Podcast · Devotional & Spiritual

Take One Daf Yomi

by Tablet Magazine · English · Devotional & Spiritual

As Jews around the world engage in a seven-and-a-half year cycle of Daf Yomi, reading the entire Talmud one page per day, Tablet Magazine's new podcast, Take One, will offer a brief and evocative daily read of the daf, in just about 10 minutes. New episodes will be released daily Monday through Frid

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New episodes: Daily
Typical length: 7 min
Latest: 14 Oct 2026
Language: English

Latest episode

14 Oct 2026 · 6 minNew

Bekhorot 26 - What's the Rush?

On today’s page, Bekhorot 26, the Mishnah instructs us to wait before giving a firstborn animal to the priest, allowing it time to grow and mature. Liel explores how this seemingly minor requirement protects the dignity of everyone involved and transforms a routine obligation into an opportunity for spiritual reflection. Why might the time we spend preparing to fulfill a mitzvah be just as important as the mitzvah itself? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Earlier episodes 29 most recent

S42 · E25 · 13 Oct 2026 · 32 minNew
Bekhorot 25 - First Among Equals
On today’s page, Bekhorot 25, we consider the importance of being first—not just among newborn animals, but among the people making decisions that shape history. Liel shares a conversation from Tablet's The Barbarians with Wall Street Journal editorial board member Elliott Kaufman, whose new book, In the War Room: The Inside Story of Israel's Fight Against Hamas and the Iranian Axis, takes readers inside Israel's war cabinet during its battles against Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran. What happens when the people responsible for a nation's survival are also competing to be first among equals?…
S42 · E23 · 12 Oct 2026 · 5 minNew
Bekhorot 23 and 24 - Waiting for Elijah
On today’s pages, Bekhorot 23 and 24, a strange case involving a sheep and a pig-like offspring leaves the rabbis facing a question they cannot definitively answer. Liel explores the meaning of teiku, the tradition that Elijah the Prophet will someday resolve our most stubborn disputes, and the remarkable story of why Elijah visits every Passover Seder and brit milah. What makes Elijah the perfect person to settle the questions we've been asking for centuries? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S42 · E21 · 9 Oct 2026 · 6 min
Bekhorot 21 and 22 - Shepherds, not Sheep
On today’s pages, Bekhorot 21 and 22, the rabbis discuss how to determine whether an animal has previously given birth, eventually concluding that the answer requires a knowledgeable shepherd. Liel wonders what happened to that kind of practical wisdom in a world where we increasingly rely on technology we know how to use but don't really understand. Are we still masters of the tools around us, or have we become helpless consumers? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
8 Oct 2026 · 6 min
Bekhorot 20 - With Love and Correction
On today’s page, Bekhorot 20, Rabbi Yehoshua wastes no time correcting Rabbi Yishmael when his former student gets a point of halacha wrong. But years before that rebuke, Rabbi Yehoshua had encountered the young prodigy imprisoned in Rome, recognized his extraordinary potential, and paid a fortune to free him. What does it mean to care enough about a student to both invest everything in him and tell him when he’s wrong? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
7 Oct 2026 · 6 min
Bekhorot 19 - The Mystery of the Headless Cow
On today’s page, Bekhorot 19, the rabbis discuss the rite of the Egla Arufa, or the decapitated calf, sacrificed whenever a stranger was murdered by an unknown assailant as a way to shock us all into understanding that we are responsible for each other. Still, why such a brutal ritual? And why a calf? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
6 Oct 2026 · 6 min
Bekhorot 18 - Doubles Trouble
On today’s page, Bekhorot 18, a ewe gives birth to two males whose heads appear at precisely the same moment, leaving the rabbis with a problem: Which one is actually the firstborn? What follows is a wonderfully intricate argument about stronger lambs, weaker lambs, competing claims, and the burden of proof. What can two newborn lambs teach us about the extraordinary precision of Talmudic reasoning? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
5 Oct 2026 · 7 min
Bekhorot 16 and 17 - Same as it Ever Was?
On today’s pages, Bekhorot 16 and 17, the rabbis ask what happens when an animal no longer looks the way its species is supposed to look. Centuries of breeding and natural change make that ancient question surprisingly modern, with implications for everything from wool to matzah. What does Jewish law consider meaningful change, and what can safely be chalked up to nature taking its course? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S42 · E14 · 2 Oct 2026 · 7 min
Bekhorot 14 and 15 - Not in My Backyard
On today’s pages, Bekhorot 14 and 15, a discussion of private altars raises a surprisingly fundamental question: Why should sacrifice be confined to the Temple in Jerusalem? From backyard altars to IMAX theaters, Liel explores why the most powerful experiences sometimes require a special place—and what happens when the sacred becomes too familiar. Why might getting closer to holiness require keeping it at a distance? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S42 · E13 · 1 Oct 2026 · 7 min
Bekhorot 13 - Beast of Burden
On today’s page, Bekhorot 13, the rabbis ask why the humble donkey, alone among non-kosher animals, has a firstborn that must be redeemed. Rabbi Eliezer Melamed offers three answers involving gratitude, holiness, and the surprising spiritual potential of the material world. What can a lowly beast of burden teach us about finding the sacred in even the most ordinary things? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S42 · E12 · 30 Sep 2026 · 8 min
