Machshavah Lab

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 5 minutes Synopsis: This morning (3/15/24), in our Machshavah Lab series for women, we continued learning through the Ralbag's toalos. After an introduction, in which we spoke about the difference between Chazal's "villainize the wicked" approach and the Ralbag's toeles method, we pressed on in the t...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length of the article: 1 pages Length of the audio: 4 minutes 14 seconds Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 1-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 3/15/24, entitled: Vayakhel/Pikudei: Tedious by Design . In this newsletter dvar Torah from 2012, we examine four answers offered by Ralbag to the most pressing...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 18 minutes Synopsis: This evening(3/14/24), during our regularly schedule Pirkei Avos shiur for women, we instead embarked on an exciting Purim-related journey. As is his style, the Ralbag concludes sections of his Biblical commentaries with "toalos" (a.k.a. lessons) in halacha, middos, and philosophical ideas whic...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length of the article: 8 pages Length of the audio: 22 minutes 59 seconds Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 4-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 3/8/24, entitled: Four Pillars of Classroom Management (2012 Edition) . This is the email I send to new teachers who are struggling with classroom management. A...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length of the article: 4 pages Length of the audio: 15 minutes 48 seconds Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 4-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 3/1/24, entitled: Ki Tisa: “Please Erase Me From Your Book.” What was Moshe thinking when he asked Hashem to erase him from His book? I began writing an article...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length of the article: 4 pages Length of the audio: 15 minutes 34 seconds Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 4-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 2/23/24, entitled: Tetzaveh: Urim v’Tumim – the Emergency (Outdated?) Divine Telegraph System . In this article we examine three reasons why the staves of the A...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 1 minute Synopsis: This morning (2/16/24), in a women's Q&A, we took up four questions - or at least, a cluster of related questions, followed by three isolated questions: (1) LOTS of questions about moshiach! (2) What short-form shiurim/Torah would I recommend? (3) What steps can we take to make sure that we don&ap...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 8 minutes Synopsis: This evening (2/15/24), in our Thursday night Pirkei Avos shiur for women, we took up the next mishnah in our perek. This one was also authored by Ben Azzai, but unlike the last one, this did NOT seem like it belonged in Avos. It felt much more like a pasuk from Mishlei, in content and in style. But we we...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 37 minutes Synopsis: This morning (2/15/24), in our Q&A, we took up three questions, in what turned out to be the most important Q&A of the 2023-2024 year thus far: (1a) What role should guilt play in our lives and (1b) how should we deal with it? (2) What strategies can we use to strengthen our attachment to and observance...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length of the article: 2 pages Length of the audio: 7 minutes 50 seconds Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 2-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 2/15/24, entitled: Terumah: Badei ha’Aron (The Staves of the Ark) . In this article we examine three reasons why the staves of the Ark may not be removed. Each r...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length of the article: 2 pages Length of the audio: 8 minutes 2 seconds Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 2-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 2/9/24, entitled: Mishpatim: Which Gerim Shouldn’t We Oppress? We're familiar with the Torah's repeated warnings about how we treat a ger. We assume tha...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 26 minutes Synopsis: This evening (2/8/24), in our Thursday night Pirkei Avos shiur for women, we spent a second night analyzing Ben Azzai's teaching about mitzvos and aveiros. After reviewing our questions and the basic ideas we came up with last time, we learned the Rambam's approach, followed by the Sforno'...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 36 minutes Synopsis: This morning (2/2/24), in our Machshavah Lab series for women, we continued our analysis of the wacky midrash we started last week. I was nervous because I had only had a few steps to bring to the table prior to starting shiur, but thanks to the combined powers of the minds of those who attended, we mana...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 33 minutes Synopsis: This evening (2/1/24), in our Thursday night Pirkei Avos shiur for women, we began a new mishnah about how we should relate to mitzvos and aveiros. We spent the first half of shiur raising questions and taking some steps on our own, and we spent the second half of shiur learning the approaches of Rabbein...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 25 minutes Synopsis: I got so much feedback on my first experimental episode of ChatGPTorah Talk that I decided to do another spontaneous one. In this talk, I discuss two topics with ChatGPT4: (1) I raise some questions that we tackled in my tefilah shiur last night and we engage in a little chavrusa learning, (2) I raise a questio...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length of the article: 4 pages Length of the audio: 16 minutes 52 seconds Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 4-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 2/1/24, entitled: Yisro: Rambam – On Miracles as a Foundation of Belief . I was asked by several people to clarify the Rambam's view on the different roles...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 45 minutes Synopsis: This morning (1/31/24), in our unplanned Q&A, we took up four questions: (1) How do we reconcile a yearning for God to avenge the deaths of Jews with the fact that revenge is prohibited? (2a) What should a person do if they're encountering struggles in their relationship with God? (2b) In attempting to...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 26 minutes Synopsis: This morning (1/26/23), in our Machshavah Lab series for women, we took up a wild midrash involving Onkelos raising Titus, Bilaam, and Jesus from the grave to ask him whether he should convert to Judaism. We read through the midrash, raised a bunch of questions, then took a first step in our analysis by...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 1 minute Synopsis: This evening (1/25/24), in our Thursday night Pirkei Avos shiur for women, we learned the fourth and final clause of Ben Zoma's statement. But we didn't do JUST that. We learned the Sforno's commentary on the entire mishnah, which ties all four clauses together from the final one. We didn&ap...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length of article: 2 pages Length of audio: 6 minutes 30 seconds Synopsis: Rabbi Daniel Rosenthal passed away on Tu bi’Shvat 5784. You may not know who he was, but all the Torah I teach is thanks to him. If you've learned from me, I implore you to read or listen to this. ----- This eulogy is dedicated to the memory of Rabbi Daniel Ros...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length of the article: 2 pages Length of the audio: 7 minutes 9 seconds Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 2-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 1/19/24, entitled: Bo: Eizov – The Humble Herb that Ended Egypt . Have you ever wondered why Hashem us to use eizov (hyssop) to smear the blood of the Korban Pesa...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 30 minutes Synopsis: This evening (1/18/24), in our Thursday night Pirkei Avos shiur for women, we tackled the third clause of Ben Zoma's teaching. We began with the straightforward explanation of the Meiri, then moved on to Rashi and Rabbeinu Yonah. We spent the remaining time analyzing Rabbeinu Yonah and succeeded in...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length of article: 3 pages Length of audio: 10 minutes 20 seconds Synopsis: Which classical Biblical commentator do YOU identify with? With whom do you connect on a personal or existential level, and why? In this experimental piece I explain why, for me, the answer is: Radak. ----- The Torah content for the remainder of January has been sp...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length of article: 4 pages Length of audio: 12 minutes 58 seconds Synopsis: What might the Rambam say about professional gamers? What might he say about recreational gamers? I don't know for sure, but this is what I think, guided by the wisdom of my rebbi. ----- The Torah content for this week has been sponsored by Avital as a way of...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 26 minutes Synopsis: This evening (1/11/24), in our Thursday night Pirkei Avos shiur for women, we tackled the second clause of Ben Zoma's teaching, and we went about it in a different way than we usually do. Instead of learning multiple meforshim, we pretty much stuck to the Abravanel. We were rewarded with a new and n...