah 23, raises the thorny question of precisely what role should women play in the public sphere. Robyn Polansky Morrison joins us to talk about the initiative she co-fo...
ListenTake One: Megillah 21 and 22 from 2022-01-03T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Megillah 21 and 22, give us new insight on Purim. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to tell us with a new and surprising take on an ancient and beloved holiday. How is the stor...
ListenTake One: Megillah 19 and 20 from 2021-12-31T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Megillah 19 and 20, warn us that the Megillah must only be read as a scroll, not in any other format. Book editor Lisa Ann Sandell joins us to tell us to discuss what editor...
ListenTake One: Megillah 18 from 2021-12-30T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Megillah 18, warns us that only the words of the Amidah prayer consist of the approved-of praise for God. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to explain this curious passage, and ...
ListenTake One: Megillah 17 from 2021-12-29T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Megillah 17, reminds us that a story's not a story unless it has a hero and a villain: For every Harry Potter, there must be a Voldemort, and for every Esther there must be a...
ListenTake One: Megillah 16 from 2021-12-28T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Megillah 16, gives us a new comic spin on the story of the Megillah. Comedian Judy Gold joins us to tell us the story of Esther, Mordechai, and Haman like we've never seen th...
ListenTake One: Megillah 14 and 15 from 2021-12-27T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Megillah 14 and 15, raise the question of whether you're allowed to say a blessing for miracles that happened outside of the Land of Israel. Filmmaker Stacey Ravel Abarbanel...
ListenTake One: Megillah 12 and 13 from 2021-12-24T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Megillah 12 and 13, find the rabbis arguing about what makes a king wise. Tevi Troy, the Presidentisher Rav and a historian who himself served under President George W. Bush...
ListenTake One: Megillah 11 from 2021-12-23T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Megillah 11, introduces the idea that in each generation, God sends a handful of righteous men and women to save us all. Justin Hayet, host of the new podcast Thirty-Six, joi...
ListenTake One: Megillah 10 from 2021-12-22T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Megillah 10, includes a rousing discussion of one classic biblical word, vayehi, and it came to pass. Rabbi Sari Laufer joins us to explain why the word sometimes foreshadows...
ListenTake One: Megillah 9 from 2021-12-21T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Megillah 9, recounts a strange incident involving an evil king imprisoning 72 rabbis and demanding that each of them translate the Bible. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to ex...
ListenTake One: Megillah 7 and 8 from 2021-12-20T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Megillah 7 and 8, explain that Esther, making the rabbis uncomfortable, insisted that her story be written down and passed from generation to generation. Yeshiva University'...
ListenTake One: Megillah 5 and 6 from 2021-12-17T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Megillah 5 and 6, teach us that the Jewish people refused a prohibition on working on Purim. Michael Eisenberg, one of Israel's most successful investors and the author of T...
ListenTake One: Megillah 4 from 2021-12-16T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Megillah 4, gives us a bright moment of compassion when laws take a back seat to charity. Rabbi Sari Laufer joins us to talk about what happens when halacha comes up against ...
ListenTake One: Megillah 3 from 2021-12-15T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Megillah 3, kicks things off with warnings of talking to demons at night. Keith Thomas and Rafi Margules, the director and producer of the Jewish-themed horror movie The Vigi...
ListenTake One: Megillah 2 from 2021-12-14T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Megillah 2, launches a brand new tractate, devoted to Megillat Esther. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us for a preview of what's ahead. What to make of the only book in the Bibl...
ListenTake One: Taanit 30 and 31 from 2021-12-13T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Taanit 30 and 31, bring to a close Tractate Taanit. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to sum it all up. What did we learn about mourning and yearning, together and apart? Liste...
ListenTake One: Taanit 28 and 29 from 2021-12-10T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Taanit 28 and 29, tell us a heartbreaking story of the priests mourning the destruction of the Temple. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to explain why they tossed the Temple's...
ListenTake One: Taanit 27 from 2021-12-09T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Taanit 27, informs us that, on Shabbat, we're gifted with just a touch of extra soul. Rabbi Yosie Levine joins us to explain this mystical concept, and how it can inspire eve...
ListenTake One: Taanit 26 from 2021-12-08T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Taanit 26, advises us that we should never give thanks to God when we're hungry. Magazine editor and author Dorothy Kalins joins us to talk about what she learned about livin...
ListenTake One: Taanit 25 from 2021-12-07T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Taanit 25, gives us a lovely domestic miracle, making vinegar burn as long as oil throughout Shabbat in a scene reminiscent of the famous story of Hanukkah. What does this li...
ListenTake One: Taanit 23 and 24 from 2021-12-06T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Taanit 23 and 24, introduce us to the magical Choni Ha'Me'agel, one part Gandalf and one part Rip van Winkle. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to discuss Choni's super-sized c...
ListenTake One: Taanit 21 and 22 from 2021-12-03T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Taanit 21 and 22, tell us the gruesome story of Nahum of Gam Zu, who prayed to God to amputate his limbs, make him blind, and cover him with boils. Rabbi Mordechai Lightston...
ListenTake One: Taanit 20 from 2021-12-02T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Taanit 20, gives us a deeply moving story about beauty, pride, and sin. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to parse this magical tale and remind us that, often, our toughest crit...
ListenTake One: Taanit 19 from 2021-12-01T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Taanit 19, tells us a beautiful legend about a man whose charitable heart was so great God himself rewarded him with not one miracle but two. Who was Nakdimon Ben Gurion, and...
ListenTake One: Taanit 18 from 2021-11-30T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Taanit 18, kicks things off with a story of a vanquished enemy of the Jews, the general Nicanor, and his brutal end. Jonathan Schanzer, vice president of research at the Foun...
ListenTake One: Taanit 16 and 17 from 2021-11-29T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Taanit 16 and 17, inform us that God is suffering when we suffer. Rabbi Leon Wiener Dow joins us to explain this difficult idea, and why two different interpretations give u...
ListenTake One: Taanit 14 and 15 from 2021-11-26T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Taanit 14 and 15, give us an extraordinarily powerful image that unleashes a deep theological discussion. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to speak about the nature of prayer,...
ListenTake One: Taanit 13 from 2021-11-25T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Taanit 13, compels unmarried women to make themselves attractive even when mourning the death of a loved one. Shira Hecht Koller joins us to make sense of this uncomfortable ...
ListenTake One: Taanit 12 from 2021-11-24T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Taanit 12, finds the rabbis debating that most pressing of all halachic questions: What, exactly, does one mean by "taking a nap"? Stephanie Butnick and Mark Oppenheimer, co-...
ListenTake One: Taanit 11 from 2021-11-23T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Taanit 11, instructs us that the righteous always choose to suffer together with their fellow Jews, even when they can extricate themselves and escape into comfort. Justin Ha...
ListenTake One: Taanit 9 and 10 from 2021-11-22T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Taanit 9 and 10, make us a strange financial promise: Give ten percent of your wealth to charity, and you'll become rich quick. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to explain thi...
ListenTake One: Taanit 7 and 8 from 2021-11-19T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Taanit 7 and 8, warn us that studying Torah alone makes you foolish. What is the Hevruta method, and what advantages does it have, according to a recent Korean study about e...
ListenTake One: Taanit 6 from 2021-11-18T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Taanit 6, tells us that rain is at its most blessed when it is not angry but compassionate. Adit Romano, the founder of Israel's Freedom Farm Sanctuary, joins us to discuss w...
ListenTake One: Taanit 5 from 2021-11-17T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Taanit 5, shares a charming little story about one rabbi blessing another that he may be like a tree. Shuli Karkowsky, Executive Vice President at Hazon, joins us to explain ...
ListenTake One: Taanit 4 from 2021-11-16T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Taanit 4, asks us a thorny question: Can studying Torah make you angry? Rabbi Jeremy Kalmanofsky joins us to unpack this problematic provocation, and deliver a lesson that fe...
ListenTake One: Taanit 2 and 3 from 2021-11-15T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Taanit 2 and 3, usher in a new tractate, Tractate Taanit. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to explain what this unfortunately named tractate is about, and how it is acutely re...
ListenTake One: Rosh Hashanah 34 and 35 from 2021-11-12T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Rosh Hashanah 34 and 35, bring us to the end of Tractate Rosh Hashanah. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to sum up what we've learned, and give us a moving lesson about the su...
ListenTake One: Rosh Hashanah 33 from 2021-11-11T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Rosh Hashanah 33, ponders our responsibility to teach our children how to perform mitzvot. Producer Josh Kross joins us to tell a moving story of his son's second Bar Mitzvah...
ListenTake One: Rosh Hashanah 32 from 2021-11-10T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Rosh Hashanah 32, invites us to think about the true meaning of Rosh Hashanah. Rabbi Willie Balk joins us to shed light on the complicated nature of the holiday, and why it's...
ListenTake One: Rosh Hashanah 31 from 2021-11-09T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Rosh Hashanah 31, kicks things off on a heavy note, discussing the end of the world. What does it look like? When will it come? How do we know? And what can we do to prepare?...
ListenTake One: Rosh Hashanah 29 and 30 from 2021-11-08T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Rosh Hashanah 29 and 30, inform us that one may say some blessings on behalf of others. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to explain how the system works, and why it's soulful ...
ListenTake One: Rosh Hashanah 27 and 28 from 2021-11-05T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Rosh Hashanah 27 and 28, ponder which shofar shape is right for which holiday. Jeff Cahn, the executive director of Romemu in New York and a master shofar blower, joins us t...
ListenTake One: Rosh Hashanah 26 from 2021-11-04T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Rosh Hashanah 26, waxes poetic about the shofar. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to riff on the majestic role the shofar, and music in general, play in Jewish spiritual life. ...
ListenTake One: Rosh Hashanah 25 from 2021-11-03T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Rosh Hashanah 25, shares an astonishing story of two feuding rabbis learning to set aside their differences for the sake of communal unity. Rabbi Leon Wiener Dow joins us to ...
ListenTake One: Rosh Hashanah 24 from 2021-11-02T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Rosh Hashanah 24, tells us that when the new moon was sanctified by the rabbinic court, the entire Jewish people had to answer "Amen" in unison. Can collective prayer really ...
ListenTake One: Rosh Hashanah 22 and 23 from 2021-11-01T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Rosh Hashanah 22 and 23, ask a thorny question: Is there a real structural difference between wisdom and prophecy? Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to entertain this conundrum,...
ListenTake One: Rosh Hashanah 20 and 21 from 2021-10-29T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Rosh Hashanah 20 and 21, get to the bottom of the Jewish calendar, a complicated creation that's one part lunar and one part solar. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to talk ab...
ListenTake One: Rosh Hashanah 19 from 2021-10-28T04:00
Today's Daf Yomi page, Rosh Hashanah 19, begins by discussing Tzom Gedalia, a day of mourning for a high-ranking Jewish official assassinated by a Jewish zealot. Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin joins us to a...
ListenTake One: Rosh Hashanah 18 from 2021-10-27T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Rosh Hashanah 18, reminds us that studying Talmud is a pursuit that contains multitudes. Martin Gaynor, a survivor of the Tree of Life shooting in Pittsburgh, joins us to tel...
ListenTake One: Rosh Hashanah 17 from 2021-10-26T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Rosh Hashanah 17, contains a stark warning about flaunting our expertise and authority, and a heartwarming story about finding wisdom in unexpected places. What can the rabbi...
ListenTake One: Rosh Hashanah 15 and 16 from 2021-10-25T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Rosh Hashanah 15 and 16, remind us that we're judged not just on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur but every hour of every day, which also means we have constant opportunities to...
ListenTake One: Rosh Hashanah 13 and 14 from 2021-10-22T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Rosh Hashanah 13 and 14, deliver a surprising moment when one rabbi rebukes another for asking a difficult question and posits the non-too-Talmudic sounding advice of simply...
ListenTake One: Rosh Hashanah 12 from 2021-10-21T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Rosh Hashanah 12, reminds us that our actions can literally change the world. But how? In a TED Talk he gave in 2017, the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks addressed just this questi...
ListenTake One: Rosh Hashanah 11 from 2021-10-20T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Rosh Hashanah 11, gives us a moving meditation on infertility, and why the Torah equates conceiving a child with memory. Naomi Korb Weiss, who sits on the board of the Jewish...
ListenTake One: Rosh Hashanah 10 from 2021-10-19T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Rosh Hashanah 10, asks a deep question: On what month was the world created? Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to answer this cosmic conundrum with a meditation on time, the cal...
ListenTake One: Rosh Hashanah 8 and 9 from 2021-10-18T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Rosh Hashanah 8 and 9, pore over the meaning of liberty, the word and the concept. Rabbi Dr. Stuart Halpern joins us to talk about the liberty-themed biblical verse that ins...
ListenTake One: Rosh Hashanah 6 and 7 from 2021-10-15T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Rosh Hashanah 6 and 7, entertain the bonds between coercion and community. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to explore these seemingly disparate notions and their surprising r...
