Yoma

Embark on a journey of Jewish learning and discovery, exploring the depth of our Yoma resources, where tagged items including audio, programs, and podcast episodes await your exploration.

Yoma 75: The Penalty Box

Rabbi Jay Kelman

One of the most challenging roles for a parent or teacher is to figure out how to administer discipline that it fair, effective, and meaningful. The goal of such should be not to punish, but to educate and elevate. But alas, such is not a…
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Yoma 74: Great Looking Food

Rabbi Jay Kelman

Thanks to Rabbi Jonathan Ziring for his help with this Daily Daf and with countless other divrei Torah. After seven chapters detailing the Temple service of Yom Kippur, the eighth and final chapter of Masechet Yoma discusses the laws of Yom Kippur…
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Yoma 72: Time For Some Fun

Rabbi Jay Kelman

"Any Torah scholar whose inside is not like his outside [whose piety does not match their learning] is no Torah scholar" (Yoma 72b). It is a given that Torah study is meant to make one a better person; more sensitive to…
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Yoma 70: Don't Waste My Time

Rabbi Jay Kelman

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 as transmitter of the Divine Torah)--ordained that we must read the Torah on…
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Yoma 67: A Cliffhanger

Rabbi Jay Kelman

The ritual of the sa'ar la-azazel is a most incomprehensible one. Howcan atonement of the Jewish people be in any way connected to throwing a goat off a mountain?[1] Does such not go against the entire thrust of the Torah…
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Yoma 66b: A Walk in the Desert

Rabbi Jay Kelman

"Some of the nobility of Jerusalem would escort him to the first booth" (Yoma 66b). The "temple" ritual was not complete until the sair la-azazel goat was hurled off the mountain[1] at a distance of some 12mil…
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Yoma 66a: Barbers in the Temple

Rabbi Jay Kelman

"Everybody is eligible to walk it, but the kohanim made a permanent rule not to let an Israelite walk it" (Yoma 66a). The kohen gadol, hands resting on the sa'ir la-azazel, would say vidui, pleading for…
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Yoma 66: Between the Lines

Rabbi Jay Kelman

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 “cemented cistern that does not lose one drop”, his greatness was such that “if…
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Yoma 62: Luck of the Draw

Rabbi Jay Kelman

For years, one of the most anticipated dates on the Jewish calendar was Rabbi Soloveitchik’s annual teshuva derasha given during the aseret yemei teshuva. He would keep thousands spellbound for hours as he wove together halacha, aggadah,…
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Yoma 54: Love in the Temple

Rabbi Jay Kelman

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 lifelong bond--which for the Jewish people means eternity. The occasional spat, where there is some…
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