Shows / Talking Talmud
Talking Talmud
Learning the daf? We have something for you to think about. Not learning the daf? We have something for you to think about! (Along with a taste of the daf...) Join the conversation with us!
Episodes
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 47: Shavuot Offerings: Consecration and Intent
More on the loaves and lambs of Shavuot and how the slaughtering of the lambs with the proper intent consecrates the breads too. Plus, the possibility of…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 46: The Loaves and Lambs of Shavuot
The bond between the animal sacrifices of the holiday of Shavuot and the "Shtei ha-Lechem" loaves of the same holiday, and when they are both required, as…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 45: Explaining Ezekiel
More on aspects of Temple worship that are not essential to each other. Also, the treatment of the Temple offerings for Rosh Chodesh from the Book of Yehezkel…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 44: The Prostitute, the Sage, and His Tzitzit
On the "hilazon," the crustacean whose blood is used to make the tekhelet: the murex trunculus, and its form, function, and impact. Also, the Gemara tells the…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 43: Should Women Be Wearing Tzitzit After All?
More on tzitzit and the garments they are to be tied to. Also, all men need to wear tzitzit on a 4-cornered garment. What about women? Slaves? Those questions…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 42: Strings Hang Down
Where should the tzitzit be attached to the 4-cornered garment? How long do tzitzit need to hang down? But they don't have a measure... or at least not as long…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 41: An Angel's Halakhic Reproof
Some unusual cases pose questions for tzitzit - for example, when a 4-cornered garment is folded in half. That is, is the garment obligated in the tzitzit or…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 40: Fraudulent Blue
A dispute between Beit Hillel and Beit Shamai on whether a linen cloak is obligated in tzitzit (including tekhelet, that is, which has to be a wool thread). Is…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 39: Strings and Knots in Blue and White
On how to tie tzitzit (another one of those very "visual" descriptions in words). Including the winding and knot-tying of the 8 threads on the corner. Also…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 38: Tekhelet: The Blue String among White Strings
Chapter 4! With a new mishnah. On tzitzit, and the verses that pertain to this mitzvah, including the prohibition against sha'atnez. Note that neither the…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 37: The Impossible Two-Headed Tefillin-Wearer
After discussion of the tefillin shel yad - including which arm - the Gemara turns to what is received as an impossible case: for a person with two heads…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 36: I Wear My Tefillin at Night
If one who is in the process of laying tefillin makes the blessing on the arm, puts the "tefillin shel yad" on, and then speaks, interrupting himself before…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 35: What If Tefillin Were Blue?
More on tefillin, of course. The base of the box of the tefillin, the letter Shin on the tefillin, the black straps, among other details - are all "halakhah…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 34: Moving on to Tefillin...
More on mezuzot and the entrances that need a mezuzah. What about a sidepost that doesn't need a mezuzah? Plus, how the mezuzah goes up on the right side…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 33: Mezuzah Placement
More laws on mezuzot, specifically placement of the mezuzah on the doorjamb - the Gemara's basic example is of a door on a pivot, not hinges, in contrast to…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 32: Elijah the Prophet and the Halitzah Shoe
On the writing of a mezuzah - in terms of the scribe's method of holding the parchment, leaving space at the top and the bottom, and so on. Including shifts in…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 31: Torn Torah Scrolls and Poetic Mezuzahs
More from Rabbi Shimon Shezuri - with a question of untithed produce that was mixed with a greater portion of tithed produce. Rabbi Tarfon gives him a solution…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 30: Mourning Moshe
On the last 8 verses of the Torah - who wrote them? That is, how could Moshe have written them when the text itself recounts his death at the beginning of…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 29: The Crowns on the Torah's Letters
More on the menorah - and also a whole host of instructions for scribes, plus a powerful piece of aggadah: How did Moshe know what the menorah was supposed to…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 28: The Menorah
A new mishnah: In the category of essential "Temple accoutrements" -- with a focus on the Menorah, in the company of tefillin and tzitzit and other. The 7…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 27: The Sum of the Parts
Another daf with 2 mishnayot, with more on the fistful from the grain-offering. 1 - What if the minority of the offering weren't brought? Even if the majority…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 26: The Fistful of Grain
2 mishnayot! 1 - When is a grain-offering disqualified? And how does that connect to the blood that is collected from the animal sacrifice? With parallels…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 25: The Tzitz: The Garment That Handles Impurity in the Grain
If the fistful that the kohen takes from the grain-offering becomes ritually impure, then the tzitz (the frontpiece) of the kohen gadol's garments will…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 24: The Value of a Teiku Conclusion
Can a fistful of grain function for different parts of the requirements of the grain-offering? Look to the verses in Leviticus. And what happens when one part…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 23: When Are Grain-offerings Not Like Animal Sacrifices?
