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Episode 33: It’s Svara All the Way Down
Episode 33
“It's always been that if we get to a point where svara tells us that this text is wrong, svara trumps the text.” - Dan Libenson
Welcome to The Oral T…
9 months, 1 week ago
Episode 32: Our Hands are Not Tied
Episode 32
“ What this text is trying to say, as is the entire Talmud, is ‘my hands are tied’ is not how we do Jewish. It's never been how we do Jewish, ever si…
9 months, 2 weeks ago
Episode 31: A Talmudic Stitch Sampler
Episode 31
“The big error is to imagine that a general principle of interpretation applies only to the case in which we learned it.” - Dan Libenson
Welcome to Th…
9 months, 3 weeks ago
Episode 30: Magician School
Episode 30
“Talmud is showing people how you do the sleight of hand. It's like magician school! And this is the manual! A magician never reveals his tricks! But…
9 months, 4 weeks ago
Episode 29: The Heart Knows The Bitterness of its Soul
Episode 29
“As almost always, there's a wink in this text. And the question is: has that wink been successful? Or have we lost track of the wink and opened ours…
10 months ago
Episode 28: The Tile Contour Gauge Theory of Tradition
Episode 28
“In these moments of new foundings, I wonder the extent to which you have to make some kind of a plausible argument that your changes are actually an…
10 months, 1 week ago
Episode 27: Who’s To Say Your Blood is Redder?
Episode 27
“What's inherent in racism is the idea that you are judging groups of people in terms of value one against another. And I think that's precisely what…
10 months, 2 weeks ago
Episode 26: Why We Show Our Work
Episode 26
“And since they've shown us their work, we're able to say, ‘I'm not following the substantive rule in this case! I'm following the process rule – whi…
10 months, 3 weeks ago
Episode 25: Nitza’s Attic
Episode 25
“When the Rabbis start saying: Well, when does this line in the Torah apply? And when doesn't apply? – You forget that their first radical move was t…
11 months ago
Episode 24: Sacred Disobedience
Episode 24
“Jewish law works like any legal system that survives for a long period of time – and it does so by the same mechanisms. And those mechanisms are the…
11 months, 1 week ago