Menachot 107 - Planning to Plan

Take One Daf Yomi

Tablet Magazine

Judaism, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 565 Ratings

🗓️ 28 April 2026

⏱️ 6 minutes

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Summary

On today’s page, Menachot 107, the rabbis consider what happens when someone vows to bring an offering but can’t remember what, exactly, they committed to. By forcing vague intentions into concrete obligations, the Mishnah turns aspiration into accountability and insists that good intentions are not enough without a real plan. If so much of life is spent “planning to plan,” what would it take to finally move from intention to execution? Listen and find out.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey there, and welcome back to Take One, the podcast that brings you just one concrete page of Talmud each day.
0:19.0	And today's page, Manachot 107, begins with this fascinating
0:23.4	Mishnah. Have a listen. One who says it is incumbent upon me to bring a burnt offering must bring
0:29.4	a lamb, which is the least expensive land animal sacrifices an offering. Mubil Azar Benazaria says he may
0:36.1	bring either a dove or a pigeon as a bird burnt offering.
0:39.8	One who says, I vowed to bring a burnt offering and I specified that it would be from the herd,
0:45.3	but I do not know what animal I specified must bring a bull and a male calf, as a burnt offering
0:50.6	is brought only from male animals. One who says, I vow to bring a burnt offering
0:55.1	and I specified that it would be from the animals, but I do not know what animal I specified,
1:00.2	must bring a bull and a male calf, a ram, a large male goat, a small male goat, and a male
1:05.5	lamb. One who says, I vow to bring a burnt offering, and I specified what type of burnt offering it
1:10.3	would be, but I do not know what I specified, adds a dove and a pigeon to the previous list.
1:14.9	It goes on for a while, but the bottom line should be clear, even to those of us,
1:20.1	who get a bit lost in the specificity of the halakhah at hand.
1:24.0	The idea here is simple and stunning.
1:26.8	What happens, the rabbis ask, when someone commits to bringing a sacrifice but is pretty vague about his exact specific plans?
1:35.9	It's not an ephemeral question at all.
1:38.4	It is, in fact, at the heart of so many of the questions central to our own very modern lives.
1:45.4	How so?
1:46.3	I will let those great Gamarra experts,
1:49.1	the rabbis Matt Stone and Trey Parker, explain.
1:52.2	In one very popular episode of the very popular show, South Park,
	...

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