Matmonim: Daf Yomi by Rabbi David Lapin
882 episodes - English - Latest episode: 10 days ago -Matmonim means "hidden treasures." In less than 20 minutes each episode highlights, develops and explains one actionable insight from the Daf Yomi Talmud study cycle. People around the world, from uninitiated seeker to seasoned scholar, are finding inspiration, meaning, and relevance in the wisdom that the Matmonim exposes from every page of Talmud. Matmonim will give you skills to deepen your own learning to get greater satisfaction from the effort you are investing. The podcast is given as a live class each morning at the Raanana Kollel in Israel and focuses on the Daf of the day.
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Episodes
Pesachim 43b - Women and Timebound Mitzvot
January 03, 2021 06:00 - 13 minutes - 9 MBMany reasons are given why women are not obligated to keep seven groups of timebound mitzvot. Most of the reasons often feel like platitudes to women for a very discomforting Torah reality. This episode examines the real reason identified by authentic sources from the time of the Rishonim. This topic needs a lot more than 15 minutes to explore ways to reconcile the Torah's model for tranquil marriage with the realities of modernity in a time when women, through superior education and new opp...
Pesachim 41 - Just Say What You Mean
January 01, 2021 06:00 - 12 minutes - 8.34 MBWe discuss the idea of a prohibition stated in general terms (לאו שבכללות) and learn principle of clear communication and the difference between knowing something and truly comprehending it.
Pesachim 40a - Knowing vs. Caring
December 31, 2020 06:00 - 13 minutes - 8.99 MBCaring about someone or something and intentionally protecting them from harm, adds a quality to one's relationship with them far beyond merely knowing that they are safe. This is the idea behind shemura matza, the matza we use at the Seder on Pesach night as opposed to regular matza.
Pesachim 39a - What it means to be Jewish
December 30, 2020 05:00 - 12 minutes - 8.89 MBThe daf today concerns itself with the various different vegetables suitable for use to fulfil the mitzvah of Marror on Pesach night. Yet, as we mine for deeper meaning and hidden treasures in the daf, we discover a new understanding of what it means to be Jewish. A life enriching insight.
Pesachim 38 Why? vs. What For?
December 29, 2020 12:00 - 11 minutes - 8.11 MBIn this episode we learn about two intangible qualities needed for Matza, ownership and intentional protection. Then we explore the distinction between the reason for something and its higher purpose.
Pesachim 38 - Why? vs. What For?
December 29, 2020 12:00 - 11 minutes - 8.11 MBIn this episode we learn about two intangible qualities needed for Matza, ownership and intentional protection. Then we explore the distinction between the reason for something and its higher purpose.
Pesachim 37- Matza and Life - The Secret Ingredient
December 28, 2020 06:00 - 13 minutes - 9.28 MBToday's Daf is rather dry and technical, yet we can still discover the hidden treasures by approaching it a little more artistically. In this episode we explore the essentials of life and how they combine to create wholeness.
Pesachim 35b-36a - Matza-Ashira: Rich Bread-Poor Bread
December 27, 2020 09:00 - 11 minutes - 8.28 MBWe think of wealth and poverty as relating to a socio-economic situation. But richness and poorness can also describe objects. What constitutes a rich or a poor object? This episode explore the idea.
Pesachim 34 Israel vs. Babylon
December 25, 2020 06:00 - 13 minutes - 9.32 MBAfter examining the transformative power of immersion we discuss the impact that the atmosphere and culture of Babylon had on its Torah scholarship, and why the Babylonian Talmud Rather than the Jerusalem Talmud is the primary Halachic text.
Pesachim 33a Coat & Tie - Why?
December 24, 2020 06:00 - 12 minutes - 8.4 MBThis episode explores the importance of one's image authentically reflecting the essence of who we are. This capacity to manifest a spiritual essence in a physical form, is the quintessential capacity of the angel.
Pesachim 32b Gift or Payment?
December 23, 2020 06:00 - 13 minutes - 9.32 MBBased on the first Tosfot on 32b, we explore the difference between Netinna (giving) as Tashlumin (payment) and Netinna as gifting. Tashlum means making whole which entails a precise quantum whereas in gifting, the meaning is more significant than the quantum.