ListenTake One: Rosh Hashanah 5 from 2021-10-14T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Rosh Hashanah 5, invites us to think of Judaism's three main holidays as one cohesive unit. We here at Take One were inspired, and looked fondly at the other podcast we produ...
ListenTake One: Rosh Hashanah 4 from 2021-10-13T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Rosh Hashanah 4, shares a Talmudic conspiracy theory about King Cyrus, and ponders what happens when the government goes rogue. Sharon Cameron, the author of the critically a...
ListenTake One: Rosh Hashanah 3 from 2021-10-12T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Rosh Hashanah 3, sings the praises of the Persian king Cyrus, who was respected and beloved by the Jews. Robert Berman, the author of a new collection of Arabic idioms, joins...
ListenTake One: Rosh Hashanah 2 from 2021-10-11T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Rosh Hashanah 2, kicks off a new tractate, Rosh Hashanah. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to give us a taste of what lies ahead. Why are there really four, not one, Rosh Hashan...
ListenTake One: Beitzah 38, 39, and 40 from 2021-10-08T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Beitzah 38, 39, and 40, bring Tractate Beitzah to its uplifting conclusion. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to recount everything we've learned about what makes a holy day so...
ListenTake One: Beitzah 37 from 2021-10-07T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Beitzah 37, kicks things off with a radical claim: Commerce has a lot in common with the sacred work of priests in the Temple. Shouldn't we imagine something so transactional...
ListenTake One: Beitzah 36 from 2021-10-06T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Beitzah 36, instructs us that a student must never question the teacher. Mark Oppenheimer, having taught everyone from small children to Yale students, joins us to talk about...
ListenTake One: Beitzah 35 from 2021-10-05T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Beitzah 35, asks a question that seems right out of Seinfeld: If an impure person reaches into a vat of olives, do the olives then become impure, a sort of halachic take on t...
ListenTake One: Beitzah 33 and 34 from 2021-10-04T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Beitzah 33 and 34, ponder how to go about life when the unique requirements of a holiday call for a bit of innovation. Rabbi Areyah Kaltmann joins us to talk about why relig...
ListenTake One: Beitzah 31 and 32 from 2021-10-01T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Beitzah 31 and 32, kick things off with a stark statement: All children of Abraham must show compassion to all of God's creatures. With the number of incarcerated Americans ...
ListenTake One: Beitzah 30 from 2021-09-30T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Beitzah 30, offers an emphatic but a bit strange exhortation: Don't tell your friends when they're in the wrong, because they might not change their ways. Did the rabbis real...
ListenTake One: Beitzah 27, 28, and 29 from 2021-09-27T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Beitzah 27, 28, and 29, raise a fascinating moral dilemma: Say you stole something and you're not sure who you stole it from. You're feeling terrible about it and would like...
ListenTake One: Beitzah 24, 25, and 26 from 2021-09-24T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Beitzah 24, 25, and 26, debate whether learning Halacha is like learning a song, and whether you have to understand every word to appreciate the overall majesty of the music...
ListenTake One: Beitzah 23 from 2021-09-23T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Beitzah 23, issues a stern warning: Don't get too comfortable, or you may find yourself liable for all sorts of trouble. Rabbi Nolan Lebovitz joins us to speak about the ways...
ListenTake One: Beitzah 20, 21, and 22 from 2021-09-20T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Beitzah 20, 21, and 22, give us the sort of warning we can all use, especially those of us who fume at our keyboards and post hot takes on social media: Cool it with your cr...
ListenTake One: Beitzah 17, 18, and 19 from 2021-09-17T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Beitzah 17, 18, and 19, continue to contemplate the difference between Shabbos and Yom Tov. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to think about how these two celebrations feel dif...
ListenTake One: Beitzah 15 and 16 from 2021-09-15T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Beitzah 15 and 16, evoke a charming concept: Every celebration is really a partnership between us and God. As we're about to enter the holiest day of the Jewish year, Yom Ki...
ListenTake One: Beitzah 14 from 2021-09-14T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Beitzah 14, has the rabbis engage in a long and spirited discussion about gift-giving. Dena Ingerman, celebrated gift-giver extraordinaire, joins us to talk about why the per...
ListenTake One: Beitzah 12 and 13 from 2021-09-13T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Beitzah 12 and 13, raise the seminal question of the tractate, namely why are some restrictions more lenient on a holiday than those required on Shabbat? Rabbi Dovid Bashevk...
ListenTake One: Beitzah 9 from 2021-09-09T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Beitzah 9, raises the question of why certain things shouldn't be done when other people are watching. Rabbi Dr. Ari Lamm joins us to explain how the rabbis debate two very d...
ListenTake One: Beitzah 6, 7 and 8 from 2021-09-06T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Beitzah 6 and 7 and 8, ask us how we're supposed to feel on Rosh Hashanah: Happy for the holiday? Fearful of divine judgment? Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to ponder these ...
ListenTake One: Beitzah 3 and 4 from 2021-09-03T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Beitzah 3 and 4, strike a surprisingly modern note when they bring up the concept of confirmation bias. Dr. Michelle Waldman Sarna, a psychologist and educator, joins us to ...
ListenTake One: Beitzah 2 from 2021-09-02T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Beitzah 2, introduces us to Tractate Beitzah, which is all about the practices of Yom Tov, or holiday. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us with a preview of what to expect, and a ...
ListenTake One: Sukkah 56 from 2021-09-01T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Sukkah 56, brings us to the conclusion of Tractate Sukkah. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to recap all that we've learned, and explain why the lesson of Sukkah is one we so d...
ListenTake One: Sukkah 55 from 2021-08-31T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Sukkah 55, contains a surprising revelation: On the last day of Sukkot, we pray for... world peace? Rabbi Jonathan Morgenstern joins us to explain this poetic passage, and wh...
ListenTake One: Sukkah 53 and 54 from 2021-08-30T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Sukkah 53 and 54, return to Simchat Beit Hashoeva, the festival of drawing up water and praying to God for rain that generated unspeakable joy and continues to inspire us. T...
ListenTake One: Sukkah 51 and 52 from 2021-08-27T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Sukkah 51 and 52, bring up yet again the importance of knowing how to fail and learn from your mistakes. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to explain the specifically Jewish ze...
ListenTake One: Sukkah 50 from 2021-08-26T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Sukkah 50, brings up Simchat Beit HaShoeva, an epic party. Kylie Unell joins us to tell us a bit about this ancient custom, and about the surprising ways in which the Bible p...
ListenTake One: Sukkah 49 from 2021-08-25T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Sukkah 49, delivers a stunningly poetic passage, telling us that Torah, like a thigh, should always be revealed and explored only in intimate settings. Dr. Batsheva Marcus jo...
ListenTake One: Sukkah 48 from 2021-08-24T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Sukkah 48, tasks us with a hard mission: learning to rejoice even when it's the very last day of the holiday and the weight of ordinary life beckons. Hudson Leibovitz, eight ...
ListenTake One: Sukkah 46 and 47 from 2021-08-23T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Sukkah 46 and 47, remind us just how important it is to count our blessings and to make sure we're very specific when we thank God for all of the plenty. Rabbi Dovid Bashevk...
ListenTake One: Sukkah 44 and 45 from 2021-08-20T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Sukkah 44 and 45, tell us again, in no uncertain terms, that each one of us has the power to change and redeem the entire world. We're inspired by the story of Father Maximi...
ListenTake One: Sukkah 43 from 2021-08-19T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Sukkah 43, gives us an all-too-familiar, and very funny, scene of Jews bickering among themselves. Historian Zev Eleff joins us to shed light on our people's propensity for i...
ListenTake One: Sukkah 42 from 2021-08-18T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Sukkah 42, asks perhaps the one question that matters most: When and how should we start educating our kids to love the Torah? Educator Adina Fredman joins us to talk about t...
ListenTake One: Sukkah 41 from 2021-08-17T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Sukkah 41, dives deep into the reasons why we remain so obsessed with the memory of the Beit Hamikdash, the ancient Temple. Novelist Dara Horn joins us to explain this eterna...
ListenTake One: Sukkah 39 and 40 from 2021-08-16T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Sukkah 39 and 40, kick things off with a tough conundrum: Why do we often say blessings for mitzvot prior to performing them? Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to talk about the...
ListenTake One: Sukkah 37 and 38 from 2021-08-13T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Sukkah 37 and 38, raise the age-old question: Why do we shake the lulav and etrog on Sukkot? Isn't simply lifting them enough? Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to explain the ...
ListenTake One: Sukkah 36 from 2021-08-12T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Sukkah 36, finds the rabbis in a judgy mood: rats, they tell us, are downright repulsive. Dr. Rivka Schwartz joins us to share her experience of life with adorable pet rats, ...
ListenTake One: Sukkah 35 from 2021-08-11T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Sukkah 35, gives us a mystery right out of the Talented Mr. Ripley: Is the etrog we know and love secretly an impostor? Was it the humble pepper we were supposed to bless all...
ListenTake One: Sukkah 34 from 2021-08-10T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Sukkah 34, ponders the meaning of the lulav. NYU professor Jeffrey Rubenstein joins us to explain what the lulav meant to generations of Jews, and why we still argue over its...
ListenTake One: Sukkah 32 and 33 from 2021-08-09T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Sukkah 32 and 33, command us to bind together the willow, the myrtle, and the lulav. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to explain this strange custom, and how it symbolizes the ...
ListenTake One: Sukkah 30 and 31 from 2021-08-06T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Sukkah 30 and 31, tells a haunting story of a screaming woman. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin helps us make sense of this chilling tale, and decipher its inspiring message, a reminde...
ListenTake One: Sukkah 29 from 2021-08-05T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Sukkah 29, teaches us that there's a difference between extensive and intensive learning. Kylie Unell joins us to talk about why study alone doesn't change you, and about why...
ListenTake One: Sukkah 28 from 2021-08-04T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Sukkah 28, tells us yet again about Hillel and Shammai, the two famous rabbis known for disagreeing on just about everything. Producer Josh Kross joins us to talk about how t...
ListenTake One: Sukkah 27 from 2021-08-03T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Sukkah 27, finds Rabbi Eliezer issuing a strange pronouncement: God bless...the lazy? What did the ancient rabbi understand about the virtues of wasting time that an MIT prof...
ListenTake One: Sukkah 25 and 26 from 2021-08-02T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Sukkah 25 and 26, warn us against the perils of distraction. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to talk about why the Talmud valued focus, and how the rabbis gave us the world's...
ListenTake One: Sukkah 23 and 24 from 2021-07-30T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Sukkah 23 and 24, teach us that you're allowed to build a treehouse sukkah if you wish. Outdoorswoman Emily Pennington joins us to talk experiencing the divine in America's ...
ListenTake One: Sukkah 22 from 2021-07-29T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Sukkah 22, informs us that a sukkah can be set up even on top of a moving vehicle. Rabbi Mordechai Lightstone joins us to talk about Chabad's Sukkah Mobil, and how they bring...
ListenTake One: Sukkah 21 from 2021-07-28T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Sukkah 21, advises us to listen very carefully whenever Torah scholars speak, for they are always dispensing wisdom, even when they don't issue halachic rulings. Today, we ha...
ListenTake One: Sukkah 20 from 2021-07-27T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Sukkah 20, tells the story of Tavi, Rabbi Gamliel's non-Jewish servant who was a pious man learned in all matters of Jewish law. Yael Eckstein, the president and CEO of the I...
ListenTake One: Sukkah 18 and 19 from 2021-07-26T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Sukkah 18 and 19, teach us that there's nothing more whole, or holier, than a broken home. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to talk the symbolism of the sukkah, and what a dis...
ListenTake One: Sukkah 16 and 17 from 2021-07-23T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Sukkah 16 and 17, spin a technical discussion of fabrics into a breathtaking lesson on compassion. Rabbi Sari Laufer joins us to talk about the beauty of Shabbat Nachamu, th...
ListenTake One: Sukkah 15 from 2021-07-22T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Sukkah 15, teaches us a useful life lesson: If you want anything done, do it yourself. We remember the late Rav Adin Steinsaltz, who passed away last year, and his extraordin...
ListenTake One: Sukkah 14 from 2021-07-21T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Sukkah 14, asks a tough and seminal question: Is a sukkah a home? Rabbi Dr. Stuart Halpern joins us to discuss this question, and why the answer is particularly resonant in t...
ListenTake One: Sukkah 13 from 2021-07-20T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Sukkah 13, gets into the nitty gritty of Sukkah construction. Author Joshua Foer was intrigued by all those minute instructions, so he invited architects from all over the wo...
ListenTake One: Sukkah 11 and 12 from 2021-07-19T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Sukkah 11 and 12, raise a thorny question: why, exactly, do we build those little huts on Sukkot? Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us with a mystical teaching about the holiday's...
ListenTake One: Sukkah 9 and 10 from 2021-07-16T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Sukkah 9 and 10, dive into everyone's favorite Sukkot tradition: decorating the sukkah. Rabbi Rebecca Rosenthal joins us to talk about this tradition, and how the symbolism ...
