That’s how we roll! Fittingly, the Tractate comes to an end with a discussion in part about the rolling of the Torah for its return to the ark. Why does the one who performs the rolling receive such a great reward? What is the proper way to roll the Torah in its cloth or casing? And how do we roll together the Torah with the fabric of our rituals occasions and our lives?

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Blessings, curses, and Who Wrote these Verses? In the time of the Gemara there was a custom to read from various verses outlining curses and punishments on a fast day. The question is raised about when it is permissible to stop in the midst of this reading and why it matters if the curses being read come from those listed in Leviticus or from Deuteronomy.

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Remember, then act. The ritual question of whether Parashat Zachor comes before or after Purim when it falls on a Friday highlights the importance of the commandment to Remember that which Amalek did, as well as to remember the essence of what keeping Torah is about.

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Measuring the Divine presence. We are used to thinking of G*d as everywhere at all times, but we see here that the shekhina, the Divine Dwelling can be seen as resting and traveling in a particular way.

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Whose honor is greater? We will see how the hierarchy shifts from the honor due to the kohanim , the priests to the honor due to the scholar of Torah. And within the world of scholars how engagement in halakha begins to take precedence over learning of sources and how this engagement represents the encounter with the Divine

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Can a synagogue be made into a beit midrash or vice versa? This is the discussion between Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi and Raba. And how do we treat sifrei kodesh – sifrei torah, chumashim, siddurim etc. What is the proper way a true talmid hakham behaves?

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Ma’alin bekadosh v’lo moridin – one may increase in holiness but not decrease. When sold, the proceeds these objects may be used to acquire objects of greater holiness and sometimes equal holiness. Where does this come from? We will also learn about tashmishey mitzvah and tashmishey kedusha – objects used to perform a mitzvah and objects that are holy and what their nature tells us about how we treat them.

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Everything is in Heaven except fear of heaven – the quote from Rabbi Hanina and how the relationship of love and fear of God and the role of free will has been interpreted and changed by some of great Jewish thinkers. And what does it mean “we do not read” a certain passage? Could this be an error in the text?

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

The mishna explains to us the minimum amount of verses that can be read in any aliyah and introduces the ancient custom of reading and translating the torah and haftarah readings. We will then move on to discuss whether the Maftir is considered an honor or not and whether a minor or a blind person can serve as reader or receive and aliyah.

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

We will briefly revisit the discussion of whether a woman may receive an aliyah and also see the opinion of the Maharam on the subject before moving on to discuss for which prayers a minyan of 10 adults in required.

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Whether or not people need to go to work decides how many aliyot are read on days that aren’t yom tov: Rosh Hodesh is an occasion when 4 aliyot are read but on Public Fast days only three. But Rosh Hodesh is a full workday! We learn that the gemarra pays attention to the fact that Rosh Hodesh was given to women as a fest day and they are required to abstain from work. We also learn that they are required to listen to the torah reading.

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Today we learn about the weekly torah reading cycle: Monday, Thursday, Shabbat and also why Mondays and Thursdays? We also learn about the ancient practice that only the first and last person would recite a blessing over the torah and why the rabbis at one point decided to change this.

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

On this page we examine the question: When does day begin? Is it sunrise, or is it when light first appears in the eastern sky? There are arguments for both opinions. The halachic (Jewish legal) issue is: when can we begin reciting the Megillah on the morning of Purim? The answer (which one could say has it both ways) is that a priori we should wait until sunrise, but if we begin to recite the Megillah after light has appeared in the sky (i.e., after alot hashachar, the “rising of the dawn”), then our reading is kosher, even if this is prior to sunrise. I suggest that the reason for permitting the reading of the Megillah during this time has to do with the association between Queen Esther and Venus (the morning star, which is visible in the eastern sky during that time). Like the sky during that time, the redemption of the Jewish people is said to be a time of gradually increasing light. Hence, it is an appropriate time to read of the redemption of the Jewish people during the days of Esther and Mordecai.

