The Mishlei Podcast

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:14 - Secret Gifts, Bribes, and Anger (Part 1) מַתָּן בַּסֵּתֶר יִכְפֶּה אָף וְשֹׁחַד בַּחֵק חֵמָה עַזָּה: This morning (12/20/21) we began a new pasuk. Like most pesukim which LOOK simple, this one turned out to be difficult, even to read and translate. The problem we encountered was the pasuk's generality, which leant it t...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:13 - The Consequences of Shutting Your Ear to the Poor (Part 2) אֹטֵם אׇזְנוֹ מִזַּעֲקַת דָּל גַּם הוּא יִקְרָא וְלֹא יֵעָנֶה: This morning (12/16/21) we continued our analysis of yesterday's pasuk. Thanks to the Malbim's definition of "dal" - we were able to develop and expand upon the approaches we came up...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:13 - The Consequences of Shutting Your Ear to the Poor (Part 1) אֹטֵם אׇזְנוֹ מִזַּעֲקַת דָּל גַּם הוּא יִקְרָא וְלֹא יֵעָנֶה: This morning (12/15/21) we began a new and "spicy" pasuk which states a very clear midah kneged midah consequence. We developed two approaches and nodded our heads to a third, which we didn&apo...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:12 - How the Tzadik Helps the Rasha Succeed (Part 2) מַשְׂכִּיל צַדִּיק לְבֵית רָשָׁע מְסַלֵּף רְשָׁעִים לָרָע: This morning (12/14/21) we began with a brief discussion about giving tzedakah on Asarah b'Teves (unrelated to our pasuk in Mishlei), we reviewed what we said yesterday and developed a variant on my own approach t...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 11:6 - How Loyalty to Reality Pays Off צִדְקַת יְשָׁרִים תַּצִּילֵם וּבְהַוַּת בֹּגְדִים יִלָּכֵדוּ: This evening (12/13/21), in our Monday Night Mishlei Shiur, we learned yet ANOTHER extremely difficult pasuk on the subject of the yashar (upright) and the bogeid (Mishleic traitor) - one which looked almost identical to the previou...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:12 - How the Tzadik Helps the Rasha Succeed (Part 1) מַשְׂכִּיל צַדִּיק לְבֵית רָשָׁע מְסַלֵּף רְשָׁעִים לָרָע: This morning (12/13/21) we began learning a pasuk which presents itself as counterintuitive no matter how you read it. We played around with a couple of approaches and ended with my favorite explanation, which I first...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:11 - How the Pesi Learns from Others (Part 3) בַּעֲנׇשׁ לֵץ יֶחְכַּם פֶּתִי וּבְהַשְׂכִּיל לְחָכָם יִקַּח דָּעַת: This morning (12/9/21) we spent a third day on our pasuk. We began with some additional points on two of yesterday's approaches. We then learned the Meiri's derech nistar approach, which we supplemented wit...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:11 - How the Pesi Learns from Others (Part 2) בַּעֲנׇשׁ לֵץ יֶחְכַּם פֶּתִי וּבְהַשְׂכִּיל לְחָכָם יִקַּח דָּעַת: This morning (12/8/21) we continued learning yesterday's pasuk about how the pesi learns. After refining yesterday's approach, we learned the derech nigleh explanation given by the Meiri, followed by Rabbei...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:11 - How the Pesi Learns from Others (Part 1) בַּעֲנׇשׁ לֵץ יֶחְכַּם פֶּתִי וּבְהַשְׂכִּיל לְחָכָם יִקַּח דָּעַת: This morning (12/7/21) we began a new pasuk, which is certainly about the pesi (naive simpleton), but might also be about the chacham (wise person), and maybe even the leitz (scoffer). Today we developed an approach...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:10 - The Illusory Favor of the Rasha (Part 2) נֶפֶשׁ רָשָׁע אִוְּתָה רָע, לֹא יֻחַן בְּעֵינָיו רֵעֵהוּ: This morning (12/2/21) we continued our analysis of yesterday's pasuk and took two different approaches: one inspired by Kantian ethics, as explained by Ralbag, Saadia Gaon, and Malbim, and another about the relationship...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:10 - The Illusory Favor of the Rasha (Part 1) נֶפֶשׁ רָשָׁע אִוְּתָה רָע, לֹא יֻחַן בְּעֵינָיו רֵעֵהוּ: This morning (12/1/21) we began a new pasuk - the first half of which seemed obvious, and the second half of which seemed like a non-sequitur. After exploring several approaches today, we arrived at a nice explanation, based i...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:9 - Precarious Solitude vs. Good Friends and a Toxic Wife (Part 2) טוֹב לָשֶׁבֶת עַל פִּנַּת גָּג מֵאֵשֶׁת מִדְיָנִים וּבֵית חָבֶר: This morning (11/30/21) we continued our analysis of yesterday's pasuk, beginning with a shockingly different translation in which "beis chaver" is translated not as "a house of...