ListenTake One: Sukkah 8 from 2021-07-15T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Sukkah 8, inspires us to think about building sukkot in non-traditional ways and in unexpected places. Maital Friedman joins us to tell the story of living in Uganda and havi...
ListenTake One: Sukkah 7 from 2021-07-14T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Sukkah 7, lets it be known that one of the walls of the sukkah is called the wall of laughter. Why? Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to shed light on the connection between Suk...
ListenTake One: Sukkah 6 from 2021-07-13T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Sukkah 6, gives us useful units of measurements based on...fruits and vegetables? Nomi Kaltmann joins us to explain the meaning of the Seven Species, and how they came to be ...
ListenTake One: Sukkah 4 and 5 from 2021-07-12T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Sukkah 4 and 5, teaches us that the dimensions of the sukkah have to do with... the Ark of the Covenant? Professor Richard Hidary joins us to explain the connection, and wha...
ListenTake One: Sukkah 2 and 3 from 2021-07-09T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Sukkah 2 and 3, introduce us to Tractate Sukkah. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us with a lesson about making things real, and about the true meaning of the holiday of Sukkot. ...
ListenTake One: Yoma 88 from 2021-07-08T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 88, brings us to the end of Tractate Yoma. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to teach us how Yom Kippur is really a sophisticated time machine, and what the tractate we've ...
ListenTake One: Yoma 87 from 2021-07-07T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 87, tells us a rip-roaring story that's really a wise teaching about reconciliation and asking for forgiveness. Rabbi Shmuel Hain joins us to discuss the Talmud's legal ...
ListenTake One: Yoma 86 from 2021-07-06T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 86, reminds us of the tremendous power our words have to do everything from wage war to appeal to God. The Tikvah Fund's Eric Cohen joins us to revisit some of the great...
ListenTake One: Yoma 84 and 85 from 2021-07-05T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Yoma 84 and 85, ask a poignant question: How does divine forgiveness work? Does it just arrive each year, on Yom Kippur, requiring little action on our part? Or must we earn...
ListenTake One: Yoma 82 and 83 from 2021-07-02T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Yoma 82 and 83, deliver an eerie passage about searching for survivors amidst the wreckage of a collapse, calling to mind the recent disaster in Surfside. Tablet senior writ...
ListenTake One: Yoma 81 from 2021-07-01T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 81, tells a delightful story of a town that giddily drank brine on Yom Kippur, believing that pickle juice didn't exactly count as a beverage. Cookbook author and Jewish...
ListenTake One: Yoma 80 from 2021-06-30T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 80, kicks things off with a discussion of impure foods that soon blooms into a crucial life lesson: Keep things small. How has Judaism's affinity for the manageable and ...
ListenTake One: Yoma 79 from 2021-06-29T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 79, makes one important distinction: There are fixed, fancy meals, the rabbis tell us, and then there's casual meals. Adam Chandler, author of the definitive book on fas...
ListenTake One: Yoma 77 and 78 from 2021-06-28T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Yoma 77 and 78, give us a dazzling bit of poetic imagery, describing a river that flows forth from the Holy of the Holies, getting stronger and stronger as we go along. Rabb...
ListenTake One: Yoma 75 and 76 from 2021-06-25T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Yoma 75 and 76, ask the question we've all at one point or another contemplated: What do you do when you're feeling blue? One rabbi says keep a stiff upper lip; another advi...
ListenTake One: Yoma 74 from 2021-06-24T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 74, finds the rabbis in an aesthetic sort of mood, opining on why looking at your food contributes to the enjoyment of the meal. How might we use this insight in everyda...
ListenTake One: Yoma 73 from 2021-06-23T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 73, mentions the Urim and Thummim, the gems affixed to the breastplate of the High Priest. Rabbi Jason Rubenstein of Yale joins us to explain how the stones found their ...
ListenTake One: Yoma 72 from 2021-06-22T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 72, gets right down to business by asking the one question that matters most: Why study Torah at all? Former Disney Channel star turned weekly parsha podcaster, Raviv Ul...
ListenTake One: Yoma 70 and 71 from 2021-06-21T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Yoma 70 and 71, point out an unlikely discrepancy: The Yom Kippur services performed by the High Priest actually diverge from their biblical description in one small but imp...
ListenTake One: Yoma 68 and 69 from 2021-06-18T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Yoma 68 and 69, introduce us to the Ish Iti, the Man of Time, the mystery person of the Yom Kippur ritual. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to talk about this figure, and how ...
ListenTake One: Yoma 67 from 2021-06-17T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 67, teaches us the difference between those commandments that are obvious, like the prohibition on murder, and those that aren't, like the prohibition on eating pork. Ra...
ListenTake One: Yoma 66 from 2021-06-16T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 66, reminds us of the sheer power of language, a power on full display when the Kohen Gadol entered the Holy of Holies and uttered the explicit name of God. To reflect o...
ListenTake One: Yoma 65 from 2021-06-15T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 65, asks what happens if some money is put aside for sacrificial use and is then stolen or lost before being miraculously retrieved. Does it count towards next year's of...
ListenTake One: Yoma 63 and 64 from 2021-06-14T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Yoma 63 and 64, kick things off with a meditation on causality that sounds like something straight out of a trippy science fiction novel. Author Gavriel Savit joins us to ta...
ListenTake One: Yoma 61 and 62 from 2021-06-11T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Yoma 61 and 62, are all about one of Yom Kippur's most intriguing rituals, that of sacrificing one goat while sending another into the wilderness. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin retu...
ListenTake One: Yoma 60 from 2021-06-10T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 60, contains a long discussion of which garments the High Priest wore while conducting the different services on Yom Kippur. Mark Oppenheimer joins us to talk about the ...
ListenTake One: Yoma 59 from 2021-06-09T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 59, finds the rabbis quoting a popular folk saying. Professor A.J. Berkovitz joins us to shed light on the rabbinic system of knowledge, which revolved around studiousne...
ListenTake One: Yoma 58 from 2021-06-08T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 58, brings up the sacrifice the Kohen Gadol, or High Priest, offered to God on behalf of unwitting communal sins. Rabbi Sari Laufer joins us to explain this moving ritua...
ListenTake One: Yoma 56 and 57 from 2021-06-07T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Yoma 56 and 57, asks a searing question: Does God love us even when we're impure? Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to address this seminal theological conundrum. What does the...
ListenTake One: Yoma 54 and 55 from 2021-06-04T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Yoma 54 and 55, dive into one of the Jewish people's greatest mysteries: Exactly what happened to the Ark of the Covenant after the Temple was destroyed? Yeshiva University ...
ListenTake One: Yoma 53 from 2021-06-03T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 53, opens up one of the strangest and most terrifying deaths in a book, the Bible, thick with them: the striking down of the two sons of Aaron, Moses's brother. Why did ...
ListenTake One: Yoma 52 from 2021-06-02T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 52, begins with a bold claim: The Jewish people, and they alone, speak directly to God. To investigate this claim, we asked Hudson, age 7, Lily, age 9, and Daniel, age 1...
ListenTake One: Yoma 51 from 2021-06-01T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 51, contains a delightful discussion of the Parochet, or the curtain separating the Holy of the Holies from the rest of the Temple. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to disc...
ListenTake One: Yoma 49 and 50 from 2021-05-31T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Yoma 49 and 50, describe, in great detail, how the Kohen Gadol, or High Priest, dispensed the incense on the one day a year he was allowed into the Holy of the Holies. What ...
ListenTake One: Yoma 47 and 48 from 2021-05-28T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Yoma 47 and 48, find the rabbis grateful for their existence and their upbringing, so, naturally, they thank their mothers and then dive right into a discussion of just what...
ListenTake One: Yoma 46 from 2021-05-27T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 46, teaches us that the Sabbath is a communal, not personal, undertaking. Sohrab Ahmari, the author of the new book The Unbroken Thread: Discovering the Wisdom of Tradit...
ListenTake One: Yoma 45 from 2021-05-26T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 45, finds the rabbis at their most glittery, talking about different kinds of gold and what each one means. Lisa Ann Sandell, the host of the Anxiously podcast, joins us...
ListenTake One: Yoma 44 from 2021-05-25T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 44, brings up an interesting question: Why did the ancient rabbis believe that burning incense made up for the sin of Lashon Harah, or gossip? Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin join...
ListenTake One: Yoma 42 and 43 from 2021-05-24T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Yoma 42 and 43, give us a bit of insight into the rituals of the High Priests that have much to teach us about that most difficult of all modern questions, namely how to suc...
ListenTake One: Yoma 40 and 41 from 2021-05-21T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Yoma 40 and 41, contemplate one of the most iconic rituals in all of Judaism, that of the goat dispatched into the wilderness on Yom Kippur. We have the honor of sharing a t...
ListenTake One: Yoma 39 from 2021-05-20T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 39, tells a very eerie story about Shimon Ha'Tzadik seeing his own death. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to explain the real meaning of Shimon's mysterious apparitions, ...
ListenTake One: Yoma 38 from 2021-05-19T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 38, is all about the Kohen Gadol, or the High Priest, and his duties during the holiest day of the year, Yom Kippur. Yishai Ribo, one of Israel's most popular singers, w...
ListenTake One: Yoma 33 and 34 from 2021-05-14T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Yoma 33 and 34, raise one of the most ancient and profound questions in all of the Talmud, the question of action versus thought. Which comes first? Rabbi Tzvi Sinensky join...
ListenTake One: Yoma 32 from 2021-05-13T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 32, dresses all in white. Why? Rebekah Tokatlilar joins us to drill down on the significance of the priestly garments, and the symbolism of wearing all white on Yom Kipp...
ListenTake One: Yoma 31 from 2021-05-12T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 31, asks a big question: How, exactly, do rabbis decide and interpret Jewish law? And why does the Talmud tell us that all the ordinances they instituted were decided in...
ListenTake One: Yoma 30 from 2021-05-11T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 30, discusses the true meaning of immersing ourselves in the mikvah: Do we do it to become pure, holy, or both? Rabbi Sara Luria joins us to discuss this ancient ritual ...
ListenTake One: Yoma 28 and 29 from 2021-05-10T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Yoma 28 and 29, get all philosophical: What, the rabbis ask, was the nature of Abraham's Jewish observance, given that he lived before the Torah was given? Rabbi Dovid Bashe...
ListenTake One: Yoma 26 and 27 from 2021-05-07T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Yoma 26 and 27, sings the praises of the tribes of Levi and Issachar, which, we're told, are the ones best at deciding halacha. Nomi Kaltmann, the president of the Jewish Or...
ListenTake One: Yoma 25 from 2021-05-06T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 25, kicks things off by talking about the special garments the priests put on as they served in the Temple. Why did they need sacred garments? And what can their meticul...
ListenTake One: Yoma 24 from 2021-05-05T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 24, reminds us yet again the even the most righteous among us are subject to the most petty feelings. Kylie Unell returns to share a story of passion, jealousy, and lott...
ListenTake One: Yoma 23 from 2021-05-04T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 23, unfolds like something out of Game of Thrones: in the heat of passion, overcome by religious zeal, one priest murders another. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to talk...
ListenTake One: Yoma 21 and 22 from 2021-05-03T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Yoma 21 and 22, sing the praises of...bread. Freshly baked, delicious, aromatic bread. Producer Sara Fredman Aeder joins us to talk about her love of baking, and about the w...
ListenTake One: Yoma 19 and 20 from 2021-04-30T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Yoma 19 and 20, kick things off with a thorny question: Who, exactly, do our religious leaders work for? Rabbi Shlomo Zuckier joins us to talk about the Talmud's understandi...
ListenTake One: Yoma 18 from 2021-04-29T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 18, revolves around swear words, or more specifically the oath of office taken by the High Priest. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to talk about that ancient ritual, why ...
ListenTake One: Yoma 17 from 2021-04-28T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 17, contains the core wisdom of organizational psychology thousands of years before the field of study even emerged. Mark Young joins us to talk about setting up a good ...
ListenTake One: Yoma 16 from 2021-04-27T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 16, gets down to the details of the precise dimensions of the Temple in Jerusalem. Allison Coudert joins us to talk about why these ancient measurements still matter, an...
ListenTake One: Yoma 14 and 15 from 2021-04-26T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Yoma 14 and 15, acknowledge that there are things in life that, no matter how hard you contemplate, you'll never truly understand, at least not rationally. Rabbi Haviva Ner-...
ListenTake One: Yoma 12 and 13 from 2021-04-23T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Yoma 12 and 13, deliver a strong and undeniable life lesson: You can study and prepare all you want, but some skills only come with experience. Rabbi Dan Ross joins us to ta...
ListenTake One: Yoma 11 from 2021-04-22T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 11, begins with a curious story about a rabbi performing a mitzva and still coming into harm's way, which leads to a meditation on the connection between our physical, e...
ListenTake One: Yoma 10 from 2021-04-21T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 10, contains a curious meditation on the power of the mezuzah to turn a house into a home. Producer Josh Kross returns to tell the story of how and why he, an avowed ath...
