Author: Meghan Froy

We learned yesterday that a husband can only nullify his wife’s vows once she’s made them; he can’t annul them in advance. But how long does he have to annul these vows once they’ve been made? The Torah has two statements on this: But if her husband does annul them on the day he finds out, […]

Daniel is read less often by Jews than many others in the Hebrew Bible. Found in the section of miscellaneous writings called Ketuvim, and one of the last additions to the scriptures, it is set during the Babylonian Exile and named for the protagonist who serves as an advisor to the kings of foreign lands […]

We’ve discussed husbands and fiances, so it probably shouldn’t be a complete surprise that today’s daf opens with a mishnah that presents three opinions about whether a yavam (a man whose married brother died childless and who is therefore obligated to marry his widowed sister-in-law) can nullify his yevama’s vows before their levirate marriage is […]

Yesterday, the Talmud raised the possibility of a man nullifying his wife’s vows even without hearing them. Today, the rabbis take this idea to the next step. Rami bar Hama asks: A man who cannot hear, what is the halakhah with regard to nullifying vows for his wife?  Perhaps, if a man does not need to hear his wife’s vow […]

“May God make you like Ephraim and Menashe” (Genesis 48:20). Parents routinely offer this blessing on Shabbat at the Friday night dinner table and its dramatic origins are found in this week’s Torah portion, Vayechi. The scene: Jacob summons his favorite son Joseph so he can bless him before he dies. Joseph arrives with his two sons, Menashe, the firstborn, and Ephraim, […]

There are plants in Hawaii that are endangered because their natural pollinator is rare or extinct. People climb mountains and go from plant to plant pollinating them by hand. In certain periods of our history, an analogous process occurred. Scholars became rare in certain cities. Other scholars, the natural pollinators, would travel from community to community, bringing learning […]

“Shalom! You’re looking at a hot little Jew.”  That’s how Zach Kornfeld of the Try Guys introduced his creation to a panel of judges on “Without a Recipe: Tacos,” one of the group’s most popular YouTube shows. The Try Guys, made up of Zach Kornfeld, Keith Habersberger and Eugene Lee-Yang, started as a series on […]

Today we begin chapter ten of Tractate Nedarim. Chapters ten and eleven will cover the subject of vows made by women and in what circumstances those vows can be canceled by male relatives.  The Torah addresses this topic in Numbers chapter 30, where we learn that if a young woman makes a vow while living in her father’s house, […]

Narrative passages in the Talmud often leave much to the imagination of the reader. The following anecdote from today’s daf is no exception: Once there was a person who said to his wife, “You are forbidden to benefit from me until you have given Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Shimon your cooked food to taste.” What […]

On yesterday’s daf, we learned that one can only dissolve a vow about a particular person in their presence. Today we get a fascinating story that highlights the importance of this teaching.  The story is set in the years just before the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the First Temple in Jerusalem. The Kingdom of Judah […]