Take One Daf Yomi

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.