Take One Daf Yomi

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Batra 175, warns us that people will always try to make themselves appear poorer than they are so as to receive a bit more money. But as one of the Torah's greatest heroes, Jacob, teaches us, it's far healthier to do just the opposite. Why is Jacob's mantra "I have become small," and why should we, too, adopt it? Listen and find out.

Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Batra 173 and 174, give us a stunning example of a very famous rabbi advocating what at first sounds like a complete violation of his own teaching, advising a friend to defraud his own father. But the advice is much more soulful than that, delivering a masterclass on the relationship between love and law. What is the ultimate purpose of rules and regulations, and what does it have to do with our families? Listen and find out.

Today’s Talmud pages, Bava Batra 171 and 172, ask how to go about doing business with two people who have the same name. How to keep the records straight? And what did the rabbis understand about the human brain that took neuroscientists millennia to unlock? Listen and find out.

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Batra 170, offers a small but inspiring meditation on the true meaning of the justice system, warning us not to forget that every machination we set up must first and foremost serve human beings, flawed as they may be. What should our algorithm-addled and bureaucratic modern society learn from the ancient rabbis about making people feel seen and heard before the law? Listen and find out.