Bekhorot 12 - A Koy-Named Ewe
On today’s page, Bekhorot 12, the rabbis wrestle with sheep-goat hybrids and the mysterious koy, an animal so difficult to classify that the sages couldn’t even agree on what it was. With some help from Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, we discover that this strange creature may have a surprisingly familiar relative. What can a zoological mystery teach us about making sense of the unfamiliar? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S42 · E11 · 29 Sep 2026 · 11 min
Bekhorot 11 - Mind The Gap
On today’s episode, we set aside Bekhorot 11 to celebrate Sukkot with Professor Richard Hidary and his new book, Discovering the Jewish Holidays: Eight Talmudic Readings. Drawing on Michelangelo, Moses, the Ark of the Covenant, and one very short sukkah, Hidary explores the mysterious boundary separating Heaven and Earth. Can we ever reach across the gap and encounter the Divine? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S42 · E9 · 28 Sep 2026 · 9 min
Bekhorot 9 and 10 - Are You Smarter Than 60 Greek Sages? Pt. 2
On today’s pages, Bekhorot 9 and 10, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya completes his astonishing mission against the 60 sages of Athens, proving that winning an argument sometimes requires considerably more than having the better argument. Presidential historian Tevi Troy joins us to explain why the story reminds him of Richard Nixon facing down Nikita Khrushchev in a model American kitchen in Moscow. What can two very different confrontations teach us about courage under pressure? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S42 · E7 · 25 Sep 2026 · 9 min
Bekhorot 7 and 8 - Are You Smarter Than 60 Greek Sages? Pt. 1
On today’s pages, Bekhorot 7 and 8, the Roman emperor challenges Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya to prove that he can outsmart the legendary sages of Athens. What follows is an extraordinary battle of wits involving riddles, disguises, impossible tasks, and one very clever pair of backwards sandals. Can Rabbi Yehoshua beat 60 of the ancient world’s wisest men at their own game? Listen and find out—or at least, find out half the answer, because we’re ending on a cliffhanger. Come back next episode for Part 2. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S42 · E6 · 24 Sep 2026 · 7 min
Bekhorot 6 - Lost in Translation
On today’s page, Bekhorot 6, the rabbis wrestle with et, a tiny, ubiquitous Hebrew word that has no English equivalent, and with a sage who built an entire method of interpretation around it before deciding he had gone too far. From Proust to Pope to Finnegans Wake, Liel explores what happens when even our greatest writers and readers reach the limits of language. Can knowing when to stop searching for meaning be its own kind of wisdom? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S42 · E5 · 23 Sep 2026 · 7 min
Bekhorot 5 - Which Came First?
On today’s page, Bekhorot 5, Rabbi Yochanan and Reish Lakish disagree about when the Israelites began sanctifying their firstborn: before entering the Promised Land or only after they arrived. Their dispute raises a much bigger question about how we approach the things we hope to accomplish. Do we wait until everything is in place before getting to work, or can doing the work be what gets us there in the first place? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S42 · E2 · 22 Sep 2026 · 9 min
Bekhorot 2,3, and 4 - Parenthood: The Firstborn
On today’s pages, Bekhorot 2, 3, and 4, we begin a new tractate by learning about the special status of firstborn animals. Rabbi David Bashevkin joins us to ask why Judaism cares so much about who comes first—and what the arrival of a firstborn changes for everyone who follows. What can Steve Martin teach us about becoming responsible for someone other than ourselves? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S41 · E141 · 18 Sep 2026 · 8 min
Chullin 141 and 142 - The End
On today’s pages, Chullin 141 and 142, we reach the end of Tractate Chullin and look back at what months of studying meat, kashrut, and the intricacies of eating have taught us. Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin joins us to explain why our most basic need for nourishment can become an expression of Jewish identity—and a reminder that we depend on something beyond ourselves. What does keeping kosher ultimately ask us to sanctify? Listen and find out. Also, celebrate the end of Tractate Chullin with Chullin out, our playlist of every song we referenced along the way. Learn more about your ad choices.…
S41 · E140 · 17 Sep 2026 · 7 min
Chullin 140 - Murder Most Fowl
On today’s page, Chullin 140, the rabbis encounter a bird that has killed a human being—and must now be brought to justice. Its strange case takes us from the Talmud to Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds and the bizarre real-life avian attack that helped inspire it. What can killer birds teach us about confronting our own most dangerous instincts? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S41 · E139 · 16 Sep 2026 · 7 min
Chullin 139 — A Mitzvah in Search of a Problem
On today’s page, Chullin 139, yesterday’s mother bird returns with a thornier question: If sending her away is a mitzvah, should we actually go looking for nests just so we can perform it? Generations of rabbis disagree, turning one unusual commandment into a meditation on what it means to pursue a holy life. Are mitzvot opportunities to seek out, or instructions for the moments life puts in our path? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S41 · E138 · 15 Sep 2026 · 7 min
