Today’s Daf Yomi page, Sukkah 20, tells the story of Tavi, Rabbi Gamliel's non-Jewish servant who was a pious man learned in all matters of Jewish law. Yael Eckstein, the president and CEO of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, joins us to discuss how Jews and non-Jews continue to pursue their shared values today. Why would gentiles want Jews to pray for them at the Kotel? Listen and find out. Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeo...
Jul 27, 2021•8 min•Season 7Ep. 20
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Sukkah 18 and 19, teach us that there's nothing more whole, or holier, than a broken home. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to talk the symbolism of the sukkah, and what a discussion about skylights and purity can teach us about the world and our place in it. How have today's pages of Talmud inspired Leonard Cohen? Listen and find out. Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeonedafyomi and join the conversation in the Take One Fa...
Jul 26, 2021•6 min•Season 7Ep. 18
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Sukkah 16 and 17, spin a technical discussion of fabrics into a breathtaking lesson on compassion. Rabbi Sari Laufer joins us to talk about the beauty of Shabbat Nachamu, the Shabbat after Tisha B'Av, and how it guides us to comfort. What can we humans do to nudge God from the quality of justice to the quality of mercy? Listen and find out. Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeonedafyomi and join the conversation in the Take...
Jul 23, 2021•9 min•Season 7Ep. 16
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Sukkah 15, teaches us a useful life lesson: If you want anything done, do it yourself. We remember the late Rav Adin Steinsaltz, who passed away last year, and his extraordinary contribution to making the Talmud accessible to all. What did Rav Steinsaltz learn from his great teacher, the late Lubavitcher Rebbe? Listen and find out. Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeonedafyomi and join the conversation in the Take One Faceb...
Jul 22, 2021•8 min•Season 7Ep. 15
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Sukkah 14, asks a tough and seminal question: Is a sukkah a home? Rabbi Dr. Stuart Halpern joins us to discuss this question, and why the answer is particularly resonant in times of uncertainty and anxiety. Why did so many Americans turn to home improvement shows during the COVID-19 lockdowns, and what does it have to do with Sukkot? Listen and find out. Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeonedafyomi and join the conversatio...
Jul 21, 2021•7 min•Season 7Ep. 14
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Sukkah 13, gets into the nitty gritty of Sukkah construction. Author Joshua Foer was intrigued by all those minute instructions, so he invited architects from all over the world to interpret them, with the best and brightest displaying their works at Sukkah City, a pop-up installment in downtown Manhattan. How do modern designers read the Talmud's very ancient blueprints? Listen and find out. Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @...
Jul 20, 2021•9 min•Season 7Ep. 13
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Sukkah 11 and 12, raise a thorny question: why, exactly, do we build those little huts on Sukkot? Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us with a mystical teaching about the holiday's true meaning, and how it captures the dramatic trajectory of the Jewish people's relationship with God. So, are we even supposed to build actual sukkot on Sukkot? Listen and find out. Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeonedafyomi and join the conversat...
Jul 19, 2021•8 min•Season 7Ep. 11
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Sukkah 9 and 10, dive into everyone's favorite Sukkot tradition: decorating the sukkah. Rabbi Rebecca Rosenthal joins us to talk about this tradition, and how the symbolism of the holiday's customs help make it so meaningful. Is a picture of Lady Gaga an appropriate sukkah decoration? Listen and find out. Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeonedafyomi and join the conversation in the Take One Facebook group. Take One is hos...
Jul 16, 2021•8 min•Season 7Ep. 9
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Sukkah 8, inspires us to think about building sukkot in non-traditional ways and in unexpected places. Maital Friedman joins us to tell the story of living in Uganda and having to cut down trees to build her family a sukkah for the holiday. How did her local hosts react? Listen and find out. Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeonedafyomi and join the conversation in the Take One Facebook group. Take One is hosted by Liel Lei...
Jul 15, 2021•7 min•Season 7Ep. 8
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Sukkah 7, lets it be known that one of the walls of the sukkah is called the wall of laughter. Why? Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to shed light on the connection between Sukkot and humor, and why Jews have always been good about mixing tragedy with a bit of laughter. What, exactly, is so hilarious about watching someone slip on a banana peel? Listen and find out. Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeonedafyomi and join the c...
