To celebrate the completion of the second chapter of Baba Batra, I invited Charlotte Fonrobert, a professor in the Religious Studies department at Stanford University whose current research focuses on the rabbinic eruv, or Shabbat boundary, and the way that the laws and culture of eruv define Jewish identity. Our wide ranging conversation delved into the 2000 plus years of eruv—from the Qumran community to the Hamptons and the Daily Show. Following the conversation we study together a bit—the links to the text are below. I am very excited to share this conversation with y'all.
So… pull up a chair, pour a libation, and join the celebration.
The text we studied is on 20b and then 21b and can accessed here:
1. Vilna page (hebrew and aramaic) from Hebrewbooks.org
2. Hebrew and English from Sefaria.org
3. Hebrew and Aramaic with many commentaries from Alhatorah.org
The picture for this episode is the printing press of the brothers and widow Romm in Vilna.