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Talking Talmud

Yardaena Osband & Anne Gordon

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...)
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  • 66 episodes
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Counted on this page — what you have heard stays on this device, so it is not something the list can be paged by.
  • August 30 · 13 min

    Hullin 122: The Impurity of Skin

    A new mishnah! But a difficult one. Specifically about skin and when it conveys impurity -- with specific reference to creepie-crawlies, but there is also discussion about the skin of other animals, and even of a dead body (human). And the gruesome discussion of skin being used functionally. With a different level of impurity for human skin -- from a Torah level and from a rabbinic level, which is more cautious and stringent than the Torah level (including the question of tanning). Also, a review of different statuses of different kinds of skin, and the potential of imparting impurity.

  • S31 · E121
    August 29 · 12 min

    Hullin 121: Check the Knife!

    More on items that join with meat to achieve a volume of food that would lead to the imparting of impurity. Including "allal" - which this daf defines (nuchal ligaments?). With a focus on what aspects can join with meat. Also, if a Jew slaughters a non-kosher animal for a non-Jew's consumption (or the converse) -- the implications of that case, as to when impurity would be imparted, or when there would be halakhic complications to begin with.

  • S31 · E120
    August 28 · 15 min

    Hullin 120: When Food Is Not Food

    When do spices join together with the meat to yield an amount that can impart impurity of food -- even though the spices alone wouldn't get that impurity to begin with, because spices aren't quite food for this purpose. The Gemara clarifies that it really means the scrapings - including meat - at the bottom of the pot. But what if that includes forbidden fats or coagulated blood or the like? Also, liquids that come from foods with special halakhic statuses -- and how those liquids have the special statuses as well.

  • S31 · E119
    August 27 · 14 min

    Hullin 119: Join Together (without a band)

    A pod that has beans that come in contact with a creepy-crawly will not impart impurity (the beans are protected well enough on their own). In contrast to a pod with smaller legumes. What kind of "protections" of the food can come together to make the food large enough to impart impurity? For example, the 3 peels of an onion have different practical implications with regard to this kind of protection.

  • S31 · E118
    August 26 · 13 min

    Hullin 118: Useful Handles

    How handling impure food can become its own issue, and using a handle or an item of protection for the food will have different implications for the impurity and transfer thereof. The connection between the accouterments of food and the food itself is derived from the Torah verses. Also, in the case of something that was impure from a carcass falls on food - then the handle can import or export impurity, depending. Is logic the basis of the conclusion or is that based on the verses? The Gemara provides both.

  • S31 · E117
    August 25 · 11 min

    Hullin 117: Food Impurities

    A new mishnah! Both blood and forbidden fats are prohibited by Torah law, but there are ways in which each is more stringent than the other, and also more lenient than the other. But one would not be liable for the other prohibitions that are more connected to the sacrifices, like "pigul," at that same time. Also, a new chapter (9) with a new mishnah! Parts of an animal that are not edible that can still come together with meat to make a "ke-beitzah," an eggs-worth, the minimum needed to impart impurity from one food to the next.

  • S31 · E116
    August 24 · 14 min

    Hullin 116: Chicken and Cheese

    The distinction between Rabbi Akiva's leniencies regarding cooking undomesticated animals and fowl in milk vs. those of Rabbi Yossi HaGelili's permission and stringency in that regard. Plus, the respect afforded Rabbi Yossi HaGelili's opinion because it was his opinion, in his own region -- even by those who strongly disagreed, like Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi. Also, a new mishnah! On curdling milk to make cheese -- even when the process is done within the stomach of an animal. With implications when the animal was kosher or non-kosher, and dependent also on whether that "meat" gives flavor to the cheese.

  • S31 · E115
    August 23 · 15 min

    Hullin 115: And... No Benefit from Meat Cooked in Milk, Either

    More on the abominable products that are the result of actions that are prohibited -- for example, food that was cooked on shabbat, which violates shabbat and then is itself problematic. Also, the prohibition against benefitting from meat cooked in milk -- an inference that comes not only from the 3-fold repetition about the kid and its mother's milk, but together with the Pesach sacrifice.

