Take One Daf Yomi

Today’s Talmud page, Yevamot 99, asks whether it's possible for the wise and the righteous to stumble in their judgement. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to talk about construction of truth, the relationship between scholarship and reality, and other crucial measures of figuring out what's right. What do pets have to do with justice and peace?Listen and find out.Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeonedafyomi and join the conversation in the Take One Facebook group.Take One is a Tablet Studios production. The show is hosted by Liel Leibovitz, and is produced and edited by Darone Ruskay and Quinn Waller. Our team also includes Stephanie Butnick, Josh Kross, Mark Oppenheimer, Sara Fredman Aeder, Robert Scaramuccia, and Tanya Singer. Check out all of Tablet’s podcasts at tabletmag.com/podcasts.

Today’s Talmud pages, Yevamot 97 and 98, offer us a heart-warming line about Torah, and writing, and the ways we mere mortals could achieve eternal life. What is the secret to immortality, and what does it have to do with writers?Listen and find out.Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeonedafyomi and join the conversation in the Take One Facebook group.Take One is a Tablet Studios production. The show is hosted by Liel Leibovitz, and is produced and edited by Darone Ruskay and Quinn Waller. Our team also includes Stephanie Butnick, Josh Kross, Mark Oppenheimer, Sara Fredman Aeder, Robert Scaramuccia, and Tanya Singer. Check out all of Tablet’s podcasts at tabletmag.com/podcasts.

Today’s Talmud pages, Yevamot 95 and 96, deliver a zany tale about a man who married again and again. Mark Oppenheimer joins us to talk about his own grandfather, who sped through no less than six marriages, and how the old man's example shaped his family's attitude to wedded bliss. What crucial relationship advice is the Talmud offering us today?Listen and find out.

Today’s Talmud page, Yevamot 94, gives us a rare glimpse into how two of the Talmud's giants approached their craft. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to shed light on these wise men and their divergent intellectual traditions, and explain why their differences still matter to us today. How does a person's upbringing influence the way he or she sees the world? Listen and find out.Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeonedafyomi and join the conversation in the Take One Facebook group.Take One is a Tablet Studios production. The show is hosted by Liel Leibovitz, and is produced and edited by Darone Ruskay and Quinn Waller. Our team also includes Stephanie Butnick, Josh Kross, Mark Oppenheimer, Sara Fredman Aeder, Robert Scaramuccia, and Tanya Singer. Check out all of Tablet’s podcasts at tabletmag.com/podcasts.

Today’s page of Talmud, Yevamot 93, finds one of the rabbis musing about currency, exchange rates, and the precise nature of our economy. Cryptocurrency expert and writer Ben Samuels joins us to explain what the rabbis would've made of Bitcoin, and why the Talmud is surprisingly forward-thinking when it comes to thinking about money. What's money worth anyway? Listen and find out.Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeonedafyomi and join the conversation in the Take One Facebook group.Take One is a Tablet Studios production. The show is hosted by Liel Leibovitz, and is produced and edited by Darone Ruskay and Quinn Waller. Our team also includes Stephanie Butnick, Josh Kross, Mark Oppenheimer, Sara Fredman Aeder, Robert Scaramuccia, and Tanya Singer. Check out all of Tablet’s podcasts at tabletmag.com/podcasts.

Today’s pages of Talmud, Yevamot 90, 91, and 92, deliver one of the most poetic evocations of justice in all of Judaism, instructing us that the law must always pierce the mountain, meaning that we should never abandon our inquiry into what is right in an effort to fashion a more perfect world. One hundred and six years ago this week, Louis Brandeis became the first Jew appointed to the United States Supreme Court. Twelve years and one day later, he wrote what would become one of the most famous dissents in court history, arguing that the government had no right to use advanced technology to invade the privacy of its citizens. It's as rousing a defense of the Talmudic principles of justice as has ever been written, and one that is painfully and acutely relevant today, when all of us are constantly surveilled by the government and corporations alike, often without our knowledge and consent. We reproduce Justice Brandeis's opinion nearly in full here. How can we defend the Constitution against pernicious new technologies? Listen and find out.Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeonedafyomi and join the conversation in the Take One Facebook group.Take One is a Tablet Studios production. The show is hosted by Liel Leibovitz, and is produced and edited by Darone Ruskay and Quinn Waller. Our team also includes Stephanie Butnick, Josh Kross, Mark Oppenheimer, Sara Fredman Aeder, Robert Scaramuccia, and Tanya Singer. Check out all of Tablet’s podcasts at tabletmag.com/podcasts.

Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Yevamot 88 and 89, teach us that judges and leaders are like fathers to us and therefore deserve special rights and privileges. Producer Josh Kross joins us to talk about being a member of an early stay-at-home dad group, the looks he got from moms in the park, and why our modern understanding of fatherhood changed a bit since Talmudic times. How's the patriarchy doing these days? Listen and find out.Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeonedafyomi and join the conversation in the Take One Facebook group.Take One is a Tablet Studios production. The show is hosted by Liel Leibovitz, and is produced and edited by Darone Ruskay and Quinn Waller. Our team also includes Stephanie Butnick, Josh Kross, Mark Oppenheimer, Sara Fredman Aeder, Robert Scaramuccia, and Tanya Singer. Check out all of Tablet’s podcasts at tabletmag.com/podcasts.

Today’s page of Talmud, Yevamot 87, introduces a surprising legal ruling intended to release agunot, literally meaning women chained to their marriages. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to speak of this still deeply painful and, sadly, relevant subject, and offer an inspiring story from a recently departed American rabbi who devoted his life to helping agunot. What did the Talmudic rabbis do to help women extricate themselves from untenable marriages? Listen and find out.

Today’s page of Talmud, Yevamot 86, kicks things off with a hilarious story of two of the Talmud's most famous rabbis quibbling with each other. Our very own Presidentscher Rav, historian and former official in the George W. Bush administration Dr. Tevi Troy joins us with an amusing story from the Ford White House that shows that this kind of rivalry among the powerful and influential is still alive and well. Who is the future vice president who bested his opponent by boarding up his office and shutting down his access to the president? Listen and find out.Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeonedafyomi and join the conversation in the Take One Facebook group.Take One is a Tablet Studios production. The show is hosted by Liel Leibovitz, and is produced and edited by Darone Ruskay and Quinn Waller. Our team also includes Stephanie Butnick, Josh Kross, Mark Oppenheimer, Sara Fredman Aeder, Robert Scaramuccia, and Tanya Singer. Check out all of Tablet’s podcasts at tabletmag.com/podcasts.

Today’s page of Talmud, Yevamot 85, raises thorny questions about the rights and responsibilities men and women face when it comes to marriage, childbirth, sin, and other human pursuits. Yeshiva University's Dr. Shaina Trapedo joins us with a riveting tale of Henry VIII and how his very Talmudic understanding of these questions shaped world history. How did Shakespeare forever change the historical record and our understanding of the famous king? Listen and find out.Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeonedafyomi and join the conversation in the Take One Facebook group.Take One is a Tablet Studios production. The show is hosted by Liel Leibovitz, and is produced and edited by Darone Ruskay and Quinn Waller. Our team also includes Stephanie Butnick, Josh Kross, Mark Oppenheimer, Sara Fredman Aeder, Robert Scaramuccia, and Tanya Singer. Check out all of Tablet’s podcasts at tabletmag.com/podcasts.