Jul 14, 2021•8 min•Season 7Ep. 7
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Sukkah 6, gives us useful units of measurements based on...fruits and vegetables? Nomi Kaltmann joins us to explain the meaning of the Seven Species, and how they came to be used as yardsticks. What kind of unit of measurement is an olive? Listen and find out. Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeonedafyomi and join the conversation in the Take One Facebook group. Take One is hosted by Liel Leibovitz and produced by Josh Kros...
Jul 13, 2021•6 min•Season 7Ep. 6
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Sukkah 4 and 5, teaches us that the dimensions of the sukkah have to do with... the Ark of the Covenant? Professor Richard Hidary joins us to explain the connection, and what it has to teach us today. What does Noah have to do with the holiday of Sukkot? Listen and find out. Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeonedafyomi and join the conversation in the Take One Facebook group. Take One is hosted by Liel Leibovitz and produ...
Jul 12, 2021•6 min•Season 7Ep. 4
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Sukkah 2 and 3, introduce us to Tractate Sukkah. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us with a lesson about making things real, and about the true meaning of the holiday of Sukkot. Why do we start building our Sukkah immediately after the Yom Kippur fast ends? Listen and find out. Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeonedafyomi and join the conversation in the Take One Facebook group. Take One is hosted by Liel Leibovitz and produce...
Jul 09, 2021•6 min•Season 7Ep. 2
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 88, brings us to the end of Tractate Yoma. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to teach us how Yom Kippur is really a sophisticated time machine, and what the tractate we've just concluded was really about. How did Yoma take us on a journey in time? Listen and find out. Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeonedafyomi and join the conversation in the Take One Facebook group. Take One is hosted by Liel Leibovitz and produced by...
Jul 08, 2021•8 min•Season 6Ep. 88
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 87, tells us a rip-roaring story that's really a wise teaching about reconciliation and asking for forgiveness. Rabbi Shmuel Hain joins us to discuss the Talmud's legal and anecdotal approach to saying you're sorry. What can we learn from two feuding rabbis about how to go ahead and patch things up? Listen and find out. Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeonedafyomi and join the conversation in the Take One Facebook gro...
Jul 07, 2021•8 min•Season 6Ep. 87
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 86, reminds us of the tremendous power our words have to do everything from wage war to appeal to God. The Tikvah Fund's Eric Cohen joins us to revisit some of the greatest speeches in Jewish and world history, and tell us what a great oration can do. Why are we still moved by Ruth's plea? Listen and find out. Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeonedafyomi and join the conversation in the Take One Facebook group. Take O...
Jul 06, 2021•10 min•Season 6Ep. 86
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Yoma 84 and 85, ask a poignant question: How does divine forgiveness work? Does it just arrive each year, on Yom Kippur, requiring little action on our part? Or must we earn it? Rabbi Shlomo Zuckier joins us to parse this deep theological conundrum, and explain what the fierce Talmudic debate it inspired can still teach us today. How did the nature of absolution change once the Temple was destroyed? Listen and find out. Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.c...
Jul 05, 2021•9 min•Season 6Ep. 84
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Yoma 82 and 83, deliver an eerie passage about searching for survivors amidst the wreckage of a collapse, calling to mind the recent disaster in Surfside. Tablet senior writer Armin Rosen reports from the ground in Miami, telling us about how the community struggles to help survivors and comfort the bereaved in these tragic times. What was it like commemorating the fast day of 17 Tamuz while search and rescue operations were still in progress? Listen and find out. Like th...
Jul 02, 2021•9 min•Season 6Ep. 82
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 81, tells a delightful story of a town that giddily drank brine on Yom Kippur, believing that pickle juice didn't exactly count as a beverage. Cookbook author and Jewish food maven Liz Alpern joins us to talk all things pickled, and walk us through the intricacies of brining. So were our ancestors correct in gulping down the sour stuff on their fasting day? Listen and find out. Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeonedaf...
Jul 01, 2021•9 min•Season 6Ep. 81
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 80, kicks things off with a discussion of impure foods that soon blooms into a crucial life lesson: Keep things small. How has Judaism's affinity for the manageable and human-scaled help it survive? And what can this attitude teach us in the age of scaling up, going viral, and growing too big to fail? Listen and find out. Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeonedafyomi and join the conversation in the Take One Facebook g...