Chullin 138 - Free Bird
On today’s page, Chullin 138, Maimonides and Nachmanides disagree over why the Torah commands us to send away a mother bird before taking her young. Their argument takes us from animal suffering to conservation to a deeper question about how seemingly small acts can shape our character. Can showing mercy to an animal teach us how to become more merciful ourselves? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S41 · E136 · 14 Sep 2026 · 11 min
Chullin 136 and 137 — Fasting for Gedaliah
On today’s pages, Chullin 136 and 137, Tzom Gedaliah reminds us of the terrible price Jews can pay when disagreement becomes hatred. Liel revisits a conversation with Rabbi Rachel Timoner, a Jewish leader with whom he has quite a few disagreements, to ask whether we can fight passionately over what matters while still recognizing the good in one another. How do we disagree without becoming enemies? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S41 · E134 · 11 Sep 2026 · 10 min
Chullin 134 and 135 — Sweet Child o’ Mine
On today’s pages, Chullin 134 and 135, apples and honey offer more than a wish for a sweet year. A bee that stings can nevertheless produce honey, and Jacob’s true scent remains beneath the disguise he wears—two reminders that our failures needn’t define who we are or who we can become. Drawing on a teaching shared with the Simchat Torah Challenge, we ask: What if the sweetest version of ourselves is already there, waiting to emerge? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S41 · E133 · 10 Sep 2026 · 6 min
Chullin 133 - Teacher, Leave Them Kids Alone
On today’s page, Chullin 133, the rabbis issue a startling warning about teaching students who aren't serious about learning—going so far as to compare it to idol worship. Behind the hyperbole lies a demanding vision of education in which teachers and students each have responsibilities to the other. What do students owe their teachers in return for being taught? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S41 · E132 · 9 Sep 2026 · 6 min
Chullin 132 - Ch... Ch... Changes
On today’s page, Chullin 132, the rabbis debate the status of the koy, a creature caught somewhere between wild and domesticated. With Rosh Hashanah just days away, their strange animal becomes a metaphor for the struggle within each of us—and for a holiday whose very name may contain an invitation to transform ourselves. What would it take to tip the scales toward the person we want to become? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S41 · E131 · 8 Sep 2026 · 6 min
Chullin 131 - You Get What You Give
On today’s page, Chullin 131, the rabbis consider the tithes that sustained the priests, Levites, and poor—and remind us that community requires more than simply belonging. If we want strong institutions and leaders, we have to support them, just as they have an obligation to support us in return. What do we have to give to get the community we want? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S41 · E129 · 7 Sep 2026 · 9 min
Chullin 129 and 130 - More than Words
On today’s pages, Chullin 129 and 130, Megillat Ta’anit raises a fundamental question: What exactly makes the Oral Torah oral once its teachings have been written down? To help answer it, we’re sharing a lesson from Talmud Daily, in which Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin explains why Torah shebe’al peh is more than a collection of texts—it’s the lived Judaism we learn from families, teachers, communities, and one another. Can you really learn how to be Jewish from a book? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S41 · E127 · 4 Sep 2026 · 7 min
Chullin 127 and 128 - Life... Finds a Way
On today’s pages, Chullin 127 and 128, the rabbis contemplate the wonders of creation, from creatures of the sea and land to those of fire and air. Then some enterprising residents decide to improve on God’s handiwork by breeding two animals that shouldn’t be able to reproduce—and discover that not every miracle is a blessing. What happens when we ask whether something can be done without stopping to ask whether it should be? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S41 · E126 · 3 Sep 2026 · 6 min
Chullin 126 - Like a Rolling Stone
On today’s page, Chullin 126, the rabbis encounter a mystery buried in two words: golel and dofek. Solving it takes us from Rashi and Maimonides to the burial caves of ancient Israel and the great stones once rolled across their entrances. What can the Talmud teach us about the lost burial practices of our ancestors? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S41 · E125 · 2 Sep 2026 · 5 min
Chullin 125 - Heart-Shaped Box
On today’s page, Chullin 125, the rabbis consider a curious rule of ritual impurity: Under the right circumstances, it can get out of an enclosed space but cannot get in. Their technical discussion becomes a powerful argument for repentance and the possibility that, no matter what we’ve done, something at our core remains forever pure. Can our worst mistakes ever change who we truly are? Listen and find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

About Take One Daf Yomi

Take One Daf Yomi is a English devotional & spiritual podcast from Tablet Magazine. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.

Publisher: Tablet Magazine
Language: English
Category: Devotional & Spiritual
New episodes: Daily
Typical length: 7 min
Latest episode: 14 Oct 2026
Feed: RSS — paste into any podcast app
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1493757042
Rights: 2026 Tablet Magazine

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