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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!

Sal generally goes live on Facebook and YouTube at 6pm Sunday-Thursday, 12pm 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.

  • Topics covered:Chapter 1, Mishna 1How does a wife become a “sotah” – a suspected adulteress? Two witnesses saw her husband warn her not to seclude herself with a particular man, and two witnesses saw her subsequently seclude herself with that …

  • Topics covered:Chapter 9, Mishna 7Zav and zava – different kind of impurity, gonorrhea like discharge – emissions but not sexual emissions. If he emits ziva liquid twice, any further discharge is also considered ziva. But we check the ask the …

  • Topics covered:Chapter 9, Mishna 5, 6Ritual impurity of graves does not apply to gentile graves because their impurity is not imparted via a tent (applies to one walking over a grave). Three corpses buried in one spot or discovered for …

  • Topics covered:Chapter 9, Mishna 4Somebody goes into cave to immerse for one of two reasons: became impure for dead/now immersing to purify, or just to cool off. Then he finds out a corpse was floating in pool. Either way, he …

  • Topics covered:Chapter 9, Mishna 3, 4A slave can’t take a vow that interferes with rights of his owner. If slave makes nazirus vow that he can’t fulfill and then runs away, does he have to fulfill vow? He’s free, but …

  • Topics covered:Chapter 9, Mishna 1, 2Gentiles are included in laws of valuations, in that they can be the subject of an erech vow. They can bring an olah offering and they can make a vow to bring that offering. But …

  • Topics covered:Chapter 9, Mishna 1Laws of nazirus don’t apply to non-Jews. Greater stringency for women than slaves because master can override slave’s nazirus, but a husband or father can’t override for wife/daughter (after allowing the vow to stand initially). Biblical …

  • Topics covered:Chapter 8, Mishna 3The complex case of a nazir who is uncertain whether s/he became tamei for the dead AND whether s/he contracted tzaraas. S/he will end up observing a quadruple term of nazirus, and the gemara explains why… …

  • Topics covered:Chapter 8, Mishna 1, 2, 3Men not permitted to shave certain parts of body because it’s like putting on a women’s garment. Cross dressing prohibition depends on local custom of what men & women wear, as well as intent …

Key Dafs

  •   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. …

  •   Topics covered: To be liable for carrying or throwing on Shabbos, one must first make a valid taking and finish with a valid placing of the object. If one draws water from water, or pours water into water, one …

  •   Topics covered: Why can we make up a missed Amidah but not a Shema? Rabba’s insight could uproot mountains, Rav Yosef’s knowledge encompassed the entire tradition since Sinai. Which takes precedence? Torah scholars increase peace in the world 🌎 …

  •   Topics covered: Three matters lengthen our years, three shorten, three things come only through great blessing: a good king, a good year, a good dream. A dream not interpreted is like a letter not read. Which dreams are fulfilled? …

  • 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, 12pm Friday and about an hour after Shabbat ends every Saturday. For Jewish holidays, same schedule as Shabbat. All times Pacific.

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