Daf Shvui/Weekly Daf: Give me forty minutes or so and I'll give you a daf or so

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Raba bar Sharshum thinks he is a good guy, and a smart guy. Turns out he's not. Yes, he did use the produce of the orphans' fields when we shouldn't have. We are continuing with the legal and ethical conversation around ownership and testimony and believability.
So, come join us in the safer at home bet midrash.

This week's daf can be found:
1. Vilna page (hebrew and aramaic) from Hebrewbooks.org
2. Hebrew and English from Sefaria.org
3. Hebrew and Aramaic with many commentaries from Alhatorah.org

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This week we confront head on the issue of the finality of a judicial decision. Can you just keep coming back with more evidence? Also, dramatic cases with evidence whispered into Rava's ear. Is somebody who produces a forged deed really all that bad?
Please join us.

This week's daf can be found:
1. Vilna page (hebrew and aramaic) from Hebrewbooks.org
2. Hebrew and English from Sefaria.org
3. Hebrew and Aramaic with many commentaries from Alhatorah.org

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What is the relationship between truth and law? Is it the job of the court to decide epistemological truth or ontological truth, or legal truth? Is there a difference between those two truths? We continue with law school a la Rava, in this week's daf.
Please join us.

This week's daf can be found:
1. Vilna page (hebrew and aramaic) from Hebrewbooks.org
2. Hebrew and English from Sefaria.org
3. Hebrew and Aramaic with many commentaries from Alhatorah.org

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This week we delve into Rava's casebook of disputed ownership. It is the Law and Order of private property dispute—less the bodies and the pithy opening scenes. So please, come in and take shelter from the storm.

This week's daf can be found:
1. Vilna page (hebrew and aramaic) from Hebrewbooks.org
2. Hebrew and English from Sefaria.org
3. Hebrew and Aramaic with many commentaries from Alhatorah.org

new logo by Shachar Cohen-Hodos

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To celebrate the completion of the second chapter of Baba Batra, I invited Charlotte Fonrobert, a professor in the Religious Studies department at Stanford University whose current research focuses on the rabbinic eruv, or Shabbat boundary, and the way that the laws and culture of eruv define Jewish identity. Our wide ranging conversation delved into the 2000 plus years of eruv—from the Qumran community to the Hamptons and the Daily Show. Following the conversation we study together a bit—the links to the text are below. I am very excited to share this conversation with y'all.
So… pull up a chair, pour a libation, and join the celebration.
The text we studied is on 20b and then 21b and can accessed here:
1. Vilna page (hebrew and aramaic) from Hebrewbooks.org
2. Hebrew and English from Sefaria.org
3. Hebrew and Aramaic with many commentaries from Alhatorah.org

The picture for this episode is the printing press of the brothers and widow Romm in Vilna.

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And we are still grappling with the question of possession. How does one come to own something that cannot be moved? Why are the rabbis talking about enslaved women? What is the story with land that lies fallow? Do the fallow years count? All in this week's daf.
So … join me in the "safer at home" bet midrash. Shelter in Torah for a bit.

This week's daf can be found:
1. Vilna page (hebrew and aramaic) from Hebrewbooks.org
2. Hebrew and English from Sefaria.org
3. Hebrew and Aramaic with many commentaries from Alhatorah.org

(artwork "Neighbors" by Amy Bennet https://themorningnews.org/gallery/neighbors)

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This week we start on the third chapter of Baba Bathra. What does ownership mean? How does it happen?
So … join me in the "safer at home" bet midrash. Shelter in Torah for a bit.

This week's daf can be found:
1. Vilna page (hebrew and aramaic) from Hebrewbooks.org
2. Hebrew and English from Sefaria.org
3. Hebrew and Aramaic with many commentaries from Alhatorah.org

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So this week we finish the second chapter of Baba Bathra. This episode we get an anthropomorphized tree, math, and the continued discussion of the edges and boundaries of ownership.
So… join me in the "safer at home" bet midrash. Shelter in Torah for a bit.

This week's daf can be found:
1. Vilna page (hebrew and aramaic) from Hebrewbooks.org
2. Hebrew and English from Sefaria.org
3. Hebrew and Aramaic with many commentaries from Alhatorah.org

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More discussion in this week's daf of negotiating property rights with neighbors. Stories of rabbis who were and were not good neighbors. And if the public uses the edge of your property over time does it become public property? These questions and some looking behind the scenes and under the hood of the text in this week's daf.
So… join me in the "safer at home" bet midrash. Shelter in Torah for a bit.

This week's daf can be found:
1. Vilna page (hebrew and aramaic) from Hebrewbooks.org
2. Hebrew and English from Sefaria.org
3. Hebrew and Aramaic with many commentaries from Alhatorah.org

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So a legal discussion about where one can build a tannery in relation to a city leads, in the inevitable logic of the Talmud, to a discussion of astronomy and meteorology, and of course theology. Where is God? In what direction should one/must one pray?
So… join me in the "safer at home" bet midrash. Shelter in Torah for a bit.

This week's daf can be found:
1. Vilna page (hebrew and aramaic) from Hebrewbooks.org
2. Hebrew and English from Sefaria.org
3. Hebrew and Aramaic with many commentaries from Alhatorah.org