  • S31 · E114
    August 22 · 16 min

    Hullin 114: Mother's Milk

    How literal is the Torah's phrasing of "mother's milk"? Does it really mean the milk of the mother of the given animal, or all milk? Clearly, all milk - and the Gemara provides the logic for that as well as a verse to teach it too. But why both? Also, how do we know that it is prohibited to consume meat and milk that have been cooked together? The product of that which is prohibited (the cooking) is considered abominable, which would prohibit eating that product. Plus, Rambam's inference that there was once an idolatry where the worship was done via cooking milk and meat together, which was determined to be true, centuries later.

  • S31 · E113
    August 21 · 19 min

    Hullin 113: The Soul and the Life Force

    Beginning with a mnemonic to help remember the cases that are exceptions -- for example, the way salting (and rinsing, depending on the order and location) renders some meat kosher. Also, what happens if the blood from one piece of meat can be absorbed elsewhere? And - a new mishnah! What if you have cheese and fowl on the table? Does that violate the meat/milk-on-the-same-table problem? It would seem not, and that it's only prohibited at the rabbinic level. And a second new mishnah - on the 3 statements about not cooking a kid in its mother's milk - and what we learn from them. Plus, the implications with regard to non-domesticated animals and also birds/fowl. And the fact that this statement is repeated in the Torah 3x.

  • S31 · E112
    August 20 · 13 min

    Hullin 112: Kutach and Kashering Meat

    Can you put a jug of salt alongside a jug of kutch - milk and grain reality....? The Gemara seems to say other substances would not be allowed - and that the kutach would not allowed.... depending on whether it was mixed with salt, or maybe vinegar. Also, bread that was used as something under the meat that you're cooking - that bread is a complicated situation, for the blood that emerges from unsalted, but roasted meat and is absorbed by the bread. Plus, other conditions that make it clear that blood was absorbed.

  • S31 · E111
    August 19 · 17 min

    Hullin 111: Dairy/Meat Equipment

    What if you roast a liver with other meat? Over a fire is acceptable, because the blood would be burned out, but an udder is not, because of the milk being absorbed. Except that there's a machloket, where the reverse positions are taken. Also, fish that was put in a meat bowl that doesn't have meat in it at the time -- can that same fish be eaten with kutach (the very dairy sourdough fermented food)? Will that meat give off flavor that would combine (in a prohibited way) with the kutach? Plus, the pressure from the edge of the knife as a factor, and the sharpness of a food itself, like radishes (as compared to cucumbers).

  • S31 · E110
    August 18 · 18 min

    Hullin 110: Udder, Liver, and Common Practice

    More on the udder. And the different practices with regard to eating udder, as per different places. Plus, the story of Rami bar Dekuli, who went to Sura from Pompedita (where they don't eat udders) on the day before Yom Kippur. But in Sura, they don't eat udder, and so they were shocked when he collected them to eat. Leading to an intensive discussion about minhag, basic practice. Also, more on liver. R. Safra is tasked with asking the sages of the land of Israel how they manage liver -- in terms of preparing to eliminate the blood.

  • S31 · E109
    August 17 · 19 min

    Hullin 109: Yalta's Search for Permitted Meat-and-Milk

    When milk flavor is imparted to a plate of meat -- it's prohibited even if the milk flavor would be squeezed out of it. With a 3-way machloket, on the efficacy of squeezing out the flavor. Also, a new mishnah! On the udder and the heart, filled with milk and blood, respectively. Also, a story of Yalta [Who's Who: Yalta!]. She is clear on the fact that every prohibited area of halakhah has a foil that has a comparable permitted area, and she's looking for the foil to meat and milk cooked together - what has the kosher version of that taste?

