Take One Daf Yomi

Tablet Magazine

As Jews around the world engage in a seven-and-a-half year cycle of Daf Yomi, reading the entire Talmud one page per day, Tablet Magazine's new podcast, Take One, will offer a brief and evocative daily read of the daf, in just about 10 minutes. New episodes will be released daily Monday through Friday.

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Today · 7 min
Bekhorot 16 and 17 - Same as it Ever Was?
On today’s pages, Bekhorot 16 and 17, the rabbis ask what happens when an animal no longer looks the way its species is supposed to look. Centuries of breeding and natural change make that ancient question surprisingly modern, with implications for everything from wool to matzah. What does Jewish law consider meaningful change, and what can safely be chalked up to nature taking its course? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S42 · E14
Friday · 7 min
Bekhorot 14 and 15 - Not in My Backyard
On today’s pages, Bekhorot 14 and 15, a discussion of private altars raises a surprisingly fundamental question: Why should sacrifice be confined to the Temple in Jerusalem? From backyard altars to IMAX theaters, Liel explores why the most powerful experiences sometimes require a special place—and what happens when the sacred becomes too familiar. Why might getting closer to holiness require keeping it at a distance? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S42 · E13
Thursday · 6 min
Bekhorot 13 - Beast of Burden
On today’s page, Bekhorot 13, the rabbis ask why the humble donkey, alone among non-kosher animals, has a firstborn that must be redeemed. Rabbi Eliezer Melamed offers three answers involving gratitude, holiness, and the surprising spiritual potential of the material world. What can a lowly beast of burden teach us about finding the sacred in even the most ordinary things? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S42 · E12
Wednesday · 8 min
Bekhorot 12 - A Koy-Named Ewe
On today’s page, Bekhorot 12, the rabbis wrestle with sheep-goat hybrids and the mysterious koy, an animal so difficult to classify that the sages couldn’t even agree on what it was. With some help from Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, we discover that this strange creature may have a surprisingly familiar relative. What can a zoological mystery teach us about making sense of the unfamiliar? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S42 · E11
Tuesday · 10 min
Bekhorot 11 - Mind The Gap
On today’s episode, we set aside Bekhorot 11 to celebrate Sukkot with Professor Richard Hidary and his new book, Discovering the Jewish Holidays: Eight Talmudic Readings. Drawing on Michelangelo, Moses, the Ark of the Covenant, and one very short sukkah, Hidary explores the mysterious boundary separating Heaven and Earth. Can we ever reach across the gap and encounter the Divine? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S42 · E9
September 28 · 8 min
Bekhorot 9 and 10 - Are You Smarter Than 60 Greek Sages? Pt. 2
On today’s pages, Bekhorot 9 and 10, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya completes his astonishing mission against the 60 sages of Athens, proving that winning an argument sometimes requires considerably more than having the better argument. Presidential historian Tevi Troy joins us to explain why the story reminds him of Richard Nixon facing down Nikita Khrushchev in a model American kitchen in Moscow. What can two very different confrontations teach us about courage under pressure? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S42 · E7
September 25 · 9 min
Bekhorot 7 and 8 - Are You Smarter Than 60 Greek Sages? Pt. 1
On today’s pages, Bekhorot 7 and 8, the Roman emperor challenges Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya to prove that he can outsmart the legendary sages of Athens. What follows is an extraordinary battle of wits involving riddles, disguises, impossible tasks, and one very clever pair of backwards sandals. Can Rabbi Yehoshua beat 60 of the ancient world’s wisest men at their own game? Listen and find out—or at least, find out half the answer, because we’re ending on a cliffhanger. Come back next episode for Part 2. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S42 · E6
September 24 · 7 min
Bekhorot 6 - Lost in Translation
On today’s page, Bekhorot 6, the rabbis wrestle with et, a tiny, ubiquitous Hebrew word that has no English equivalent, and with a sage who built an entire method of interpretation around it before deciding he had gone too far. From Proust to Pope to Finnegans Wake, Liel explores what happens when even our greatest writers and readers reach the limits of language. Can knowing when to stop searching for meaning be its own kind of wisdom? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S42 · E5
September 23 · 7 min
Bekhorot 5 - Which Came First?
On today’s page, Bekhorot 5, Rabbi Yochanan and Reish Lakish disagree about when the Israelites began sanctifying their firstborn: before entering the Promised Land or only after they arrived. Their dispute raises a much bigger question about how we approach the things we hope to accomplish. Do we wait until everything is in place before getting to work, or can doing the work be what gets us there in the first place? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S42 · E2
September 22 · 8 min
Bekhorot 2,3, and 4 - Parenthood: The Firstborn
