This short daf completes Tractate Moed Katan. We learn what a person should say when departing from a dead person and what he should say when departing from a live person. Learn this daf carefully and commit it to memory because getting it wrong can have dire consequences!

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.

Is death meaningful? That’s one of the questions this daf asks. What I mean by this is can one observe how a person died, quickly or slowly, at an old age or at a young age, and understand anything about that person’s life? Was God punishing him or rewarding him? Or are the length and other crucial aspects of our lives a matter of pure luck? Tough questions for which there are certainly no definitive answers. But that does not stop our daf from addressing 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.

Burials and funeral can be expensive procedures. They can also be a moment where members of the community use the opportunity to show off their wealth. This happened during Talmudic times and it still happens today. Today’s daf shows how opposed the rabbis were to such phenomena and how they enacted takkanot to prevent people from feeling dishonored at such a fraught moment.

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.

Everybody knows that if a Torah falls to the ground people have to fast. Correct? But there is no source for this custom in the Talmud. Today we shall see the source in the Talmud that is probably closest to discussing this issue–a passage about a Torah that was either burned or torn intentionally. We’ll also encounter a tefillin-snatching bird so watch out!

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 rather long daf contains a series of stories of rabbis’ funerals, how the burial processions were conducted, what eulogies were recited and other various tidbits. In the podcast we’ll tell the fascinating story of the funeral procession of Rav Huna. An exciting and contentious adventure from beginning to end!

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 several passages in the tractate about mourning on Shabbat and opinions vary. Some sages hold that on Shabbat all mourning customs are suspended, whereas other sages hold that only some mourning is suspended, but that private acts are still observed. Embedded (watch out for the pun) in this sugya is a discussion about sexual relations during mourning. We will even encounter a story about a man who did have sex while he was mourning and pigs came and bit off his….[You’ll have to listen to get the answer].

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.

One issue addressed on this daf is remarriage after the death of close relative. Here we see an interesting difference between the death of most relatives, even father or mother, and the death of a spouse. In the former case, one can remarry after thirty days, whereas a man whose wife has died must wait until three festivals have passed before he remarries. Why is there such a difference? And what about a woman whose husband has died? How long must she wait before she remarries?

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.

When a parent dies, the mourning practices are more stringent than when another person dies. This daf lists such differences. Specifically we will examine the issue of attending a celebratory feast–how long must one refrain from entering such a celebration and what types of celebrations must be avoided?

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.

A mourner is not allowed to study Torah. In today’s Daily Daf we look at some rabbis who despite this prohibition continued to teach Torah even when their own children dies. What does this teach us about the study of Torah during the rabbinic period and about the role of Torah teaching in the rabbis’ live?

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 today’s daf we will explore the history of the halakhah that if one observes only one hour of shiva before the festival begins, there is no more shiva after the festival. This is one of the strangest laws among the Jewish laws of mourning. Today I will critically examine the history of the law and introduce you to a chapter from my latest book.

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 look at a mishnah which finally gets into the laws of mourning, which are the main topic of the rest of the tractate. The Mishnah begins with the intersection of mourning and a festival, the main topic of Moed Katan. What happens when one is in the middle of mourning and a festival arrives? Does one continue after the festival or 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.

In this daf we explore the fascinating topic of determinism. Is what happens to us determined by our actions and our initiatives? Do we create our own destiny? Or is what happens to us dictated by heaven, predetermined by fate? Specifically we look at the question with regard to the choice of whom to marry. Was this couple put together “by Heaven”? Or was it the result of one partner actively pursuing the other?

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 look at a fascinating aggadah concerning a rabbi who seems to have engaged in some misconduct, perhaps even sexual misconduct. Does his leadership role in the rabbinic community gain him a pass for his misbehavior? Or does his misbehavior mean that the Torah that he teaches is not true 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.

It is often difficult to use the Bavli to see how Jews/rabbis actually lived their lives during the Talmudic period. Today’s daf gives us the opportunity to see how the sages used the power to excommunicate people as a major threat in their adjudication of the law. We can learn a little bit about how this procedure was conducted and what power the rabbis had in Babylonia to enforce their authority over civil matters.

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 daf lists fourteen practices of mourning, and compares them with laws related a person who has been excommunicated or a person with skin disease (tzaraat). Most of these mourning practices either deprive the person of regular comforts or remove him/her from the community. One custom though seems to be different–overturning the bed. In today’s daf we learn about the symbolic meaning of this ancient mourning custom.

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 daf is the first daf of the third chapter, a chapter which is concerned mostly with the laws of mourning. The passage upon which I focus today deals with the issue of standardization of halakhah. When an activity has been prohibited in order to steer people’s behavior in the right direction does the prohibition still apply when there is no such concern. Specifically, the Talmud addresses the issue of shaving/cutting hair during the festival. This is usually prohibited because the rabbis wanted people to get their hair cut/shave before the festival, so that they could look good from the beginning. But what if something happened to prevent the person from going to the barber before the festival, something out of his control? Can he go during the festival? And what will people say?

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 the sins of the fathers be visited upon the children? Theologically, perhaps, but the rabbis have a different understanding of how things should work–practically and ritually– in the world of here and now.

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.

May a non-Jw do work on Shabbat or Yom Tov that is forbidden for a Jew to do? Rabbi Yehudah Hanasi imagines a world where Jews and non-Jews do favors for one another, and where the “Shabbos Goy” may occasionally be a friend around the corner.

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 concept of “Marit Ayin”– how things look to the eye of the observer– can be traced back to the idea on our daf. Even when we may be acting within the law, we have to be careful about appearances. The Talmud makes clear: leaders have different standards.

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 Moed Katan 10 we will study the power of intention in actions during and beyond the festival week– what do our actions look like and how do we intend 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.

In Moed Katan 9 we will explore what happened to the people of Israel when they broke Yom Kippur and the surprising response of the bat kol, a heavenly voice.

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 Moed Katan 8 we will explore the essence of simcha and how we mind find joy even in mourning.

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 Moed Katan 7 we will look at the power of the priest to pronounce the status of someone with leprosy and the power of not saying anything. Additionally we will explore where the patient and we ourselves take refuge when we are physically or emotionally not at our best.

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 Moed Katan 6 we will study ways we may and may not transfer water during the festival week and during the sabbatical year. Do we have a responsibility to sink nature to our Jewish calendar, or its it actually nature that sinks us with the Jewish seasonal calendar?

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 Moed Katan 5 we will look at the responsibility the public has for repairing damaged works and waterways even during the festival week and how this is relevant for our cities today.

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 Moed Katan 4 we will be exploring two paradigms: a) the distinction between taking care of plants to be eaten during the festival week vs. taking care of them to improve their appearance; and b) digging old vs. new trenches during the festival week. How can these be helpful paradigms in our own 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.

Is it possible that Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel would plan to have their rulings overturned by later generations? According to our daf, that’s exactly what they wanted! The chain of tradition depends upon it.

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 rabbis send important messages in the proof texts they choose for even the simplest matters. Here, they are reminding us what an important privilege it is to be able to irrigate land of our own. It’s not just about Chol Hamoed… it’s also about Jewish history and Jewish destiny.

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.