ListenTake One: Yoma 9 from 2021-04-20T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 9, teaches us what might, without much exaggeration, be called the Talmud's most urgent lesson: How to have profound disagreements without devolving into tribalism and n...
ListenTake One: Yoma 7 and 8 from 2021-04-19T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Yoma 7 and 8, deliver a neat meditation on the ways the garments of the priests helped them feel a little bit closer to God. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to tell us about h...
ListenTake One: Yoma 5 and 6 from 2021-04-16T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Yoma 5 and 6, contain a strong rabbinic exhortation against sharing information without explicit permission. Stephanie Butnick joins us to take issue with this edict and pro...
ListenTake One: Yoma 4 from 2021-04-15T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 4, reminds us that everything worth doing is worth doing with a profound sense of awe. For a long time, our guest today, author Michal Oshman, was struggling with that i...
ListenTake One: Yoma 3 from 2021-04-14T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 3, couldn't be more timely: It's about the ways in which the priests must sequester themselves to achieve optimal holiness, a feeling that may not be too foreign to thos...
ListenTake One: Yoma 2 from 2021-04-13T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 2, introduces us to a new tractate, one that's all about Yom Kippur. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to preview Yoma and give us an idea of what to expect when discussing...
ListenTake One: Shekalim 21 and 22 from 2021-04-12T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shekalim 21 and 22, bring this short and strange tractate to its conclusion. What are we to learn from it? Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to suggest that Shekalim is a remin...
ListenTake One: Shekalim 19 and 20 from 2021-04-09T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shekalim 19 and 20, contemplate the uncertainty principle: What do we do when life presents us with intricate situations? As an old Hasidic tale reminds us, the point isn't ...
ListenTake One: Shekalim 18 from 2021-04-08T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shekalim 18, is all about the menorah that burned bright in the ancient Temple. Why do we continue to contemplate it even now, millennia after it was last extinguished? Podca...
ListenTake One: Shekalim 17 from 2021-04-07T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shekalim 17, revolves around a fantastic story that brings to mind the best of Tolkien, about a king climbing to the top of the Temple to return its holy keys to God. Rabbi R...
ListenTake One: Shekalim 16 from 2021-04-06T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shekalim 16, kicks things off by reminding us of the strong bond between great power and great responsibility. Aliza Landes, host of the new podcast Us Among the Israelis, jo...
ListenTake One: Shekalim 14 and 15 from 2021-04-05T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shekalim 14 and 15, get back to the basic question that haunts us all: Why do bad things happen to good people? Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to talk about the unlikely fig...
ListenTake One: Shekalim 12 and 13 from 2021-04-02T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shekalim 12 and 13, deliver a beautiful passage of admiration to our educators, particularly poignant as it acknowledges that no matter how dedicated the teacher, us student...
ListenTake One: Shekalim 11 from 2021-04-01T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shekalim 11, we meet a Talmud sage so special that he's known as Shimon Ha'Tzadik, or Shimon the Righteous. Why did he merit that singular nickname? Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joi...
ListenTake One: Shekalim 10 from 2021-03-31T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shekalim 10, extolls the unique sanctity of the Land of Israel, which is intricately tied to the Omer. Rabbi Dr. Stuart Halpern joins us to talk about the Omer, why we count ...
ListenTake One: Shekalim 7, 8 and 9 from 2021-03-30T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shekalim 7, 8 and 9, warn us that anger is akin to idol worship, and that there are few sins as grave as rage. Mark Oppenheimer returns to share his secret to never holding ...
ListenTake One: Shekalim 5 and 6 from 2021-03-26T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shekalim 5 and 6, bring up an interesting mystical connection between the funds we're all expected to pay for our communal welfare and the sin of the golden calf. Rabbi Mark...
ListenTake One: Shekalim 4 from 2021-03-25T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shekalim 4, asks a thorny question: Just what is the inherent value of money? Hedge fund manager Ben Samuels joins us to talk about bitcoin and other cryptocurrency, and the ...
ListenTake One: Shekalim 3 from 2021-03-24T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shekalim 3, reminds us that we have a collective responsibility for each other's wellbeing. Felicia Herman, President of Natan, joins us to talk about Jewish philanthropy and...
ListenTake One: Shekalim 2 from 2021-03-23T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shekalim 2, kicks off a brand new tractate, Shekalim. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to introduce its key themes, and tell us how this one is different from all tractates tha...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 120 and 121 from 2021-03-22T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Pesachim 120 and 121, bring our journey through the tractate to an end. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to help us sum up everything we've learned, and give us a bird's-eye-v...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 118 and 119 from 2021-03-19T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Pesachim 118 and 119, warn us against engaging in the sin of lashon hora, or slander. Alana Newhouse, Editor in Chief of Tablet Magazine, joins us to talk the lines that sep...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 117 from 2021-03-18T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 117, muses on the ways Jews see the world, in good times and bad, and the words they choose to describe their reality. Author Menachem Kaiser joins us to talk about ...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 116 from 2021-03-17T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 116, gets to the heart of the Passover family drama, talking about fathers and sons and mothers and daughters and the ways we learn from and teach each other. Celebr...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 115 from 2021-03-16T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 115, sings the praises of everyone's favorite Passover treat, the Hillel Sandwich. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to tell us about the snack's origins, and why it rem...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 113 and 114 from 2021-03-15T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Pesachim 113 and 114, give us some sparkling words to live by. Mark Gerson, author of the newly published book The Telling: How Judaism's Essential Book Reveals the Meaning ...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 111 and 112 from 2021-03-12T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Pesachim 111 and 112, has the rabbis doing battle with demons. Andrew Fox, author of a new novel about a Jewish demon haunting and helping save New Orleans, joins us to talk...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 110 from 2021-03-11T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 110, kicks things off with talk of demons, evil eyes, and other superstitious beliefs. Lisa Sandell and Aimee Friedman, the hosts of Tablet Magazine's new podcast, A...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 109 from 2021-03-10T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 109, parse the true meaning of joy: surprise surprise, the rabbis believe it involves meat and wine. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us for a full-bodied conversation ab...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 108 from 2021-03-09T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 108, talks about that least understood of all Passover rituals, reclining. Rabbi Willie Balk joins us to talk about just how we're supposed to recline, and what exac...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 106 and 107 from 2021-03-08T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Pesachim 106 and 107, find the rabbis in a snooty mood, particularly when it comes to beer. Why does the anti-beer snobbery persist? Jeremy Cowan, founder and CEO of the Shm...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 104 and 105 from 2021-03-05T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Pesachim 104 and 105, give some love to the Havdalah. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to tell us about his love for the ritual, and why it's even more special to him than maki...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 103 from 2021-03-04T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 103, gives us strange mnemonics, including one that is making a star turn this year. Dr. Chaya Sima Koenigsberg joins us to talk about the rabbis' love of acronyms, ...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 102 from 2021-03-03T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 102, warns us against trying to bundle our mitzvot. Rabbi Dr. Ari Lamm joins us to talk about the importance of taking life one good deed at a time. Why should we be...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 101 from 2021-03-02T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 101, sings the praises of the Shabbat meal, a dinner like no other in the week. Hudson Leibovitz, 7 years old, joins us to talk about the Shabbat table in his home, ...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 99 and 100 from 2021-03-01T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Pesachim 99 and 100, gives us the rabbis' wisdom to live by: it’s better to say nothing and be thought wise, than to speak and prove the opposite. John Podhoretz, the editor...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 97 and 98 from 2021-02-26T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Pesachim 97 and 98, the rabbis bring up our inheritance, and inquire about our privileges and our duties when we're lucky enough to have something of value passed down from ...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 96 from 2021-02-25T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 96, asks only this: What's the difference between that first OG Pesach sacrifice and all the others that follow? Or, put differently, has anything really changed sin...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 95 from 2021-02-24T05:00
In today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 95, the rabbis discuss the second Pesach, Judaism’s great do-over. Kylie Unell joins us to talk about second chances and why no religion can ever work with out th...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 94 from 2021-02-23T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Pesachim 94, mentions perhaps the most maligned of all Hebrew months, Marcheshvan. Does its name really mean "bitter"? Was the calendar really that unkind? Tevi Troy returns...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 92 and 93 from 2021-02-22T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Pesachim 92 and 93, bring up a tricky question: How can we really measure distance? The answer, of course, is through time, which teaches us a valuable lesson on how to go v...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 90 and 91 from 2021-02-19T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Pesachim 90 and 91, bring up the question of whether a portion of the Paschal sacrifice may count as payment to a prostitute for her services. Rabbanit Leah Sarna joins us t...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 89 from 2021-02-18T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 89, gets downright uncomfortable when it talks about how members of a community act when they share finite resources and believe that one of them has gotten more tha...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 88 from 2021-02-17T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 88, kicks things off with an audacious claim: When all Jews return home to the Land of Israel, it will be a more monumental day than the day the heavens and the eart...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 87 from 2021-02-16T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 87, tells us the rolicking story of the prophet Hosea, which includes rancor and despair and prostitution. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to celebrate this minor pro...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 85 and 86 from 2021-02-15T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Pesachim 85 and 86, ponder whether or not the prayers of outsiders are heard just as loudly and clearly. Rabbi Hart Levine joins us to tell us to talk about the logic of pra...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 83 and 84 from 2021-02-12T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Pesachim 83 and 84, warn us against breaking the bones of the paschal sacrifice. Dr. Adina Minkowitz Silberman joins us to tell us why this act is an invitation to dignity e...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 82 from 2021-02-11T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 82, is all about shaming. Is it ever OK to shame someone if by embarrassing them we can make sure they do the right thing? Rabbi Josh Lookstein joins us to discuss s...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 81 from 2021-02-10T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 81, brings up a mysterious concept: the impurity of the deep. Put simply, it revolves around the following question: If someone, somewhere in the world dies and no o...
