Daily Daf Differently: Masechet Yevamot

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Joshua Heller looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 122. We can trace, in the positions of Rabbi Akiva, the evolution and expansion of types of testimony which are accepted to show that a husband has died to allow the wife’s remarriage. Are non-Jews a bridge too […]

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Joshua Heller looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 121. If someone falls into the water, under what you assume that they drowned? Even some of the most rigid rabbis bend with changing realities in coming up with the answer. Also, how is getting through Daf Yomi […]

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Joshua Heller looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 120. I was suprised to find out that CSI- Crime Scene Investigation, is still on. Our sages wrestled with a lot of the same questions of how to identify a body, what physical evidence is considered sufficient, and […]

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Joshua Heller looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 119. When do you use circumstantial evidence to decide that an unlikely possibility is actually worth worrying about? Why should the chances of a co-wife having a baby matter more than those of a mother-in-law? The opening and […]

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Joshua Heller looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 118. It's Schrodinger's husband- one wife says he's alive, the other says he's dead. Why would someone lie about such a thing to harm another person, even though they are harming themselves at the same time? What do […]

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Joshua Heller looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 117. How suspicious should we be of someone's motivations based on the questions they ask, or the concerns that they express? Do you have to be Sherlock holmes to conclude that someone whose first concern is for the […]

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Abby Sosland looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 116. What kind of argument would a husband and wife have that would make a woman’s testimony suspicious? The rabbis consider every possible scenario! The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album […]

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Abby Sosland looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 115. When is a woman’s testimony to be believed? Our daf today questions the specific kinds of testimony that a woman may bring about her husband’s death, but the fact that she may act as a witness in […]

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Abby Sosland looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 114. Must we prevent a Jewish child from eating treif? Where is the line between not holding them liable for adult commandments and our own desire to pass on the tradition? Our daf today explores this question. The […]

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Abby Sosland looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 113. The rabbis offer different approaches for different categories of individuals, doing their best to protect the most vulnerable in society. If we combine their approach with the actual perspective and voices of those very people, we may […]

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Abby Sosland looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 112. The Talmud offers a record of society’s attitudes in the ancient world. In today’s Mishnah, we see the rabbinic approach to the deaf and/or the deaf-mute. It’s good to know that Jewish law has changed in the […]

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Abby Sosland looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 111. If a woman vowed not to receive any benefit from her brother-in-law, would this vow prohibit him from performing Yibum? It’s good to see a case where a woman’s word was taken seriously, even when her vow […]

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Abby Sosland looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 110. The ancient world of the rabbis sounds like it was a dangerous place for women. Perhaps, then, the rabbinic treatment of women in this Masechet was their best attempt to protect women from the hazards of the […]

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Esther Israel looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 109. The G’mara is about rambly on this page, ending up with a bunch of recommended practices and norms for individuals and community, from halitsah to loan guarantors, from restrictions on vowing to questioning whether should Jews warmly welcome […]

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Esther Israel looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 108. Having explored yesterday the questions when – and under what circumstances – a minor girl can reject, or object to a marriage or betrothal that have been arranged for her, we turn today to the question: what does […]

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Esther Israel looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 107. With דף ק”ז , 107, we begin a new chapter of the Mishna and G’mara; Yevamot chapter 13. The first topic covered in this chapter is an offshoot of the allowance of betrothal of minors. (קידושי קטנה): This […]

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Esther Israel looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 106. What if the court feels they must resort to extreme measures to procure a halitsah for a case where there is, in there eyes, a clear incompatibility between the yabam and y’vama?

