Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Kama 38 and 39, tells the story of Rabbis who teach the Torah to Roman officials, who upon hearing it for the third time, comment that while they can appreciate what is in the Torah, they are not happy with the statement that there are different punishments when an ox gores another ox that is owned by a jew versus when it gores one owned by a non-Jew. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to explore the principal that it is an obligation not to skip difficult conversations wh...
Dec 11, 2023•8 min•Season 21Ep. 38
Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Kama 36 and 37, tells the story of Hanan, a wicked man who is punished for slapping someone. When no one will make change when he comes to pay restitution, he goes ahead and hits the person again so that no change would be necessary. Tevi Troy returns to the program to share the stories of some of American politics most “Hanan-like” characters. Is there a time to be like Hanan and times not to? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sen...
Dec 08, 2023•7 min•Season 21Ep. 36
Today’s Talmud page, Bava Kama 35, discusses who is liable for the injury when one ox hurts another when there are no witnesses to the injury. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to explore the importance of this page in understanding fundamental rules when it comes to monetary law in the Talmud. How can we better understand the laws of ownership? 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 an...
Dec 07, 2023•8 min•Season 21Ep. 35
Today’s Talmud page, Bava Kama 34, teaches us a lesson in sustainability. Why would the rabbis bother arguing about the value of an animal's carcass? And what lesson does that teach us about the evils of industrial farming? 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 C...
Dec 06, 2023•7 min•Season 21Ep. 34
Today’s Talmud page, Bava Kama 23, asks if you can use something once it has been sold to another. Producer Darone Ruskay returns to share a story from his youth when he and his family arrived at a rental in the south of France only to find that the the owner had sold the flat between when they had rented it to his family and when they arrived. Can a newly minted lawyer save a family vacation based on ownership law and her love for Talmud? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our wee...
Dec 05, 2023•6 min•Season 21Ep. 33
Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Kama 31 and 32, explore how running, unless you are trying to get home before the start of Shabbat, is an unnatural act. Tablet Senior Writer and avid runner Armin Rosen joins us to meditate on the zen of running. He explore what the experience like when you hit that wall at mile 17 or 18, when your are solely in your head, forcing yourself to push through towards the finish line. How can preparing for a marathon be like prayer? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subs...
Dec 04, 2023•9 min•Season 21Ep. 31
Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Kama 29 and 30, ask whether to be pious we should follow the matters of tractate Nezikin, Avot, or Berakhot. Is it more important to study the laws of damages, the ethics of our fathers, or the laws over blessings? Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to help us understand this foundational dispute and explores what we should do to infuse our lives with holiness and decency. What is the best way to infuse spirituality into your day-to-day life? Listen and find out. Like the s...
Dec 01, 2023•9 min•Season 21Ep. 29
Today’s Talmud page, Bava Kama 28, discusses whether a slave should be compensated if he is injured when resisting being freed. This same text can be interpolated to reflect that we are forbidden from taking ransom, from holding a person captive for profit. This Talmudic conversation feels all the more prescient now as we watch as nearly two hundred innocents being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza. At the same time, the news media asks ridiculous questions about the value of one human life over ano...
Nov 30, 2023•7 min•Season 21Ep. 28
Today’s Talmud page, Bava Kama 27, explains that if ten people beat a person to death, it is the one who threw the last blow that is liable for the death. While this may seem strange, it is intended to teach us that we must take responsibility for our actions, and not explain them away by claiming “collective behavior.” We are joined by Bernard-Henri Lévy who joined the Unorthodox podcast to discuss his newest documentary, Glory to the Heroes, his third film documenting Russia’s war on Ukraine a...
Nov 29, 2023•20 min•Season 21Ep. 27
Today’s Talmud page, Bava Kama 26, it explains, that while oxen may be either forewarned (dangerous) or innocuous (docile), and depending on which they are, the damages one must pay are different, when it comes to other people, they are all considered forewarned, and thus full damages must be paid. This can lead to a lot of confusion, and with that, as always conspiracies, and conspiracy theories. We are joined by Alexandra Zapruder, author of Twenty-Six Seconds: A Personal History of the Zaprud...
Nov 28, 2023•15 min•Season 21Ep. 26
Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Kama 24 and 25, spends time classifying what deems an ox forewarned, and what it must do to be re-classified as innocuous. Rabbi William Hamilton of Congregation Kehillath Israel in Brookline, MA joins us to consider what Judaism’s intricate path towards redemption teaches us. How does paying close attention aide us in ensuring our own redemption? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us ...
Nov 27, 2023•9 min•Season 21Ep. 24
Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Kama 22 and 23, tells the odd story that if one incites an animal to attack, they are exempt from punishment, and instead the person who owns the animal is liable. To see how this type of obfuscation of responsibility goes far beyond that of family pets, we welcome back Tevi Troy who shares how this type of misdirection of responsibility historically took place in the White House, from the Nixon administration to the Regan administration and through to today. What did ...
Nov 24, 2023•5 min•Season 21Ep. 22
Today’s Talmud page, Bava Kama 21, asks whether a person who is living in an otherwise uninhabited house need to pay rent, with some saying that by living in the house, they are keeping it in good standing, and others stating that if the house is being used for anything, then the squatter is required to pay. To discuss the idea of an unused, and forgotten home, we welcome back Ruby Namdar, author of The Ruined House, a novel about a man who has visions of the old Temple in Jerusalem. We consider...
Nov 23, 2023•8 min•Season 21Ep. 21
Today’s Talmud page, Bava Kama 20, continues the exploration of how animals should be treated, in the same way that so many of the recent pages have. In our modern times, we worry not about finding an ox in the road, or a chicken that breaks a vessel, but we do have celebrities. Tablet producer Courtney Hazlett joins us to delve into one particular celebrity, Britney Spears, who we as a culture have treated as poorly as those in the ancient world treated animals, choosing when and what they coul...
Nov 22, 2023•9 min•Season 21Ep. 20
Today’s Talmud page, Bava Kama 19, talks all about animals, and what they eat, whether it is what they are expected to eat, or sometimes the unexpected. In these days, when animal euthanasia has grown by such a high percentage, this is a moment to consider the need to love our animals, even when they behave in less than optimal ways. Perhaps they will eat food that you haven’t designated for them, or nip at your toes as you are watching tv. Perhaps when they wake you up in the middle of the nigh...
Nov 21, 2023•8 min•Season 21Ep. 19
Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Kama 17 and 18, discusses the different amount of damages one must pay when your chicken directly impacts someone else’s vessels or bread, versus the amount of damages one must pay when it is the pebbles or wind that are stirred up by your chicken that later damages ones vessels or bread. This Talmudic conversation recalls that feeling of having to deal with circumstances beyond our control. To reflect on that feeling, we are sharing a segment from the most recent epis...
Nov 20, 2023•26 min•Season 21Ep. 17
Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Kama 15 and 16, discusses the prohibition of raising a vicious dog within your home in the same way that one should not have an unstable ladder. Dog owner, and Tablet Studios producer Josh Kross returns to discuss his dog Oscar, who would fall into that category, but because of the makeup of his family, fits right in. Unlike an unstable ladder which is destined to be dangerous, in the correct setting, a crazy dog may serve a purpose within a home. Can a family dog serv...
Nov 17, 2023•8 min•Season 21Ep. 15
Today’s Talmud page, Bava Kama 14, discusses what damages should be assessed when two people share ownership for a piece of land which is meant to be used as both a place for produce and for livestock, when the animals ruin the produce. To consider the complicated world of sharing small spaces, Unorthodox co-host Stephanie Butnick and her two year old daughter Edith join us to discuss what it’s like to co-exist in small spaces, and how to create a life where our work and our home worlds are so d...
Nov 16, 2023•8 min•Season 21Ep. 14
Today’s Talmud page, Bava Kama 13, includes the very complicated line that “one is liable only for damage caused to property that belongs to members of the covenant.” This is followed by a long conversation about how to parse that statement, but it brings up the question of whether we should have a greater allegiance to our own tribe. Tevi Troy returns to explore how to understand the conflict between the bonds with our own people and those of the larger community and explores the idea that we s...
Nov 15, 2023•7 min•Season 21Ep. 13
Today’s Talmud page, Bava Kama 12, explores the difference between land, which is unmovable property, and slaves, which are moveable. The Talmud explores the difference in what must be done to demarcate ownership of each of these types of “property”. This brings up the modern-era issue of the gig economy, where people are moveable, and work for themselves rather than for an organization or company. What happens to the trust between one another us as we treat people more and more like commodities...