Rava asks: If one takes a fistful of the grain and squeezes out the oil onto wood, does mean the fistful is missing its oil? Would that be invalid for an…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 22: They Go Together Like... Things That Go Together
A new mishnah! A handful of one grain-offering that is mixed with another handful of grain... according to the rabbis' view, the mingling does not invalidate…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 21: Salt from Sodom and Temple Salt
More on salt... including the verses that require it for the grain-offerings, as well as the "melach s'domit" - salt from the Sodom region. As compared to salt…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 20: The Essential Salt
Rav Huna challenges Rav about whether salt is required for the grain-offering, even though it isn't presented in the Torah with double-language (as other…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 19: Laws, Statutes, and Biblical Repetition
Wherever you have the word "torah" (meaning, law, not the Torah in total) and the word "chukah" (meaning, statute) - then the capacity to invalidate the…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 18: Tannaitic Drama and 15 Tasks of the Menahot
If one has intent to leave blood over from an animal sacrifice, does everyone agree that doing so would invalidate the offering? The Tannaim hash it out - with…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 17: Consumption - Eating and Burning
Rabbi Hanina helped Rabbi Hamnuna with understanding something in Torah that he counted as equivalent to all the rest of his Torah learning: namely, on the…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 16: Permitting Factors Mitigating against Pigul
A long mishnah - on the affect of pigul when it only affects part of the "permitter" - matirin - namely, by burning one part, the rest becomes permitted for…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 15: Thanksgiving and Shavuot
2 mishanyot! 1 - How combinations can make items pigul or not. With the cases of the thanksgiving offering (animal offering plus loaves) and also the "Shtei…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 14: Partial Pigul
Is there such a thing as pigul for half of the offering? It's a machloket! And a further development of Rabbi Yosei's position, which doesn't presume karet and…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 13: When Grain Is Like Blood
Returning to pigul, in a new mishnah, with a focus on Rabbi Yosei's position of when the wrong intent would not result in a punishment of karet. Also, on how…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 12: The Toll of an Olive's Measure
A long mishnah... specifically on how grain-offerings can be brought with invalidating intent, and how that will make the offerings "pigul." Yet, sometimes…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 11: A Fistful of Grain, with Frankincense on the Side
More on the kohen's fistful from the grain - ensuring no barrier to the grain itself. Plus, the physical description of how to take the grain in one's hand…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 10: Right- and Left-handed Kohanim
When the Torah uses the term "finger" or the term "kohen," it is understood to always mean the right hand. The bias against the left-hand is already…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 9: Explicitly Left-handed
If oil and grain for the grain-offering were mixed outside the wall, would that be kosher as an offering or not? It's a machloket! With verses as prooftexts…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 8: The Kohen Gadol's Bag-Lunch
On the "griddle-cakes" of the kohen gadol, Rabbi Yohanan addresses how partial cakes can be sanctified. But a beraita makes it clear that they needed to be…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 7: The Shewbread
On the offering that is brought by a person who would make it invalidated, which means that there's no rectification for the grain-offering, by returning the…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 6: Mishnah vs. Amora
