Take One Daf Yomi

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 riding enthusiast, joins us to talk about the importance of being nice to animals, and what it feels like to ride a horse for the very first time. What can we learn from our animal friends? Listen and find out.

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 today. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to tell us all about the Lord and the rings. Why do some Orthodox men still refrain from wearing wedding rings? Listen and find out.

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 us a very therapeutic take on this tale, and, since she's a celebrated sex therapist, ask her to answer a listener question about the Talmud's take on masturbation. What can the rabbis teach us about self love in all of its varieties? Listen and find out.

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. To understand this principle of interior design, we called on the one and only Simon Doonan, author and judge on the Emmy-nominated show Making It. Why do some of us have trouble getting used to the new stuff we buy? Listen and find out.

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 disassemble this modular piece of furniture on Shabbat? Rabbi Sari Laufer, Director of Congregational Engagement at Stephen Wise Temple in Los Angeles, joins us to shed some light on the idea of using things in different ways on Shabbat than we would during the week. How can we keep the spirit of the holy day even if we don't observe the letter of halakhic law? Listen and find out.

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 in a fierce disagreement about a particular manner of halakha. To make his point, Rav Avya walks into his friend's house and puts his muddy feet on the bed. To help us decipher this act of aggression, we welcome the Corduroy Rav, Mark Oppenheimer, who helps guide us through the intricacies of arguing with dignity and meaning. How to talk to people who hold very different opinions without merely bickering? Listen and find out.

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 Yeshiva University joins us to talk about technology's ability to both flood our lives with unholy things and help insulate us from disaster, and shares with us how his modern Orthodox community learned to rethink technology after the outbreak of Covid-19 forced many of the rituals that were previously conducted in person to move online. What can an ancient detachable wheel teach us about our lives today? Listen and find out.

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 while urinating. Because we've been off for a few days, celebrating Pesach, Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to help us catch up on the Talmudic majesty we've missed. What is muktzah, and how can it help us see Shabbat in a whole new light? Listen and find out.

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 difference between jammy perfection and a gray-hued mess, so producer Josh Kross, himself an egg enthusiast, joins us to interpret the rabbis' hard-boiled disquisition on the different approaches to egg-cooking. What might an omelet teach us about life? Listen and find out.

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 sound archaic, its essence couldn't be more timely: What they're really trying to figure out is what to do when a new technology is thrust into our lives, and how our gadgets shape so much about the way we interact with the world. How is the Kupah just like an iPhone? Listen and find out.

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, yet the rabbis, in pure Talmudic fashion, couldn't decide on how long, precisely, twilight actually was. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to shed light on this strange and fascinating concept. Why did some rabbis believe you had to view Mt. Carmel from the Mediterranean in order to grasp the truly meaning of twilight? Listen and find out.

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 they emerge, however, trouble ensues. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to teach us about the perils of very smart and serious people believing themselves to be better than the rest of us, and about why mysticism means seeing the divine sparks everywhere. Why should we never assume our scholarship and intelligence gives us special status? Listen and find out.

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 too real in the midst of a deadly pandemic, and we welcome The New York Times writer Bari Weiss to discuss her piece about hospital chaplains and the holy work they do these days. Why is visiting the sick the holiest of mitzvahs? Listen and find out.

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 that the reign of his son, Solomon, is already set to begin. It's like an epic episode of HBO's Succession, as well as the moment of transition from the ancient world's view of kings as omnipotent to our contemporary understanding of rulers as servers of the people. Rabbi Dr. Ari Lamm joins us to talk about the glories of this story. What can the Talmud teach us about our current moment in American politics? Listen and find out.

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 Jewish unicorn, or a Jewnicorn? Different commentators offered divergent interpretations, but in today's episode we take a page from one of our greatest Hasidic masters and read the Jewnicorn as a metaphor for human kindness. Why? Listen and find out.

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 wool and linen. Why this specific ban? We welcome AJ Jacobs, author of The Year of Living Biblically, to make sense of this curious commandment and tell us about the time he invited a Shatnez inspector to raid his closet. What do wool and linen have to do with Cain and Abel? Listen and find out. Take one is sponsored this week by the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. In this time of anxiety, Jewish based mindfulness and meditation may the thing you need. Find out at Jewishspirituality.org/Takeone and when you check out, put in the code Takeone20 for a 20% discount.

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 have such murderously acrimonious relationships with our-laws; Stephanie Butnick, co-host of Tablet's popular Unorthodox podcast, joins us to make sense of the grizzly story and give us some tips about how to manage your relationship with the family you had married into. What's the secret to being close with your mother-in-law? Listen and find out. Take one is sponsored this week by the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. In this time of anxiety, Jewish based mindfulness and meditation may the thing you need. Find out at Jewishspirituality.org/Takeone and when you check out, put in the code Takeone20 for a 20% discount.

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 scatological path. Mark Oppenheimer, the self-styled Corduroy Rav and co-host of Tablet's popular Unorthodox podcast, returns to talk about how your desires shape your life. Would you trade a large sum of money for an uninterrupted hour in the bathroom? Listen and find out. Take one is sponsored this week by the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. In this time of anxiety, Jewish based mindfulness and meditation may the thing you need. Find out at Jewishspirituality.org/Takeone and when you check out, put in the code Takeone20 for a 20% discount.

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 Hoffman joins us to talk about getting our priorities straight, especially in times of crisis. What can candles and menorahs teach us about our values? Listen and find out. Take one is sponsored this week by the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. In this time of anxiety, Jewish based mindfulness and meditation may the thing you need. Find out at Jewishspirituality.org/Takeone and when you check out, put in the code Takeone20 for a 20% discount.

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, still considered a landmark shaping religious liberties for decades to come. Nathan Lewin, the legendary lawyer who argued the case and convinced the highest court in the land to allow the display of a menorah in a public space, joins us to talk about this important chapter in American Jewish history. What surprising pronouncement did the ACLU's lawyer make after losing the case? Listen and find out. This episode is sponsored by the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. In this time of anxiety, Jewish-based mindfulness and meditation may the thing you need. Find out at Jewishspirituality.org/Takeone and use the code Takeone20 at checkout for a 20 percent discount.

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 this ancient custom and its surprisingly modern resonance. Why do we light two candles each Shabbat? Listen and find out. This episode is sponsored by the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. In this time of anxiety, Jewish-based mindfulness and meditation may the thing you need. Find out at Jewishspirituality.org/Takeone and use the code Takeone20 at checkout for a 20 percent discount.

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 welcome Lisa Ann Sandell, author and sailing enthusiast, to share her story of hi jinx on the high seas and her thoughts on taking to open waters. Did the rabbis believe sailing could ever be pleasurable? Listen and find out. This episode is sponsored by the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. In this time of anxiety, Jewish-based mindfulness and meditation may the thing you need. Find out at Jewishspirituality.org/Takeone and use the code Takeone20 at checkout for a 20 percent discount.

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 theoretical, and what it tells us about how preparation and rest are always intertwined. What can those of us who spent the last few weeks getting ready for social distancing learn from the rituals of ushering in Shabbat? Listen and find out. This episode is sponsored by the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. In this time of anxiety, Jewish-based mindfulness and meditation may be the thing you need. Find out at Jewishspirituality.org/Takeone and use the code Takeone20 at checkout for a 20 percent discount.

Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Shabbat 16 and 17, 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 debate, all go into mourning. Why? And what does this millennia-old quibble have to teach us about the importance of kindness and compassion? Listen and find out. Take one is sponsored this week by the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. In this time of anxiety, Jewish based mindfulness and meditation may the thing you need. Find out at Jewishspirituality.org/Takeone and when you check out, put in the code Takeone20 for a 20% discount.

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 relevant in this time of coronavirus awareness: Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to explain how the Talmud's concept of transmission and infection uncannily mirrors that of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and why we should be grateful for the special place hand-washing has always played in Jewish life. Why should we always rush to scrub our hands as soon as we wake up? Listen and find out.

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 from synagogue to synagogue demanding an explanation, until the prophet Elijah delivers a very thorny explanation that has to do with sexual conduct. Dr. Batsheva Marcus, a certified sex therapist, joins us to wrestle with this difficult story, and talk about how we approach the laws of nida, or ritual purity. How to read the Talmud's plethora of strictures and warnings in the modern age? Listen and find out.

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 to discuss the difference between the animals we cherish and those we're happy to consume, and what the Talmud can teach us about environmental ethics. What's the Talmud take on mindful eating? Listen and find out.

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 the heavens would be parchment upon which the words would be written, and all the people would be scribes," the rabbis tell us, "all of these are insufficient to write the unquantifiable space of governmental authority, i.e., all the considerations with which a government must concern itself and deal." Government's responsibilities and burdens is a crucial topic these days, so to get a view from the inside we welcome Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.). What is Congress doing to fight the coronavirus? Why did she take on the CDC in a questioning session that has since gone viral? And what can our ancient rabbis teach the folks in Washington? Listen and find out.

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 family: What's the best way to manage time? Warning us against trying to do too much, the wise rabbis propose a principle that calls on us to be here now and focus on what truly matters in life. What can the Talmud teach us about work-life balance in a time of quarantine? Listen and find out.

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 Butnick, co-host of Tablet's popular Unorthodox podcast and a dweller of several very small apartments, returns to describe life with no space at all and argue that nothing says private domain more than having absolutely no privacy. What Talmudic lessons can be learned by living in a studio apartment in the West Village? Listen and find out.