Jun 30, 2021•8 min•Season 6Ep. 80
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 79, makes one important distinction: There are fixed, fancy meals, the rabbis tell us, and then there's casual meals. Adam Chandler, author of the definitive book on fast food in American culture, joins us to sing the praises of eating on the go, and how it contributes to a more open, democratic society. Were the Israelites the world's first fast food aficionados? Listen and find out. Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @tak...
Jun 29, 2021•8 min•Season 6Ep. 79
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Yoma 77 and 78, give us a dazzling bit of poetic imagery, describing a river that flows forth from the Holy of the Holies, getting stronger and stronger as we go along. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to explain this mystical body of water, and the immense meaning it ought to have in the daily life of each and every one of us. How can this river explain the meaning of our relationship with God? Listen and find out. Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Fo...
Jun 28, 2021•6 min•Season 6Ep. 77
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Yoma 75 and 76, ask the question we've all at one point or another contemplated: What do you do when you're feeling blue? One rabbi says keep a stiff upper lip; another advises talking it out. Nunzio Gubitosa, a psychoanalyst who teaches at Hebrew Union College, joins us to talk about the talking cure, its origins, and why we still need it today. What did a year of living with social distancing do to our need for therapy? Listen and find out. Like the show? Send us a note...
Jun 25, 2021•7 min•Season 6Ep. 75
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 74, finds the rabbis in an aesthetic sort of mood, opining on why looking at your food contributes to the enjoyment of the meal. How might we use this insight in everyday life? And how might a well-set dinner table elevate the soul? Listen and find out. Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeonedafyomi and join the conversation in the Take One Facebook group. Take One is hosted by Liel Leibovitz and produced by Josh Kross,...
Jun 24, 2021•8 min•Season 6Ep. 74
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 73, mentions the Urim and Thummim, the gems affixed to the breastplate of the High Priest. Rabbi Jason Rubenstein of Yale joins us to explain how the stones found their way to the school's famous motto, and what it can teach us about the institution's academic philosophy. Does Lux et Veritas still ring true today? Listen and find out. Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeonedafyomi and join the conversation in the Take O...
Jun 23, 2021•8 min•Season 6Ep. 73
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 72, gets right down to business by asking the one question that matters most: Why study Torah at all? Former Disney Channel star turned weekly parsha podcaster, Raviv Ullman, joins us to talk about his unorthodox career trajectory and the things he learned when he started thinking seriously about the Torah. Were the rabbis right to insist we need to fear God? Listen and find out. Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeoned...
Jun 22, 2021•9 min•Season 6Ep. 72
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Yoma 70 and 71, point out an unlikely discrepancy: The Yom Kippur services performed by the High Priest actually diverge from their biblical description in one small but important way. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to explain why the Talmud, usually so meticulous in following the teachings of the Torah to the letter, admits this one change, and what it can teach us about worship and teshuva. When exactly may the High Priest enter the Holy of the Holies? Listen and find ou...
Jun 21, 2021•9 min•Season 6Ep. 70
Today’s Daf Yomi pages, Yoma 68 and 69, introduce us to the Ish Iti, the Man of Time, the mystery person of the Yom Kippur ritual. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to talk about this figure, and how understanding his role in the holiest day of the year gives us insight into what Judaism asks of each one of us. Why should we want to be more like the Ish Iti and less like the High Priest? Listen and find out. Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeonedaf...
Jun 18, 2021•9 min•Season 6Ep. 68
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 67, teaches us the difference between those commandments that are obvious, like the prohibition on murder, and those that aren't, like the prohibition on eating pork. Rabbanit Leah Sarna joins us to explain this distinction, and what it can teach us about the mechanics of religious life. Would we still continue to practice Judaism if for some reason we no longer believed in God? Listen and find out. Like the show? Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on ...
Jun 17, 2021•8 min•Season 6Ep. 67
Today’s Daf Yomi page, Yoma 66, reminds us of the sheer power of language, a power on full display when the Kohen Gadol entered the Holy of Holies and uttered the explicit name of God. To reflect on what words can do, we bring you a conversation with poet Christian Wiman that aired on our podcast Unorthodox, where he discussed how some words, when written or said in just the right way, can move us in ways we didn’t think possible. How and why does language connect us to the divine? Listen and fi...
Jun 16, 2021•12 min•Season 6Ep. 66
