The Mishlei Podcast

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 11:16 - In Pursuit of Kavod: Machiavellian vs. Mishleic אֵשֶׁת חֵן תִּתְמֹךְ כָּבוֹד וְעָרִיצִים יִתְמְכוּ עֹשֶׁר: This evening (3/28/22), in our Monday Night Mishlei Shiur, we learned one of the most difficult pesukim in recent memory. The questions were powerful and it was difficult to pin down the subject matter of the pasuk. We...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:27 - The Offering of the Rasha (Part 1) זֶבַח רְשָׁעִים תּוֹעֵבָה אַף כִּי בְזִמָּה יְבִיאֶנּוּ: This morning (3/28/22), in our Morning Mishlei shiur, we began a seemingly non-Mishleic pasuk about the korbanos of the wicked. We quickly found ourselves faced with a decision-tree of readings which led to different approaches to th...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:25-26 - The Lethal Desire of the Lazy Person (Part 4) תַּאֲוַת עָצֵל תְּמִיתֶנּוּ כִּי מֵאֲנוּ יָדָיו לַעֲשׂוֹת: This morning (3/24/22), in our Morning Mishlei shiur, we concluded our analysis of this week's pesukim. After reviewing the insight from yesterday, we sharpened our own approach and Rabbeinu Yonah's approach...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:25-26 - The Lethal Desire of the Lazy Person (Part 3) תַּאֲוַת עָצֵל תְּמִיתֶנּוּ כִּי מֵאֲנוּ יָדָיו לַעֲשׂוֹת: This morning (3/23/22), in our Morning Mishlei shiur, we continued to develop the approach we took yesterday, inspired by Rabbeinu Yonah. We spent the first half of shiur developing a "horseshoe theory" abou...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:25-26 - The Lethal Desire of the Lazy Person (Part 2) תַּאֲוַת עָצֵל תְּמִיתֶנּוּ כִּי מֵאֲנוּ יָדָיו לַעֲשׂוֹת: This morning (3/22/22), in our Morning Mishlei shiur, we refined the idea we were developing yesterday about how the lazy person is in a constant state of suffering even in the realm of pleasure-seeking, as opposed to...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 11:15 - Who Should Hate Handshakes? רַע יֵרוֹעַ כִּי עָרַב זָר וְשֹׂנֵא תֹקְעִים בּוֹטֵחַ: Last night (3/21/22), in our Monday Night Mishlei Shiur, we learned a pasuk which, at first glance, seemed to give anti-Mishleic (and anti-social) advice. Additionally, it was a challenge to figure out what this pasuk was even talking about....

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:25-26 - The Lethal Desire of the Lazy Person (Part 1) תַּאֲוַת עָצֵל תְּמִיתֶנּוּ כִּי מֵאֲנוּ יָדָיו לַעֲשׂוֹת: This morning (3/21/22), in our Morning Mishlei shiur, we began a Mishlei couplet on laziness. We raised a TON of questions and made some moves, but we'll have to wait until tomorrow to see how these play out with...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 11:14 - A Strategy for Generating Strategies בְּאֵין תַּחְבֻּלוֹת יִפׇּל עָם וּתְשׁוּעָה בְּרֹב יוֹעֵץ: This evening (3/14/22), in our Monday Night Mishlei Shiur, we learned a pasuk about the importance of strategies and abundant counsel. The challenge was understand the context and the lack of qualifications (e.g. Why "strate...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This morning (3/10/22), in our Morning Mishlei shiur, we wrapped up this round of "Mishlei Bekius on Leitzim" by examining the one quality we hadn't yet thought about: sichah bateilah ("idle chatter"). Thankfully, Rabbeinu Yonah explains this in his commentary on Mishlei 14:6, which is one of the pesukim that gave...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This morning (3/9/22), in our Morning Mishlei shiur, we concluded our survey of all the pesukim in Mishlei which mention leitz, along with our surface-level analysis and observations. We concluded by reading the first Rabbeinu Yonah on leitzim. Tomorrow the plan is to conclude this round of the sugya by learning Rabbeinu Yonah's comme...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This morning (3/8/22), in our Morning Mishlei shiur, we began with a methodology tip on how to learn the five megillos. Next, we reviewed all the pesukim we covered yesterday, reaping tremendous rewards in the process. After that, we learned five more pesukim, following our bekius approach and objective from yesterday. We hope to conclude...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 20:19 - On Gossip, Secrets, and Trust (Part 2) גּוֹלֶה סּוֹד הוֹלֵךְ רָכִיל וּלְפֹתֶה שְׂפָתָיו לֹא תִתְעָרָב: Tonight (3/7/22), in our Monday Night Mishlei Shiur, we continued the topic from last week by learning a pasuk whose first half is the inverse of Mishlei 11:13. We began by approaching this pasuk afresh without going out o...