Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

December 19, 2024

Adventures on the Sea of the Talmud

Real-estate law, giant frogs, and the Jewish Sinbad.

Yesterday, those following the program of daily Talmud study known as daf yomi, the daily page, finished the tractate of Bava Batra (literally, “the last gate,” so called because it is the third and last section of an older tractate about civil law). Bava Batra’s main concern is real-estate and inheritance law, and, in the standard edition, it is the longest tractate in the Talmud. David Bashevkin comments on what he finds its most compelling portion:

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