Explore every episode of the podcast Matmonim: Daf Yomi by Rabbi David Lapin

The primacy of the right hand (or leg) over the left, is a factor in hilchot tefillin, halitza and in avodat beit hamikdash. Does a leftie have a mum (disqualifying imperfection)? What about someone who is ambidextrous? Is a mum a function of appearance or of impaired capacity? According to the Rambam and rabeinu Gershon, impaired capacity (compared to the norm) in a visible organ or limb, is a mum.  

Source Sheet

Chosenness applies not only to the sacrifices we bring (מבחר נדריכם) and the mitzvot we do מצוות מן המובחר)). Yisrael itself was chosen. However once chosen, chosenness needs to be preserved or it can be lost. Shmirat hamitzvot preserves Jewish chosenness, Jewish sanctity.

Source Sheet

Beauty and wholeness are aspects of the object. Being the best, the qualitative dimension, is an aspect of the individual bringing the korban, not the korban itself.

Source Sheet

The measures for beauty and wholeness in korbanot, are objective. Quality is a comparative idea.

Source Sheet

We cannot add to or reinforce our assets by drawing on that which belongs to others.

Source Sheet

In our superficial society appearance is often seen as more important than wholeness. In Torah this is not so. Wholeness is what always counts, appearance only sometimes.

Source Sheet

Self interest makes it impossible to be sure of deep intention.

Source Sheet

Intentionality of the agent transforms his action from that of an agentic robot to a human action.The intentionality of the owner makes that action his.

Source Sheet

When we create an opportunity by doing something wrong, the opportunity itself becomes un-kosher.

Source Sheet

An object owned by a Jew is subject to more halachot than one owned by a non-Jew, and is therefore part of a higher system of kedusha.

Source Sheet

Often we find that principles of spirituality and of economics overlap. That is an indication of their Truth.  The value of things is expressed not only by how we handle them but also  by the price we are willing to pay for them.

Source Sheet

The seller of a cow that has not previously given birth is conflited between preserving the price by not revealing the fact to the buyer, and the piety of potentially causing the buyer to transgress by eating kodshim outside the beit hamikdash. Can the buyer rely on the seller’s piety? The Rambam and the Rosh disagree (as do the Shulchan Aruch and the Ramah in 316)

Source Sheet

Intimacy within the system of the human couple is more natural than it is for random male and female animals in a herd.

Source Sheet

The key to understanding the special status given to the first born in the Torah and its linkage to yetziat mitzrayim (the Exodus from Egypt), lies in the truthfulness of translation.

Source Sheet

Our hurried lives focus on getting things done. But growth happens from doing the right things not just from getting them done. This is especially true with respect to Torah and Mitzvot.

Source Sheet

The Gemarra explores the statistical chances of exact coincidence both in nature and in humanly engineered events, and our ability to measure it. It emerges that the human capacity of certainty and exactitude is inherently limited.

Source Sheet

Although the Torah is critical of a person who protects his assets against the rights of the kohein to the redemption of his first born donkey, nevertheless the Torah itself is protective of a person’s money wherever possible.

Source Sheet

The instruction to behead an unredeemed first-born donkey is one of the stranger ones in the Torah. Yet in it we will appreciate the depths of the Torah’s understanding of the extent of human meanness and its root cause.

Source Sheet

Source Sheet

Source Sheet

The wisdom of the Torah is sourced from a completely different place than the wisdom of the nations of the world.

Source Sheet

In the laws of kashrut, some substances are defined by their chemical composition, others by their conceptual definititons. Here we learn of a further definition of issur (prohibition), issur by mental association.

Source Sheet

We are careful with what we consume, both food and ideas, not only regarding their content but also the source from which they originate.

Source Sheet 

Source Sheet

The ways in which we respond to events that defy our understanding, defines who we are. 

Source Sheet

Male-female intimacy is a unique moment where the needs of each are met by fulfilling the needs of the other. This is the ultimate meaning of shalom.

