Preparing to learn daf yomi Yerushalmi

Question

I am planning to start learning daf yomi Yerushalmi. I have never learned Yerushalmi before

1. Are there websites the provide the text and audio explanation of the daf akin to those that exist for Bavli?
2. What are some (top 5 at most) helpful things to keep in mind when learning Yerushalmi
3. What are some (top 5 at most) ways that learning the Yerushalmi differs from the Bavli?
4. Are there major mainstream rishonim who comment on the Yerushalmi? If so who?

Answer 1

The single best place for online texts, commentaries and shiurim relating to Yerushalmi is definitely http://www.yerushalmionline.org/

They have daf yomi recordings for all of the Yerushalmi from shiurim given by Rabbi Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer as well as 100s of pdf's of articles and commentaries on the Yerushalmi.

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In my limited experience with the Yerushalmi, I notice that a lot of the helping words that help you figure out what is a question, what is an answer, who is saying what, when a new topic begins etc. are often missing in the Yerushalmi (eg. בשלמא, התם, אמר, גופא, אם כן, etc.). This can be quite frustrating, although I imagine that with practice you will develop a feel for what's going on, much as many do with the Bavli. So I'd say keep in mind that the flow will be choppier and that you should always think twice before reading a group of phrases as one piece.

Answer 2

The best online resource would be yerushalmionline.org. It contains shiurim from R' Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer on the entire Yerushalmi, and links to helpful seforim.

The top things to keep in mind (sorry, I can't think of exactly 5 right now) are that Yerushalmi's language is more terse than that of Bavli, and there is often little or no consensus as to how a particular passage is to be interpreted. Without Rashi, many aspects are hard to pin down with any degree of certainty.

I'm not aware of any commentary from a Rishon directly on Yerushalmi, other than two on Shekalim (which is commonly treated as a "Bavli" masechta). However, there are various compendiums that collect the words of the Rishonim according to the order of Yerushalmi.

Artscroll has now finished elucidating the Yerushalmi, in the same style as their Bavli elucidation. Other than that, Rav Chaim Kanievsky has a to-the-point commentary that is currently available on Zeraim and Moed. (You can find it on Hebrewbooks.org, but they unfortunately did not enter the title or author information properly. You'll need to search for תלמוד ירושלמי, and the seforim that were printed in Bnei Brak are the ones you're looking for.) There is also a multi-volume commentary called Lev Yerushalayim that I would recommend, but I don't think it's available online.

Answer 3

To add to some of the other answers:

• Maybe 2 and 3: I've been doing Yerushalmi Challah for some months now, and I strongly recommend getting an up-to-date edition, like Oz V'hadar or Artscroll. Learning from one of the older editions, with just the Pnei Moshe or Korbon Aharon, was incredibly frustrating for me and in the end (for me) just not a good way to do it. Some of the mefarshim available in the newer editions are just way easier and faster to use.
• One caveat, addressing 3: since there are no regular Rishonim on Yerushalmi, and it was much less "worked over", the girsa and versioning is really different. You can pick one difficult sugya and find among the mefarshim several completely different ways of reading it, along with completely different versions of the text. You'll need to figure out how to deal with that; it is much more prevalent and profound than anything you'll see in the Bavli. In that sense it reminds me more of learning mishnayos Taharos, where again you'll see very very different readings among the mefarshim.
• Little more on 3: Since there is this "play" available, in that the girsa is much more flexible, you will quickly see that some of the different mefarshim have very different attitudes towards the trade-off between girsa and difficult pshat. My impression is, for instance, that the Gr"a changes the girsa very frequently, frequently just turns it upside down, and Maharam Fulda is much more likely to try to work out the pshat in the printed version. They also differ on how hard they will try to get the Yerushalmi to agree with the Bavli. A friend of mine who's been doing Yerushalmi Shevi'is made similar observations to me.
• As for 4: There are many Rishonim who comment on the Yerushalmi, but generally not in an organized fashion. They are scattered all over Shas Bavli, wherever things come up. As I said, I'm doing Challah, and the Rosh (in Menachos) and the Ramban (in Bechoros) have Hilchos Challah, and then there's the Rash on the mishnayos, and of course always the Rambam. Since there is no Talmud Bavli on Challah, they all quote the Yerushalmi constantly; that is the basis of their psak. - But not on the page in the Yerushalmi, so I end up just learning those sources separately. They are often heavily represented on one sugya and non-existent on another.

Answer 4

1. As for sites - I'm surprised nobody has yet mentioned my favorite, Dafyomi Advancement Forum's Yerushalmi section, https://www.dafyomi.co.il/yeru/yeru_picker_daf.php.

2-4. You will find a number of nice tips regarding differences between Bavli/Yerushalmi in their introduction to Shekalim, see sections (c), (d), (e). Good luck!