Pesachim 31a - Community
December 22, 2020 05:00 - 11 minutes - 8.07 MBThis episode explores the depth and breadth of the law of Rabbi Nattan (Shi'abuda deRabbi Nassan) giving a creditor the right to claim directly from his debtor's debtor. We expand the idea into understanding the nature of networks and communities, legally, socially, emotionally and spiritually.
Pesachim 30 The Day After
December 21, 2020 06:00 - 11 minutes - 7.8 MBThis episode deals with two comments by Rava, the great Rosh Yeshiva and Rav of Mechoza in Babylon, in connection with the practice of the Babylon depositing flour with Jewish families from which they had to bake bread for the garrison in the city. This had implications for Pesach and the day after Pesach.
Pesachim 29 - The Value in Futures
December 20, 2020 06:00 - 13 minutes - 9.13 MBExploring the subtle difference between isurei hana'ah (commodities from which the Torah prohibits us from having any benefit) that have no present value but will have future value, and financial instruments that will mature in the future and, although they have no inherent value in the present are tradable based on their future value. R Shimon Shkopp, Shaa'arei Yashar 1:9 Ketzot Hachoshen, 386:7
Pesachim 26a - Fragrance and other Aesthetic Experiences
December 18, 2020 06:00 - 12 minutes - 8.63 MBThe Tosfot Harosh reveals an understanding in Rashi and the Rambam that yields insight as to how and why Halacha deals with human experience even where this is not aligned with scientific reality.
Pesachim 25 - The Value of a Life
December 17, 2020 06:00 - 14 minutes - 9.82 MBA new insight in Rashi about the limitations of the injunction "vechai bahem" - Live by Torah revealing the impossibility for the human being to evaluate the relative value of one life to another.
Pesachim 24b Pleasure is Nourishing
December 16, 2020 07:00 - 11 minutes - 7.97 MBThe episode explores the relationship between eating and other forms of pleasure. By analyzing two versions of a statement by Rabbi Avahu in the name of his teacher, Rabbi Yochanan, we develop an appreciation of how we can be physically nourished by intangible pleasures.
Pesachim 23a More is Less
December 15, 2020 06:00 - 14 minutes - 9.79 MBThis episode teaches how to mine significance from technical passages of Talmud. Exploring the different methods of interpretation of the Chachamim and R Yehudah, we gain fresh insights into the law of Orlah (prohibition of eating fruit from trees in their first three years of growth), and the idea that more is sometimes less.
Pesachim 22b Gratitude & Honor
December 14, 2020 06:00 - 13 minutes - 9.47 MBWe show different qualities of honor to different personalities: Parents, scholars and one's own rebbe (teacher/mentor). Your own rebbe is the person responsible for your way of seeing the world and your method of learning Torah. He is the person who gave you your world-view, and the honor you show to him is different from any other. This episode explores why and teaches how to extrapolate ideas like these from text. Artwork: https://www.bergsonart.com/acrylics-and-oils.html
Pesachim 21b - Economic Value
December 13, 2020 06:00 - 11 minutes - 7.7 MBHighlighting a difference in the views of Rashi and R Peretz, we explore how economic value in a commodity can be destroyed by rabbinic legislation.
Pesachim 19 - Hand washing, why?
December 11, 2020 08:00 - 13 minutes - 9.11 MBHands are treated uniquely in Halacha and we wash them a lot! We wash in the morning, for davening (prayer), before meals, after meals, and the Kohanim wash their hands. Is it for cleanliness, or for sanctity?
Pesachim 18 Always go to the Source
December 10, 2020 06:00 - 11 minutes - 8.1 MBThe Torah will at times provide a source for a law that we can just as easily extrapolate using the method of Kal VaChomer - learning the more obvious from the less obvious. (In our case the law of diminished contagion regarding food and liquid.) This principle (as well as the law of contagion itself) introduces the idea that something or someone that has been inspired by the original source of wisdom is qualitatively different from one who has only had access to a replica of the original. O...
Pesachim 17 The Power of Pure Thinking
December 09, 2020 06:00 - 12 minutes - 8.28 MBThere are two categories of Tum'ah: 1) Tumat Haguf which, although not a physical substance but rather a conceptual one, behaves like a physical substance in the ways it transmits. 2) Tumat Hanefesh - corruption of purity of thought, feelings and deeds which can damage the sanctity of the things we do and engage with.
