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once again thinking about my guy rava. hope he fulfilled his marital responsibilities to her because damn dude

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“Christian” as a name is so funny to me. What if I just named my son Jew

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I know we talk about the oxen a lot, but there's some wild fun stuff in the Talmud too. An incomplete list:

rabbi dick measuring contest

a king's 1am influencer bro routine

"King David had 400 sons and they were all hot"

an argument about the legality of literally fucking yourself

HOA rules for where windows on your house can go

"as we all know, werewolves have tails in human form"

two guys who got off on charges for homosexuality by telling the witness that it was two witnesses against one

judge using fruit to prove eye witness testimony is unreliable

"quarrels are like peeing"

a bunch of rabbis defining different types of bed and one of the definitions they use is a bed specifically for throwing your clothes on

someone insisting that the law saying "you need a jury of x amount of people" means that x should be half the jury + 1 resulting in the suggestion that you need a jury of 45 people for a murder trial

your mom jokes

"why does it say Solomon had 4000 horses AND that he had 40,000 horses?" "he had 160 million horses"

science more questionable than Pliny

the demand that a captive bear who killed someone be present at the trial

diagram of punishments for illegal haircuts

"in order for a town to be big enough to have a court it needs to have 10 idlers of the synagogue"

a rabbi claiming that you can only be a judge on the national court if you're a hot wizard

In conclusion: the Sages would do numbers on tumblr.

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Shevuot 41a:8 — The last generation of the Talmud does not disappoint

Tradition says Rav Ashi is the composer of the Bavli

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Shevuot 39a:19 — Rabbi Shimon is pro-narc. SAD

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You beautiful human being these are awesome. Will add to the list 🫡

Talmud Study Resources

This will hopefully be an ever growing list. If you have any Talmud study resources you like (online or in print), please send them to me and I’ll update accordingly!

The most important resource for study is community, so if you have a local synagogue, check if they have study group

Free Online Resources

Sefaria Mishnah — reading the Mishnah first can make the Gemara easier

Sefaria Talmud — the go-to free online translation. I believe it uses the Koren translation

Daf Yomi — daily image of the day’s daf with audio of it being read (not translated as far I can tell)

New addition! Hadran Courses — Absolutely top notch courses to give you the tools to study Talmud. Cannot recommend this enough.

Books

Your local Shul’s library probably has a copy of these or similar books! They are far from the only books on these topics

Reference Guide to the Talmud by Rabbi Steinsaltz

I love this book. It has the answers for almost every question a beginner could ask, from how a page of Talmud is laid out to the basics of Mishnaic Hebrew and Aramaic

The Practical Talmud Dictionary by Yitzhak Frank

Not a comprehensive dictionary of Mishnaic Hebrew and Aramaic, but it has a lot and is simple to use

Grammar for Gemara & Targum Onkelos: An Introduction to Aramaic by Yitzhak Frank

Sister text to The Practical Talmud Dictionary. Good for beginners with at least some knowledge of Hebrew

Everyman’s Talmud by Abraham Cohen

Basic overview of topics covered in the Talmud. Very dense

The Essential Talmud by Rabbi Steinsaltz

More digestible than Cohen’s book, but not as comprehensive

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Talmud Study Resources

This will hopefully be an ever growing list. If you have any Talmud study resources you like (online or in print), please send them to me and I’ll update accordingly!

The most important resource for study is community, so if you have a local synagogue, check if they have study group

Free Online Resources

Sefaria Mishnah — reading the Mishnah first can make the Gemara easier

Sefaria Talmud — the go-to free online translation. I believe it uses the Koren translation

Daf Yomi — daily image of the day’s daf with audio of it being read (not translated as far I can tell)

Hadran Courses — Absolutely top notch courses to give you the tools to study Talmud. Cannot recommend this enough.

New addition! Hebrewbooks.org — quality pdf scans of the Vilna Shas. Also advertises 64,962 classical Hebrew books available for free download

Books

Your local Shul’s library probably has a copy of these or similar books! They are far from the only books on these topics

Reference Guide to the Talmud by Rabbi Steinsaltz

I love this book. It has the answers for almost every question a beginner could ask, from how a page of Talmud is laid out to the basics of Mishnaic Hebrew and Aramaic

The Practical Talmud Dictionary by Yitzhak Frank

Not a comprehensive dictionary of Mishnaic Hebrew and Aramaic, but it has a lot and is simple to use

Grammar for Gemara & Targum Onkelos: An Introduction to Aramaic by Yitzhak Frank

Sister text to The Practical Talmud Dictionary. Good for beginners with at least some knowledge of Hebrew

Everyman’s Talmud by Abraham Cohen

Basic overview of topics covered in the Talmud. Very dense

The Essential Talmud by Rabbi Steinsaltz

More digestible than Cohen’s book, but not as comprehensive

[no-context-daf-yomi]

Talmud Study Resources

This will hopefully be an ever growing list. If you have any Talmud study resources you like (online or in print), please send them to me and I’ll update accordingly!

The most important resource for study is community, so if you have a local synagogue, check if they have study group

Free Online Resources

Sefaria Mishnah — reading the Mishnah first can make the Gemara easier

Sefaria Talmud — the go-to free online translation. I believe it uses the Koren translation

Daf Yomi — daily image of the day’s daf with audio of it being read (not translated as far I can tell)

New addition! Hadran Courses — Absolutely top notch courses to give you the tools to study Talmud. Cannot recommend this enough.

