Take One Daf Yomi

On today’s page, Zevachim 95, the rabbis continue their careful discussion of how sacred garments are cleaned in the Temple. We take a Chanukah pause with a song from Nefesh Mountain, because nothing launders our hearts and our minds and makes them fresh again quite like music. When the details of ritual start to pile up, where do you turn to feel renewed? Listen and find out. Join Nefesh Mountain tonight at the Brooklyn Bowl for a very special Love & Light show! Doors open at 6pm, there's a pre-show candle lighting at 7pm, and the show starts at 8pm. Get tickets here. To support Tablet and make a tax-deductible donation, click here.

On today’s page, Zevachim 94, the rabbis debate how items stained with sacrificial blood should be cleaned, and whether leather counts as clothing in the same way fabric does. As the Gemara weighs leather’s strange status somewhere between garment and skin, it quietly nudges us to think about what leather really is and what it means to use it. If leather isn’t quite like cloth, should we treat it differently in how we wear it and choose it? Listen and find out. To support Tablet and make a tax-deductible donation, click here.

On today’s page, Zevachim 93, the Talmud teaches that even a trace of sacrificial blood must be treated with the same care as the entire offering. Beneath the technical details lies a profound moral vision about the holiness of life itself. If no drop of blood is expendable, how should that change how we see human dignity? Listen and find out. To support Tablet and make a tax-deductible donation, click here

On today’s pages, Zevachim 91 and 92, the Talmud debates waiting for coals to naturally become ash rather than snuffing out the fire. Our guest today, Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin, helps us explore how this ancient rule also mirrors the challenge of keeping our inner fire alive. What does it take to protect the spark that makes us feel awake and inspired? Listen and find out. To support Tablet and make a tax-deductible donation, click here.

On today’s pages, Zevachim 89 and 90, the rabbis teach that what is frequent takes precedence over what is rare, elevating the daily offering above even the holiest special occasions. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to show how this principle reveals the overlooked spiritual power of consistency—the quiet, steady commitments that shape who we become far more than moments of intensity. What might our spiritual lives look like if we approached them more like Cal Ripken? Listen and find out.

On today’s page, Zevachim 88, the rabbis debate just how clean the priestly garments must be and whether lightly soiled clothing even needs a full wash. Their insight suggests that not everything requires the same level of cleaning. How do we know when something truly needs refreshing and when good enough is good enough? Listen and find out. To support Tablet and make a tax-deductible donation, click here.

On today’s page, Zevachim 87, the rabbis debate whether suspended offerings become sanctified by the altar’s “airspace,” expanding holiness into the invisible vertical realm above it. That same question animates New York City’s obsession with air rights, where the unseen world above a roofline becomes the site of future growth. What happens if we start treating the space above our own lives—our ambitions, potential, imagination—as buildable terrain? Listen and find out.

On today’s page, Zevachim 86, we revisit the principle that holiness only increases, never diminishes, no matter how humble the vessel. Our guest today, Rabbi Eli Sapo of Chabad of the West Side, helps us connect this idea to the spirit of Hanukkah and the growing light we share. How do we notice the ways sanctity rises in our own lives? Listen and find out. To support Tablet and make a tax-deductible donation, click here. To get tickets for Chanukah on Ice click here.

On today’s pages, Zevachim 84 and 85, the rabbis teach that even legal debates require stories, because only stories reveal the human stakes beneath the rules. Our guest, producer Josh Kross, reminds us that this is precisely why Jewish storytelling still works: it’s grounded in people, in curiosity, and in the refusal to be boring. If the Talmud resonates across centuries, he suggests, it’s because its tales—strange, raw, hilarious, profound—still sound like us. What can today’s daf teach us about telling the stories that endure? Listen and find out. To support Tablet and make a tax deductible donation, click ⁠here⁠.

On today’s pages, Zevachim 82 and 83, the rabbis teach that an offering placed on the altar cannot be lowered or diminished—it has crossed a threshold from which it can only rise. Our guest, Jessica Kasmer-Jacobs, helps us see how that same idea animates Hanukkah: once the menorah was kindled, its light became part of an unbroken chain that still burns in our homes today. Her new children’s book, The Light That Lasted, available from Doorway Books at doorwaybooks.shop, places each child directly inside that ancient moment, revealing that they, too, sustain the miracle. How does understanding ourselves as part of a story that can only ascend change the way we celebrate? Listen and find out. To support Tablet and make a tax deductible donation, click ⁠here⁠.