The Oral Talmud – Details, episodes & analysis

The Oral Talmud is a weekly deep dive study partnership between Dan Libenson and Benay Lappe where they try to figure out how voices from the Talmud – voices from 1500 to 2000 years ago – can help us think in new ways about Judaism today. They have been releasing The Oral Talmud as a video series since they first started learning together five years ago, but are now making the jump to podcast platforms, starting with a brand new Episode Zero, reflecting on the whole learning journey. We’re so excited to learn with you! The first three episodes drop on June 23.

The Oral Talmud is a co-production of Judaism Unbound and SVARA: A Traditionally Radical Yeshiva. We are grateful to SVARA-nik Ezra Furman for composing and performing The Oral Talmud’s musical theme. The Oral Talmud is produced by Joey Taylor, with help from Olivia Devorah Tucker, and with financial support from Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah.

“Maybe the reason they were undoing the original covenant was to give themselves a little breathing room, saying, ‘God actually gave us permission to play.’” - Benay Lappe

Welcome to The Oral Talmud, our weekly deep dive chevruta study partnership, discovering how voices of the Talmud from 1500 years ago can help us rethink Judaism today. 

Access the full Sefaria Source Sheet with additional show notes via this link. 

This week we’re exploring another foundational origin story in Talmud: a re-writing of the already dramatic scene of receiving Torah at the foot of Mount Sinai. The sages say that when scripture says we “under” the mountain, that doesn’t mean the mountain’s shadow; instead, the rabbis say “under” means that God had literally picked the mountain up and threatened to drop it on us if we didn’t accept Torah! What if the Sinai covenant came out of duress and within a power imbalance? How and where did the Rabbis ratify our obligation if not from Mount Sinai?

This week’s texts: 

• “Beneath” Mount Sinai (Shabbat 88a)
• The Book of Esther (Chapter 9)

The Oral Talmud is a co-production of Judaism Unbound and SVARA: A Traditionally Radical Yeshiva. 

If you’re enjoying this podcast, please help us keep both fabulous Jewish organizations going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation at oraltalmud.com. You can find a donate button on the top right corner of the website.

“If you pay attention to the folks for whom the system isn’t working, you’ll know how the system will eventually not work for everybody.” - Benay Lappe

Welcome to The Oral Talmud, our weekly deep dive chevruta study, discovering how voices of the Talmud from 1500 years ago can help us rethink Judaism today. 

Access the full Sefaria Source Sheet with additional show notes via this link. 

Last week we celebrated and reflected on five years of our study partnership with a new “Episode Zero.” This week we bring you the original first episode, discussing a classic origin story within Talmud. What does the way the Talmud tells a story teach us, beyond the actual content of the story? What bold moves do we need at times of crash and upheaval?

This week’s texts: 

• Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai Secures Yavne (Gittin 56a-b)
• Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai’s Deathbed (Berakhot 28b)

The Oral Talmud is a co-production of Judaism Unbound and SVARA: A Traditionally Radical Yeshiva. 

If you’re enjoying this podcast, please help us keep both fabulous Jewish organizations going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation at oraltalmud.com. You can find a donate button on the top right corner of the website.

“I am responsible for my chevruta’s learning and my chevruta is responsible for my learning. I am invested in you.” - Benay Lappe

Join study partners (chevrutas) Rabbi Benay Lappe & Dan Libenson as they reflect on five years of The Oral Talmud, and celebrate its transition from a video series to a podcast! 

Access the full Sefaria Source Sheet with additional show notes via this link.

What do lasting study partners recognize in each other? How do they decide how and what to learn together? Find out what makes a learning journey exciting, possible, and loving! 

This week’s texts: 

• The Chevruta of Rabbi Yochanan & Resh Lakish (Bava Metzia 84a)
• Widening the Doors to the Study Hall (Berakhot 28a)
• Make for Yourself a Teacher (Pirkei Avot 1:6)

The Oral Talmud is a co-production of Judaism Unbound and SVARA: A Traditionally Radical Yeshiva. 

If you’re enjoying this podcast, please help us keep both fabulous Jewish organizations going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation at oraltalmud.com. You can find a donate button on the top right corner of the website.

The rabbis must have been leaving us a message. It says, "Please do to us what we did to God and whoever put the Torah together. We played fast and loose with what they were saying directly, and we understand that that means you’re going to do that to us, and we want you to." - Dan Libenson

Welcome to The Oral Talmud, our weekly deep dive chevruta study partnership, discovering how voices of the Talmud from 1500 years ago can help us rethink Judaism today. 

This week Dan & Benay unpack one of the most famous stories in all of Talmud: The Oven of Achnai. A disagreement between the sages develops in a power struggle with God! How can the ways that the sages “defeat” the Divine show us the instruction manual for overthrowing them in turn? Where do we see these debates play out in our Jewish world? 

Plus some expansive conversation about how “The Oral Talmud” got its name, understanding our generation of learning as a third meta-Torah coming from the revelation at Mount Sinai. 

