Talmud Daily

Day 44: Carrying Our Cries Before God

Day 44 | Yoma  One person enters the Holy of Holies. An entire people’s tears enter with him. Put Your Name on a Day of Learning: Sponsor a day, sponsor a tractate, or

Day 43: Making Space for Forgiveness

Day 43 | Yoma  Teshuva asks us to take responsibility and imagine a different future. Put Your Name on a Day of Learning: Sponsor a day, sponsor a tractate, or give any

Day 42: Two Goats, One Journey

Day 42 | Yoma  Today's learning is sponsored by Eli Cem Cohen in honor of student Rabbi Leon Okan Avraham, on his birthday. Why does Yom Kippur’s service need both the

Day 41: One Person, One Place, One Day

Day 41 | Yoma  This episode is sponsored by Deborah Spector, Oak Park, Illinois. A broken covenant and a bereaved father stand behind Yom Kippur’s most sacred encounter

Day 40: Dr. Malka Simkovich: How Jerusalem Held the Jewish World Together

Day 40 | Shekalim  What held the Jewish people together when so many lived far from the Land of Israel? Put Your Name on a Day of Learning: Sponsor a day, sponsor a tra

Day 39: The Pushka That Built a People

Day 39 | Shekalim How did a small charity box become a technology of Jewish peoplehood? Put Your Name on a Day of Learning: Sponsor a day, sponsor a tractate, or give a

Day 38: A Half-Shekel, a Whole People

Day 38 | Shekalim  Why does the Torah insist that rich and poor give the exact same amount? Put Your Name on a Day of Learning: Sponsor a day, sponsor a tractate, or gi

Day 37: The Jewish People as a Living Whole

Day 37 | Shekalim  Tractate Shekalim asks what it means to bind ourselves to something larger than ourselves. Today's learning is sponsored by Roger in Seattle in memor

Day 36: Shekalim: The Tractate That Wasn’t Supposed to Be Here

Day 36 | Shekalim The Talmud Bavli never had a tractate Shekalim. So how did it end up in ours? Put Your Name on a Day of Learning: Sponsor a day, sponsor a tractate, o

Day 35: Rabbanit Sally Mayer: Turning the Jewish Home Into an Altar

Day 35 | Pesachim From the Korban Pesach to removing chametz, Pesach turns ordinary domestic space into sacred space. Put Your Name on a Day of Learning: Sponsor a day,

Day 34: The Haggadah as Jewish Memory

Day 34 | Pesachim From the Korban Pesach to Maggid, the Seder shows how Jewish memory adapts without losing its past. Put Your Name on a Day of Learning: Sponsor a day,

Day 33: The Stories We Carry

Day 33 | Pesachim To know who we are, we need to know the generations that came before us. Put Your Name on a Day of Learning: Sponsor a day, sponsor a tractate, or giv

Day 32: A People Born in Bondage

Day 32 | Pesachim Why does God answer Avraham’s question about Jewish continuity with a promise of slavery? Put Your Name on a Day of Learning: Sponsor a day, sponsor a

Day 31: A Family Becomes a Nation

Day 31 | Pesachim The Korban Pesach transformed a collection of families into the Jewish people. Put Your Name on a Day of Learning: Sponsor a day, sponsor a tractate,

Day 30: Rabbi Micha Shotkin: The Rabbi Who Builds Eruvin

Day 30 | Eruvin  The laws of eruvin can feel out of reach. Rabbi Micha Shotkin builds them into the streets where we live. Put Your Name on a Day of Learning: Sponsor a

Day 29: The Eruv Wars

Day 29 | Eruvin  The laws of Eruvin often lead to sharp and harsh disagreements within communities. But maybe that is the point.  This episode is sponsored by Daniel an

Day 28: A Wall Made of Doorways

Day 28 | Moed  Eruvin teaches us to notice our boundaries and invite others inside.  Put Your Name on a Day of Learning: Sponsor a day, sponsor a tractate, or give any

Day 27: The Boundaries of Truth

Day 27 | Eruvin  The Talmud teaches us how competing perspectives can become part of the same sacred conversation. Put Your Name on a Day of Learning: Sponsor a day, sp

Day 26: The Boundaries That Bring Us Together

Day 26 | Eruvin Jewish community is built not by putting up walls, but by creating doorways. Put Your Name on a Day of Learning: Sponsor a day, sponsor a tractate, or g

Day 25: Shalom Rosner: How Shabbos Entered the Modern World

Day 25 | Shabbos  What electricity, cholent, and the Israeli army teach us about applying ancient laws to modern life. Put Your Name on a Day of Learning: Sponsor a day