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 Tzipi Perl Turner, friend of the show and proud resident of Arizona, to talk to us about life amid the hot desert sands and why it can be both challenging and rewarding. What did the rabbis get wrong about sun and sand? Listen and find out.

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 Sandell joins us to talk about why dog-earing a book is sometimes ok, why books make the best traveling companions, and why no gadget will ever take the place of the printed page. Should you scribble notes in the margins of a beloved novel? Listen and find out.

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 definitive book about sin and transgression in Jewish thought, joins us to talk about the difference between doing a few wrong things for the good of the community and bending the rules for the benefit of just one other person. Why does the Talmud believe, like airlines, that you should put on your own oxygen mask before helping others? Listen and find out.

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 work, the Talmud starts us off with a discussion of the private versus the public domain and the intricacies of carrying objects from one to the other. Why, and what does any of it have to do with modern technology and our work-life balance? Listen and find out.

We are about to start a new tractate, masechet Shababt. It’s the second tractate, out of the sixty three in the Talmud. Before we start, join us to get a sense of the topics that we will explore and the guests we will be learning with.

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, what's the meaning of havdalah, what's the deal with sushi, how to think about sex, and how to face down a dictator, we've come to the end of tractate Berakhot. We've heard from rabbis and community leaders, NBA stars and Hollywood actors, podcasters and psychotherapists and a whole host of other people who joined to remind us that the Talmud is for everyone, regardless of education or observance or background or anything else. To commemorate our first siyum, or finishing a Talmudic tractate, we welcome producer Josh Kross to reflect on what we've learned. What advice does the Talmud give those who look around them and are not too happy with what they see? Listen and find out.

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 love. He is discovered, and his defense teaches us a lesson that's more urgent today as it's ever been. Dr. Batsheva Marcus, a certified sex therapist inspired by this story, joins us to talk about what this strange tale of voyeurism can teach us about talking to our kids about sexuality. Why is sex like the Torah, and what does it have to do with keeping kids off of porn? Listen and find out.

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 shed some light on the Talmud's approach to gender, warn us against judging ancient texts according to modern standards, and teaches us a lesson on introspection and how to contemplate our essential meaning. What to make of the Talmudic warning against men walking behind women? Listen and find out.

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 Talmud's most famous rabbis, and about how life is anything but a dull, linear story. What can Akiva teach us about coming to terms with the hardships of our life? Listen and find out.

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 distract us. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to explain why it's silence, not sensationalism, that reveals to us life's greatest mysteries. What does any of this have to do with the death of Superman? Listen and find out.

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 psychotherapist Alter Yisrael Shimon Feuerman returns to make sense of this surreal landscape, and explain why the Talmud believes a $300 therapist is better than one that charges only $100. What does it mean when you dream of cats? Listen and find out.

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. Writer and psychotherapist Alter Yisrael Shimon Feuerman joins us to explain how, millennia before Freud, the Talmud already understood the mysteries of the unconscious mind. Why did the rabbis believe that you must know not only the Torah but also yourself? Listen and find out.

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 thanks over good things. Tablet's Jake Siegel, a former captain in the U.S. Army, joins us to talk about struggling with the existence of evil while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, and coming to terms with God's role in allowing evil to persist. What blessing should we say when things get dark? Listen and find out.

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 seriously contemplate, enamored as we are with elevating the very young, from Greta Thunberg to Billie Eilish, to stardom. Are we doing our children a disservice when we expect them to be social, cultural, and political leaders? Listen and find out.

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, and a deeper insight into the prayers at the end of Shabbat. What is the real meaning of the order? Listen and find out.

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 while holding a flute of champagne, Josh Kross, returns to give us some pointers and explain why raising a glass to your loved ones is a sacred act. What to say when you have the attention of the room? Listen and find out.

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 upon ourselves? The show's producer, Josh Kross, returns to talk about the comforts and challenges that come with religious observance. Does it really take 10,000 hours of practice to be a good Jew? Listen and find out.

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 people? For today's guest, Enes Kanter, this has been a reality from a very young age: The Turkish-born star ballplayer was still a teenager when he found himself drafted into the NBA, playing with and against some of the legends he'd grown up idolizing as a boy. How do you keep your cool when you have to interact with the high and mighty? Listen and find out.

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 course, each offer wildly divergent answers, and to address this thorny conundrum we invited Stephanie Butnick and Mark Oppenheimer, co-hosts of Tablet's popular Unorthodox podcast, to ascertain once and for all the best way to engage with Jewish life. Is the ability to listen the only true prerequisite we should insist on when welcoming someone to our midst? Listen and find out.

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 Magazine's Editor in Chief and a celebrated convener of unmatched soirees, joins us to talk seating arrangements, class structure, and how the Internet killed the art of dinner party conversation. Should you let your guests sit wherever they please or create an intricate seating chart? Listen and find out.