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

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

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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.

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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. 

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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.

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

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

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

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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? 

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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.

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

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Humankind straddles over all of nature.

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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.

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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).  

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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).  

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

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

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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. 

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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.

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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.” 

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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?

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A reputation earned dishonestly is a serious form of theft.

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

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Incompletion generates a dangerous, destructive force in the world.

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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.

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

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In halachik statistics there is a significant difference between statistical averages and behavioral norms. Statistical averages have a higher level of authority than behavioral norms.

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Sufficiency has both economic and health benefits. But its true value is in the quality of spiritual life it leads to 

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The halachik benefit of zerizut in our case is a model for the benefits of avoiding procrastination generally.

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G-d’s Divine attention is applied to each individual human being in the same way it is applied to an entire species of animal.

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We should be open to thee many routes to healing: some physical, some psychological and some spiritual. 

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Halachicly, a live animal is defined by whether or not it has been untethered from its source of life (see also Matmonim 27b) 

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We encounter further examples of how halachik definition is a world of its own separate from scientific definition.

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There are different types of rabbinic legislation, but all of them are designed to raise our consciousness of Yirat Shamayim.

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Apprenticeship to a great talmid chacham is an irreplaceable connection to source.

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The Torah distinguishes between kosher dead animals and dead animals that are not kosher. Both are called neveillah, both are tamei and cause contamination, but there is a nuanced difference between them.

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On daf 27b we learned that an animal’s source of vitality is the oxygen it enhales and the food it eats. When it is untethered from that source it is no longer a nefesh chaya even if biologically it continues to function. Shechita is the act of untethering an animal from its source of chayut, vitality. 

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We must serve both with yir’ah (awe of Hashem) and ahava (love of Hashem). The outer expression is yir’ah; ahava resides more deeply inside of the individual.

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Adventure is dynamic but dangerous. Security is safe but static. The wonder of Torah lies in its balance of security and adventure.

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Although pesak is not decided solely on scientific criteria especially when these contradict chazal in the Talmud, nevertheless the Gemara shows great respect for scientific expertise and at times uses it for the purpose of input into halachik decisions.

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When something is physically repulsive it has elements of spiritual repulsiveness as well. 

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Hashem despises cruelty irrespective of what motivates it and of how it manifests.

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Torah is a body of knowledge, not information. What is the distinction between knowledge and information? Knowledge is whole, information is incomplete.

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When two or more people collaborate in a creative act, their creation belongs to neither of them, but to a different entity – the partnership between them.

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The halachik reality of the world in which a Ben-Torah lives is framed by the Torah as handed down to us by chazal, more than by the empirical knowledge we have of the world around us.

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“… Negative Capability … is, when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.”

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Halachik principles is broad and widely applicable. Halachik decisions are made from a tradition or from Halachik reasoning by someone that has both Love and Fear of Hashem.

In matters of Kashrut we tend to zoom in on the object, the food, its contents and components, the way it has been processed, its technology etc. But the Torah’s concern is with the subject, the individual who observes these laws and how it elevates him. 

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How the blood of a korban transforms once the required avodah on the mizbeach has been performed with it.

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