  • S31 · E108
    August 16 · 16 min

    Hullin 108: The Flavor of Milk

    A new mishnah! A drop of milk falls on a piece of meat that is cooking in a pot -- is there enough milk to give over some flavor? Note the Torah-level of prohibition regarding the milk. Also, when the milk can be nullified and when it cannot. And likewise, meat, which sometimes disappears against its backdrop, as it were, and sometimes renders a whole pot of meat unkosher.

  • S31 · E107
    August 15 · 20 min

    Hullin 107: Cleanliness vs. Ritual: Handwashing

    More on the laws pertaining to the ritual washing of hands: What if you hold the bread via a cloth or gloves or some such and don't wash? What if the reason you don't touch the food with your hands is because you're finicky, and not about ritual washing? Also, a woman who is feeding her child on Yom Kippur and rinses a hand before doing so -- clearly is not in violation of not-washing on Yom Kippur. Shammai the Elder didn't want to wash even one hand, and he was told he must wash both hands -- on Yom Kippur, because he was avoiding doing so inappropriately. OR it was to rid himself of "shivta" on Yom Kippur, for not having washed ritually in the morning. Plus, the question of whether the person eating needs to wash or the person feeding (a child, for example). Also: a new mishnah! Meat and cheese in the same cloth, and guests at an inn who share a table, though one is eating dairy and one meat.

  • S31 · E106
    August 14 · 14 min

    Hullin 106: How Ritual Handwashing Protects

    Rav Dimi tells the story of how not washing before the meal in the ceremonial washing that precedes a meal led to a Jew eating pork. Likewise, a story of a woman who ended up divorced because of not washing after the meal. Another version of the story -- replace "pork" with non-kosher meat and "divorce" with death. Also, the difference between ritual washing and washing for cleanliness, or washing for produce. Plus, the proper way to wash your hands for eating regular meat, in contrast to the extra washing done for terumah.

  • S31 · E105
    August 13 · 18 min

    Hullin 105: Cheese before Meat

    On using bread as a napkin, to wipe your mouth from a given flavor. Also, how long to wait between milk (cheese) and meat -- perhaps no time at all, as it turns out. Though some were known for waiting a full 24 hours, no less, from meat to dairy. Plus, salt from Sodom -- a very fine salt -- that gave rise to the practice of washing one's hands after the given meal. At one point, it was a very widespread practice, though less so nowadays. Which leads into the discussion of washing one's hands first thing in the morning. And other tidbits that seem to be about kashrut, but may really be about customs.

  • S31 · E104
    August 12 · 17 min

    Hullin 104: No Meat and Milk

    Chapter 8! And the 3 verses that repeat not to cook a kid in its mother's milk. Also 2 mishnayot. 1 - No meat and milk together, not even on the same table, where "meat" refers to domesticated animals, non-domesticated animals, and birds, but not to fish or grasshoppers. 2 - That policy of no meat and milk on the table together is a matter of dispute between Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai. Note that this is one of the 6 unusual times when Beit Hillel is more stringent than Beit Shammai is, as per a mishnah in Eduyot. Plus, the construction of the mishnah for the sake of mentioning the name of the source, as that is said to bring redemption (and for which the Book of Esther is, perhaps oddly, used for the prooftext).

  • S31 · E103
    August 11 · 19 min

    Hullin 103: Already Eaten Food

    Finishing chapter 7! But first, a case of several sins in one period of time, including non-kosher meat, and in which it seems that 2 sets of lashes would be sufficient. Or should it be three sets? What is the focal point of this dispute? When did it become a treyfa - quite young, as it turns out. With 3 explanations for the various cases. Plus, a discussion of the measure of eating for a prohibition against certain foods - regardless of whether the food itself gets stuck between a person's teeth. So how does this measure of an olive's worth work? And what if one ingested half an olive's worth? Or what if it were thrown up and reswallowed? Is the measure of benefit for the throat? Or for the stomach?

Showing 21–40 of 66 episodes