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🛎️AT Daily! is Sal’s live show (Facebook and YouTube at Accidental Talmudist) based on the Daf Yomi cycle of Talmud study. The cycle began on January 5, 2020 and with God’s help, Sal will elucidate every page of the Talmud (2,711pp) over the next seven and a half years!

If you’re new to Talmud study, Key Dafs are a good place to start (scroll down.) Key Dafs feature fascinating Sage stories and explanations of important concepts.

Sal generally goes live on Facebook and YouTube at 6pm Sunday-Thursday, 11:30 am Friday and about an hour after Shabbat ends every Saturday. For Jewish holidays, same schedule as Shabbat. All times Pacific.

The Talmud is a vast reservoir of Jewish wisdom based on the oral tradition which stretches back to the Revelation at Mount Sinai, when God appeared to two million Jews and transmitted the Ten Commandments, the Written Torah and the Oral Torah.

  • Chapter 1, Mishna 7, 8 Does the moment the animal dies determine validity of slaughter?Can a jagged slaughter still be valid?Is slaughter valid if improper cutting occurs between proper cuts?Is cutting through a perforated area during slaughter valid?Is slaughter valid …

  • Chapter 1, Mishna 6, 7 Can a serrated sickle be used for valid slaughter?Does Beit Hillel permit eating an animal slaughtered with a serrated sickle?Is slaughter valid only in the large upper ring and not the other rings of the …

  • Chapter 1, Mishna 5 What if someone embedded a knife in wall and used it to slaughter?What is the relevance if it’s above or below the animal’s neck?Can one may slaughter with any object that cuts?Is there a difference between …

  • Chapter 1, Mishna 4, 5 Can one eat meat schechted on Shabbos by another person?Does it matter if it was slaughtered unwittingly or intentionally?Can one who cooked unwittingly on Shabbos eat that food on Shabbos?Is it relevant if was cooked …

  • Chapter 1, Mishna 4 Are broken vessel shards usable on Shabbos?Must an item be prepared before Shabbat to be usable?Is slaughtered meat on Shabbat considered newly created or already designated food?Is meat from an animal slaughtered on Shabbat considered permitted?Does …

  • Chapter 1, Mishna 1-4 Can a minor’s actions show valid intent?Can a minor, deaf mute, or imbecile have valid intent?Is a minor’s intent valid by Torah law or rabbinic law?Can a minor perform a halakhically valid action?Is a minor’s action …

  • Chapter 1, Mishna 1 From where is the rule to follow the majority derived?Do we clearly follow the majority when the majority is directly visible and countable?Do we follow a majority that is assumed but not directly countable?What is the …

  • Chapter 1, Mishna 1 What if animal is slaughtered with knife that turns out to not be smooth?What if it’s not clear if knife had been non-smooth before the slaughter?What is presumptive status of any animal?How is status of animal …

  • Chapter 1, Mishna 1 Is slaughter with a white hot knife valid even though the knife burns the throat?What are simanim?Is a tzaraas mark from a white hot skewer considered a boil or a burn?What difference does it make whether …

Key Dafs

  • Topics covered: Chapter 1, Mishna 5 What is tumah, ritual impurity? How does to relate to tahara, ritual purity, and kedusha, holiness? How is tumah a acquired? How is it transmitted? What are its degrees? What are the consequences of …

  •   Topics covered: Chapter 6, Mishna 1 The first commandment is “Be fruitful and multiply.” If it only meant “Reproduce,” then “be fruitful” would be redundant. Be fruitful is the secret to life: bearing fruit is what we souls were …

  •   Topics covered: Chapter 3, Mishna 6, 7 KEY DAF! Putting our page in context. What have learned so far in our Talmud journey? Why does the concept of eruv matter? Because we transform space by creating an edifice in …

  •   Topics covered: Chapter 1, Mishna 2 Beis Shammai and Beis Hillel disagree on how to correct an alleyway so carrying is permitted there on Shabbos. A certain student gives his own interpretation of the dispute. Who is this student? …

  •   Topics covered: Chapter 24, Mishna 3, 4 “Shatit” dip may be mixed on Shabbos, but its method of prep should be altered. Related teachings brought down from the notebooks of Zeiri and Levi, who learned before Rabbi Chiyya and …

  •   Topics covered: Chapter 23, Mishna 6, Chapter 24, Mishna 1 R’ Abbahu says the souls of the righteous shuttle back and forth between this world and the World of Souls for a year after death. Rav says that if …

  •   Topics Covered: Shevut ecompasses Rabbinic decrees designed either to protect us from committing Biblical transgressions or to enhance the sanctity, spirituality and beauty of Shabbos. The first Mishnah of Chapter 18 teaches that we may move some of our …

  •   Topics covered: How the sages honored Shabbos! This page has too many great, classic teachings in one place, so it’s really worth reviewing and studying. Welcoming the Shabbat bride – source for the 16th century song Lecha Dodi which …

  •   Topics covered: To be liable for writing on Shabbos, one must write two letters that endure, which generally means they spell a word. One example is Shem, a name made from the first two letters the longer name Shimon. …

  • Load More Key Dafs

The Talmud’s core is the Mishnah, written around 200 CE during a Roman persecution so intense that our sage Rabbi Yehuda the Prince feared the Oral Torah would be lost if not set down. The Mishnah is terse and coded, and thus requires interpretation and elucidation in order to be understood. The next layer of commentary was the Gemara, added around 500 CE in the Jewish community of Babylonia, where the centers of learning moved to escape Roman persecution. The Mishnah plus the Gemara equals the Talmud, but the oral tradition never stopped moving forward, with commentaries added in ever century since.

Now Salvador Litvak will attempt to add his own commentary via 40-60 minute live show every day for seven and half years. Sal generally goes live on Facebook and YouTube at 6pm Sunday-Thursday, 11:30 am Friday and about an hour after Shabbat ends every Saturday. For Jewish holidays, same schedule as Shabbat. All times Pacific.

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