Whether exploring a new twist on a favorite topic, debating a taboo subject, or learning Jewish history on our heritage tours, Torah in Motion constantly seeks to expand the horizon of Jewish thought.
Bava Batra Jan 26, 2017

There is a beautiful custom to recite “ma tovu, how goodly are your tents Jacob and your dwelling place Israel” (Bamidbar 24:6). These…

Bava Batra Jan 24, 2017

The three Bavas - Kamma, Metzia and Batra - are the bread and butter of Talmudic learning. If I, like many others, began my formal learning of Talmud…

Bava Metzia Jan 23, 2017

“Reish Lakish said: Whomever has a beit knesset in his city and he does not enter it, he  is called a bad neighbour” (Brachot 8a).…

Bava Metzia Jan 22, 2017

Throughout most of history wealth was primarily a result of land ownership. The more land one owned the wealthier one was. It is quite likely that it…

Bava Metzia Jan 16, 2017

We often imagine that the ancient world was one in which almost all lived on farms tilling their land, and only in modern times with the advent of…

Bava Metzia Jan 13, 2017

“Arba shomrim hem, there are four guardians, a shomer chinam, an unpaid guardian; the shoel, the borrower; the sachar, the paid guardian and…

Bava Metzia Jan 10, 2017

Our society venerates youth, with an entire industry dedicated to keeping people looking and feeling young. While youth is great, it is old age…

Bava Metzia Jan 8, 2017

“Everything goes according to the custom of the land (Bava Metzia 83a). As much as lawyers may try, it is impossible to contract for each and…

Bava Metzia Jan 4, 2017

One of the challenges of higher education is ensuring that one does not sit in an ivory tower where what one learns has little application to real…

Bava Metzia Jan 3, 2017

“Pray for the welfare of government for, if not fear of them, man would swallow his friend alive” (Avot 3:2). Law and order is the…

Bava Metzia Jan 2, 2017

Family owned businesses comprise some 90% of all business enterprises in the United States, account for about 65% of gross domestic product and 75%…

Bava Metzia Dec 29, 2016

The traditional way to study Talmud is with a chavruta, a study partner, someone with whom to bounce off ideas, debate, question and argue about…

Bava Metzia Dec 27, 2016

“’For they are My slaves’ (Vayikra 25:55) – and not slaves to My slaves” (Bava Kamma 116b). Our Sages understood that…

Bava Metzia Dec 22, 2016

Jews pray three times a day to be blessed with material wealth. Yet precisely because so much good can be done with money, it can be a great source…

Bava Metzia Dec 20, 2016

People convert to Judaism for all kinds of reasons. Ideally, one may accept only those who convert due to a love of Judaism; those who see the…

Bava Metzia Dec 18, 2016

One of the unique features of the prohibition of charging interest is that the prohibition cannot be waived by the debtor. Whereas Jewish law allows…

Bava Metzia Dec 15, 2016

The word damim in biblical Hebrew means both blood and money. Lo ta’amod al dam reacha (Vayikra19:16) means not only may we not stand idly by…

Bava Metzia Dec 13, 2016

Teaching in a community school, I often hear from many of my students that they are “not religious.” After all, they don’t observe…

Bava Metzia Dec 8, 2016

One of most difficult laws to comprehend, both technically and philosophically, is the Torah prohibition against charging interest – the…

Bava Metzia Dec 6, 2016

“If an oven is cut into rings, and sand is placed between the rings, Rabbi Eliezer says it is pure. But the sages say it is susceptible to…

Bava Metzia Dec 4, 2016

One of the most famous, powerful and tragic stories in all of Talmudic literature is that of the excommunication of Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, known…

Bava Metzia Dec 1, 2016

“Just as there is ona’ah, oppression, regarding commerce, so too there is ona’ah, oppression, regarding words. One should not say…

Bava Metzia Nov 30, 2016

There is not too much one can do with a penny; so little, in fact, that the Canadian government removed them from circulation in 2013 with purchases…

Bava Metzia Nov 28, 2016

“Ona’ah is four silver maot in twenty-four…1/6th of the price” (Bava Metzia 49b). The laws of ona’ah, price fraud,…