One of the primary lessons of sefer Breisheet is that birth order matters little. Yitzchak, Yaakov and Yosef were all younger brothers, in Yosef…
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Bava Batra 91: Avraham Avinu and Mother's Day
Here is a great trivia question to try on a friend. Who was Noach’s wife? What was Abraham’s mother’s name? Don’t feel bad if…
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Bava Batra 88: Sorry, No Teshuva Allowed
In our last post, we discussed the Gemara’s claim that the punishment for false weights is greater than that for sexual immorality. As the…
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Bava Batra 88: Watch your Weight
All too often, we equate being a religious Jew with the observance of Shabbat, kashrut and taharat hamishpacha. Without at all minimizing these…
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Bava Batra 75: Reason to Believe
We live in an age of great skepticism—often for good reason. In a time where science-with its demand for rigorous proofs, detailed…
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Bava Batra 60: Please Don't Marry Me
The third chapter of Bava Batra is some 30 pages long, making it one of the longest in the Talmud. It is focused on the rules of acquisition of…
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Bava Batra 64: 20/20 Vision
It was at the well that Abraham’s servant met Rivka, Yaakov met Rachel and Moshe met Tzippora. It is hard for us--who, when thirsty,…
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Bava Batra 30: Don't Start With Me
If you are going to pick a fight with someone, it’s best to know who your adversary is. There are certain people with whom it just doesn’…
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Bava Batra 29: My Friend's Friend
Canadian law requires one to keep tax records for six years, after which time they can be destroyed and government audits are no longer possible.…
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Bava Batra 22: Talmudic Competition
Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers, posits that it takes 10,000 hours of practice for people to become expert in any field, be they NHL hockey…
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Bava Batra 21: The Talmudic Tuition Plan
It is unlikely that Yehoshua ben Gamla would make very many listings of the five or even ten most important Sages of Talmudic times – let alone…
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Bava Batra 29: Ode to Rashi
It is hard to imagine what the Jewish world would be like without Rashi. Well, maybe not so hard. Without Rashi our understanding of Chumash would be…
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Bava Batra 14: Make it Beautiful
Every once in a while one comes across a Talmudic story that makes one shake one’s head in disbelief. As we discussed in our last post, the…
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Bava Batra 13: Splitting Up
The opening Mishna of Bava Batra teaches that in the interest of privacy, one neighbour can force the other to build a wall dividing their…
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Bava Batra 13: Splitting Up
The opening Mishna of Bava Batra teaches that in the interest of privacy, one neighbour can force the other to build a wall dividing their common…
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Bava Batra 10: Put it in Writing
Visiting Yeshiva Chachmei Lublin as Torah in Motion “Journeyed through Jewish History”, sitting in the beautifully rebuilt, but…
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Bava Batra 9: Please Sir, May I Have Some More?
The Ramah in his glosses to the Shulchan Aruch (Yoreh Deah 249:1) rules that the mitzva of tzedakah can only be fulfilled by giving to the poor. This…
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Bava Batra 8: Come On In
“We force him [the resident of a courtyard] to contribute to the building of the guard’s gate” (Bava Batra 7b). When we think of a…