On today’s pages, Bekhorot 2, 3, and 4, we begin a new tractate by learning about the special status of firstborn animals. Rabbi David Bashevkin joins us to ask why Judaism cares so much about who comes first—and what the arrival of a firstborn changes for everyone who follows. What can Steve Martin teach us about becoming responsible for someone other than ourselves? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S41 · E141
September 18 · 7 min
Chullin 141 and 142 - The End
On today’s pages, Chullin 141 and 142, we reach the end of Tractate Chullin and look back at what months of studying meat, kashrut, and the intricacies of eating have taught us. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to explain why our most basic need for nourishment can become an expression of Jewish identity—and a reminder that we depend on something beyond ourselves. What does keeping kosher ultimately ask us to sanctify? Listen and find out. Also, celebrate the end of Tractate Chullin with Chullin out, our playlist of every song we referenced along the way. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S41 · E140
September 17 · 6 min
Chullin 140 - Murder Most Fowl
On today’s page, Chullin 140, the rabbis encounter a bird that has killed a human being—and must now be brought to justice. Its strange case takes us from the Talmud to Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds and the bizarre real-life avian attack that helped inspire it. What can killer birds teach us about confronting our own most dangerous instincts? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S41 · E139
September 16 · 6 min
Chullin 139 — A Mitzvah in Search of a Problem
On today’s page, Chullin 139, yesterday’s mother bird returns with a thornier question: If sending her away is a mitzvah, should we actually go looking for nests just so we can perform it? Generations of rabbis disagree, turning one unusual commandment into a meditation on what it means to pursue a holy life. Are mitzvot opportunities to seek out, or instructions for the moments life puts in our path? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S41 · E138
September 15 · 6 min
Chullin 138 - Free Bird
On today’s page, Chullin 138, Maimonides and Nachmanides disagree over why the Torah commands us to send away a mother bird before taking her young. Their argument takes us from animal suffering to conservation to a deeper question about how seemingly small acts can shape our character. Can showing mercy to an animal teach us how to become more merciful ourselves? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S41 · E136
September 14 · 10 min
Chullin 136 and 137 — Fasting for Gedaliah
On today’s pages, Chullin 136 and 137, Tzom Gedaliah reminds us of the terrible price Jews can pay when disagreement becomes hatred. Liel revisits a conversation with Rabbi Rachel Timoner, a Jewish leader with whom he has quite a few disagreements, to ask whether we can fight passionately over what matters while still recognizing the good in one another. How do we disagree without becoming enemies? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S41 · E134
September 11 · 9 min
Chullin 134 and 135 — Sweet Child o’ Mine
On today’s pages, Chullin 134 and 135, apples and honey offer more than a wish for a sweet year. A bee that stings can nevertheless produce honey, and Jacob’s true scent remains beneath the disguise he wears—two reminders that our failures needn’t define who we are or who we can become. Drawing on a teaching shared with the Simchat Torah Challenge, we ask: What if the sweetest version of ourselves is already there, waiting to emerge? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S41 · E133
September 10 · 6 min
Chullin 133 - Teacher, Leave Them Kids Alone
On today’s page, Chullin 133, the rabbis issue a startling warning about teaching students who aren't serious about learning—going so far as to compare it to idol worship. Behind the hyperbole lies a demanding vision of education in which teachers and students each have responsibilities to the other. What do students owe their teachers in return for being taught? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S41 · E132
September 9 · 6 min
Chullin 132 - Ch... Ch... Changes
On today’s page, Chullin 132, the rabbis debate the status of the koy, a creature caught somewhere between wild and domesticated. With Rosh Hashanah just days away, their strange animal becomes a metaphor for the struggle within each of us—and for a holiday whose very name may contain an invitation to transform ourselves. What would it take to tip the scales toward the person we want to become? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S41 · E131
September 8 · 6 min
Chullin 131 - You Get What You Give
On today’s page, Chullin 131, the rabbis consider the tithes that sustained the priests, Levites, and poor—and remind us that community requires more than simply belonging. If we want strong institutions and leaders, we have to support them, just as they have an obligation to support us in return. What do we have to give to get the community we want? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S41 · E129
September 7 · 9 min
Chullin 129 and 130 - More than Words
On today’s pages, Chullin 129 and 130, Megillat Ta’anit raises a fundamental question: What exactly makes the Oral Torah oral once its teachings have been written down? To help answer it, we’re sharing a lesson from Talmud Daily, in which Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin explains why Torah shebe’al peh is more than a collection of texts—it’s the lived Judaism we learn from families, teachers, communities, and one another. Can you really learn how to be Jewish from a book? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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