Talking Talmud

Mar 08 2025 1892 ep. 19 mins 70
Talking Talmud Podcast artwork

Learning the daf? We have something for you to think about. Not learning the daf? We have something for you to think about! (Along with a taste of the daf...) Join the conversation with us!

  Religion & Spirituality
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Sanhedrin 82: Zealotry

Mar 08 2025 23 mins  
Rav Dimi traveled from the land of Israel to Babylonia: The Hasmonean court isn't decrees against a man sleeping with a non-Jewish woman that puts him in violation of 4 injunctions: a woman who is impure from menstruation (even if she's not Jewish, when that wouldn't usually apply), a non-Jewish maidservant, a non-Jewish woman, and a married woman. That last one was sub

Sanhedrin 81: When the Court Can't Execute Those Who Deserve It

Mar 07 2025 18 mins  
Mishnayot! 1 - Someone who has incurred two different kinds of death penalties (but can only be killed once) - he is killed with the worse of them. Someone who has incurred two death penalties with one action, likewise to the more severe punishment. Which is tricky because there are such disputes over the hierarchy of the severity of the ways of execution. Also, 2 - someone who has

Sanhedrin 80: Talmudic Forensics (and Word Problems)

Mar 06 2025 13 mins  
Ongoing discussion of a guilty party intermingled with innocent people (for example). Beginning with a case of two people standing together - and an arrow being shot from there those two people are, which kills someone. But since there's no way to identify which of those two shot the arrow, both are off the hook. Even if one of them is so righteous (like Abba Halafta) that the

Sanhedrin 79: Force, Intent, and What It Takes to Convict

Mar 05 2025 15 mins  
Two new mishnayot! First, one with the case of one who intends to kill an animal, but kills a person, or a non-Jew and then Jew, etc. Disturbing cases, but in the effort of determining the parameters of the case - when the perpetrator would be culpable, and when not. Plus, many cases of intending one action (including killing), but where the result is the death of someone else - wh

Sanhedrin 78: Killing a Dead Man

Mar 04 2025 18 mins  
With partial or shared causation, who is culpable? Which leads to a discussion of someone who is already mortally wounded or ill or injured, and then someone kills that person, when is that considered murder (and the perpetrator would be held accountable) - as compared to being exempt because there was no new "death" to perpetrate (because he was already dying)? And what

Sanhedrin 77: Indirect Ways of Killing - a Manual

Mar 03 2025 17 mins  
When one person ties up another, and the tied-up person died of starvation, or of the elements (on delay), then the person who tied him up is exempt - unless he tied him up, for example, in such a way that the elements begin their affect on the person who dies immediately. Or a person ties another person up in front of a lion - where the lion might not eat the guy... or mosquitos,

Sanhedrin 76: Examples of Extreme Death Sentencing

Mar 02 2025 18 mins  
Complicated incestuous relationship - such as a man with a woman he raped and the daughter of that rape (don't we know that that's an unacceptable!?!). Plus, a discussion of poverty and the potential for moving on or, conversely, falling back. Plus, the counter to the loving family, as presumed from the ceiling decoration And the ambiguity a word "et'hen," the

Sanhedrin 75: Burning Incest

Mar 01 2025 22 mins  
Chapter 9! With a new mishnah too - on those whose crimes warrant execution, at this time, the death penalty is to be burning, including the adulterous daughter of a kohen. Plus, the man who sleeps with both a wife and her mother, as an example of other cases of incest that get the "burning" execution. And then Gemara works hard to show that the cases are learned from eac

Sanhedrin 74: Sin and Save Your Life (with Exceptions)

Feb 28 2025 18 mins  
A gathering of sages in an attic in Lod, and they were discussing martyrdom and when it was mandated. That is, most of the time, saving one's life takes precedence, except for "the big 3" - idolatry, adultery (and other illicit sexual relations), and murder (because who can say "whose blood is redder"?!). But whether the violation of the mitzvah is to be pub

Sanhedrin 73: To Prevent the Sinner from Sinning

Feb 28 2025 19 mins  
A new mishnah! When a person who is committing a crime can be killed - and what kind of crimes warrant putting such a person to death before he can commit the crime. With sources from the Torah to derive the cases. Also, the many sins that one can save another from sinning by killing him - take his life in order to save him. But not every sin! With rape, even of the betrothed young