Daf Yomi

The rabbis who reasoned about the day of rest also celebrated it. Plus: The Talmud on iPad and in translation.

Lionizing those who perform feats of memory and logic, who reason strictly from premise to conclusion

In this week’s page of Talmud, the rabbis show their skill at making distinctions between obligation and acting out

In order to understand Sabbath rules, the rabbis show, one must imagine exactly what work the Israelites did

This week, the rabbis ask if two half-sins equal a whole one. In what part of a sin is sinfulness located?

This week, the Talmud’s rabbis explore possible holy day violations to determine the nature of the sinner

In this week’s Talmud study, Jewishness is not just moral and theological matters. It is a way of life.

This week, Talmudic rabbis seek righteousness in the Bible’s tales of vice, weakness, and human frailty

I’d left Orthodoxy. But as I waited for HIV test results, I looked to God and the Talmud for comfort.

This week, deduction and analogy propel the Talmud from the mundane to the miraculous

This week’s Talmud study reveals legal debates that refine the limits and nature of inherently abstract concepts

When new inventions made widespread sinning the norm, ancient rabbis adapted. The Talmud’s God approved.

The origin of a famous anecdote shines light on the compromises of Conservative and Reform Judaism

A Talmudic discussion of Hanukkah and Sabbath candles leads to a lesson in the sacred and profane

Study of the Talmud’s second tractate reveals how the rabbis stuck to logic and made it sacred