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Esther Israel looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 105. Today we will discuss the ability of a minor girl to perform Halitsah, and who has interests in her being able to do so, or not. The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The […]

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Esther Israel looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 104. The Halitsah ceremony involves three main components: The removal of the man’s shoe, her spitting, and her recitation of her line “thus shall be done to the man who will not build up a line/ house for his […]

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Esther Israel looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 103. Today we’ll learn a barraita and the g’mara’s discussion of it, in which we are testing how far one can stretch what we understand to be the reality the torah was describing, regarding a certain commandment and the […]

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Jeremy Kalmanofsky looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 94. Although in most cases Jewish law demands two witnesses, with respect to marital law, one witness is enough. Why? To prevent women from being “agunot” or chained to absent husbands. The opening and closing music for this […]

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Jeremy Kalmanofsky looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 93. Can you buy and sell something that doesn't exist? Or do you have to hold it to sell it? The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead. This podcast […]

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Jeremy Kalmanofsky looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 92. What happens when the court makes a mistake? Must the parties to the case suffer if the judges err? Or is it the judges own fault? The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from […]

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Jeremy Kalmanofsky looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 91. The Mishna and early post-Mishnaic authorities ruled somewhat leniently, permitting some mistakenly re-married women to return to their first husbands. But post-Talmudic authorities took a stricter stance, requiring double divorces in every case. Today’s page documents the […]

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Jeremy Kalmanofsky looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 90. We continue our discussion of whether the Sages have the power to “uproot a law from the Torah.” The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead. This podcast is […]

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Jeremy Kalmanofsky looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 89. The Talmud’s sad story of a woman who remarries, mistakenly believing her husband is dead will become a modern Hebrew classic in Agnon’s novella “The Crooked Will be Made Straight.” In our page we begin discussing whether […]

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Josh Buchin looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 88. A plug for people to buy and read The Story Of My Wife, by Milan Fust. Also, what happens if a woman, whose husband is overseas and presumed dead, remarries, only to discover that her first husband […]

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Josh Buchin looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 87. A woman who returns to her Priestly family can once again eat Teruma. This is a great example of the Gemara’s concern for and the Jewish tradition’s ability to mark transitions, and to offer support for those […]

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Josh Buchin looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 86. We’ve inherited a Prophetic tradition that asks us to be better and to make the world a better place. The Gemara talks about this chain of transmission and the interpretation of Biblical verses in the context of […]

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Josh Buchin looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 85. Who can priests marry? Who can anyone marry, for that matter? The Gemara weighs in on communal anxieties around marriage. The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead. This […]

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Josh Buchin looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 84. Is it possible for the Mishnah or the Gemara to ever be completely comprehensive? Any act of inclusion is also an act of exclusion. A discussion about the editing of the Gemara. The opening and closing music […]

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Josh Buchin looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 83. Everything belongs to God. Agriculture laws, duties towards neighbors, and accepting God’s sovereignty. The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead. This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative […]

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Josh Buchin looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 82. Is Torah still relevant? Terumah, Seder Olam, and problematic mixtures. The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead. This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Jeremy Kalmanofsky looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 67. Is a fetus enough of a person to own something? Or enough of a person to impart a right to another person? The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One […]

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Jeremy Kalmanofsky looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 66. Husbands have two different kinds of property obligations regarding their wives pre-marital property: “iron sheep” are debts he must pay to her no matter what happens to the property, and “pluckings, ” property rights the wife retains […]

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Jeremy Kalmanofsky looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 65. Are women obligated to “be fruitful and multiply?” The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead. This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Jeremy Kalmanofsky looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 64. What happens if a couple cannot have children? Should they stick it out, even if they will never have kids, or divorce so they can have children with others? The opening and closing music for this podcast […]

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Jeremy Kalmanofsky looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 63. Today the Sages expound the idea that full human life requires marriage, not celibacy, and claim that failing to have children is like shrinking God’s presence on earth. The opening and closing music for this podcast is […]

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Jeremy Kalmanofsky looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 62. Today we study the commandment to procreate. Can you ever have enough children? Or should you always try for more? The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead. This […]

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Jeremy Kalmanofsky looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 61. Today we learn one of the Talmud’s ugliest teachings: are only Jews really human? What about gentiles? The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead. This podcast is a […]

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Mordechai Silverstein looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 55. In today’s episode we ask “does every action really count?” The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead. This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Mordechai Silverstein looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 54. Today we ask do unintentional actions count for anything? The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead. This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.