ListenTake one: Pesachim 80 from 2021-02-09T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 80, raises the question of how to proceed with the Paschal sacrifice if some tribes are pure and others impure, which is a great way of thinking about the divisions ...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 78 and 79 from 2021-02-08T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Pesachim 78 and 79, bring up a curious conundrum: Is it possible for all of Israel, the entirety of the Jewish people, to be impure at the exact same time? Rabbi Dovid Bashe...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 76 and 77 from 2021-02-05T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Pesachim 76 and 77, raise an interesting question about what happens if a piece of bread absorbs the scent of wine set aside as a contribution to the priests. Does the bread...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 75 from 2021-02-04T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 75, finds the rabbis discussing how to go about executing a person who has transgressed. Sister Helen Prejean joins us to share her experiences as America’s foremost...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 74 from 2021-02-03T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 74, is all about meat: How to roast it, eat it, and savor it. Producer Josh Kross returns to talk about the joys of ambling up to the grill, and how meat triggers th...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 73 from 2021-02-02T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 73, finds the rabbis talking about ritual sacrifice but meditating on animal rights. Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz joins us to talk about why it's crucial not to lose sigh...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 71 and 72 from 2021-02-01T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Pesachim 71 and 72, offer an inspired vision of what we need to be happy: Clean clothes and old wine. Adam Teeter joins us to explain why so many of us feel intimidated when...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 69 and 70 from 2021-01-29T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Pesachim 69 and 70, make the curious connection between the Korban Pesach, the sacrificial Paschal lamb, and Brit Mila, or circumcision. Sara Fredman Aeder returns to shed l...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 68 from 2021-01-28T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 68, asks a piercing question: Should we use whatever powers we have for good? Or are they ours for our own benefit? Comic book writer and editor Jordan Gorfinkel joi...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 67 from 2021-01-27T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 67, calls for the isolation of those suffering from a set of contagious conditions, a topic that hits close to home in the time of COVID-19. Vineet Chander, the Coor...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 66 from 2021-01-26T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 66, tells a story of a great rabbi humbled and delivers a crucial lesson about what to do when you have no idea what to do. Shira Telushkin joins us to deliver some ...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 64 and 65 from 2021-01-25T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Pesachim 64 and 65, deliver a reminder that we must never tarry when performing a mitzvah. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns with a masterful hassidic interpretation of this dee...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 62 and 63 from 2021-01-22T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Pesachim 62 and 63, the rabbis riff on a very modern obsession: genealogy. Why are we so obsessed with learning more about our ancestors? A.J. Jacobs, best-selling author of...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 61 from 2021-01-21T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 61, gives us an opportunity to imagine one of the most majestic of all rituals, Korban Pesach, or the Passover sacrifice. Dr. Karen Kirshenbaum joins us to discuss t...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 60 from 2021-01-20T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 60, teaches us a lesson in watching what we eat. Stephanie Butnick returns to discuss how she went from grabbing most of her meals on the go to investing time and ef...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 59 from 2021-01-19T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 59, concludes with a discussion of what should be done when the High Priest speaks in ways that aren't altogether clear. Producer Josh Kross joins us to talk about t...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 57 and 58 from 2021-01-18T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Pesachim 57 and 58, tell the story of a wise man who was sent as the Jewish community's emissary to the seat of power, Rome. Tevi Troy, former Deputy Secretary of Health and...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 55 and 56 from 2021-01-15T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Pesachim 55 and 56, raise a touchy issue: Are we sometimes being presumptuous? Mark Oppenheimer, our very own Corduroy Rav, returns to share a few funny anecdotes of self-es...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 54 from 2021-01-14T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 54, tells us that so many of the things we adore, from rainbows to writing, were created at twilight on the first Shabbat eve. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to unvei...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 53 from 2021-01-13T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 53, urges us to support those committed to education, and promises heavenly rewards to anyone who does so. Writer and educator Malka Fleischmann joins us to evaluate...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 52 from 2021-01-12T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 52, kicks things off with warning us against the temptation to excommunicate those who displease us. How, then, should we have arguments, especially about things tha...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 50 and 51 from 2021-01-11T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Pesachim 50 and 51, regale us with stories of the world-to-come. What does this mysterious place look like? And do Jews really believe in it? Rabbi Dr. Ari Lamm returns to s...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 48 and 49 from 2021-01-08T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Pesachim 48 and 49, kick things off by talking challah. Dr. Beth Ricanati, a physician who found great comfort and healing in baking the traditional bread, joins us to share...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 47 from 2021-01-07T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 47, asks a thorny question: What role might non-Jews play in Jewish celebrations and festivals? Rabbi Steven Philp, himself a Jew by choice, joins us to tell us abou...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 46 from 2021-01-06T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 46, discusses going the distance. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to explain why some rituals can only be practiced communally, and why it's important not to stray too...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 45 from 2021-01-05T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 45, talks about the prohibitions on leaven that is inedible. Which might cause distress to certain kinds of bakers: Shy Krug, a master of sourdough bread, joins us t...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 43 and 44 from 2021-01-04T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Pesachim 43 and 44, raise the question of what obligations and rights women have when it comes to Passover. Best-selling author Abby Pogrebin joins us to share her memories ...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 41 and 42 from 2021-01-01T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Pesachim 41 and 42, tell us a funny story about a famous rabbi who misspoke and the hillarious misunderstanding that followed. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to teach us abou...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 40 from 2020-12-31T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 40, asks what respect, precisely, we owe the dead. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to offer a radical musing on what the dead can teach us about living and about bein...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 39 from 2020-12-30T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 39, finds the rabbis in a culinary mindest, as they declare that no other bitter herb has quite the pungent profile as horseradish. Famed cookbook author Adeena Suss...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 38 from 2020-12-29T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 38, sets things off by discussing the obligations of dinner guests and hosts. Stephanie Butnick joins us to talk about what you should and should never do at a dinne...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 36 and 37 from 2020-12-28T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Pesachim 36 and 37, ask a question that should be obvious: What, exactly, is a Matzah? Rabbi Ethan Tucker, himself an enthusiastic Matzah-baker, joins us to explain the many...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 34 and 35 from 2020-12-25T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Pesachim 34 and 35, start off with a Talmudic take on a rap battle, with the rabbis of Eretz Yisrael calling the rabbis of Babylon dumb. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to exp...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 33 from 2020-12-24T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 33, dives down into accidents and mistakes. Does action matter most? Or is it intentionality? Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to riff on Judaism's majestic, complicat...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 32 from 2020-12-23T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 32, tells us a bit about the privileges of the Kohanim, the priests who served in the ancient Temple. But do modern-day Kohens still enjoy any perks now that the Tem...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 31 from 2020-12-22T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 31, is all about the boundaries Jews and gentiles must keep to live peacefully with each other. Rabbi Stuart Halpern joins us to help us to argue that respecting cle...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 29 and 30 from 2020-12-21T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Pesachim 29 and 30, introduce the peculiar concept of Noten Ta'am, something that gives flavor, an idea that sounds like it belongs more on a cooking show than a page of Tal...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 27 and 28 from 2020-12-18T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Pesachim 27 and 28, raises everyone's favorite Passover pastime, the selling and buying of Chametz. Elana Stein Hain returns to make sense of all this wheeling and dealing, ...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 26 from 2020-12-17T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 26, is a festival for the senses. Rabbi Gidon Rothstein joins us to help us make sense of what we're supposed to think, say, or do, when we smell, see, and touch. Do...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 25 from 2020-12-16T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 25, asks a pointed question: Are there values worth losing your life for? Rabbi Rena Singer joins us to discuss what's worth dying for and why. Is idolatry on the li...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 24 from 2020-12-15T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 24, the rabbis admit that prohibitions against eating certain things apply only if said things are eaten in the "usual manner." But what's the usual manner? Josh Kro...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 22 and 23 from 2020-12-14T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Pesachim 22 and 23, give us a touching story of an earnest scholar who realizes he got his life's work all wrong. Yael Steiner joins us to talk about the importance of humil...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 20 and 21 from 2020-12-11T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Pesachim 20 and 21, introduce a concept that, at first blush, appears like a bit of a paradox: The more sacred something is, the more susceptible it is to impurity. Rabbi Do...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 19 from 2020-12-10T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 19, kicks things off with a novel halakhic ruling about hands. Lisa Ann Sandell returns to talk about her fear of germs, and how COVID-19 came as an affirmation of h...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 18 from 2020-12-09T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 18, tosses us into a reality that feels all too familiar, one in which contamination spreads quickly and must be stopped before normal life can resume. Rabbi Jonatha...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 17 from 2020-12-08T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 17, introduces us to the prophet Haggai. No one's idea of a superhero Biblical seer, Haggai, argues our guest, Rabbi Tzvi Sinensky, is the prophet we need right now,...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 15 and 16 from 2020-12-07T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Pesachim 15 and 16, ask a simple and searing question: How much should you sacrifice for your beliefs? It's a particularly poignant one these days, with a majority of Americ...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 13 and 14 from 2020-12-04T05:37:43
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Pesachim 13 and 14, give us a curious ruling: The Prophet Elijah will never come on the eve of Shabbat. Why? Rabbi Jacob J. Schacter joins us to teach us a lesson in the hol...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 12 from 2020-12-03T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 12, is about time. How late is rude late? How early is too early? Producer Sara Fredman Aeder returns to explain to us how the rabbis thought about time, and what we...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 11 from 2020-12-02T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 11, asks a question that's all too familiar: Is technology always bad? Always good? Something in the middle? Rabbi Gabi Weinberg joins us to teach us a lesson about ...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 10 from 2020-12-01T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 10, makes us wonder: What role does doubt play in religious life? Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to explain Judaism's obsession with constant questioning. What lesson...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 8 and 9 from 2020-11-30T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Pesachim 8 and 9, remind us of the difficulty and importance of doing good deeds for their own sake. Producer Josh Kross returns to share a story of an emotional Thanksgivin...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 6 and 7 from 2020-11-27T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Pesachim 6 and 7, riff about blessings, which we always make before performing a mitzvah. With one notable exception: Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to help us make sense of ...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 5 from 2020-11-26T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 5, is serious about the prohibition on having any unleavened bread in the house before Passover. Author Meira Spivak joins us to share her full-proof method for phys...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 4 from 2020-11-25T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 4, gives us a helpful reminder that any mitzvah worth doing is worth doing early. Dr. Elana Stein Hain joins us to explain this principle, and why it's essential in ...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 3 from 2020-11-24T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 3, finds the rabbis singing the praises of euphemisms and going to great lengths not to say bad words. Why? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Vi...
ListenTake One: Pesachim 2 from 2020-11-23T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Pesachim 2, kicks off Tractate Pesachim, and, as per usual with the Talmud, it does so in a quizzical fashion. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to introduce us to this new tract...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 103, 104, and 105 from 2020-11-20T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Eruvin 103, 104, and 105, bring to a close Tractate Eruvin, one of the Talmud's most intricate and complicated volumes. Law professor Ethan Lieb joins us to celebrate, and m...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 102 from 2020-11-19T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 102, is very much in vogue, asking about the black hats that observant Jewish men so often wear. But why wear these hats at all? Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to offer...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 101 from 2020-11-18T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 101, discusses tradition, and why the way we used to do thing matters when we try to figure out what's right and what's wrong. Yehuda Goldberg joins us to discuss the ...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 100 from 2020-11-17T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 100, has the rabbis warning against a husband trying to have intercourse with his wife without her explicit consent. Rabbi Aviva Richman joins us to explain why this r...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 98 and 99 from 2020-11-16T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Eruvin 98 and 99, remind us again that it is forbidden to throw away sacred writings. We talk about book collections, and why so many of us hold on even to books they know t...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 96 and 97 from 2020-11-13T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Eruvin 96 and 97, raise a curious question: Why are we commanded to wear tefillin every day of the week but not on Shabbat? Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to ponder this conu...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 95 from 2020-11-12T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 95, has Tefillin on the mind (and on the arm). Rabbi Mordechai Lightstone returns to shed light on this most ancient and still most potent of all spiritual technologie...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 94 from 2020-11-11T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 94, gets down and intimate: What, it asks, happens when your courtyard opens up onto the public domain? Andrew Marantz, staff writer for the New Yorker, joins us to t...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 93 from 2020-11-10T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 93, wonders what happens when guests come in and cause all sorts of inconveniences. Rabbi Rebecca Rosenthal joins us to talk about why guests can be both annoying and ...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 91 and 92 from 2020-11-09T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Eruvin 91 and 92, ask a poignant question: Are we permitted to modify our laws based on how we've behaved during a time of danger? Rabbi Jon Spira-Savett joins us to discuss...
ListenTake One; Eruvin 89 and 90 from 2020-11-06T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Eruvin 89 and 90, finds two rabbis engaged in a philosophical conversation about the very way we see reality. Rabbi Avi Straussberg joins us to explain why this particular d...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 88 from 2020-11-05T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 88, asks a cheeky question: If you stole something, do you get to keep it? Ben Schachter, an artist and the author of Akhnai Pizza, a new graphic novel based on one of...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 87 from 2020-11-04T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 87, inquries whether a lake could count when determing an eruv. Rabbi Tzvi Sinenski joins us to tell a story about the late great Rabbi Norman Lamm, and how he wrestle...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 86 from 2020-11-03T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 86, contains an unlikely recommendation: revere the rich. Professor Lila Corwin Berman joins us to shed some light on how Jewish philantrophy changed drastically over ...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 84 and 85 from 2020-11-02T05:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Eruvin 84 and 85, give us one charming anecdote that helps dive right into the true meaning of the eruv. Rabbi Hart Levine joins us to tell us about the diverse and welcomin...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 82 and 83 from 2020-10-30T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Eruvin 82 and 83, introduce a curious prohibition against gamblers giving testimony in a court of law. Joe Bednarsh, Athletics Director at Yeshiva University and a world-cla...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 81 from 2020-10-29T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 81, reaches into the book of Ezekiel to discuss one of the Bible's most notoriously scatological references, the poop sandwich. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to help u...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 80 from 2020-10-28T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 80, tells a story of a woman who defies her husband to make an eruv possible. Sara Shalva, Chief Arts Officer at the JCC in Baltimore, joins us to talk about how women...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 79 from 2020-10-27T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 79, finds the rabbis permitting building a fire on Shabbat to make a woman giving birth more comfortable. Dr. David Jay Berman, Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology a...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 77 and 78 from 2020-10-26T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Eruvin 77 and 78, drill down on which laws must be rigorously observed and which may sometime be overlooked. Officer Jacob Novikov, vice president of the NYPD's Shomrim Soci...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 75 and 76 from 2020-10-23T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Eruvin 75 and 76, find one of the rabbis, Rav Yosef, making a blunder. Rabbi Eric Wisnia joins us to explain why Rav Yosef's response can teach us everything we need to know...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 74 from 2020-10-22T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 74, tells a sad and strange story of a man who built an eruv for just one home: His own. Was it kosher? Or must an eruv, designed to connect several abodes, include at...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 73 from 2020-10-21T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 73, raises a sharp question: What's in a home? Is it the place where you eat? Sleep? Both? Something else? Rabbanit Leah Sarna joins us to talk about the intricacies o...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 72 from 2020-10-20T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 72, has the rabbis channeling their inner interior designers: What, they ask, makes a room a room? Author Lisa Sandell joins us to discuss how, while redecorating her ...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 70 and 71 from 2020-10-19T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Eruvin 70 and 71, tell us that one point of setting up an eruv is to teach our children about the laws of eruvin. It's a surprisingly profound lesson, as Rabbi Dr. Stuart Ha...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 68 and 69 from 2020-10-16T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Eruvin 68 and 69, raise the issue of disbelief, and ask a thorny question: How much doubt is too much doubt? Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to shed light on this complicated ...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 67 from 2020-10-15T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 67, finds the rabbis in an usual state of mind: starstruck. Journalist and seasoned celebrity profiler Romy Oltuski joins us to share what it's like to sit in a room w...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 66 from 2020-10-14T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 66, dives down into a sensitive subject: What does it take to build a community where Jews and non-Jews live together peacefully? Alan Newman, the author of the new no...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 65 from 2020-10-13T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 65, explores the age old question: Should you be early to bed and early to rise, or is it better to stay up late? The rabbis, no surprise, are of at least two minds, a...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 63 and 64 from 2020-10-12T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Eruvin 63 and 64, pose a provocative question: Does drinking make you holier? Ruby Namdar, author, Talmud scholar, and a man fond of his drink joins us to parse this rich an...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 61 and 62 from 2020-10-09T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Eruvin 61 and 62, ask pointed questions about how the whole idea of an eruv pertains to our non-Jewish neighbors, which is really another way of asking how do we conceive of...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 60 from 2020-10-08T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 60, ends with one of the rabbis, Rabbi Idi, strangely dismissing the whole enterprise of prophecy. Why would a sage and a scholar speak this way? A.J. Berkovitz, assi...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 59 from 2020-10-07T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 59, examines what happens when a small town grows into a big city and neighborhoods change in a process we now often call gentrification. Producer Josh Kross, a city d...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 58 from 2020-10-06T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 58, begins with a mysterious warning against using tools that are too efficient and blooms into a meditation on human experience. Why should we listen even to those wh...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 56 and 57 from 2020-10-05T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Eruvin 56 and 57, find the rabbis in the mood to exalt the deliciousness of vegetables. Why are leeks and radishes important? And why should you eat more than meat? Mark Opp...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 54 and 55 from 2020-10-02T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Eruvin 54 and 55, ask a pressing question: What does the Bible teach us about how we should practice politics? Rabbi Ari Lamm returns to introduce us to the world's first po...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 53 from 2020-10-01T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 53, finds the rabbis in a mood to talk about what makes good teachers and good students. Professor Agi Legutko of Columbia University joins us to discuss whether or no...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 52 from 2020-09-30T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 52, presents us with an image of a man standing with one foot inside the boundaries of the eruv and another outside. Why do the rabbis conjure such a strange case? Rab...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 51 from 2020-09-29T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 51, brings up the importance of trusting your friends, especially when you're feeling a bit out of your element. Lily and Annabelle, two nine-year-old friends, join us...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 49 and 50 from 2020-09-27T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Eruvin 49 and 50, the rabbis caution us not to lose sight of the community-building aspect of an eruv. Brian Benjamin, a New York State Senator, joins us to share how he and...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 47 and 48 from 2020-09-25T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Eruvin 47 and 48, the rabbis discuss personal space, and just how much of it a person really needs. Stephanie Butnick returns to offer insights into life in a very small New...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 46 from 2020-09-24T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 46, contains a striking permission for a tractate so thick with rules and regulations: When in doubt about some question pertaining to an eruv, just follow the more le...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 45 from 2020-09-23T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 45, gives permission to sometimes violate the strictures of the eruv if one is rushing to save a life. Dr. Teresa Amato, director of Emergency Medicine at one of the N...