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 11:5 - The Progress and Pitfalls of the Tamim צִדְקַת תָּמִים תְּיַשֵּׁר דַּרְכּוֹ, וּבְרִשְׁעָתוֹ יִפֹּל רָשָׁע: "Breaking your teeth on Gemara" is a well-known idiom. This evening (11/29/21), in our Monday Night Mishlei Shiur, we "broke our teeth on Mishlei." The the pasuk we learned wasn't inherently dif...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:9 - Precarious Solitude vs. Good Friends and a Toxic Wife (Part 1) טוֹב לָשֶׁבֶת עַל פִּנַּת גָּג מֵאֵשֶׁת מִדְיָנִים וּבֵית חָבֶר: This morning (11/29/21) we began learning a pasuk about the deleterious effects of a "contentious wife." According to the approach we took today, based on the Malbim's commentary, it...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:8 - Estranged by Your Own Inconsistency (Part 2) הֲפַכְפַּךְ דֶּרֶךְ אִישׁ וָזָר, וְזַךְ יָשָׁר פׇּעֳלוֹ: This morning (11/23/21) we continued our analysis of yesterday's pasuk. We ended up with a handful of fruitful approaches - all of which yielded insight into decision-making, and none of which were completely refined. B...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 11:4 - Tzedakah Saves from Death Yet Again לֹא יוֹעִיל הוֹן בְּיוֹם עֶבְרָה וּצְדָקָה תַּצִּיל מִמָּוֶת: This evening (11/22/21), in our Monday Night Mishlei Shiur, we learned a pasuk in chapter 11 which was nearly identical with a pasuk we learned over a year ago in chapter 10. The challenge was to see it in a new light and not ju...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:8 - Estranged by Your Own Inconsistency (Part 1) הֲפַכְפַּךְ דֶּרֶךְ אִישׁ וָזָר, וְזַךְ יָשָׁר פׇּעֳלוֹ: This morning (11/22/21) we began learning a pasuk with a highly dubious hapax legomenon and highly confusing wording. This led us down a little rabbit hole about what to do with such cases. For some reason, today's shiu...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This morning (11/18/21) we had a special Mishlei Methodology shiur in which I ranked all the Mishlei commentaries I know of - not in terms of how OBJECTIVELY good they are, but in terms of how valuable I have PERSONALLY found them to be in my OWN twenty years of intensive Mishlei learning and teaching. After explaining the tiers in my rank...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:7 - Fear-Inducing Plunder (Part 2) שֹׁד רְשָׁעִים יְגוֹרֵם כִּי מֵאֲנוּ לַעֲשׂוֹת מִשְׁפָּט: This morning (11/17/21) we continued working on yesterday's pasuk. Since we had three times as many guys in shiur, we decided to analyze the pasuk from scratch. After exploring several approaches from the guys, we learned Saadia Gao...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:7 - Fear-Inducing Plunder (Part 1) שֹׁד רְשָׁעִים יְגוֹרֵם כִּי מֵאֲנוּ לַעֲשׂוֹת מִשְׁפָּט: This morning (11/16/21) we began learning a strange pasuk. This is one of those pesukim with "mix-and-match" translations, but no matter which way you slice it, the hava amina is weird. We came up with two approaches and some p...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 11:3 - Rabbeinu Yonah on Tam, Yashar, and Bogeid תֻּמַּת יְשָׁרִים תַּנְחֵם וְסֶלֶף בֹּגְדִים יְשָׁדֵּם: This evening (11/15/21), in our Monday Night Mishlei Shiur, we learned Rabbeinu Yonah's commentary on last week's pasuk. Rabbeinu Yonah begins with an exposition on the personalities of the tam and the yashar and then...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:6 - Bank Accounts that Beat You to Death Before Vanishing פֹּעַל אֹצָרוֹת בִּלְשׁוֹן שָׁקֶר הֶבֶל נִדָּף מְבַקְשֵׁי מָוֶת: This morning (11/15/21) we learned a pasuk which initially appeared to be too confusing to make ANY moves, but ended up feeling so "Mishleically cliche" that we had a hard time seeing a chidush. We...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:5 - The Yields of Diligence and Haste (Part 2) מַחְשְׁבוֹת חָרוּץ אַךְ לְמוֹתָר וְכׇל אָץ אַךְ לְמַחְסוֹר: This morning (11/11/21) we set out to learn the meforshim (plural) on yesterday's pasuk, but Rabbeinu Yonah's commentary was so rich that we spent the entire time delving into that! This was a very "meta-Mish...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:5 - The Yields of Diligence and Haste (Part 1) מַחְשְׁבוֹת חָרוּץ אַךְ לְמוֹתָר וְכׇל אָץ אַךְ לְמַחְסוֹר: This morning (11/10/21) we began a pasuk with a clear topic: diligence versus haste. The implications of the pasuk were less clear: is diligence being depicted in a good light here, as we would expect from Mishlei, or is th...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:4 - Furrows of the Wicked (Part 2) רוּם עֵינַיִם וּרְחַב לֵב נִר רְשָׁעִים חַטָּאת: This morning (11/9/21) we continued our analysis of yesterday's pasuk, beginning with a review of yesterday's idea. We then attempted to support that approach with two meforshim (Radak and Rabbeinu Yonah), only to realize that they were...