On today’s page, Zevachim 65, we learn that the pinching of a bird’s neck must be done by the priest himself rather than with a tool. This rule challenges us to consider what is lost when we distance ourselves from the actions that sustain us, allowing tools to create emotional or physical separation. What might we reclaim by bringing our bodies back into the process? Listen and find out.
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Zevachim 63 and 64 - Flipping the Bird
On today’s pages, Zevachim 63 and 64, we encounter the Talmud’s vivid description of how priests prepared bird offerings and the raw, hands-on nature of the ritual. Our producer and resident bird-cooking correspondent, Josh Kross, joins us to reflect on why handling a whole creature changes the way we think about food, skill, and respect. How does facing the physicality of sacrifice help shape a more mindful relationship to what we consume? Listen and find out.
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Zevachim 61 and 62 - The Slow Build
On today’s pages, Zevachim 61 and 62, we encounter a nation moving from place to place, altar to altar, waiting for the right moment to build God’s house. The delay isn’t a flaw but a feature: a reminder that spiritual readiness can’t be forced. What might this teach us about our own impatience to “arrive”? Listen and find out.
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Zevachim 60 - The Song of Holiness
On today’s page, Zevachim 60, holiness meets history. As the rabbis ponder whether the Temple’s sanctity remains after its destruction, we turn to a modern echo of that question: the story of “Jerusalem of Gold.” Written before the city’s reunification, it became a national prayer—and a confession. What does its melody still teach us? Listen and find out.
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Zevachim 59 - Lies, Damn Lies, and Sacrifices
On today’s page, Zevachim 59, the rabbis question how King Solomon’s altar could possibly be “too small” to handle his sacrifices when it was hundreds of times larger than Moses’s. The math just doesn’t add up—and that’s the point. What do we miss when we let statistics tell the whole story? Listen and find out.
As Jews around the world engage in a seven-and-a-half year cycle of Daf Yomi, reading the entire Talmud one page per day, Tablet Magazine's new podcast, Take One, will offer a brief and evocative daily read of the daf, in just about 10 minutes. New episodes will be released daily Monday through Friday.