ListenTake One, Eruvin 44 from 2020-09-22T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 44, asks a thorny question: Can you use a live human being to demarcate an eruv? Producer Josh Kross returns to offer a lively soccer analogy and muse on why sometimes...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 42 and 43 from 2020-09-21T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Eruvin 42 and 43, kick things off with a sporting discussion about counting steps to properly mark an eruv. Little did the ancient rabbis know, but step-counting would soon ...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 40 and 41 from 2020-09-18T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Eruvin 40 and 41, finds the rabbis having a heated conversation about the importance of political norms and respecting the unwritten rules of keeping a community vibrant and...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 39 from 2020-09-17T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 39, is all about yom tov sheni, or the second day of the holiday we celebrate everywhere outside of Israel. But why do we celebrate it? And is it time, now that we hav...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 38 from 2020-09-16T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 38, asks a question that may sound familair to anyone who is feeling overwhelmed by life throwing too many challenges their way: What do you do when you get pulled in ...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 37 from 2020-09-15T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 37, finds the rabbis talking about retroactive designation, or whether or not it's OK to reason your way in retrospect. Which, if you've ever watched a sci-fi or fanta...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 35 and 36 from 2020-09-14T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Eruvin 35 and 36, take on one of the biggest problems that inform and inspire all of religious life, the problem of doubt. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to explain why doubt...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 33 and 34 from 2020-09-11T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Eruvin 33 and 34, begin by asking what sounds like the Jewish version of Schrodinger's Cat: If you put the food you need for an eruv in a closet, lock it up, and then lose t...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 32 from 2020-09-10T04:00
Today's Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 32, continues the crucial and complex conversation about the limits of personal responsibility and transgression. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to guide us through the...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 31 from 2020-09-09T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 31, urges us to take agency over what matters in life. And what could matter more than our own education? Eric Cohen, executive director of The Tikvah Fund, joins us t...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 30 from 2020-09-08T04:00
Today's Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 30, introduces one of the most important principles to emerge out of Jewish wisdom: Don't yuck my yum. Chef Einat Admoni joins us to talk about why all dishes, even th...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 28 and 29 from 2020-09-07T04:00
Today's Daf Yomi pages, Eruvin 28 and 29, find one of the rabbis reminiscing about the wonderful remedies his nurse-mother used to offer when he was ill. Tablet's editor in chief, Alana Newhouse jo...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 26 and 27 from 2020-09-04T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Eruvin 26 and 27, inform us that for an eruv to truly turn disparate private domains into one shared public domain, food should be involved. And not just any food—only the k...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 25 from 2020-09-03T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 25, raises the question of the often complicated relationships between Jews by choice and their non-Jewish families. Rebecca Cynamon-Murphy kept an audio diary right b...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 24 from 2020-09-02T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 24, comes just in time to wave farewell to summer with a brisk discussion of swimming and swimming pools. Mark Oppenheimer returns to talk to us about that great subur...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 23 from 2020-09-01T04:00
Today's Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 23, sparks a debate that may sound strange to us: is a shul a place of residence? Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to discuss the changing status of synagogues through t...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 21 and 22 from 2020-08-31T04:00
Today's Daf Yomi pages, Eruvin 21 and 22, raise the question of divine reward: What, in other words, do we get if we’re very good and obey all the commandments? Rabbi Dr. Stuart Halpern joins us wi...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 19 and 20 from 2020-08-28T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Eruvin 19 and 20, raise one of Judaism’s most difficult questions: Do we believe in hell? Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns with a soulful and evocative reading of eternal damna...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 18 from 2020-08-27T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 18, tell us a truly fantastic story: At some point after the whole business with the apple and the snake, Adam gave birth to a bunch of demon children. Shira Telushkin...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 17 from 2020-08-26T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 17, dives into some of the laws of warfare. Rabbi Avi Shafran, a signatory of a recent letter calling on Jews to abandon the pugilism of partisan politics, joins us to...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 16 from 2020-08-25T04:00
Today's Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 16, deals with the rules of keeping an eruv while camping. Aimee Friedman, author and notable hater of all things outdoorsy, joins us to consider the thorny relationsh...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 14 and 15 from 2020-08-24T04:00
Today's Daf Yomi pages, Eruvin 14 and 15, continue to dive deeper and deeper into the concept of the eruv. Rabbi Yaakov Taubes joins us to recap everything we’ve learned in the tractate so far, and...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 12 and 13 from 2020-08-21T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Eruvin 12 and 13, teach us about the majestic power of editing. Lisa Sandell, an editor of young adult books, joins us to discuss the editorial process and how it can make—o...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 11 from 2020-08-20T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 11, gives us a heartwarming story of one great rabbi humbly and eagerly learning from another. Rabbi Dr. Ari Lamm joins us to shed light on what even the most erudite ...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 10 from 2020-08-19T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 10, gives us an insider’s look into how the Talmud raises—and answers—questions. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to shed light on how Jewish law conceptualizes question...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 9 from 2020-08-18T04:00
Today's Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 9, riffs on the importance of being kind to the folks next door. Harvard professor Nancy Rosenblum, author of Good Neighbors: The Democracy of Everyday Life in America...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 7 and 8 from 2020-08-17T04:00
Today's Daf Yomi pages, Eruvin 7 and 8, raise a question that has haunted American politics from the very first: How to resolve conflicts elegantly and gracefully. Tevi Troy, former Deputy Secretar...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 5 and 6 from 2020-08-14T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 5 and 6, have the rabbis debating what, precisely, qualifies as a public space. Justin Davidson, New York Magazine's Pulitzer Prize-winning architectural critic, joins...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 4 from 2020-08-13T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 4, concerns itself with the mikvah, the ritual bath where Jewish women and men are commanded to purify themselves. Writer and editor Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt joins u...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 3 from 2020-08-12T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 3, begins with a strange admission: Even though all units of distance are supposed to be precisely the same, the rabbis tell us that there's a happy cubit and a sad on...
ListenTake One: Eruvin 2 from 2020-08-11T04:00
Today's Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 2, is the first in a tractate that's widely considered one of the most difficult, intricate, and, thankfully, rewarding in the entire Talmud. Rabbi Adam Mintz joins us...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 156 and 157 from 2020-08-10T04:00
Today's Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 156 and 157, bring to its conclusion the Talmud's longest tractate. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to sum up the wisdom we've learned over the last few months, and d...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 154 and 155 from 2020-08-07T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 154 and 155, teach us that God has a soft spot in His heart for dogs. Lily, 9, and Hudson, 7, join us to talk about their love of dogs, and dispense advice on how to ...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 153 from 2020-08-06T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 153, delivers a stunning teaching from the rabbis: Repent one day before your death. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to help us unlock this quizzical statement, and tea...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 152 from 2020-08-05T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 152, contains one curious bit of life advice from the rabbis: You should spend your first forty years on this planet taking pleasure in food, but once you turn forty,...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 151 from 2020-08-04T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 151, delivers a painful reminder of a universal truth rarely acknowledged: That poverty is cyclical, and that we are all, at some point or another, likely to feel its...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 149 and 150 from 2020-08-03T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 149 and 150, find the rabbis raising one of the humanity's most ancient and most difficult questions: What, exactly, is art? Ben Kovalis, co-founder of a company tha...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 147 and 148 from 2020-07-31T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 147 and 148, bring up a point that couldn't be any more pertinent: What to do when you feel a strong need to criticize someone? Writer Bethany Mandel joins us to sha...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 146 from 2020-07-30T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 146, begins with a meditation on original sin and then goes on to ask whether converts were present at Mount Sinai. Fresh off of her visit to the mikvah, Kerigan Kell...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 145 from 2020-07-29T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 145, ponders the differences between scholars in Israel and in Babylonia, and delivers a powerful meditation on belonging, exile, and redemption. Rabbi Dovid Bashevki...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 144 from 2020-07-28T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 144, encourages us to question authority. Rabbi Dr. Stuart Halpern joins us to explain why the relationship between rabbis and their congregations is a delicate dance...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 142 and 143 from 2020-07-27T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 142 and 143, find the rabbis in full parenting mode, discussing whether or not it's permitted to bend the rules on Shabbat for the emotional well-being of your kids....
