Menachot 91 and 92 - When Do We Grow Up?

Take One Daf Yomi

Tablet Magazine

Judaism, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 565 Ratings

🗓️ 13 April 2026

⏱️ 6 minutes

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Summary

On today's pages, Menachot 91 and 92, a discussion about sacrificial animals introduces the pelgas — a being no longer young but not yet fully grown — and the rabbis argue fiercely about where exactly that line falls. A recent study from the University of Cambridge found that human brain development continues well into our thirties, which means the society that hands us a driver's license at 16 and calls us adults at 21 may have gotten the whole thing badly wrong. Are most of us walking around as pelgases without knowing it? 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
0:17.3	thrilling page of Talmud each day.
0:19.9	And on today's pages, Menachot 91 and 92,
0:23.0	we come across a question many, many, many, many of us have asked ourselves at one point or
0:28.9	another, sometimes repeatedly, sometimes in great frustration just when precisely do we
0:36.0	stop being kids and become grown-ups?
0:40.3	Observe.
0:41.2	The Gamara continues to expound the verse cited.
0:44.2	Why do I need the word or in the phrase,
0:46.9	Or for Aram?
0:48.0	The Gamara explains,
0:49.4	it serves to include the sacrifice of a palgas
0:53.2	in the requirement to bring libations.
0:56.3	What pre-tell is the palgas?
0:59.1	Word, as you may have guessed, comes from Greek, and it is used to describe someone
1:04.6	who is no longer a child, yet not yet an adult.
1:08.8	In the case before us on today's stuff, the rabbis are discussing an animal who is no longer
1:13.7	a kevis or a sweet, innocent, cute young lamb, yet not yet an isle, a strapping ram, a title,
1:21.4	which requires the animal to be at least 13 months old.
1:25.3	The rabbis go on to argue over just when the Kivis Isle in question stops being
1:31.1	a pelgas and becomes fully grown, which has its repercussions for sacrifice. And the question they
1:36.6	ask is one that modern-day scientists grapple with all the time. Just the other month, for example,
	...

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