Daily Daf Differently

Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Ute Steyer looks at Masechet Megillah Daf 23.

We will briefly revisit the discussion of whether a woman may receive an aliyah and also see the opinion of the Maharam on the subject before moving on to discuss for which prayers a minyan of 10 adults in required.

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 Ute Steyer looks at Masechet Megillah Daf 22.

Whether or not people need to go to work decides how many aliyot are read on days that aren’t yom tov: Rosh Hodesh is an occasion when 4 aliyot are read but on Public Fast days only three. But Rosh Hodesh is a full workday! We learn that the gemarra pays attention to the fact that Rosh Hodesh was given to women as a fest day and they are required to abstain from work. We also learn that they are required to listen to the torah reading.

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 Ute Steyer looks at Masechet Megillah Daf 21.

Today we learn about the weekly torah reading cycle: Monday, Thursday, Shabbat and also why Mondays and Thursdays? We also learn about the ancient practice that only the first and last person would recite a blessing over the torah and why the rabbis at one point decided to change this.

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 Carl Perkins looks at Masechet Megillah Daf 20.

On this page we examine the question: When does day begin? Is it sunrise, or is it when light first appears in the eastern sky? There are arguments for both opinions. The halachic (Jewish legal) issue is: when can we begin reciting the Megillah on the morning of Purim? The answer (which one could say has it both ways) is that a priori we should wait until sunrise, but if we begin to recite the Megillah after light has appeared in the sky (i.e., after alot hashachar, the “rising of the dawn”), then our reading is kosher, even if this is prior to sunrise. I suggest that the reason for permitting the reading of the Megillah during this time has to do with the association between Queen Esther and Venus (the morning star, which is visible in the eastern sky during that time). Like the sky during that time, the redemption of the Jewish people is said to be a time of gradually increasing light. Hence, it is an appropriate time to read of the redemption of the Jewish people during the days of Esther and Mordecai.

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 Carl Perkins looks at Masechet Megillah Daf 19.

On this page we explore the tension between uniformity and variety in religious practice. According to the Talmud, different communities read the Megillah (the Scroll of Esther) on different days. Yet all read the entire Megillah—even though during the Talmudic period there were those who believed that it wasn’t necessary to do so. Our daf explores. Some differences, apparently, are tolerable by religious authorities; others are not.

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 Carl Perkins looks at Masechet Megillah Daf 18.

There are two related issues raised on this page: language and memory. The Hebrew language (the language in which Jewish sacred texts such as the Megillah and the Torah are preserved) is clearly important, but how important? The Megillah should be read in Hebrew, but it should also be understood by its listeners when it is read. Which value is more important? Why were the rabbis so intent on preserving Hebrew? What role does language have in remembering where we came from, i.e., in preserving and maintaining our culture?

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 Carl Perkins looks at Masechet Megillah Daf 17.

With this page, we begin chapter 2 of Megillah, which focuses on how the megillah is supposed to be read. The very first rule is that the megillah is to be read in order. The text goes on to tell us that other liturgical texts, such as the Hallel (which had been discussed a few pages earlier), the Shema, and the Amidah (the “standing” prayer, consisting originally of eighteen blessings) are also to be recited in the proper order. Why is this? My sense is that this reflects a very important perspective of rabbinic Judaism, namely, that the world follows its natural order. Miracles may happen, but time does not ever flow backwards. Elsewhere (in the ninth chapter of tractate Berachot), we learn that a prayer that asks that time be reversed is considered a vain or ineffectual prayer. Similarly, one can only appreciate the Megillah’s story of the deliverance of the Jewish people if one reads it in the proper order, first hearing about the threatened extermination, then about the miraculous deliverance.

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 Carl Perkins looks at Masechet Megillah Daf 16.

This page is filled with interesting midrashic explanations of curiosities in the text of the Book of Esther (the “megillah” that is read on the holiday of Purim). In this Daily Daf Differently presentation, I focus on two examples of such midrashim, and show (a) how they address a literary problem in the Biblical text; and (b) how they tell us something about how the rabbis themselves and the societies in which they lived.

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 Carl Perkins looks at Masechet Megillah Daf 15.

The Talmud is an associative work, and this page of Talmud illustrates this. On the page there is an interpretation of the meaning of an expression in the Megillah offered by Rabbi Eleazar in the name of Rabbi Hanina. This prompts the Talmud to offer a whole series of saying by Rabbi Eleazar in the name of Rabbi Hanina. One could look upon that series of sayings as a string of pearls. (I use that metaphor because one of those sayings describes how, when a pearl is lost, it isn’t really lost to itself, for it always remains a pearl; it is lost only to its owner.)

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 Carl Perkins looks at Masechet Megillah Daf 14.

Page 14 of Megillah continues a discussion (that can be found in the previous few pages) of the Book of Esther and the significance of reading the book (i.e., the “megillah”) on the holiday of Purim. We will focus on a short passage at the beginning of the daf in which the question is asked why we don’t recite the songs of Hallel (Psalms 113-118) on Purim to commemorate the redemption from the plot to destroy us, as we do when we commemorate the Exodus from Egypt?

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.