Take One Daf Yomi

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

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

Blurb: 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

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...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 megaph...

On today’s pages, Chullin 127 and 128, the rabbis contemplate the wonders of creation, from creatures of the sea and land to those of fire and air. Then some enterprising residents decide to improve on God’s handiwork by breeding two animals that shouldn’t be able to reproduce—and discover that not every miracle is a blessing. What happens when we ask whether something can be done without stopping to ask whether it should be? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s page, Chullin 126, the rabbis encounter a mystery buried in two words: golel and dofek. Solving it takes us from Rashi and Maimonides to the burial caves of ancient Israel and the great stones once rolled across their entrances. What can the Talmud teach us about the lost burial practices of our ancestors? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s page, Chullin 125, the rabbis consider a curious rule of ritual impurity: Under the right circumstances, it can get out of an enclosed space but cannot get in. Their technical discussion becomes a powerful argument for repentance and the possibility that, no matter what we’ve done, something at our core remains forever pure. Can our worst mistakes ever change who we truly are? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s page, Chullin 124, Rabba bar Rav Huna is too tired to answer a complicated question, so he points to the sky and cries, “Look! A raven!” His wonderfully human moment offers a radical rule for relationships: Don’t settle for merely being there when you can wait until you’re ready to be fully present. What do we owe the people who ask for our time and attention? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s pages, Chullin 122 and 123, an unsettling discussion of human skin recalls one of the most gruesome stories in Jewish tradition: the martyrdom of Rabbi Yishmael at the hands of the Romans. Behind the horror lies a reminder of what the rabbis refused to surrender, even at the cost of their lives. What are the things we believe are worth dying—and therefore living—for? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s pages, Chullin 120 and 121, one mysterious word sends generations of Jewish scholars searching through animal anatomy for an answer. Is the alala a neck ligament, a tendon, leftover flesh—or something else entirely? What can an unsolved anatomical puzzle teach us about the rabbis’ extraordinary attention to detail? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s page, Chullin 119, some supersized wheat leads us to the supersized integrity of Shimon ben Shetach. Whether returning a valuable jewel to its rightful owner or forcing a powerful king to answer before the law, the great sage had one rule: Put honesty above all else and fear only God. Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices