Machshavah Lab

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 3-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 10/29/26 titled: Vayeira: Radak on the Akeidah (Part 1: Questions) . Radak has a beautiful interpretation of Akeidas Yitzchak (the Binding of Isaac), but it’s not without its difficulties. In Part 1, we summarize his approac...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 2-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 10/23/26 titled: Lech Lecha: Can We Still Call Him Avram? (A Meta-Halachic PSA) . The Gemara says that one who calls Avraham “Avram” transgresses a positive or a negative commandment. Seems pretty clear-cut ... or is it? Thi...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 2-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 10/16/26 titled: Noach: Microlooting and the Mabul. Chazal say that theft sealed the fate of the Generation of the Flood. But what kind? Armed robbery? Kidnapping? The Yerushalmi says it was a type that’s becoming increasing...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 2-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 10/8/26 titled: Bereishis: Rav Hirsch vs. the World on Divine “Emotions.” If I had written about this 18 years ago, when I first encountered this Rav Hirsch, it would have turned out to be a polemic. I don’t THINK this is a...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 2-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 10/2/26 titled: Hoshana Rabbah 5787: Ho’il Moshe’s Theory of Hoshana Rabbah . After years and years of Hoshana Rabbah apathy, confusion, and disgruntlement, I have finally encountered a theory of the day that resonates with...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 1-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 9/25/26 titled: Maimonidean Musings: Mitzvos Between Man and God, or Between Man and Himself? Is there such a category as “bein adam la’atzmo”? How does the Rambam understand the categories of mitzvos? Here are two insights:...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 39 minutes Synopsis: Tonight (9/10/26), in our Thursday night Machshavah Lab series for women, I gave a shiur on a topic I THOUGHT I had never given shiur on before. As it turns out, an hour before shiur I realized that I gave shiur on this exact topic three years ago - and when I checked the transcript, I discovered that I...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 5-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 8/28/26 titled: Ki Savo – Is It Really a Great Mitzvah to Be Happy All the Time?  Rebbe Nachman and the Rambam both make statements about the role of simchah in serving Hashem. Both statements are problematic in different wa...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 5-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 8/21/26 titled: Ki Teitzei – Sanitation and Shechinah . I had a radical reading of these two obscure mitzvos and was delighted to discover that Ho’il Moshe took the same approach. Once I started writing, I couldn’t NOT inclu...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 5-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 8/6/26 titled: Re’eh: Rav Kook’s Anti-Vegetarian Views. This article is my first foray into Rav Kook's stance on vegetarianism, but what motivated me to write it is his revolutionary view of chukim as seeds planted for...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 5-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 7/31/26 titled: Eikev: All You Need is Fear . According to R. Chanina, Moshe tells us that Hashem asks only fear of us, and only fear is in our hands. But the pesukim list far more. The Torah Temimah and the Rambam provide o...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 3-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 7/24/26 titled: Vaeschanan: Rashba on What “Shema Yisrael” Demands of Us. There's a lot to think about in the Shema, but how many of us pause to consider what the word "Shema" is instructing us to do? Thankful...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length of audio: 1 hour 16 minutes Synopsis: This is the recording of the Tishah b'Av shiur I gave at the Island Synagogue on 7/23/26. The good news is that this might be the most important Tishah b'Av shiur I've given. It's certainly my favorite, both because of the ideas and because it went according to plan (which do...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 2-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 7/17/26 titled: Devarim: When Judges Are Threatened with Violence . What would you do if you were a judge and a litigant threatened to kill you? The Torah commands judges not to be afraid. This article explores the halacha a...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 2-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 7/9/26 (a revised version of an article originally published on 7/25/14) titled: Masei: The Release of Unintentional Killers .  Why are the unintentional killers exiled to the cities of refuge released when the Kohen Gadol d...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 4-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 6/25/26 titled: Chukas: Three Radical Takes on the Sin of Moshe and Aharon . There are over a dozen theories about which sin barred Moshe and Aharon from leading the people into the Land. Here are three relatively unknown ap...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 4-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 6/24/26 (originally on 7/7/17) titled: Balak: The Appeal of Baal Peor (and Darwin) . Worshiping an idol by defecating on it: what could the appeal possibly be, and what does it have to do with us today? Rav Hirsch has a theo...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 2-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 6/19/26 titled: Korach: How Did Korach and His Followers Think They Could Get Away With It? Korach and his men claim to be chosen by Hashem. Moshe says, "Let's test it." Korach agrees. They fail the test. One...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length:49 minutes Synopsis: This morning (6/18/26), in lieu of morning Mishlei, we had the last Q&A - and last shiur! - of the 2025-2026 season. We took up four questions: (1) What are the parameters of philosophical/ethical bribery? (2) How do you navigate having friends who could potentially have a bad influence on you, and how might...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: Here's the audio recording of the graduation charge I delivered to the NEJA Graduating Class of 2026 on June 14th, 2026. Transcript is available here . ----- The Torah content for this month has been sponsored by Meir Areman, l’zeicher nishmas Zelda bas Ziesel, his grandmother, whose yahrzeit is on the 21st of Sivan. ----- I...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 2-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 6/11/26 titled: Shelach: The Sin of the Spies and the Root of Idolatry . There are many theories about the cause of this catastrophic sin. Sforno aims to explain the Israelites' perplexing accusation: that Hashem hates...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 3-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 6/9/26 titled: Behaalosecha: Don’t Cry Over Lost Fish / Forbidden Relations (FULL Article) . Sometimes a fish is just a fish, but sometimes it's a euphemism. At least, that's the disagreement in the Gemara. What is...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 20 minutes Synopsis: This morning (6/5/26), in our last Friday morning Sefer Iyov series for women of the season, we concluded the Rambam's INITIAL presentation of the true view of hashgachah, as understood from the Torah by the multitude of Sages, and as understood by the Rambam himself. Because we're going to be...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 35 minutes Synopsis: Tonight (6/4/26), in our Thursday night Machshavah Lab series for women, was not a shiur but an exploration with an agenda (which I explain toward the beginning and won't divulge here). We read the famous aggadah about the four Tannaim who entered Pardes - R. Akiva, Acher, Ben Zoma, and Ben Azzai -...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 5-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 5/29/26 titled: Naso: Three Explanations of the Chatas ha’Nazir (Nazrite’s Sin-Offering) . Why must every nazir bring a chatas? I knew about the diametrically opposed answers given by the Rambam and Ramban, but I recently fo...