Thanks to Rabbi Jonathan Ziring for his help with this Daily Daf and with countless other divrei Torah. After seven chapters detailing the Temple…
Yoma 72: Time For Some Fun
"Any Torah scholar whose inside is not like his outside [whose piety does not match their learning] is no Torah scholar" (…
Yoma 70: Don't Waste My Time
Torah reading as we know it today is a rabbinic innovation, beginning with Moshe Rabbeinu who--in his rabbinic role (as opposed to his role …
Yoma 67: A Cliffhanger
The ritual of the sa'ar la-azazel is a most incomprehensible one. Howcan atonement of the Jewish people be in any way connected…
Yoma 66b: A Walk in the Desert
"Some of the nobility of Jerusalem would escort him to the first booth" (Yoma 66b). The "temple" ritual was not complete until…
Yoma 66a: Barbers in the Temple
"Everybody is eligible to walk it, but the kohanim made a permanent rule not to let an Israelite walk it" (Yoma 66a). The …
Yoma 66: Between the Lines
One of great and tragic figures in our Talmudic corpus is that of Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrkanus. Hailed by his teacher, Rabbi Yochanan ben Zackai, as a…
Yoma 62: Luck of the Draw
For years, one of the most anticipated dates on the Jewish calendar was Rabbi Soloveitchik’s annual teshuva derasha given during the aseret…
Yoma 54: Love in the Temple
The relationship between G-d and the Jewish people is often compared to that of a husband and wife. Full of love and even desire, it is meant as a…
Yoma 53: Please Shorten Your Prayers
Mashechet Yoma delineates the special Temple service performed on Yom Kippur in great detail--and includes much discussion relating to the daily…
Yoma 52: There's No Way to Know
Great literature lends itself to multiple, even contradictory, interpretations. And the Bible is--in addition to everything else--great literature.…
Yoma 48: Try a Little Harder
One of the major debates in Jewish law is whether mitzvoth require kavanah, intent to fulfill the mitzvah (see for example Brachot13a). As a general…
Yoma 47: Raising Great Children
There is nothing more challenging and important, for a parent and for a community, than raising children. There is no formula for producing…
Yoma 38: What a Loser
"And [we remember] these for degradation: those of Beit Garmu didnot want to teach on the matter of the lechem hapanim; those of Beit…
Yoma 37: Winning the Lottery
One of the central features of the Yom Kippur service was that involving the two goats: one offered as a sacrifice whose blood was sprinkled on…
Yoma 36: What Sin Comes First?
The kohen gadol performed vidui, confession, three times on Yom Kippur. The first two were done using his own personal bull offering,…
Yoma 35: Not Such a Good Excuse
One of the most difficult things for we humans to do is to admit that we are wrong. Even when we know we have acted in ways that leave much to be…
Yoma 28: Prehistoric Torah
"The Holy One blessed be He looked into Torah and created the world" (Breisheet Rabba 1:2). Our Sages viewed the Torah as the architectural…