Bava Metzia 90 - Making Sense of Religion

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Metzia 90, starts out by talking abou the way we treat animals, and ends up revealing a major insight into how religious belief ought to work. Should we keep the mitzvot blindly and without questioning them? Or are we permitted, even obliged, to stop and ask just why it is that God is asking us to do this or not do that? Listen and find out.

Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeonedafyomi and join the conversation in the Take One Facebook group.

We think that you may also enjoy Liel's new book How the Talmud Can Change Your Life: Surprisingly Modern Advice from a Very Old Book, available directly from the publisher, or wherever you purchase books.

Listen to the Testimonies Archive, a partnership between Tablet Studios and the USC Shoah Foundation, for eyewitness audio accounts from Israel in the wake of the Oct 7 Hamas attacks.

Check out all of Tablet’s podcasts at tabletmag.com/podcasts.