Daf Yomi

This would, no doubt, turn into a massive page during the project going through the entire cycle. What I’m going to do is put the section of whichever tractate I’m currently going through on this page, and as I finish them during the cycle, I’ll move the finished one onto a separate linked sub-page. I’m going to organize it as an outline so it’s reasonably easy to follow. I’m also, while well aware of the deep spiritual stuff that’s going on in each discussion, not going to go down that path – there are a zillion websites and commentaries that already do that. In general, I find the idea of a glimpse of a historical culture from what amounts to transcripts of conversations between spiritual and secular leaders to be fascinating, and not surprisingly, for me, I’m particularly drawn to topics that relate to food and wine, sexuality, and comedy.

  • Seder Zeraim – “Book of Seeds”
    • Berakhot – “Blessings” – Blessed things, actions, and events
    • I hit a momentary “WTF?” when Berakhot finished and we didn’t move on to Pe’ah, the next tractate in Zeraim. Apparently the remaining ten tractates in Zeraim do not have Gemara commentary in the Babylonian Talmud, just the Jerusalem Talmud, which the Daf Yomi doesn’t cover. Despite living in a predominately agrarian society, the Babylonian rabbis apparently had nothing to say on agriculture and related subjects like tithing, offerings, and challah bread. Though now I get “Book of Seeds”, I do feel a bit cheated and I want to know if there’s a good challah recipe in there. My plan is to at some point read through the various tractates throughout the Talmud that aren’t included in the Daf Yomi, just out of curiosity. I’ll put those in a different color so that they stand out.
    • Pe’ah – “Corner” – Pay it Forward
    • Demai – “Doubtful” – Provenance and Taxes
    • Kil’ayim – “Mixed Species” – Mixing it up in the Fields
    • Shevi’it – “Seventh” – Taking a Sabbatical from Life
    • Terumot – “Donations” –
    • Ma’aser Rishon – “First Tithes” – 
    • Ma’aser Sheni – “Second Tithes” – 
    • Challah – “Dough” – 
    • Orlah – “First Fruits of Trees” – 
    • Bikkurim – “First Fruits” –
  • Seder Moed – “Book of Festivals”
  • Seder Nashim – “Book of Women”
  • Seder Nezikin – “Book of Damages”
    • Bava Kamma – “The First Gate” – Who’s Responsible?
    • Bava Metzia – “The Middle Gate” – Who Owns the Truth?
    • Bava Batra – “The Last Gate” – You’re Responsible, and Here’s Why
    • Sanhedrin – “Assembly” – Judging You
    • Makkot – “Lashes” – Whip It, Whip It Good
      • Originally, Makkot was simply the second part of Sanhedrin, the tractate we just finished. While the former focused on the design of the court system and its overall responsibilities for various types of crimes, Makkot focuses on the Bet Din, the Halakhic court, i.e., the rabbinical court that judges violations of religious law. More specifically, the tractate covers three subjects: false witnesses (thou shalt not lie/bear false witness); sanctuary cities (you thought those were a new, California based thing, right?); and punishment by flogging (lashes).
      • 4/21/25, Chapter 3, Page 13 – People often cherry-pick the things they are against out of biblical prohibitions – be it justification for homophobia, racism, or misogyny. But as has been pointed out by many, better versed than I, in doing so they always leave out the prohibitions that involve things that they’re not against. On this page, the rabbis enumerate some of the actions that are punishable by forty lashes — incest, adultery, intercourse during menstruation, intermarriage, marrying a bastard, marrying a widow, marrying a divorcee, eating impure food, eating or working on Yom Kippur, eating food from produce that wasn’t tithed, and more. All receive equal punishment, not just the ones you agree with.
      • 4/22/25, Page 14 – When it comes to multiple violations of the sexual prohibitions listed yesterday – incest, adultery, intercourse during menstruation – there’s a brief, if long winded, argument over whether the man “serves” consecutive or concurrent sentences. That’s to say, does he get forty lashes for each act, and/or woman, who he violated, one after the other, which could amount to hundreds of lashes, or does one session of forty handle it all? The vast majority of the rabbis, perhaps surprisingly given what we’ve seen in past writings, come down on the side of consecutive. Each violation of a woman counts, and is punished separately.