ListenTake One: Shabbat 140 and 141 from 2020-07-24T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 140 and 141, find the rabbis discussing the intricacies of preparing some of their favorite food dishes. Producer Josh Kross returns to share a confession about his ...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 139 from 2020-07-23T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 139, kicks things off with a sharp pronouncements: Unless our judges are righteous, a heap of trouble will be visited on our generation. New York City Judge Ilana Mar...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 138 from 2020-07-22T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 138, strikes a dramatic note: The Jews, one of the rabbis predicts, are destined to one day forget the Torah. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to explain this menacing p...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 137 from 2020-07-21T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 137, revolves around a question that has troubled males for millennia: What does it mean to be a man? We seek a modern answer in a very personal story about crime, pu...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 135 and 136 from 2020-07-20T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 135 and 136, ask a difficult question: How must we confront that most terrible of ordeals, the loss of a child? Rabbi Dr. Ari Lamm joins us to share his own personal...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 133 and 134 from 2020-07-17T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 133 and 134, urge us that we ought to strive and be as beautiful and as merciful as God. But what does that mean? Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to introduce us to on...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 132 from 2020-07-16T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 132, finds the rabbis in a cutting state of mind: They talk about circumcision, and whether or not it is permissible on Shabbat. Dr. Emily Blake, a physician and a mo...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 131 from 2020-07-15T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 131, raises the painful question of what we're supposed to do when we can't celebrate the holidays in the joyous and festive fashion to which we're accustomed. Rabbi ...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 130 from 2020-07-14T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 130, tells a miraculous tale of tefilin transformed. What happens when we start our day by wrapping the leather straps around our arms and our head? And why are tefil...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 128 and 129 from 2020-07-13T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 128 and 129, give us a long discussion of the intricacies of giving birth. Dr. Jennifer Mieres, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at Northwell Health, joins us t...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 126 and 127 from 2020-07-10T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 126 and 127, give us a heart-warming and timely tale of what happens when you keep and open mind and an open heart and give others the benefit of the doubt. What doe...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 125 from 2020-07-09T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 125, contemplates building, a labor that's prohibited on Shabbat. But what does building mean? Are you allowed, for example, to open a window on Shabbat, an activity ...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 124 from 2020-07-08T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 124, teaches us a valuable lesson about practicing what we preach. Dr. Erica Brown returns to help us make sense of a tense conversation between two wise rabbis, and ...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 123 from 2020-07-07T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 123, kicks things off with a long disquisition on tools and how to use them. Producer Josh Kross, a geek's geek, returns to explain why it's important to know how som...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 121 and 122 from 2020-07-06T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 121 and 122, give us a clash for the ages: The sage, who urge us to go ahead and kill creatures that may threaten our lives, and the pious, who argue that taking a l...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 119 and 120 from 2020-07-03T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 119 and 120, deliver a wise warning from the rabbis: You don't have a lot of time on this planet, so use it wisely. Scholar Penina Levy joins us to share a profound ...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 118 from 2020-07-02T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 118, finally gets to the heart of the matter: After many, many pages describing all the laws of observing Shabbat, the Talmud acknowledges that celebrating our holy d...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 117 from 2020-07-01T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 117, contains a long discussion about what may and may not be saved from a fire on Shabbat, and has the rabbis insisting that food must never be wasted. Writer and ac...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 116 from 2020-06-30T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 116, raises the curious idea that a few verses in the Torah, about the traveling of the Ark of the Covenant, should constitute a book unto themselves. Rabbi Dovid Bas...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 114 and 115 from 2020-06-29T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 114 and 115, discuss the time-honored idea that a community ought to put its money where its mouth is and support and sustain its values. In traditional Jewish commu...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 112 and 113 from 2020-06-26T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 112 and 113, bring up one of the Talmud's most contentious ideas: Yeridat HaDorot, or the notion that each generation is just slightly worse than the one that came b...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 111 from 2020-06-25T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 111, delivers an uplifting observation about all of us being the sons and daughters of kings. But what does that mean? Rabbi Motti Seligson joines us to shed light on...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 110 from 2020-06-24T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 110, kicks things off with a terrifying tale of a curse that leads to inescapable death by snakebite. Film critic and writer Jordan Hoffman joins us to talk about the...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 109 from 2020-06-23T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 109, gives us a long list of healing snacks and beverages. They also inspire a meditation on why we should watch what we eat, and ask ourselves piercing ethical quest...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 107 and 108 from 2020-06-22T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 107 and 108, pose a cutting question: Are we circumcising the wrong part of our bodies? Rabbi Jodie Gordon joins us to argue that our commitment to the covenant isn'...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 105 and 106 from 2020-06-19T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 105 and 106, begin with a startling ruling: If you break some of the laws of Shabbat because you are anguished about the death of a loved one, you should be exempt f...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 104 from 2020-06-18T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 104, kicks things off with a mystical theory about the real meaning of Hebrew letters. How is our very alpha-bet prodding us to be more mindful of the less fortunate?...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 103 from 2020-06-17T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 103, informs us that the essence of writing involves putting just two letters together. Author and scholar Ilana Kurshan returns to help us dive into the mysteries of...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 102 from 2020-06-16T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 102, the rabbis offer a cryptic sentence about why the rich shouldn't mingle with the poor. But do they really mean it? Rabbi Joe Schwartz joins us to deliver an insi...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 100 and 101 from 2020-06-15T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 100 and 101, find the rabbis in a name-calling mood. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to help us make sense of the practice of evoking the name of Moses. Why are the ra...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 98 and 99 from 2020-06-12T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 98 and 99, tells us a brief and magical story: The center beam in the mishkan, God's holy dwelling place on earth, was floating miraculously in mid-air, keeping toge...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 97 from 2020-06-11T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 97, give us a story of ancient biblical gossip and its dire consequences. Rabbi Dr. Richard Hidary of Yeshiva University joins us to explain why the kind of idle chat...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 96 from 2020-06-10T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 96, tells us that the men building the mishkan, God's holy dwelling place on earth, would never throw the beams they were passing to each other, but rather hand them ...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 95 from 2020-06-09T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 95, the rabbis talk makeup: Is eyeliner kosher on Shabbat? What about blush, rouge, or lipstick? Stephanie Butnick returns to help us make sense of the rabbis' surpri...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 93 and 94 from 2020-06-08T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 93 and 94, make a distinction between the kinds of work one person can do alone and the sort of labor that truly takes a village. Rabbi Shira Stutman of Sixth&I in W...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 91 and 92 from 2020-06-05T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 91 and 92, begin a long and fascinating discussion of intention, or how what we had meant to do impacts the outcome of our action. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to o...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 90 from 2020-06-04T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 90, the rabbis warn against giving children locusts to play with, as the young ones may eat the bugs and the bugs may not be Kosher. One rabbi, however, warns that ki...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 89 from 2020-06-03T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 89, tells us a heartwarming story about Satan trying and failing to stump Moses, and extols the great leader's virtue. Tal Ben-Shahar, best-selling author, Columbia p...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 88 from 2020-06-02T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 88, dives into one of the most mysterious phrases in the entire Torah, the promise by the Israelites receiving the Torah to obey it first and only then listen to what...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 86 and 87 from 2020-06-01T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 86 and 87, ask a difficult question: Why have boundaries? And why would anyone choose to be religious when being religious involves so many strictures? Rabbi David S...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 84 and 85 from 2020-05-28T18:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 84 and 85, find the rabbis in an agricultural state of mind, talking about the different seeds that one is permitted to sow in a single garden patch. Rabbi Ellen Ber...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 83 from 2020-05-28T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 83, ends on a brooding note, with talk of dying in the tent of Torah. Why would such a life-affirming book as the Talmud strike such a morbid tone? Rabbi Dovid Bashev...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 82 from 2020-05-27T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 82, makes number two its number one concern. How are we to wipe our behinds? Zach Schreiber, a lawyer and the co-creator of Seinfeld Law, a blog dedicated to explorin...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 81 from 2020-05-26T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 81, tells a fiery little story about a pair of rabbis stuck on a bewitched boat and forced to utter God's name to undo the spell. Ilana Kurshan, author of If All the ...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 79 and 80 from 2020-05-25T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 79 and 80, invite us to look at our stuff and rearrange it according to a hierarchy of holiness. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to share some thoughts about why you c...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 77 and 78 from 2020-05-22T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 77 and 78, tells us a brief anecdote containing a poignant life lesson. Reading a classic Hassidic tale, we meditate on growth through difficulty, and on what Judais...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 76 from 2020-05-21T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 76, is a beautiful meditation on wine, from drinking it to blessing it to basking in its glory. Producer Josh Kross returns to offer a soliloquy on drinking mindfully...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 75 from 2020-05-20T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 75, finds the rabbis in an ecumenical mood. While we're not allowed to emulate the ways of other religions, they tell us, learning from them and understanding their w...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 74 from 2020-05-19T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 74, unlocks one of the most profound mysteries of the Jewish universe: Why gefilte fish? Jeffrey Yoskowitz, co-author of The Gefilte Manifesto, joins us to shed some ...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 72 and 73 from 2020-05-18T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 72 and 73, finally give us the 39 labors we're not allowed to perform on Shabbat. Why did it take so long? Why go through more than 70 pages before getting to the po...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 70 and 71 from 2020-05-15T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 70 and 71, bring up a fascinating concept: Yediah, or knowing. Are we responsible for the sins we commit if we don't really know that we've committed them? Rabbi Dov...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 69 from 2020-05-14T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 69, shares an anecdote that feels deeply relatable these days, about a man who wanders in the desert and loses all track of time. Dr. Erica Brown joins us to talk abo...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 68 from 2020-05-13T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 68, introduces an astonishing concept, that of the captive child. Just as a child kidnapped from his parents holds no responsibility for the way he was raised, the ra...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 67 from 2020-05-12T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 67, asks a very timely question: How open should we be to different putative potions and cures? Should we forbid anything not proven to work? Or should we keep an ope...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 65 and 66 from 2020-05-11T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 65 and 66, discuss various laws pertaining to people with disabilities. Jay Ruderman, president of the Ruderman Family Foundation, joins us to talk about how far we'...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 63 and 64 from 2020-05-08T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 63 and 64, wax poetic about the Beit Midrash, the house of study, where Torah learning is conducted by dividing the students into pairs who read together and spend t...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 62 from 2020-05-07T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 62, finds the rabbis in a particularly patriarchal mood, discussing the things that women do to get the attention of men. Dr. Bat Sheva Marcus joins us to discuss why...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 61 from 2020-05-06T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 61, asks a profound question: Does magic work? Alana Newhouse, Tablet's Editor in Chief, joins us to talk about amulets, and why some people take good-luck charms ver...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 60 from 2020-05-05T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 60, tells an incredible and bloody story that begins with dorky footwear and ends in a bloodbath. Stephanie Butnick, co-host of Unorthodox, joins us to talk about san...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 58 and 59 from 2020-05-04T13:24
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 58 and 59, reveal some of the ancient rabbis' habits when it came to wearing brand-name clothes. Marco Greenberg, marketing and branding expert and the author of the...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 56 and 57 from 2020-05-01T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 56 and 57, begin with the rabbis contemplating whether or not the great King David has ever sinned. After doing away with that troublesome bit about Uria the Hittite...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 55 from 2020-04-30T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 55, tells a dramatic story of four famous Biblical figures who died without sin. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to introduce us to these Fantastic Four, and explain wh...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 54 from 2020-04-29T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 54 makes a startling claim: If you were in a position to protest the sinful conduct of a friend and failed to do so, you yourself must be held accountable. It's an an...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 53 from 2020-04-28T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 53, is a work of stable compassion, asking just what we're permitted to do to keep our horses comfortable on Shabbat. Lily Leibovitz, an eight-year-old horseback ridi...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 51 and 52 from 2020-04-27T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 51 and 52, have a nice ring to them. We mean this literally: The rabbis give us an intricate discussion about rings and purity, and the implications are still felt t...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 49 and 50 from 2020-04-24T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 49 and 50, tell us a moving story of a righteous man, Elisha, who teaches us a more spiritual approach to confrontation. We welcome back Dr. Bat Sheva Marcus to give...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 48 from 2020-04-23T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 48, is all about pillows. Are you allowed to stuff yours on Shabbat? The rabbis' decree is fascinating: If the pillow is old, go right ahead, but if it's new, no dice...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 47 from 2020-04-22T04:10
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 47, dives into a discussion about a very modern-sounding thingamajig: a collapsible bed, the Talmud's take on the IKEA catalogue. Are we allowed to assemble and disas...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 46 from 2020-04-21T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 46, contains one of those delightful little stories that the Talmud likes to tell to make much bigger points. It's about Rava and Rav Avya, two brilliant men engaged ...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 44 and 45 from 2020-04-20T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 44 and 45, introduce us to the Muchni, a bit of detachable wheel that keeps the rest of the items in the wagon from being rendered impure. Rabbi Dr. Stu Halpern of Y...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 40, 41, 42, and 43 from 2020-04-17T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 40 to 43, cover a wide array of crucial questions, from why we're not allowed to take a hot shower on Shabbat to precisely what men should do with their members whil...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 39 from 2020-04-14T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 39, acknowledges what every amateur chef already knows: There's nothing more difficult to cook to perfection than the lowly egg. A minute here or there can make the d...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 37 and 38 from 2020-04-13T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 37 and 38, find the rabbis mulling the precise nature of a Kupah, a smallish stove that was popular in their day. And while the specifics of their conversation may s...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 35 and 36 from 2020-04-08T23:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 35 and 36, raises one of the most loaded concepts in the entire Talmud: Bein Hashmashot, or Twilight. It's extremely significant for a host of religious obligations,...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 33 and 34 from 2020-04-08T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 33 and 34, tell a wild story of a mighty rabbi and his son, so disgusted with the ways of this world that they chose to retreat and live in a cave for 13 years. When...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 32 from 2020-04-07T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 32, gives us a brief but fierce paragraph about those about to die, and what they should and shouldn't be doing as they are about to pass. This passage feels a bit to...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 30 and 31 from 2020-04-06T04:48
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 30, gives us a peak into the birth of modern politics: King David, dying, asks God how much time he has left, and God, refusing to answer, informs the aged monarch th...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 28 and 29 from 2020-04-03T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 28 and 29, features talk of the Tachash, a mysterious beast who may or may not have had a single horn, an enormous body, and a six-colored skin. Was he a Technicolor...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 27 from 2020-04-02T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 27, features the debut of what is arguably the oddest and most difficult to comprehend of all the mitzvot: The prohibition to wear Shatnez, or clothes made of both wo...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 26 from 2020-04-01T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 26, begins with the Talmud's equivalent of a Law&Order episode, telling a gruesome tale of a woman who sets her daughter-in-law on fire. Thankfully, not all of us hav...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 25 from 2020-03-31T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 25, finds the rabbis in an existential kind of mood. What truly matters in life? Some say money, others say companionship, and others yet, well, go a more scatologica...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 23 and 24 from 2020-03-30T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 23 and 24, revolve around a fascinating question: Should we treasure life's beautifully mundane moments, or hold up for rare and splendid miracles? Rabbi Scott Hoffm...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 21 and 22 from 2020-03-27T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 21 and 22, contain a well-known discussion of how to light the Hanukkah menorah. Which, coincidentally, has been the subject of a famous 1989 Supreme Court case, sti...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 20 from 2020-03-26T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 20, includes a famous paragraph on candle lighting we recite every Friday evening. Rabbi Rachel Ain of the Sutton Place Synagogue in New York joins us to meditate on ...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 19 from 2020-03-25T04:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 19, dives into a nautical question: Is it permitted to go a-sailing just before Shabbat? It's a conundrum that has inflamed Talmudic minds for millennia, and we welco...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 18 from 2020-03-24T04:00
Today's Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 18, revolve around a strange question: Should we let our utensils, too, rest on Shabbat? Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to explain why this conundrum is far from theor...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 16 and 17 from 2020-03-23T07:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 14 and 15, tell a dramatic story of a particularly vehement disagreement between two of the Talmud's greatest rabbis, Hillel and Shammai. When one of them loses the ...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 14 and 15 from 2020-03-20T07:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 14 and 15, usher us into a discussion of a deeply complicated subject: the rules of purity. But what starts out like a seemingly esoteric topic soon grows eerily rel...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 13 from 2020-03-19T07:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 13, revolves around a grizzly story of a pious man who studied Torah, served his rabbis, and still died suddenly at a very young age. His bereaved widow walks around ...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 12 from 2020-03-18T07:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 12, makes a strange pronouncement: If you kill a louse on Shabbat, it's as if you've killed a camel. Producer Josh Kross, an animal lover and avid meat eater, joins t...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 11 from 2020-03-17T07:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 11, gives us one of the most beautiful passages in all of the Talmud. "Even if all the seas would be ink, and the reeds that grow near swamps would be quills, and th...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 9 and 10 from 2020-03-16T07:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 9 and 10, raise a question we're all asking right now, as so many of us are suddenly confined to our homes by the coronavirus and struggling to balance work and fami...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 7 and 8 from 2020-03-13T07:00
Today's Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 7 and 8, raises a question that pierces the heart of every New Yorker: Can your home even be considered a real home if it's, you know, just too small? Stephanie Butn...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 6 from 2020-03-12T07:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 6, continues the discussion about private versus public domains, and lands on a peculiar question: Is the desert a real place? The rabbis seem unsure, so we called up...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 5 from 2020-03-11T07:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 5, asks us to take a moment and think about our books. How should we treat them, and, more importantly, why should we not mistreat them? Author and editor Lisa Ann Sa...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 4 from 2020-03-10T07:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 4, raises a difficult moral question: Is it okay for you to break a few laws in order to allow your friend to win a big mitzvah? Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin, author of the ...