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

On this page we explore the tension between uniformity and variety in religious practice. According to the Talmud, different communities read the Megillah (the Scroll of Esther) on different days. Yet all read the entire Megillah—even though during the Talmudic period there were those who believed that it wasn’t necessary to do so. Our daf explores. Some differences, apparently, are tolerable by religious authorities; others are not.

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

There are two related issues raised on this page: language and memory. The Hebrew language (the language in which Jewish sacred texts such as the Megillah and the Torah are preserved) is clearly important, but how important? The Megillah should be read in Hebrew, but it should also be understood by its listeners when it is read. Which value is more important? Why were the rabbis so intent on preserving Hebrew? What role does language have in remembering where we came from, i.e., in preserving and maintaining our culture?

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

With this page, we begin chapter 2 of Megillah, which focuses on how the megillah is supposed to be read. The very first rule is that the megillah is to be read in order. The text goes on to tell us that other liturgical texts, such as the Hallel (which had been discussed a few pages earlier), the Shema, and the Amidah (the “standing” prayer, consisting originally of eighteen blessings) are also to be recited in the proper order. Why is this? My sense is that this reflects a very important perspective of rabbinic Judaism, namely, that the world follows its natural order. Miracles may happen, but time does not ever flow backwards. Elsewhere (in the ninth chapter of tractate Berachot), we learn that a prayer that asks that time be reversed is considered a vain or ineffectual prayer. Similarly, one can only appreciate the Megillah’s story of the deliverance of the Jewish people if one reads it in the proper order, first hearing about the threatened extermination, then about the miraculous deliverance.

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

This page is filled with interesting midrashic explanations of curiosities in the text of the Book of Esther (the “megillah” that is read on the holiday of Purim). In this Daily Daf Differently presentation, I focus on two examples of such midrashim, and show (a) how they address a literary problem in the Biblical text; and (b) how they tell us something about how the rabbis themselves and the societies in which they lived.

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

The Talmud is an associative work, and this page of Talmud illustrates this. On the page there is an interpretation of the meaning of an expression in the Megillah offered by Rabbi Eleazar in the name of Rabbi Hanina. This prompts the Talmud to offer a whole series of saying by Rabbi Eleazar in the name of Rabbi Hanina. One could look upon that series of sayings as a string of pearls. (I use that metaphor because one of those sayings describes how, when a pearl is lost, it isn’t really lost to itself, for it always remains a pearl; it is lost only to its owner.)

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Page 14 of Megillah continues a discussion (that can be found in the previous few pages) of the Book of Esther and the significance of reading the book (i.e., the “megillah”) on the holiday of Purim. We will focus on a short passage at the beginning of the daf in which the question is asked why we don’t recite the songs of Hallel (Psalms 113-118) on Purim to commemorate the redemption from the plot to destroy us, as we do when we commemorate the Exodus from Egypt?

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Today’s podcast asks two questions. What’s in a name? What is her name?

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

In this episode we look at Realpolitik at the start of Megillat Esther.

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Today we ask the questions “What is the theological back-story to Megillat Esther?”

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

The focus today is on the making of offerings outside Jerusalem.

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

On today’s daf we focus on the question of whether a Torah scroll may be written in English?

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Today we will focus on the binding nature of vows.

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

In this episode we explore Esther’s quest for permanence.

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Should a person confront a wicked person when fate is shining on them? In this episode we see how the Talmud responds to that question.

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Today we ask the question “Why do they read Megillah in the city of Tiberius on the 14^th and the 15^th of Adar?”

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Today we explore why we read the Megillah both day and night?

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

In this episode, we focus on the battle between sacrifices and the study of torah.

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

What does the first Mishnah of Megillah tell us about the Mishnah, authority and the justification of the law?

The opening and closing music for this podcast is Ufros from The Epichorus album One Bead.

This podcast is a collaboration with The Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.