This week’s texts: 

• The Oven of Akhnai (Bava Metzia 59a-b)
• Deuteronomy 30:11-16
• Exodus 23:1-3

Access the full Sefaria Source Sheet with additional show notes via this link. The Oral Talmud is a co-production of Judaism Unbound and SVARA: A Traditionally Radical Yeshiva. If you’re enjoying this podcast, please help us keep both fabulous Jewish organizations going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation at oraltalmud.com/donate. 

“What the sages had was imagination and boldness.They were deeply rooted in the inherited tradition, and, rather than that rooting holding them back, the rooting allowed them to go forward.” - David Kraemer

Welcome to The Oral Talmud, our weekly deep dive chevruta study partnership, discovering how voices of the Talmud from 1500 years ago can help us rethink Judaism today. 

This week Dan & Benay invite their first guest to the show: Benay’s own Talmud Teacher, David Kraemer! David is the Joseph J. and Dora Abbell Librarian and Professor of Talmud and Rabbinics at the Jewish Theological Seminary and author of A History of the Talmud (Cambridge University Press, 2019.) How does David Kraemer’s history of Talmud deepen our understanding of the texts we’ve investigated so far? What does Kraemer believe motivated the sages in this great project? Who was the rabbis’ intended audience, and how has access to Talmud changed the role Talmud plays?

Access the full Sefaria Source Sheet with additional show notes via this link. The Oral Talmud is a co-production of Judaism Unbound and SVARA: A Traditionally Radical Yeshiva. If you’re enjoying this podcast, please help us keep both fabulous Jewish organizations going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation at oraltalmud.com. You can find a donate button on the top right corner of the website.

“Is it inevitable and necessary to get the Rabbi Eliezers out of the room? Or is part of the story saying, ‘You actually need to keep him in the room. We understand that unity or progress or getting everybody rowing in the same direction is important, but you don’t take people out of the room.’” - Benay Lappe

Welcome to The Oral Talmud, our weekly deep dive chevruta study partnership, discovering how voices of the Talmud from 1500 years ago can help us rethink Judaism today. 

This week Dan & Benay pick up where they left off in the story of The Oven of Akhnai, reading the part of the story that is often neglected: the fallout from excommunicating Rabbi Eliezer. What morals did the sages intend for us to take from the narrative? What can each character symbolize when we map their stances and choices on to conflict in our present day? How should we respond to hurt and fracturing of community? 

This week’s text: The Excommunication of Rabbi Eliezer (Bava Metzia 59a-b)

Access the full Sefaria Source Sheet with additional show notes via this link. The Oral Talmud is a co-production of Judaism Unbound and SVARA: A Traditionally Radical Yeshiva. If you’re enjoying this podcast, please help us keep both fabulous Jewish organizations going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation at oraltalmud.com. You can find a donate button on the top right corner of the website.

“In my book, I refer to ‘The Talmud's Golden Old Age.’ I was a little reluctant to use this terminology, because who knows if it's the golden old age? This could be the Midlife Period of the Talmud. We have no idea where we are historically!” - Barry Wimpfheimer

Welcome to The Oral Talmud, our weekly deep dive chevruta study partnership, discovering how voices of the Talmud from 1500 years ago can help us rethink Judaism today. 

This week Dan & Benay invite on special guest Talmudist Barry Wimpfheimer, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Northwestern University. Barry is the author of The Talmud: A Biography (2018) and Narrating the Law: A Poetics of Talmudic Legal Stories (2011).

While our last guest, David Kraemer, focused on the motivations of the sages in constructing the Talmud, this week’s guest, Barry Wimpfheimer turns the focus onto how Talmud has influenced Jewish life, and how and why different communities have utilized Talmud. What kinds of truth are at play when encountering Talmud? How did the narratives of the Talmud change in redactions? and what can the interplay of story with legal statements tell us about how Talmud was supposed to be read?

Access the full Sefaria Source Sheet with additional show notes via this link. The Oral Talmud is a co-production of Judaism Unbound and SVARA: A Traditionally Radical Yeshiva. If you’re enjoying this podcast, please help us keep both fabulous Jewish organizations going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation at oraltalmud.com. You can find a donate button on the top right corner of the website.

“There are barriers being put up that say ‘You’re not a good Jew if you don’t do it our way’ – but as soon as those barriers come down, there’s actually a huge interest! And then the question is: What do you do with that engagement? What does that involvement produce?” - Dan

Welcome to The Oral Talmud, our weekly deep dive chevruta study partnership, discovering how voices of the Talmud from 1500 years ago can help us rethink Judaism today. 

This week and next we’ll be discussing another essential Talmud narrative: the conflict between the early sages Rabban Gamliel and Rabbi Yehoshua, and more specifically the changes the yeshiva went through after Rabban Gamliel was deposed. What was going on at the time of the later Talmud authors that they wrote this story about their predecessors? Where do we see these dynamics around changes in leadership and access to learning today? What happens when we open the doors?

This week’s text: The Removal of Rabban Gamliel, Adding 700 Benches (Berakhot 28a)

Access the full Sefaria Source Sheet with additional show notes via this link. The Oral Talmud is a co-production of Judaism Unbound and SVARA: A Traditionally Radical Yeshiva. If you’re enjoying this podcast, please help us keep both fabulous Jewish organizations going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation at oraltalmud.com. You can find a donate button on the top right corner of the website.