What's the difference between the Bavli and the Yerushalmi?

The Babylonian Talmud (Bavli) was compiled in Babylonia and is the standard curriculum; the Jerusalem Talmud (Yerushalmi) was compiled earlier in the Land of Israel: terser, with its own traditions and fuller treatment of land-dependent laws.

How long does Yerushalmi Yomi take?

About four and a quarter years (roughly 51 months) at one page a day, using the Vilna edition's pagination.

Do I need to know the Babylonian Talmud first?

No: it's common but not required. With each day's page explained at your level, you can start with the Yerushalmi directly.

Where can I see the Yerushalmi Yomi schedule?

Derekh Learning's Yerushalmi Yomi calendar shows every month of the schedule, past and future, with each day linked to a lesson.

When did the current Yerushalmi Yomi cycle begin?

On Tu BiShvat 5740, February 2, 1980, and it has run continuously since, restarting every time it completes.

Why do some Yerushalmi page numbers not match?

Because more than one edition is in print. The standard Yerushalmi Yomi schedule follows the Vilna edition; the Schottenstein Edition uses its own pagination and takes about six years instead of four and a quarter.

What is Yerushalmi Yomi?

Yerushalmi Yomi is the daily-page learning cycle through the Jerusalem Talmud (Talmud Yerushalmi): one page a day, on the Vilna edition's pagination, completing the whole work in about four and a quarter years. It runs on the same shared-schedule idea as Daf Yomi, just applied to the Talmud most learners never get to, and it rewards exactly the kind of curiosity that wants the fuller picture rather than the more famous half.

What is the Jerusalem Talmud?

There are two Talmuds. The Babylonian Talmud (the Bavli), the one "the Talmud" usually means, was compiled in the academies of Babylonia and reached something like its final form around the 6th century CE. The Jerusalem Talmud (the Yerushalmi) was compiled earlier, in the Land of Israel, likely in the 4th century CE, and it reads differently: terser, faster moving, and far more thorough on the land-dependent laws (agriculture, tithes, the sabbatical year) that the Bavli barely treats because they applied only in Israel. Its discussions also preserve traditions and named sages that never made it into the Bavli at all. Learning it is like hearing the other half of an argument the Bavli only reports secondhand.

How does the Yerushalmi Yomi cycle work?

The current cycle began on Tu BiShvat 5740 (February 2, 1980), at one page a day, and the schedule skips both Tisha B'Av and Yom Kippur, when the Bavli's Daf Yomi keeps going. At a page a day, minus those two pauses, the whole Yerushalmi takes about four and a quarter years, or roughly 51 months, to complete, before restarting from the beginning. See the full Yerushalmi Yomi calendar for any month, past or future, or check the cycle hub for today's page and a running lesson.

Which edition's pagination does the schedule use?

Page numbers for the Yerushalmi aren't as universal as Daf Yomi's Vilna Shas pagination is for the Bavli. The standard Yerushalmi Yomi schedule uses the Vilna edition's page numbers, the edition that has been the standard printed reference since 1900. A newer Schottenstein Edition of the Yerushalmi repaginated the text with wider margins and more translation on the page, which stretches the same content across roughly six years instead of four and a quarter. If a page number you see doesn't match what a friend or a printed calendar is using, check which edition each of you is following before assuming you're out of sync; the content is identical, only the page count differs.

Derekh Learning follows the standard Vilna-page schedule, the same one Sefaria and Hebcal publish, so our page number for the day will match any Vilna-based calendar. Each day's text comes from Sefaria's edition of the Jerusalem Talmud, which cites passages by chapter and halakha (for example, Shevuot 5:4) rather than by page, with Heinrich Guggenheimer's English translation.

Same daily pace, a shorter cycle

It's worth pausing on why Yerushalmi Yomi finishes in about four and a quarter years while Bavli Daf Yomi takes about seven and a half, given that both move at exactly one page a day. The answer isn't a faster pace, it's a shorter book: the Yerushalmi's more concise style and its missing tractates in Kodashim and most of Taharot mean there are simply far fewer total dapim to get through. A page a day is a page a day either way; the Yerushalmi just runs out of pages sooner.

Which tractates does the Yerushalmi cover?

The Yerushalmi and the Bavli don't cover exactly the same ground. The Mishnah is organized into six orders, and the Yerushalmi covers all of Zeraim (agricultural laws), the order the Bavli almost entirely skips, treating only its first tractate, Berachot. On the other end, the Yerushalmi has no Gemara at all on Kodashim (Temple and sacrificial law), and only a fragment of Taharot (ritual purity), the two orders that assumed a Temple that no longer stood in the Land of Israel by the time the Yerushalmi was compiled. So a full Yerushalmi Yomi cycle is, by design, weighted toward exactly the laws the Bavli treats most thinly: the ones tied to living in the land itself.

Even the Aramaic is different

The two Talmuds aren't just organized differently, they're written in different dialects of Aramaic. The Yerushalmi is composed largely in Galilean (Palestinian) Aramaic, the everyday language of the rabbis' own region, while the Bavli uses Babylonian Aramaic, shaped by the academies of what is now Iraq. Learners used to the Bavli's phrasing often notice the shift immediately: shorter sentences, different technical terms, and a style that assumes less throat-clearing before getting to the point.

Yerushalmi Yomi or Daf Yomi (Bavli)?

Most learners meet the Bavli first: it's the default "the Talmud" in nearly every yeshiva and Daf Yomi shiur, and its Daf Yomi cycle has the larger, century-old worldwide following. Yerushalmi Yomi is usually a second cycle, taken on by learners who've finished a round of Bavli Daf Yomi and want the Land-of-Israel side of the same conversations, or who are specifically drawn to its treatment of agricultural law and the Land of Israel's own legal traditions. There's no prerequisite, though: you can start the Yerushalmi with no Bavli background at all, especially with each page explained as you go rather than assumed, the same way a first Daf Yomi page becomes readable once someone tells you what question the daf is actually arguing about.

Finding today's Yerushalmi Yomi page

Because the Yerushalmi's pagination and pace differ from the Bavli's, it helps to have a dedicated place to check where the cycle stands today rather than doing the math yourself. The Yerushalmi Yomi calendar shows any month of the schedule, and the cycle hub always shows today's page with a plain-English lesson attached, so you never have to guess whether you're reading the right daf.

Learn Yerushalmi Yomi with Derekh Learning

Derekh Learning prepares each day's Yerushalmi page as a plain-English lesson at your level, the terser Jerusalem Talmud style unpacked line by line, with a cited chevruta for the "wait, how is this different from the Bavli?" questions that come up constantly at first. Browse Yerushalmi Yomi lessons, check today's page on the cycle hub, or start learning to see a page explained before you open it.