Bava Kama 89 – Word-Backed Securities

Today’s Talmud page, Bava Kama 89 asks whether a woman can use the financial value of her marriage contract to pay restitution to someone she has damaged. The Rabbis go on to discuss the potential difference between an actual possession and a promise of a possession listed in words. This idea reminds us of the financial bubble that came out of the growth of the sub-prime mortgage crisis and the mortgage-backed securities that followed. How can we ensure that our words don’t form a bubble of their own? Listen and find out.
Like the show? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Send us a note at takeone@tabletmag.com. Follow us on Twitter at @takeonedafyomi and join the conversation in the Take One Facebook group.
We think that you may also enjoy Liel's new book How the Talmud Can Change Your Life: Surprisingly Modern Advicefrom a Very Old Book, available directly from the publisher, or wherever you purchase books.
Take One is a Tablet Studios production. The show is hosted by Liel Leibovitz, and is produced and edited by Darone Ruskay, Quinn Waller and Elie Bleier. Our team also includes Satephanie Butnick, Josh Kross, Robert Scaramuccia, and Tanya Singer. 
Listen to the Testimonies Archive, a partnership between Tablet Studios and the USC Shoah Foundation, for eyewitness audio accounts from Israel in the wake of the Oct 7 Hamas attacks.
Check out all of Tablet’s podcasts at tabletmag.com/podcasts.