Nov 14, 2023•8 min•Season 21Ep. 12
Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Kama 10 and 11, explain that if a person deepens a hole making it more dangerous than it had been, they are now solely responsible for the damage that it can cause. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin returns to explain how this idea that we can be made responsible for the full damage of contributing to an action can be turned on its head, and thus enabling one to take full credit for enabling others to perform a mitzvah. How does this page of Talmud connect to an episode of Curb Yo...
Nov 13, 2023•7 min•Season 21Ep. 10
Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Kama 8 and 9, asks how much additional money should be spent in the effort of beautifying a mitzvah. The long debate that follows explains that to spend money to make a mitzvah more beautiful enables us to enjoy the mitzvah more, and in the end, God will reimburse you for the additional monies spent. How much should you spend to make a mitzvah more beautiful? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com...
Nov 10, 2023•7 min•Season 21Ep. 8
Today’s Talmud page, Bava Kama 7, asks whether you should regard a person as poor because of their need to sell their land when it is of lower value, and thus make less money on the sale. Real estate agent Scott Harris returns to the show to discuss the ups and downs of New York real estate and shares how he sees this piece of Talmud, not as a discussion of who is poor and who is rich, but rather as a statement of how the community must remain responsible for each other. How much can you lose on...
Nov 09, 2023•8 min•Season 21Ep. 7
Today’s Talmud page, Bava Kama 6, discusses the circumstances for when a person is liable for destruction caused by a tree or wall on their property that falls and causes harm. Tablet Editor in Chief Alana Newhouse joins us to discuss a new package of stories posted on Tablet entitled What Now that deal with the aftermath of October 7, and her piece which focused on the responsibilities of Jewish communal leadership in the wake of the Gaza attack. What lessons for today should we be learning fro...
Nov 08, 2023•8 min•Season 21Ep. 6
Today’s Talmud page, Bava Kama 5, talks about speech that leads to action. Gila Sacks joins us to think about the war that we are facing right now. The war on the ground, and the war of words. Perhaps we can consider not just evil speech, but also that of positive speech. How do we protect ourselves from the harm that words can do? 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 ...
Nov 07, 2023•6 min•Season 21Ep. 5
Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Kama 3 and 4, introduce us to a new tractate and a new order. In addition to beginning tractate Bava Kama, we are also starting the order of Nezikin, which is all about damages. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to set the stage for what we will be learning. Why is a tractate about the damage that your livestock can have on your neighbor associated with salvation? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.c...
Nov 06, 2023•11 min•Season 21Ep. 3
Today’s Talmud pages, Kiddushin 82 and Bava Kama 2, bring us to the end of Tractate Kiddushin. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to reflect on what is in and not in this tractate. He considers why a tractate about marriage doesn’t outline how a marriage ceremony should take place, and posits that the word Kiddushin, which is the name of tractate translates to holiness, and that holiness is all about preparation. How is Talmud study similar to marriage? Listen and find out. If you would like to read...
Nov 03, 2023•12 min•Season 20Ep. 82
In today’s Talmud page, Kiddushin 81, we hear the story of Peleimu and Satan. In the story Paleimu tries to act kindly to the conniving Satan only to be repeatedly hurt and embarrassed. While the Talmud is full of stories where Satan attempts to test the great Rabbis, this story tells of a sage who tries to act appropriately at every step. Why then is he still hurt in this way? Perhaps this story can help us reflect on our current situation. What can we learn from this story when we reflect on t...
Nov 02, 2023•9 min•Season 20Ep. 81
In today’s Talmud page, Kiddushin 80, the Rabbis discuss whether dough touched by a child is pure or impure based on the other things that the child will likely have touched.. Hudson Leibovitz returns to explain the pleasures of touching everything. What do adults miss about the satisfaction of touching everything? 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 t...
Nov 01, 2023•6 min•Season 20Ep. 80
In today’s Talmud page, Kiddushin 79, the Rabbis ask when and how the transition between being children and young adults and full-fledged adults happens. This question is more important today as our children in Israel are being asked to take on the important adult role in the Israeli army. How have the current realities helped to mature Israeli children to become mature adults more quickly? Listen and find out. Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send us a note at takeone@tabletma...
Oct 31, 2023•8 min•Season 20Ep. 79
