Since September of 2012, Rabbi Yosef Grossman has diligently pored over tractate Brachos in the Talmud Yerushalmi page by page, recording a shiur on every daf. Now, after four and a quarter years, the tractate has been concluded and the entirety of the work is available for those who wish to study Yerushalmi Brachos at their own pace.
Rabbi Grossman, Senior Rabbinic Coordinator at the OU and Director of its Kosher Education Department, was already familiar to listeners of OU Torah thanks to his popular shiurim on tractate Avos as part of the OU’s Mishna Yomit. Rabbi Grossman brought his trademark clarity and depth to the Talmud Yerushalmi as well.
The Talmud Yerushalmi, while not as authoritative as the Talmud Bavli nor a traditional component of most yeshiva educations, is nevertheless an indispensable component if one wants to grasp the entirety of a matter as Chazal discussed it. The Bavli represents the Torah discussions of the Sages in Babylonia, while the Yerushalmi recounts those of their colleagues in Israel. The Yerushalmi was completed about 200 years prior to the Bavli and its contents were well known to Ravina and Rav Ashi, redactors of the Bavli.
Said Rabbi Grossman, “I believe Yerushalmi should be learned together with Bavli; only then does one gain a total picture of the sugya. We see this from the fact that one of the first Rashis in Bavli quotes a Yerushalmi. One who learns only Bavli is only privy to part of the picture. To see the whole picture, the Yerushalmi must be studied as well.”
The next tractate of Talmud Yerushalmi that Rabbi Grossman intends to teach will be Sanhedrin, starting in the very near future, IY”H. (Watch this blog for more details!)
Rabbi Grossman completed teaching Yerushalmi Brachos with a special siyum, which can be found here. If one would like to start learning the tractate from the beginning, the first shiur can be found here. You can also learn Talmud Yerushalmi on your phone or other mobile device with the OU Torah app for Android and iOS devices.