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Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Joshua Heller looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 122. We can trace, in the positions of Rabbi Akiva, the evolution and expansion of types of testimony which are accepted to show that a husband has died to allow the wife’s remarriage. Are non-Jews a bridge too […]
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Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Joshua Heller looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 121. If someone falls into the water, under what you assume that they drowned? Even some of the most rigid rabbis bend with changing realities in coming up with the answer. Also, how is getting through Daf Yomi […]
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Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Joshua Heller looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 120. I was suprised to find out that CSI- Crime Scene Investigation, is still on. Our sages wrestled with a lot of the same questions of how to identify a body, what physical evidence is considered sufficient, and […]
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Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Joshua Heller looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 119. When do you use circumstantial evidence to decide that an unlikely possibility is actually worth worrying about? Why should the chances of a co-wife having a baby matter more than those of a mother-in-law? The opening and […]
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Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Joshua Heller looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 118. It’s Schrodinger’s husband- one wife says he’s alive, the other says he’s dead. Why would someone lie about such a thing to harm another person, even though they are harming themselves at the same time? What do […]
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Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Joshua Heller looks at Masechet Yevamot, Daf 117. How suspicious should we be of someone’s motivations based on the questions they ask, or the concerns that they express? Do you have to be Sherlock holmes to conclude that someone whose first concern is for the […]
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Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Joshua Heller looks at Masechet Chagigah Daf 16. Today we’ll learn a little bit about Angels and Demons (with apologies to Dan Brown). Then we will return to law, as we pick up on what may well have been the very first dispute in rabbinic […]
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Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Joshua Heller looks at Masechet Chagigah Daf 15. Rabbi Elisha Ben Abuya is one of the tragic figures of rabbinic literature- he entered the realm of esoteric knowledge and was drawn into heresy, becoming “Acher”- “the other.” More recently, there has been new interest in […]
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Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Joshua Heller looks at Masechet Chagigah Daf 14. Four entered the Pardes, the orchard of enlightenment, and only one emerged whole. How did Rabbi Akiva do it? What’s the real danger of mystical exploration? The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from […]
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Welcome to the Daily Daf Differently. In this episode, Rabbi Joshua Heller looks at Masechet Chagigah Daf 13. The sages forbad study of Ma’aseh Merkavah- Ezekiel’s vision of the divine chariot. Why did he picture God surrounded by strange, 4-faced beasts? We’ll find answers from ancient archeology and later mysticism. But be careful, one person […]
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