עבודה זרה · Avodah Zarah

About Masechta Avodah Zarah · מסכת עבודה זרה

Avodah Zarah learns how a Jew keeps far from idol worship and everything tied to it. It opens with the days before the festivals of idolaters, when a Jew may not do business with them, and on its first daf the Gemara brings the great aggadah of the end of days: the nations come before Hashem to claim reward for what they built, and are offered the mitzvah of sukkah.

The first perek learns what may not be sold to an idolater and the festivals of Rome. The second perek, Ein Ma'amidin, learns the foods forbidden because they may have been touched for idolatry or prepared by an idolater - wine, cheese, bread, cooked food and milk - the roots of the laws of stam yeinam, bishul akum and pas akum kept to this day. The third perek, Kol HaTzelamim, learns images and statues, the asheirah tree, and how an idol is nullified.

The last perakim learn wine touched by an idolater and the koshering of vessels bought from them - by fire, by boiling water - and their immersion in a mikvah. Avodah Zarah also tells of Rabbi Chanina ben Teradyon, burned with a Sefer Torah wrapped around him - 'the parchment burns and the letters fly up' - of Elazar ben Durdaya, who acquired his world in one hour, and of Onkelos the convert.

From the pages of Avodah Zarah

One who learns Torah at night has a thread of kindness drawn over him by day; a person learns Torah only in the place his heart desires; 'there are those who acquire their world in one hour', said Rebbi, and he wept; the friendship of Rebbi and the emperor Antoninus; and the teaching that the mitzvos are to be done today - their reward is not in this world. And the ladder of Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair: Torah brings to care, care to zeal, zeal to cleanliness, cleanliness to holiness, then humility, the fear of sin, piety and ruach hakodesh, and ruach hakodesh brings to the resurrection of the dead.

This page holds 632 shiurim on Masechta Avodah Zarah from 13 maggidei shiur; the most come from Rabbi Shlomo Yisraeli (139), Rabbi David Elmaleh (101) and Rav Elisha Abib (83). 493 of them learn the whole daf and 139 are short reviews. 75 dafim have their own shiurim here, each in its own row above, and “Learn in the Daf Room” opens that daf with its text and its shiurim side by side.

Masechta Avodah Zarah in the Daf Yomi

The 14th Daf Yomi cycle learned Masechta Avodah Zarah one daf a day for 75 days, from daf 2 to daf 76, from June 20, 2025 to September 2, 2025; the 15th cycle, which opens with Berachos on June 8, 2027, reaches it on November 21, 2032. Masechta Avodah Zarah is in Seder Nezikin, the fourth of the six orders of the Mishnah, and in the order of the Daf Yomi it comes after Masechta Shevuos and before Masechta Horayos. On each of those days the Daf Room opens the day's daf with its text and every shiur on it, and the rows above keep the shiurim of every daf of the masechta for anyone who learns at his own pace.

The perakim of Avodah Zarah

Masechta Avodah Zarah has five perakim, from daf 2a to daf 76b. Each perek below opens its first daf in the Daf Room, where the Gemara’s text and every shiur on that daf sit together.

1. Perek 1 לפני אידיהן 2a – 22a
2. Perek 2 אין מעמידין 22a – 40b
3. Perek 3 כל הצלמים 40b – 49b
4. Perek 4 רבי ישמעאל 49b – 61b
5. Perek 5 השוכר את הפועל 62a – 76b