ListenTake One: Shabbat 2 and 3 from 2020-03-09T07:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 2 and 3, launch a brand new tractate, dedicated to all the things we can and can't do on our holy day of rest. But rather than jumping right into a list of forbidden...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 63 and 64 from 2020-03-06T08:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Berakhot 63 and 64, bring us to the end of our first tractate. After weeks of thinking about which blessing to say over which foodstuff, how to throw a proper dinner party, ...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 62 from 2020-03-05T08:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Berakhot 62, contains one of the Talmud's most astonishing stories. One of the rabbis sneaks under his teacher's bed, and observes as the teacher and the teacher's wife make ...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 61 from 2020-03-04T08:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Berakhot 61, finds the rabbis in an existential state of mind. They're talking about the creation of Man, or, more accurately, of Man and Woman. Rabbi Sari Laufer joins us to...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 60 from 2020-03-03T08:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Berakhot 60, tells an eerie story of the great Rabbi Akiva and a night that begins darkly and ends with miracles. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns with a lesson about one of the...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 58 and 59 from 2020-03-02T08:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Berakhot 58 and 59, begin with a beguiling story of a wise blind rabbi and culminates in a searing moral about why we should never let the pomp and circumstance of life dist...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 56 and 57 from 2020-02-28T08:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Berakhot 56 and 57, continue the journey into the unconscious with a host of strange things you may see in your dreams, and an explanation of what each one means. Writer and...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 55 from 2020-02-27T08:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Berakhot 55, takes a sharp turn in an odd direction: No longer concerned with what blessing to say over which food, it now enters the magical, mystical field of dreams. Write...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 54 from 2020-02-26T08:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Berakhot 54, raises one of the most difficult edicts in all of the Talmud: We must, it informs us, recite a blessing of gratitude when bad things happen just as we would give...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 53 from 2020-02-25T08:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page Berakhot 53, asks an obvious but surprisingly difficult question: Should we say "amen" when we hear schoolchildren recite blessings? It's a question our culture should serious...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 51 and 52 from 2020-02-24T08:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page Berakhot 51, brings us a debate over the the intricacies of the havdalah prayers. Friend of Tablet Harold Lindenthal brings us the story of his father, Rabbi Haskel Lindenthal...
ListenTake One BONUS: Berakhot 51 and the Art of Making a Toast from 2020-02-23T08:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Berakhot 51, gives us a long and jaunty meditation on a favorite subject: the art of preparing and delivering the perfect toast. The show's producer and a master at speaking ...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 49 and 50 from 2020-02-21T08:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Berakhot 49 and 50, bring up a familiar concept: Does practice really make perfect? And if so, does it apply to all areas of religious life, or only those we choose to take ...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 48 from 2020-02-20T08:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Berakhot 48, raises a question we've all bumped up against now and then: What's the proper way to behave when you find yourself in a room with very powerful and important peo...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 47 from 2020-02-19T08:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Berakhot 47, asks a big, tough question: Exactly what does a Jew need to know and do in order to be considered anything but an Am Ha'aretz, or an ignoramus? The rabbis, of co...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 46 from 2020-02-18T08:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Berakhot 46, finds the rabbis in a hospitable mood: They're talking dinner parties, and who should be seated where to ensure a fun evening for all. Alana Newhouse, Tablet Mag...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 44 and 45 from 2020-02-17T08:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Berakhot 44 and 45, begin with talk of the fruit of Ginosar, magical treats that are so potent they make the rabbis literally lose their minds. It's a passage so deliciously...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 42 and 43 from 2020-02-14T08:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Berakhot 42 and 43, introduce us to a curious concept: Pas HaBah B'kissnin, a sort of sweet pastry that is made without water and is therefore exempt from the traditional bl...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 41 from 2020-02-13T08:00
Today’s Daf Yomi, Berakhot 41, gets us into the nitty-gritty of how to say different blessings over different foodstuffs. It's all fine and well when we're talking wine, say, or bread, or an apple;...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 40 from 2020-02-12T08:00
Today's Daf Yomi, Berakhot 40, teaches us an important lesson: We're not allowed to eat before feeding our animals. But how does that compassionate commandment fit in with a religion that isn't shy...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 39 from 2020-02-11T08:00
Today's Daf Yomi page, Berakhot 39, asks a poignant and important question that haunts us each Shabbat: Why two challahs? Isn't one loaf of doughy goodness enough, and isn't splurging on two a tad ...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 36 and 37 from 2020-02-10T08:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Berakhot 37 and 38, begin with an argument resolved over a hearty meal, and raises a thorny question: Is the dinner table still the center of civic life now that so many of ...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 35 and 36 from 2020-02-07T08:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Berakhot 35 and 36, begin a long and intricate discussion about food and what blessing ought to be said over what fruit, vegetable, or grain. It’s a terrific reminder of why...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 34 from 2020-02-06T08:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Berakhot 34, is all about Teshuvah, or return. Rabbi Mordechai Lightstone, the social media editor of Chabad.org and the entrepreneur behind Tech Tribe, returns to tell us wh...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 33 from 2020-02-05T08:00
Today’s Daf Yomi, Berakhot 33, features a story about a righteous person doing battle with a terrible snake. But as our guest, Jordan B. Gorfinkel—renowned comic book creator and the genius behind ...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 32 from 2020-02-04T08:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Berakhot 32, tells us a strange story: God, the rabbis recount, thanked Moses for no less a miraculous feat than breathing life into the Almighty himself. Rabbi Mordechai Lig...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 30 and 31 from 2020-02-03T08:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Berakhot 30 and 31, contain a grim pronouncement: Too much laughter makes you frivolous, which is why you should wipe that grin off your face and focus on Torah and good dee...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 28 and 29 from 2020-01-31T08:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Berakhot 28 and 29, tell a story of an awkward meeting between two rabbis, one wealthy and imperious and the other a pious blacksmith. Feeling snubbed, the poorer rabbi rebu...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 27 from 2020-01-30T08:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Berkahot 27, introduces an interesting category: the Talmid Chaver, a Torah scholar who is no longer merely his rabbi's student yet not yet a leading light in his own right. ...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 26 from 2020-01-29T08:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Berakhot 26, takes prayer seriously. Do we pray to replicate the sacrifices offered by the priests in the ancient Temple, or are we simply mimicking the ancient rituals begun...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 25 from 2020-01-28T08:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Berakhot 25, raises a real stink. We mean it literally: In a book rich with discussions of bodily emissions, it stands out as one of our finest debates of what to do when the...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 23 and 24 from 2020-01-27T08:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Berakhot 23 and 24, bring up one of the most controversial prohibitions to emerge from Talmudic discussion: The idea of kol ba'isha erva, meaning that a woman's singing voic...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 21 and 22 from 2020-01-24T08:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Berakhot 21 and 22, give us a torrent of bodily fluids, and one astonishing story that begins with great embarrassment and ends with transcendence. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin rem...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 20 from 2020-01-23T08:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Berakhot 20, raises a difficult conundrum: Are thoughts and speech the same thing? Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin helps us parse the difference between thinking and articulating, and ...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 19 from 2020-01-22T08:00
Today's Daf Yomi page, Berakhot 19, asks a loaded question: What happens when religious observance clashes with personal dignity? Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to guide us through everything from t...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 18 from 2020-01-21T08:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Berakhot 18, asks a haunting question: What role do the dead play in the world of the living? Are they whispering to us as we pass through cemeteries, or are they removed in ...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 16 and 17 from 2020-01-20T08:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Berakhot 16 and 17, deliver a delightful discovery: Having concluded their prayers, the wise rabbis of the Talmud were often in the habit of uttering a few additional, and v...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 14 and 15 from 2020-01-17T08:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Berakhot 14 and 15, tackle a difficult question: What's the correct order of doing things in life, from serving God to handling our earthly affairs? Shira Hecht-Koller, dire...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 13 from 2020-01-16T08:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Berakhot 13, brings up the complicated topic of intentionality. In other words: Is it enough to just follow all the commandments, or do you have to really mean it in your hea...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 12 from 2020-01-15T08:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Berakhot 12, raises a thorny question: What happens if you're at a party, say, and reach for the Budweiser, and say the appropriate blessing for beer, but then realize you've...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 11 from 2020-01-14T08:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Berakhot 11, begins with a loopy parable about beards that's really about something much bigger: No strangers to disagreement, the rabbis wanted to take some time and teach u...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 10 from 2020-01-13T08:00
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Berakhot 10, introduces us to one of the Talmud's most formidable—and only—women. Her name is Beruria, and she delivers a wise and passionate lesson to her husband, the famed...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 8 and 9 from 2020-01-10T08:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Berakhot 8 and 9, begin with a thorny statement: If you don't visit your local synagogue, you're an evil neighbor. It sounds a bit gruff, but when you consider the identity ...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 6 and 7 from 2020-01-09T08:00
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Berakhot 6 and 7, raise a strange and wonderful question: Does God pray? And if so, what does the Almighty ask for? Because the rabbis believed God prayed for nothing more t...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 4 and 5 from 2020-01-08T08:00
Today's Daf Yomi pages, Berakhot 4 and 5, begin with a king fretting about his sins and soul. He is King David: No stranger to all matters of transgression, the king nevertheless takes stock of his...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 3 from 2020-01-07T08:00
Take One is Tablet's Daf Yomi podcast, reading one page of Talmud a day. For past episodes, click here. Today's Daf Yomi, Berakhot 3, tells us a curious story about Rabbi Yosei Ben Halafta, who liv...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 3 from 2020-01-07T08:00
Take One is Tablet's Daf Yomi podcast, reading one page of Talmud a day. For past episodes, click here. Today's Daf Yomi, Berakhot 3, tells us a curious story about Rabbi Yosei Ben Halafta, who liv...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 3 from 2020-01-07T08:00
Take One is Tablet's Daf Yomi podcast, reading one page of Talmud a day. For past episodes, click here. Today's Daf Yomi, Berakhot 3, tells us a curious story about Rabbi Yosei Ben Halafta, who liv...
ListenTake One: Berakhot 2 from 2020-01-06T06:00
As Jews around the world begin a new seven-and-a-half year cycle of Daf Yomi, reading the entire Talmud one page per day, Tablet Magazine's new podcast, Take One, will offer a brief and evocative d...
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