Take One Daf Yomi

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.