Machshavah Lab

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 33 minutes Synopsis: This morning (5/31/24), in the FIRST of our Friday morning Machshavah Lab shiurim for women, we took up an old problem: Why is Olam ha'Ba only mentioned in Torah she'baal Peh but not Torah she'bi'Chsav. I wrote an article a few years ago in which I summarized seven views on this topic from t...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 55 minutes Synopsis: This morning (5/31/24), in the SECOND of our Friday morning Machshavah Lab shiurim for women, we learned Rav Hirsch's elucidation of Chazal's outline of the eight regressive stages of abandoning Torah. I initially planned to give a third shiur this morning on a strange midrash on the phrase "I sh...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length of the article: 2 pages Length of the audio: 8 minutes 57 seconds Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 2-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 5/31/24, entitled: Behar: The Torah’s Double Standard for Slave Labor (Part 4: Approach #3) . This third and final approach to answering our question about why t...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 33 minutes Synopsis: Tonight (5/30/24), in our Thursday night Pirkei Avos shiur for women, we continued our analysis of the mishnah through the eyes of the Rambam. We began with a VERY in-depth review of everything we covered last time (if you want to skip the review, start around 30 minutes into the shiur). We then read and...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length of the article: 2 pages Length of the audio: 7 minutes 46 seconds Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 2-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 5/29/24, entitled: Behar: The Torah’s Double Standard for Slave Labor (Part 3: Approach #2) . In this third installment, we examine a second approach to our ques...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length of the article: 2 pages Length of the audio: 9 minutes 26 seconds Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 2-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 5/27/24, entitled: Behar: The Torah’s Double Standard for Slave Labor (Part 2: Approach #1) . In Part 1 we raised the question of why the Torah only forbids us t...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length of the article: 1 page Length of the audio: 5 minutes 16 seconds Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 1-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 5/24/24, entitled: Behar: The Torah’s Double Standard for Slave Labor (Part 1: Questions) . The Egyptians oppressed us with a harsh form of labor called "avo...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 33 minutes Synopsis: Tonight (5/23/24), in our Thursday night Pirkei Avos shiur for women, we began learning the next mishnah, but our focus was on the Rambam's diatribe - and that really is the most accurate word - against those who take money for Torah. We set out clear objectives and non-objectives. Our main goal for...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length of the article: 4 pages Length of the audio: 14 minutes 40 seconds Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 4-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 5/23/24, entitled: Emor / Kedoshim: Should Kids Be Taken to Magic Shows? This article seeks to answer the question in the title, in light of the strongly worded...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 15 minutes Synopsis: This morning (5/17/24), in our Friday morning Machshavah Lab shiur for women, we deviated from our planned topic to address a question that was raised in our community WhatsApp group: Is it bad (or even prohibited) to take a kid to see a magic show? In the first part of this shiur, we read the PSA that w...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 24 minutes Synopsis: This evening (5/16/24), in our Thursday night Pirkei Avos shiur for women, we began learning the next mishnah which focuses on two motives for learning Torah and their outcomes. We raised WAY more questions and learned WAY more meforshim than I expected! Although we didn't solve all the problems, we...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 46 minutes Synopsis: This morning (5/13/24) we had a surprise Q&A! We took up four questions: (1) When a person senses that their relationship with learning has changed, how should they go about evaluating whether that change is positive or negative? (2) How can we tell which of our values are from Torah, from society, or from...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 55 minutes Synopsis: This morning's YBT Sunday shiur (5/12/24) pertains to a critical intersection between hashkafah and pedagogy. As a high school teacher in 2024, I get a LOT of questions about the mitzvos, prohibitions, and institutions in Torah which seem outdated or which students find objectionable because they ru...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length of the article: 2 pages Length of the audio: 10 minutes 27 seconds Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 2-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 5/10/24 (originally written on 3/18/14), entitled: Acharei Mos / Kedoshim: How Ancient Israelites Viewed Incest (and Why It Matters) . This article began with t...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 30 minutes Synopsis: Tonight (5/9/24), in our Thursday night Pirkei Avos shiur for women, we began learning the next mishnah which focuses on chilul ha'shem ba'seiser (the private desecration of Hashem's name) and its consequences. On the surface, this sounds paradoxical: How can a person desecrate Hashem&apos...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Q&A #38: Shefoch, Split-Hallel, Babies, Begin w/Degradation, Baruch ha'Makom, Haggadah Methodology Length: 1 hour 3 minutes Synopsis: This morning (4/18/24), in our pre-Pesach women's Q&A, we took up six questions: (1) What's the deal with the "shefoch chamasecha" intro to Hallel? (2) Why do we interrupt Ha...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 35 minutes Synopsis: This evening (4/18/24), in lieu of our usual Thursday night women's Pirkei Avos shiur, we decided to do a deep dive into one of the most cryptic derashos in the Haggadah: the drashah on the phrase "and numerous," which quotes a pair of perplexing pesukim from Sefer Yechezkel. We raise a fe...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length of the article: 1 page Length of the audio: 3 minutes 54 seconds Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 1-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 4/12/24 (originally written on 3/18/14), entitled: Haftaras Tazria: Charging Money for Miracles . How would you react if a Jewish holy man did a miracle for you?...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 25 minutes Synopsis: This evening (4/4/24), in lieu of our usual Thursday night women's Pirkei Avos shiur, we decided to prepare ourselves for the upcoming solar eclipse of April 8, 2024 by learning through enough key sources to develop an authentically "Jewish" framework for our eclipse experience. We began b...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length of the article: 1 page Length of the audio: 4 minutes Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 1-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 4/4/24 (originally written on 3/21/14), entitled: Shemini: DUI (Davening Under the Influence) . Nadav and Avihu's punishment seems harsh, especially if their sin was dr...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length of the article: 3 pages Length of the audio: 11 minutes 8 seconds Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 3-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 3/29/24, entitled: Tzav: Heavenly Fire and Hidden Miracles . Purim may not always fall out during the week of Parashas Tzav, but there is a thematic connection b...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 16 minutes Synopsis: This evening (3/28/24), in our Thursday night Pirkei Avos shiur for women, we began learning the next mishnah which is about humility - or, to be precise, "extreme lowliness of spirit." We started learning through the Rambam's lengthy commentary, which is essentially a treatise on humility...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Note: You do NOT need to have listened to Parts 1 or 2 in order to follow Part 3. Length: 1 hour 5 minutes Synopsis: This morning (3/22/24), in our Machshavah Lab series for women, we continued learning through the Ralbag's toalos, continuing at the beginning of Chapter 4 and concluding Chapter 5. Whereas many of the toalos we discuss...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length of the article: 3 pages Length of the audio: 11 minutes 13 seconds Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 3-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 3/21/24, entitled: The Ambiguous Vibe of Taanis Esther . How should we feel on Taanis Esther? I attempted to use this article to figure out the answer for mysel...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length of the article: 2 pages Length of the audio: 7 minutes 1 seconds Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 2-page article I originally published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 3/16/22 and 3/17/22, entitled: A Theory Connecting Purim to Yom ha’Kipurim Which is NOT Based on Specious Linguistics , which I edited and republished...