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This morning (3/7/22), in our Morning Mishlei shiur, we deviated from our usual daily routine. Since we started developing a new approach to the Mishleic personality of the leitz (scorner) last week, we decided to take a couple of days to do a bekius (overview / covering-ground) survey of ALL the pesukim in Mishlei which mention this perso...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:24 - The Leitz Reexamined (Part 2) זֵד יָהִיר לֵץ שְׁמוֹ עוֹשֶׂה בְּעֶבְרַת זָדוֹן: This morning (3/3/22), in our Morning Mishlei shiur (which was only 30 minutes on account of Rosh Chodesh), we began by reviewing and refining what we said yesterday. Although this was worthwhile, it only left us with a few minutes to work on the...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:24 - The Leitz Reexamined (Part 1) זֵד יָהִיר לֵץ שְׁמוֹ עוֹשֶׂה בְּעֶבְרַת זָדוֹן: This morning (3/2/22), in our Morning Mishlei shiur, we learned the pasuk which explicitly defines the Mishleic personality of the leitz (scoffer). I've learned and taught this pasuk dozens of times, and I was hoping for a new insight. Thank...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:23 - Guarding Your Mouth, Tongue, and Soul (Part 2) שֹׁמֵר פִּיו וּלְשׁוֹנוֹ שֹׁמֵר מִצָּרוֹת נַפְשׁוֹ: This morning (3/1/22), in our Morning Mishlei shiur, we continued our analysis of yesterday's pasuk and found two Rishonim who helped us develop our approach: Rabbeinu Yonah and, surprisingly, the Rambam. We delved a bit...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 11:13 - On Gossip, Secrets, and Trust (Part 1) הוֹלֵךְ רָכִיל מְגַלֶּה סּוֹד וְנֶאֱמַן רוּחַ מְכַסֶּה דָבָר: Tonight (2/28/22), in our Monday Night Mishlei Shiur, we learned a very practical pasuk about gossiping, revealing secrets, and trustworthy friends. The pasuk seemed obvious on the surface, but our analysis revealed nuances...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:23 - Guarding Your Mouth, Tongue, and Soul (Part 1) שֹׁמֵר פִּיו וּלְשׁוֹנוֹ שֹׁמֵר מִצָּרוֹת נַפְשׁוֹ: This morning (2/28/22), in our Morning Mishlei shiur, we began learning a new pasuk - one which struck some of us as "obvious" and others of us as "NON-obvious." Thankfully, we found a foothold early on whi...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:22 - How to Bring Down a City of Strength (Part 2) עִיר גִּבֹּרִים עָלָה חָכָם וַיֹּרֶד עֹז מִבְטֶחָה: This morning (2/24/22), in our Morning Mishlei shiur, we continued learning the pasuk we began yesterday. After reviewing yesterday's ideas, we looked through ALL the meforshim - the majority of whom did little more than r...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:22 - How to Bring Down a City of Strength (Part 1) עִיר גִּבֹּרִים עָלָה חָכָם וַיֹּרֶד עֹז מִבְטֶחָה: This morning (2/23/22), in our Morning Mishlei shiur, we began learning a new pasuk about the power of chochmah. In what context? That's what we worked on today. We developed three approaches to the type of "strong ci...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:21 - The Perks of Chasing Tzedakah and Chesed (Part 2) רֹדֵף צְדָקָה וָחָסֶד, יִמְצָא חַיִּים צְדָקָה וְכָבוֹד: This morning (2/22/22), in our Morning Mishlei shiur, we continued learning the pasuk we began yesterday - this time, with our usual Morning Mishlei Crew! After reviewing (or rediscovering) the interpretation we gave y...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 11:12 - To Deride or to Derive? בׇּז לְרֵעֵהוּ חֲסַר לֵב וְאִישׁ תְּבוּנוֹת יַחֲרִישׁ: Tonight (2/21/22), in our Monday Night Mishlei Shiur, we learned a very interesting pasuk with major, wide-reaching practical implications. Even though there were only two participants in the shiur, we managed to come up with a really nice idea o...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:21 - The Perks of Chasing Tzedakah and Chesed (Part 1) רֹדֵף צְדָקָה וָחָסֶד, יִמְצָא חַיִּים צְדָקָה וְכָבוֹד: This morning (2/21/22), in our Morning Mishlei shiur, we began learning a pasuk that looked really simple to analyze on the surface, but raised MANY nuanced questions. We developed our own approach and then read the co...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:20 - The Saving or Swallowing of Wealth (Part 2) אוֹצָר נֶחְמָד וָשֶׁמֶן בִּנְוֵה חָכָם וּכְסִיל אָדָם יְבַלְּעֶנּוּ: This morning (2/17/22), in our Morning Mishlei shiur, we began by reviewing the three approaches we came up with yesterday, supplementing them with additional examples. We then learned Rabbeinu Yonah, who took th...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:20 - The Saving or Swallowing of Wealth (Part 1) אוֹצָר נֶחְמָד וָשֶׁמֶן בִּנְוֵה חָכָם וּכְסִיל אָדָם יְבַלְּעֶנּוּ: This morning (2/16/22), in our Morning Mishlei shiur, we began a new pasuk. This is a good example of a pasuk which seems to be stating a rather "cliché" Mishleic idea. The challenge with such pesukim i...