Finishing Yoma
I’m still working on something about the scapegoat, etc. but I wanted to take a break to discuss today’s daf,…
Archive
Essays and notes from the War Skeptic archive.
That’s Not How Trees Work
In this week’s parsha, among all the “G!d will totally wreck you if you don’t love Him” stuff, there’s this…
It’s a Mess
Eiruvin 19a returns to one of my least favorite themes in the Talmud: non-Jews are polluted and immoral. It starts…
Too Smart for your Own Good
There’s a famous discussion at the end of Eiruvin 13b about the futility of human existence: … Beit Shammai and…
The Land of the Living
Eiruvin 2 returns to one of my favorite themes in the Talmud, which is relating the circumstances of the diasporic…
Gamliel is my My Least Favorite Scholar
Gamliel is probably my least favorite scholar. We’re coming up on the end of Tractate Shabbat – or at least…
Take it From the Cops*
(Written with Melissa Schober) This post has been updated. For details, go to the end. Let’s talk about cutting police…
The Haitian Revolution and the Insurrection Act
If you’re one of my students, chances are good that you have at some point either asked yourself or even…
Eating Dirt
At the same time that I was reading Saturday’s daf (Shabbat 85), I was catching up on the previous week’s…
No Kings
Back at the beginning of January, I started Daf Yomi, a 7.5-year process of reading the Talmud. I’ve been posting…
Oh, Come On
Back at the beginning of January, I started Daf Yomi, a 7.5-year process of reading the Talmud. I’ve been posting…
Military Cosplay
A few interesting things I wanted to talk about from Shabbat 63. Before I get to the interesting stuff, yes,…
Sharp Swords
Back at the beginning of January, I started Daf Yomi, a 7.5-year process of reading the Talmud. I’ve been posting…
Vulnerability to Impurity
Back at the beginning of January, I started Daf Yomi, a 7.5-year process of reading the Talmud. I’ve been posting…
Baron De Vastey’s “Reflexions on the Blacks and Whites”
My wife (who is much more active than I am on Twitter, and follows some historians there to see things…
How to treat a book
Back at the beginning of January, I started Daf Yomi, a 7.5-year process of reading the Talmud. I’ve been posting…
Starting Daf Yomi
Back at the beginning of January, I started Daf Yomi, a 7.5-year process of reading the Talmud. I’ve been posting…