Take One Daf Yomi

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 to discuss the power of friendship and share stories of that time when they just couldn't have made it through without the other's help. What does being a friend really feel like? Listen and find out.

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 his colleagues struggled to keep New Yorkers working together during Covid-19, and what is still to be done to make the state a cohesive community. What can the idea of an eruv teach us about running a modern city? Listen and find out.

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 York City apartment during months of Covid lockdown, and how two people managed to negotiate their own personal space and each other's. How did a long quarantine change the meaning of home for many New Yorkers? Listen and find out.

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 lenient opinion. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to explain this unexpected ruling, and shed light on what's so special about an eruv that the rabbis would permit leniency as the default. How does an eruv build a community? Listen and find out.

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 New York City hospitals that treated more Covid-19 patients than any other in the nation, joins us to share stories from the front lines of the war against the plague, and recount which rules and procedures had to be broken, bent, or ignored to care for the mass of patients requiring urgent care. What did nurses and doctors who are observant Jews did when duty called on Shabbat? Listen and find out.

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, being a team player means simply trusting your friends even if they're asking you to literally put your body on the line. What do you think about when Cristiano Ronaldo is about to kick a ball right into your crotch? Listen and find out.

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 become the basis for a multi-million dollar industry of workout apps and gadgets, from the Fitbit to the Peloton bike. But while these gizmos help you keep off the pounds, they also speak in a language that is often, well, religious. How is the rabbis' workout philosophy different from the one currently on offer? Listen and find out.

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 cohesive. Seth Mandel, executive editor of The Washington Examiner, joins us to talk about the current and sorry state of political norms in Washington, D.C., and offer up some wisdom our politicians desperately need to learn from the Talmud. How bad is the state of our political process, and how can we make it much better? Listen and find out.

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 have powerful apps that can tell us precisely when holidays begin and end, to put an end to this custom? Or were the wise rabbis trying to teach us something more valuable, a lesson about holding on to tradition with all of our might? Listen and find out.

Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 38, asks a question that may sound familiar to anyone who is feeling overwhelmed by life throwing too many challenges their way: What do you do when you get pulled in too many different directions? It's a lot like trying to drive a camel and a donkey at the same time, the rabbis tell us, each animal doing its own thing. Professor Hannah Lebowits joins us to discuss how the notion of eruv can shed light on our particularly challenging moment in time, and why it teaches us to think communally rather than individually. How does an eruv prepare us for light during Covid-19? Listen and find out.