Books

Your local Shul’s library probably has a copy of these or similar books! They are far from the only books on these topics

Reference Guide to the Talmud by Rabbi Steinsaltz

I love this book. It has the answers for almost every question a beginner could ask, from how a page of Talmud is laid out to the basics of Mishnaic Hebrew and Aramaic

The Practical Talmud Dictionary by Yitzhak Frank

Not a comprehensive dictionary of Mishnaic Hebrew and Aramaic, but it has a lot and is simple to use

Grammar for Gemara & Targum Onkelos: An Introduction to Aramaic by Yitzhak Frank

Sister text to The Practical Talmud Dictionary. Good for beginners with at least some knowledge of Hebrew

Everyman’s Talmud by Abraham Cohen

Basic overview of topics covered in the Talmud. Very dense

The Essential Talmud by Rabbi Steinsaltz

More digestible than Cohen’s book, but not as comprehensive

[no-context-daf-yomi]

Talmud Study Resources

This will hopefully be an ever growing list. If you have any Talmud study resources you like (online or in print), please send them to me and I’ll update accordingly!

The most important resource for study is community, so if you have a local synagogue, check if they have study group

Free Online Resources

Sefaria Mishnah — reading the Mishnah first can make the Gemara easier

Sefaria Talmud — the go-to free online translation. I believe it uses the Koren translation

Daf Yomi — daily image of the day’s daf with audio of it being read (not translated as far I can tell)

Hadran Courses — Absolutely top notch courses to give you the tools to study Talmud. Cannot recommend this enough.

New addition! Hebrewbooks.org — quality pdf scans of the Vilna Shas. Also advertises 64,962 classical Hebrew books available for free download

New addition! Mercava — tools for translation, marking up, and displaying pages of Talmud. Only displays the central column, Rashi, and the Tosafot, but Torah Or and Mesoret haShas can also be accessed and Rashi script can be changed to block

New addition! Jastrow — free, searchable version of Jastrow’s famous dictionary for Hebrew and Aramaic

Books

Your local Shul’s library probably has a copy of these or similar books! They are far from the only books on these topics

Reference Guide to the Talmud by Rabbi Steinsaltz

I love this book. It has the answers for almost every question a beginner could ask, from how a page of Talmud is laid out to the basics of Mishnaic Hebrew and Aramaic

The Practical Talmud Dictionary by Yitzhak Frank

Not a comprehensive dictionary of Mishnaic Hebrew and Aramaic in comparison to Jastrow’s work, but it has a lot and is simple to use

Grammar for Gemara & Targum Onkelos: An Introduction to Aramaic by Yitzhak Frank

Sister text to The Practical Talmud Dictionary. Good for beginners with at least some knowledge of Hebrew

Everyman’s Talmud by Abraham Cohen

Basic overview of topics covered in the Talmud. Very dense

The Essential Talmud by Rabbi Steinsaltz

More digestible than Cohen’s book, but not as comprehensive

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The Talmud’s dichotomy of “here’s 10 pages of dense legal jargon about practical interpretations of monetary claims and this is how we treat witnesses in civil court” vs “We really need to discuss if other people hearing you fart is a big deal or not” and how the former is much more prevalent but the latter will jump out and punch you in the nose when you least expect it

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Oaths are apparently just taken very seriously as there is an implied invocation of G-d’s name and the potential involvement of a sacred object. They also talk about memory issues a lot

They weren’t lying about Shevuot (oaths). There do be oaths in there.

The Sages have been arguing about hypothetical liability for hypothetically eating or not eating a hypothetical loaf if a hypothetical dude made a hypothetical oath to eat or not eat said hypothetical loaf for what feels like 20 pages. We are nothing if not a thorough people

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They weren’t lying about Shevuot (oaths). There do be oaths in there.

The Sages have been arguing about hypothetical liability for hypothetically eating or not eating a hypothetical loaf if a hypothetical dude made a hypothetical oath to eat or not eat said hypothetical loaf for what feels like 20 pages. We are nothing if not a thorough people

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Implied existence of a Pikuach nefesh-style Halachic ruling in this scenario — almost anything can be done in the name of pleasuring your wife

To save a life? To please your wife lol

Makkot 16b:11 — Holding your pee is bad for your bladder and more importantly, prohibited

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A little Pirkei Avot 1:1 humor never hurt anyone

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Only when it’s a Jew. No such limit exists for gentiles as far as we’re concerned

Makkot 16b:11 — Holding your pee is bad for your bladder and more importantly, prohibited

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Aha you have fallen for the old Aramaic-Hebrew switcheroo! הר is Hebrew for mountain (I believe הרי would be the construct form, as in “mountains of”?), while הרי is Aramaic for a characteristic, aspect, or case, so an overly literal translation could be “but dirt case!” as in “we need to address the case of someone eating dirt”

I do like the idea of an amora interjecting in Hebrew “Mountains of dirt!” and everyone looking at him like “ok then 🫤. I don’t see how that pertains”

Shevuot 21b:17 — I uh hadn’t considered that possibility in all honesty

Important: you could reasonably translate the Aramaic (והרי עפר) as “But what about dirt!”

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שבת שלום!

Shevuot 22a:1 — Rava was about to eat dirt just to prove a point. Kind of a let down tbh