Category: Science and Health

Today’s daf introduces us to two people we may not have met before in our journey through the Talmud — Rabbi Malkiyu and Rabbi Malkiyah. Neither appears a lot in the Talmud, so their mention here is an opportunity to explore them in more depth.  We first meet Rabbi Malkiyu, a fourth-generation Babylonian Amora (later rabbi) in […]

Don’t chew with your mouth open. Keep your elbows off the tables. Don’t begin eating until everyone’s been served. Every community has its guidelines for proper manners. Today’s daf takes a breather from detailing halakhic requirements to consider some of these softer rules in rabbinic life. Here is how the rabbis come to the discussion: A mishnah […]

Job is the biblical poster child for acute suffering. When Satan makes a bet with God that the righteous and prosperous Job will cease to praise God in the absence of worldly comforts, God takes the bet and allows Satan to torment Job, to remove his wealth, kill his children and destroy his health. Job’s […]

When you think of Eastern European Jewish cuisine, which words come to mind? Light? Healthy? Plant based? Probably not. Heavy, homey and meat-centric are more like it.  Fania Lewando died during the Holocaust, but had she been given the full length of her years, Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine may have taken a turn to the vegetarian […]

Today’s page is governed largely by two mishnahs about Rabban Gamliel. The first lists three stringencies that he held — aspects of festival observance that he followed in accordance with the opinion of Beit Shammai and not Beit Hillel. (They were: Not insulating food cooked on the festival to enjoy on Shabbat, not setting up […]

On today’s daf, the conversation about the permissibility of particular labors on a festival continues with a question from Rav Avya the Elder to Rav Huna. The question is a bit technical, but it’s the response that calls out for an explanation. Rav Avya asks: If an animal is owned in partnership, half of it […]

Every Rosh Hashanah I cook a Jewish Tunisian dish called pkaila (or bkeila). My mom, grandmothers and great grandmothers did the same, every year, for generations. Since I am married and my mom is no longer with us, it is important for me to keep the tradition alive. We prepare this dish not only for […]

Cubs-Cardinals, Michigan-Ohio State, Republican-Democrat — if you love a good rivalry between legends, perhaps you’ve been enjoying the series of Hillel-Shammai debates that have so far formed the backbone of Tractate Beitzah. On today’s daf, we’re reminded that while Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai represent different schools of thought and are often at odds, they do […]

When the rabbis tackle big ideas, they rarely signal they are doing so. This means that you never know when a mundane halakhic argument will suddenly reveal a much deeper clash. Such is the case on today’s page, when a deceptively innocent debate about a tiny turn of phrase in a blessing reveals a major philosophical divide. […]