More on learning the details of the treyfa from "min ha-bakar" - to disqualify the treyfa. How several verses work together to learn the teaching that the…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 5: Gemara Mechanics - Comparative Cases
What happens in the case of a person who needs purification from tzara'at - a whole process - where the order of the tasks may make a difference in terms of…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 4: Grain-Offerings That Pave the Way for Other Things
The meal-offerings that are exceptions to the general acceptance of them when offered in error: a sin-offering, and a minhat kena'ot, the "jealousy" offering…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 3: Torat Ha-Minhah, the Law of the Grain-Offering
Where are the most sacred offerings brought? And the less sacred offerings? That is, the northern and southern parts of the Temple courtyard, respectively. And…
- Talking Talmud
Menahot 2: Switching to Grain
Shifting away from the animal sacrifices of Tractate Zevahim to grain-offerings and the particulars of offering from grain. The first key aspect of a…
- Talking Talmud
Zevahim 120: The Grand Finale (wait, no it's not)
More on private altars - beginning with whether a nighttime slaughter on a private altar was permitted. Plus, other details of the nature of the particulars of…
- Talking Talmud
Zevahim 119: The Inheritance of Shilo and Jerusalem
More on the altars outside and prior to the Temple - from Gilgal to Nov & Givon, and Shilo (when private altars weren't allowed). The Gemara explains that a…
- Talking Talmud
Zevahim 118: The Growth of Worship as a Nation
What offerings were made in the wilderness, after leaving Egypt? In Gilgal? What verses spurred Rabbi Shimon's opinion to say only some few sacrifices were…
- Talking Talmud
Zevahim 117: How Sacrifices Worked from the Beginning of Time
When the Children of Israel stopped for some time at Gilgal, when private offerings were allowed. But what offerings did they actually bring? And which were…
- Talking Talmud
Zevahim 116: To Keep the Seed Alive
Which animals were allowed to be sacrificed altogether? Male, female, blemishes and not, etc. But what about a treyfa (an animal that was going to die within…
- Talking Talmud
Zevahim 115: Before the Kohanim... There Were the First-Borns
A dispute over whether one is liable for slaughtering a premature guilt-offering outside of the Temple - a very specific case. Also, if what you slaughter…
- Talking Talmud
Zevahim 114: Premature Offerings
On blemished animals, premature animals, an animal and its offspring - any of these offered outside of the Temple would not make the person offering them…
- Talking Talmud
Zevahim 113: How Did the Huge Animals Manage Noah's Ark?
On slaughtering the red heifer "outside of the pit" has to mean more than "outside of the Temple," as this offering was always made outside of the Temple. So…
- Talking Talmud
Zevahim 112: Some Offerings Belong Outside the Temple Courtyard
Ending chapter 13: On the case that a sin-offering is lost, replaced, and then the first one is found - to what may it be compared? A question that itself is…
- Talking Talmud
Zevahim 111: Birds and the One-Cup, Two-Cup Blood Scenarios
When the remnants of an offering's blood are brought outside of the Temple - that's a liability for violating offering outside of the Temple. This aspect of…
- Talking Talmud
Zevahim 110: More Offerings Outside
Mishnayot! Mishnah 1 - More on grain-offerings, when the offering is brought outside of the Temple courtyard - when the kohen's fistful has not been removed…
- Talking Talmud
Zevahim 109: Pesky Pigul Thoughts
Two mishnayot! 1 - Circumstances of liability for offerings outside of the Temple and what happens those offerings are then invalidated. Plus, the return of…
- Talking Talmud
Zevahim 108: Some Ways an Offering Can Go Wrong
On the case of one who is ritually impure and eats from the sacrificial foods, whether they are pure or impure, may or may not be liable for the violation…
- Talking Talmud
Zevahim 107: How Holy Is the Holy City (without a Temple)?
After we've established how we know that slaughtering outside of the Temple violates a prohibition and likewise offering outside of the Temple, there's an…