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On today’s pages, Bekhorot 7 and 8, the Roman emperor challenges Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya to prove that he can outsmart the legendary sages of Athens. What follows is an extraordinary battle of wits involving riddles, disguises, impossible tasks, and one very clever pair of backwards sandals. Can Rabbi Yehoshua beat 60 of the ancient world’s wisest men at their own game? Listen and find out—or at least, find out half the answer, because we’re ending on a cliffhanger. Come back next episode for Part 2. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

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 17 and 18, the Talmud pauses a technical legal discussion to tell a deeply human story. A rabbi upholds the law and punishes a man who violated communal norms, but then works behind the scenes to help restore him before his family suffers. The result is a powerful portrait of leadership rooted not in ego or vengeance but in wisdom, restraint, and care for others. What happens when justice remembers to make room for love? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s pages, Chullin 15 and 16, the rabbis examine the virtues and dangers of different cutting tools, from reeds and flint to hand sickles and knives. What emerges is not merely a technical conversation about slaughter but a philosophy of preparation rooted in patience, skill, and intentionality. The daf suggests that even everyday acts like cooking and carving can become elevated when approached with care and the proper tools. How much of excellence comes down to learning how to use the right instrument the right way? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Instead of today's page, Chullin 14, we take a brief break from the daf itself to celebrate one of the great modern revolutions in Jewish learning: the effort to make Torah accessible to everyone. Joined by Rabbi Meni Even-Israel, we discuss the extraordinary legacy of his father, Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, whose translations and commentaries transformed the Talmud, and now the Rambam and Mishnah, from forbidding texts into living conversations. The episode becomes a meditation on accessibility, transmission, and the radical idea that Jewish learning belongs not only to experts but to the entire Jewish people. What happens when sacred knowledge stops being hidden behind walls of expertise and becomes truly available to all? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's page, Chullin 13, the Talmud lays down a strict prohibition against benefiting from anything an idol worshiper produces — a total cancellation, as it were. Presidential historian Dr. Tevi Troy joins us to trace that impulse through American history, landing on Herbert Hoover, the president who became so thoroughly persona non grata that a children's song was written about him as the villain. But Hoover didn't disappear — he came back and contributed anyway. Is the Talmud's cancel rule a model, or a ceiling? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s page, Chullin 12, the rabbis wrestle with a deceptively modern question: when can we trust that someone claiming expertise actually knows what they’re doing? Is watching a person perform a task enough, or do credentials and reputation matter more than appearances alone? The daf becomes a meditation on trust, supervision, and the limits of what we can truly verify, themes that feel especially urgent in an age of AI, performance, and manufactured authority. In a world full of experts, how do we tell the real thing from the convincing fake? Listen and find out. Also mentioned in today’s episode: A Tie in Tel Aviv Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s pages, Chullin 10 and 11, the rabbis grapple with the deceptively simple instruction to follow the majority. The discussion turns on a subtle but powerful distinction between situations we can actually count and situations where we merely assume the majority is probably correct. The daf presents a vision of communal decision-making that values consensus while still leaving room for uncertainty and caution, themes that sit at the heart of modern fights over democracy and judicial power, including the subject of our upcoming Tablet Studios miniseries on Israel’s battle over judicial reform. Can a society survive if it loses faith in how decisions get made? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s pages, Chullin 8 and 9, the rabbis ask what practical skills every Torah scholar ought to possess beyond mastery of texts alone. A true scholar, they argue, should know how to write, perform rituals, tie knots, and serve the needs of the community when called upon. The daf presents a vision of wisdom grounded not in abstraction or prestige but in competence, usefulness, and responsibility to other people. What kind of learning matters if it cannot actually help anyone? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's page, Chullin 7, the Talmud tells the story of Pinchas ben Ya'ir, a righteous man on a mission to ransom captives, who asks the River Ginai to split — and it does, not once but three times, each time on the merit of his righteousness alone. Presidential historian Dr. Tevi Troy joins us to draw a surprising line from that miracle straight to the logic he used working as the White House Jewish liaison under President Bush. What does a river splitting in ancient Israel have to do with seating charts at a presidential event? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s page, Chullin 6, a mysterious warning urges anyone prone to appetite to put a knife to their throat and be careful. Desire is not harmless if left unchecked, and even small choices carry real weight. What we call a soul is not something we’re born with but something we build through restraint and deliberate choice. What kind of life does it take to grow a soul? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s page, Chullin 5, we encounter the towering and often feared figure of Rabban Gamliel, whose authority over the calendar sparks one of the Talmud’s most dramatic confrontations. When Rabbi Yehoshua challenges his ruling, he is ordered to appear carrying his staff and money on what he believes is Yom Kippur, forcing a painful public act of submission. The story reveals a system in which even time itself is determined not by perfect knowledge but by human institutions and the need for collective agreement. What does it take to live with decisions you believe are wrong for the sake of something larger? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s page, Chullin 2, we begin a new tractate devoted to the laws of kosher slaughter and the careful preparation required to make food fit for Jewish life. Joined by Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin, we explore how the daf introduces a world where holiness lives in the deliberate precision of everyday actions, starting with the most basic act of cutting. These laws insist that sanctity is built not in grand spiritual moments but in the discipline and care of the home and kitchen. Why does Judaism place so much weight on the smallest, most practical details of how we live? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices