Take One

Shabbat 81

In today’s Daf Yomi page, the Talmud asks: What’s in a name?

May 26, 2020

Today’s Daf Yomi page, Shabbat 81, tells a fiery little story about a pair of rabbis stuck on a bewitched boat and forced to utter God’s name to undo the spell. Ilana Kurshan, author of If All the Seas Were Ink, a stellar memoir of studying the Talmud, joins us to unpack the mysteries of that omnipotent and mighty name, and how our thinking about it has evolved. Why do we refer to God as Hashem, or the name? Listen and find out.