Source Sheet

We will never adopt universal norms against the halacha, against Torah חו"ש. However, universal principles of morality to inform the way we understand, interpret and apply the halacha. 

Source Sheet

The potential useage of a commodity is almost infinite. Not so a manufactured product. In ideas and learning as well, there are principles that function like commodities with very wide application, and there are well-worked ideas whose application is much narrower.

Source Sheet 

Halacha defines things not only by their chemistry but also by the nouns that describe them and by their appearance.

Source Sheet

Taking something that doesn’t belong to anyone else but nor does it belong to you.

Source Sheet

Unlike other disciplines, mastery of Torah demands not only intellect and skill, but also character. And without character, distortion is inevitable.

Source Sheet 

Having distinguished between ownership (ba’alut) – which is an enforceable right, and an unenforcible right (zechut), if one steals something over which another has an unenforcible right, is he a thief? 

Source Sheet

At times we have obligations that transcend the legal: An obligation in Hashem’s sustem of justice (different from ours), and a moral obligation, a midat hassidut. – where my obligation stems from who I am not from what you are entitled to.

Source Sheet

Always distinguish between what is being quoted from earlier sources and what is being independently extrapolated.

Source Sheet 

Humankind straddles over all of nature.

Source Sheet

Even tum’at hasheretz (eight creepy animals listed in the Torah) relates to the tzurah (the form) of the animal rather than to its essence.

Source Sheet

A Gateway to the Laws of Tum’ah and Tahara 

Tumah occurs when the purpose of a human or an object to which he has given purpose, loses its capacity for purpose. Tumah contaminates the purpose (tzurah) of an object, not its sunstance (chommer).  

Source Sheet

Tumah occurs when the purpose of a human or an object to which he has given purpose, loses its capacity for purpose. Tumah contaminates the purpose (tzurah) of an object, not its sunstance (chommer).  

Source Sheet

Removing harmful influences like Tum’ah, actually increases the influence of the positive. It is an act of being metaheir 

Source Sheet

Source Sheet

Commodities derive value from equivalence and quantity; singular items derive their value from particularity. 

Source Sheet

Halacha provides is with various mechanisms by which to navigate the complexities of issur ve’hetter (forbidden foods). These mechanisms are not legal loopholes to be abused, but rather are to be used responsibly. 

Source Sheet

There is almost no limit to how far we allow our creative imagination to open avenues of thought for us even in halachik reasoning, provided where we land is stable, secure, authentic and true.

Source Sheet

In the area of issur ve’heter, Halacha, as in many other areas,is not concerned with the scientific data as much as it is with the human experience – actual or potential. The existence of issur (prohibited matter) mixed into permitted food is dependent on its capacity to add flavor, not on its empirical existence in the food. Our existence as human beings should also be evauated from the perspective of our capacity to “add flavor.” 

Source Sheet

Hashem communicates with us in a variety of ways. One is through signs; unlikely occurrences that we can notice if we are open and aware. People who are super-connected to Hashem through their absorbtion in Torah and their lives of yirat shamayim, emunah and bitachon, can set these signs up to guide their choices and decisions in moments of dilemma. But how can we know when these signs are authentic and when they are superstitious – the practice of which is a Torah prohibition of darchei ha’emmori?

Source Sheet

A reputation earned dishonestly is a serious form of theft.

Source Sheet

Leadership influence stems from two sources: The capacity to persuade by teaching and being, and the authority to enforce.  

Source Sheet

Incompletion generates a dangerous, destructive force in the world.

Source Sheet

Korbanot are the fuel that provides energy to the mizbeach, and therefore – apart from items disqualified for korbanot – there are also things we may not give to the mizbeach to consume, just as strict laws govern the fuel we can consume.

Source Sheet

In our roles as publicizers of Hashem’s greatness, we are to highlight His miracles and the exclusiveness of His power and authority.

Source Sheet