Take One Daf Yomi – Details, episodes & analysis

Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Batra 68 and 69, contain a little nugget of great importance. It's a discussion of cultivated carob trees, and why, if you want them to be fruitful and tall, you should graft a few cultivated branches onto the wild trees that are strong but not very fertile. How is this insight a metaphor for all of human civilization? And what can it teach us about social media influencers? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeonedafyomi and join the conversation in the Take One Facebook group. We think that you may also enjoy Liel's new book How the Talmud Can Change Your Life: Surprisingly Modern Advice from a Very Old Book, available directly from the publisher, or wherever you purchase books. Listen to the Testimonies Archive, a partnership between Tablet Studios and the USC Shoah Foundation, for eyewitness audio accounts from Israel in the wake of the Oct 7 Hamas attacks. Check out all of Tablet’s podcasts at tabletmag.com/podcasts.

Today’s pages, Bava Batra 66 and 67, continue discussing the objects that are part of a home, and where an olive press fits in. Why was olive oil such a staple of the Talmudic diet? Why bother buying extra-virgin olive oil at all? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeonedafyomi and join the conversation in the Take One Facebook group. We think that you may also enjoy Liel's new book How the Talmud Can Change Your Life: Surprisingly Modern Advice from a Very Old Book, available directly from the publisher, or wherever you purchase books. Listen to the Testimonies Archive, a partnership between Tablet Studios and the USC Shoah Foundation, for eyewitness audio accounts from Israel in the wake of the Oct 7 Hamas attacks. Check out all of Tablet’s podcasts at tabletmag.com/podcasts.

Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Batra 54 and 55, mention the Hatzav, a peculiar plant used to demarcate fields in the olden days. But the Hatzav has since become an absolute darling of Israeli poets, writers, and musicians, who have come to see it as the perfect metaphor for life in a demanding and beautiful and perilous land. Why? And what did the Israeli version of the Rolling Stones do when a big bank paid them to write a song about a Hatzav? Listen and find out.

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Metzia 37 and 38, uses the case of a prolific thief to teach something far more fundamental about justice and Jewish law. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to discuss how the law is for everyone, from the lowest of the thieves to the holiest among us. Should we consider the law the ceiling or the floor of our responsibilities? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeonedafyomi and join the conversation in the Take One Facebook group. We think that you may also enjoy Liel's new book How the Talmud Can Change Your Life: Surprisingly Modern Advice from a Very Old Book, available directly from the publisher, or wherever you purchase books. Listen to the Testimonies Archive, a partnership between Tablet Studios and the USC Shoah Foundation, for eyewitness audio accounts from Israel in the wake of the Oct 7 Hamas attacks. Check out all of Tablet’s podcasts at tabletmag.com/podcasts.

Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 46, contains a striking permission for a tractate so thick with rules and regulations: When in doubt about some question pertaining to an eruv, just follow the more lenient opinion. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to explain this unexpected ruling, and shed light on what's so special about an eruv that the rabbis would permit leniency as the default. How does an eruv build a community? Listen and find out.

Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 45, gives permission to sometimes violate the strictures of the eruv if one is rushing to save a life. Dr. Teresa Amato, director of Emergency Medicine at one of the New York City hospitals that treated more Covid-19 patients than any other in the nation, joins us to share stories from the front lines of the war against the plague, and recount which rules and procedures had to be broken, bent, or ignored to care for the mass of patients requiring urgent care. What did nurses and doctors who are observant Jews did when duty called on Shabbat? Listen and find out.

Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 44, asks a thorny question: Can you use a live human being to demarcate an eruv? Producer Josh Kross returns to offer a lively soccer analogy and muse on why sometimes, being a team player means simply trusting your friends even if they're asking you to literally put your body on the line. What do you think about when Cristiano Ronaldo is about to kick a ball right into your crotch? Listen and find out.

Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Eruvin 42 and 43, kick things off with a sporting discussion about counting steps to properly mark an eruv. Little did the ancient rabbis know, but step-counting would soon become the basis for a multi-million dollar industry of workout apps and gadgets, from the Fitbit to the Peloton bike. But while these gizmos help you keep off the pounds, they also speak in a language that is often, well, religious. How is the rabbis' workout philosophy different from the one currently on offer? Listen and find out.

Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Eruvin 40 and 41, finds the rabbis having a heated conversation about the importance of political norms and respecting the unwritten rules of keeping a community vibrant and cohesive. Seth Mandel, executive editor of The Washington Examiner, joins us to talk about the current and sorry state of political norms in Washington, D.C., and offer up some wisdom our politicians desperately need to learn from the Talmud. How bad is the state of our political process, and how can we make it much better? Listen and find out.

Today’s Daf Yomi page, Eruvin 39, is all about yom tov sheni, or the second day of the holiday we celebrate everywhere outside of Israel. But why do we celebrate it? And is it time, now that we have powerful apps that can tell us precisely when holidays begin and end, to put an end to this custom? Or were the wise rabbis trying to teach us something more valuable, a lesson about holding on to tradition with all of our might? Listen and find out.