Pesachim 16 Emptiness is Contagious
December 08, 2020 06:00 - 13 minutes - 9.27 MBOne dimension of Tumah is a negative energy that attaches itself to places that have been vacated of sanctity that they previously contained. Tumah, as we learn in this daf, is inherently something which is transmitted from one object or person to another. The idea that even the negativity of emptiness can be contagious, is fascinating.
Pesachim 15 - Resolving Doubt
December 07, 2020 07:00 - 13 minutes - 9.58 MBBeing human, we seldom have the complete picture. Even if we know all the available facts from a reality perspective, we are usually missing perspectives from a spiritual, Truth perspective. How do things look from Hashem's perspective? The result is that we have many doubts and dilemmas. Even the Talmud often needs to leave matters in doubt, unresolved...at least till Eliyahu Hanavi appears. We explore the idea of resolving doubts by bridging the physical spiritual realities and the role of...
Pesachim 13-14 - Nuanced Worlds
December 06, 2020 06:00 - 15 minutes - 10.6 MBWe observe physical reality by means of physical dimensions. Living in the world of physical reality we measure everything and even value most things quantitatively. But the spiritual, halachic world that deals with relationships and as such it is also concerned with the more nuanced qualitative differences between things. These differences impact our relationship with things that might appear physically identical but are qualitatively different or vice versa. A solid and a liquid, for exam...
Pesachim 11 - Fear
December 04, 2020 07:00 - 13 minutes - 9.24 MBOn Hoshana Rabba we pray to be protected from Behalla, which as we see in this episode means fear of loss. Fear of loss can lead people to behave in self-destructive and addictive ways. Daf 11 develops two different educational approaches to how to manage the behavior of people who are infected with fear or addiction.
Pesachim 10 - Living in Paradox
December 04, 2020 07:00 - 13 minutes - 8.98 MBIt can happen that two principles, each of which is true in an absolute sense, can not be reconciled. (A) can be true and (B) can be true but sometimes (A) + (B) is not true. Like the axion of Hashem's omniscience and the axiom of our free choice are not reconcilable. This is what paradox is, and we are taught to manage paradox from a very young age. This episode explores Halacha's way of managing paradox.
Pesachim 12 - Dancing to Nature's Beat
December 04, 2020 07:00 - 15 minutes - 10.6 MBTime and timing are two different, but connected, ideas. Time is what we use to synchronize events. Timing is the natural rhythm of nature such as the movement of the sun, the days of the weeks, the waxing and waning of the moon. Hours, minutes and seconds are artificial measurements we have created for the more efficient and accurate management of time. Tora uses time to synchronize, but wants people to align themselves to the natural rhythm of the universe rather than to be obsessed only w...
Pesachim 9 - Halacha: Truth & Reality
December 03, 2020 12:00 - 15 minutes - 11 MBThis episode further develops the idea of how Truth and Reality are different. Science deals with Reality. Torah deals with Truth. Reality is about objects, Truth is about the relationship between objects. When checking our homes for chameitz (leavened bread) before Pesach, Halacha allows us in certain cases to ignore the possibility that in reality there could be chameitz there. In terms of relationships (Truth) we have no connection with that chameitz and therefore do not need to check ...
Pesachim 8 - Focus & Diffusion
December 03, 2020 11:00 - 13 minutes - 9.2 MBThere is a difference between Truth (in an absolute sense) and reality. Reality is empirical knowledge; that which we perceive with our five senses. In the final analysis, reality is subjective. We can never be sure that what we sense is always real in an absolute way. Truth however is the wisdom we extrapolate from the Torah, and as Hashem's word, we believe it to be true in the absolute. In this episode we learn about the qualitative differences between various sources of light and why w...
Pesachim 7 - Seeking and Searching
December 03, 2020 09:00 - 9 minutes - 6.62 MBThis episode, an introduction to the Matmonim series, explores why we extrapolate some of the laws of bedikat hameittz from the verse dealing with the search for Joseph's cup in Binyamin's bag. It clarifies the difference between searching for something you know is there, but don't know quite where, and seeking something you are not sure even exists.