      • 4/23/25, Page 15 – This is one of those pages that offends, egregiously, modern sensibilities. We start with a man who defames an unmarried, presumably virgin, woman. What the defamation is isn’t specified, but the implication is that he implies she’s not the virgin she claims to be. If proved wrong, he is flogged and must pay restitution for damaging her reputation. We move on to a man who rapes an unmarried, presumably virgin, woman. He is “punished” by being forced to marry her (no mention is made of the fact that she is forced to marry him) because… her value on the marriage market is decreased, and therefore he must marry and support her in perpetuity. No divorce allowed.
      • 4/24/25, Page 16 – If a particular violation of a Torah prohibition has the specified punishment of flogging, that seems pretty clear-cut. However, it’s not. Flogging is only administered if the violation involves having taken a specific action, but is not administered if it involves not taking a specific action (with a couple of spelled out exceptions). This seems odd to me in that we’re talking about prohibitions against doing something in particular, though the example given makes a certain logical sense – if you swear an oath to do something and then don’t do it, then you’ve violated the prohibition against swearing a false oath, but you haven’t taken an action. Unless, as I would, you consider the choice of inaction to be an action in and of itself.
      • 4/25/25, Page 17 – In a long and involved discussion over the tithing of various grains and whether or not eating some of tithed produce is worthy of receiving lashes, we have, yes, a tangent. Eating an ant is an act that the rabbis considered worthy of being flogged. Not because it’s not kosher (for which one might also receive lashes), which it’s not, along with virtually all other insects, but because you are eating an intact creation of God in its entirety. Five lashes! Wasps, six! These guys were really into flogging, for just about anything.
      • 4/26/25, Page 18 – Way, way back we spent some time on a tractate that covered all the rules of various types of sacrifices and burnt offerings, the rituals surrounding them, and the eating of certain types of them after the rituals were complete. Not covered then was what happens when either the priests jump in and have a bite before the rituals are complete, or a non-priest joins in for a nibble. You guessed it, lashes, flogging!
      • 4/27/25, Page 19 – Today’s argument seems worthy of a court hearing over contraband entering a country’s borders. At issue, a person bringing tithed produce to Jerusalem – there are certain rules for what is to be done wiht it prior to entering the city, and what is to be done after. In the case being argued, the person has entered the city, but the tithed produce is still on wagons that are being cleared by the then equivalent of Customs, and haven’t physically passed the city gates. If irregularities are found in the rules for the produce’s presence in the city, is the person liable, or, because the produce hasn’t yet entered, is he not. After much argument, the council desides he is, that his presence and intent to enter with the produce constitutes its arrival there.
      • 4/28/25, Page 20 – Shaving one’s head, particularly as an expression of mourning, is prohibited. Today’s argument is over how much hair removal constitutes a violation. It ranges from a single white hair removed from among black hairs (vanity), to a two hair wide patch, to a patch the size of a lentil, a bean, or a “scissors-ful”. Lashes are, of course, involved – ranging from a set number to “one for each hair removed”. I’ve been shaving my head since I was in my late 30s, I’d never make it in the Orthodox world.
      • 4/29/25, Page 21 – It’s Lash-Fest! Planting mixed crops, wearing mixed linens, plowing your field with different animals teamed up, trimming your beard, cutting yourself in mourning, using ashes to heal a wound, tattoos… they’re all fair game for the lash-giving council. Funny, the last one provokes the most argument, tattoos. I grew up with the admonition that tattoos are absolutely forbidden in Jewish tradition. Some of the rabbis here, perhaps a bit edgier than the rest, argue that only tattoos that include one of God’s sacred names are taboo, while others argue that only tattoos that have the names or images of other gods, idolatry, are no-gos.