Machshavah Lab

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 1-page article I wrote, entitled, Chayei Sarah: The Pshat of "Place Your Hand Under My Thigh." Is Rashi's commentary always pshat? What if the majority of other commentators claim that THEIR explanation is the real pshat? Should we ban publications which present non-Rashi commentari...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This evening (11/17/22), in our Thursday Night Pirkei Avos shiur, we learned our next mishnah which, despite the ambiguity in the clauses, proved to be much more straightforward than the last two. We learned three radically different approaches to the mishnah, at least two of which are eminently practical.  ----- מקורות: אבות ג:ה רבינו יונ...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In today's Friday morning "Machshavah Lab" shiur for women (11/11/22), we took up a topic I've been asked about by countless high school students: "Is it prohibited to stare at a rainbow? If so, why?" This shiur represents my current best attempt at answers to those two questions. ----- מקורות: שולחן ערוך אורח...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This morning (11/11/22), in our Friday Q&A, we addressed four topics: (1) Is Judaism conducive to Stoicism? (2) How can the Torah command us to feel things, like joy? (3) What is the secret to maximizing the productive use of one's time in a healthy manner? (4) How am I supposed to choose what to learn if there is SO MUCH TORAH? I...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 1-page article I wrote, entitled, Vayeira: Don't Deviate from the Minhag: XTREME Edition . How could the angels who visited Avraham eat what he served them? DID they even eat? And either way, what are we supposed to learn from this? ----- This week's Torah content has been sponsored anon...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This evening (11/10/22), in our Thursday Night Pirkei Avos shiur, we took up a somewhat famous mishnah about saying words of Torah at a meal. I'm not gonna lie: I did NOT think we'd arrive at any real ideas tonight. My chavrusa and I struggled with this mishnah and all I had when we started shiur was a good lead. But thanks to th...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In today's Friday morning "Machshavah Lab" shiur for women (11/4/22), we answered SOME of the questions we raised in Part 1. Although not all the ideas came to full fruition, I'm satisfied with the approaches we developed. Note: towards the beginning of the shiur I mention that I intended to open a can of worms. I decid...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 1-page article I wrote, entitled, Lech Lecha: Is Circumcision "Mutilation"?   The answer may surprise you ... Be sure to check out my new substack at rabbischneeweiss.substack.com ! ----- This week's Torah content has been sponsored by my friend and colleague, Rabbi Dr. Elie Feder....

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This morning (11/4/22), in our shorter-than-usual Friday Q&A, we discussed two questions: (1) What do we say about a case in which you had a REALLY meaningful tefilah, but weren't yotzei due to a halachic "technicality"? (2) Is there a way to effectively simulate the conditions for the "darcho shel Torah" of &q...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This evening (11/3/22), in our Thursday Night Pirkei Avos shiur, we took up the next mishnah in chapter 3. Specifically, we analyzed the first part of the mishnah which talks about the difference between those who sit and exchange words of Torah and those who don't. The mishnah makes it seem like the difference is extreme, but once we...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 1-page article I wrote, entitled, Beur Tefilah: Who is the "Aleinu" in Sim Shalom? If you, like me, never even noticed this question before, then I encourage you to take a moment to think about how you would answer it before reading or listening to my approach. Let me know what you think...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In today's Friday morning "Machshavah Lab" shiur for women (10/28/22), we took up a question I had never noticed before: Why doesn't Noach have any more kids after the flood? In this shiur we build a case from Rashi's reading of the pesukim which argues that Noach INTENTIONALLY refrained from having more kids - a d...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 1-page article I wrote, entitled, Noach: Shadal's Radical Application of Dibra Torah ki'Lshon Bnei Adam . We're familiar with the notion that the Torah is "forced" to use anthropomorphisms when speaking about Hashem, but what about the "extreme" anthropomorphisms...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Q&A #06 - Sim Shalom ALEINU v’Al Kol Yisrael, Singular vs. Plural in Tefilah, My Current Meditation Practice, Shogeg, and pre-Ashrei Pesukim This morning (10/28/22), in our Friday Q&A, we covered five questions: (1) In Sim Shalom, when we say "aleinu v'al kol Yisrael amecha," who does "aleinu" refer to? (2)...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This evening (10/27/22), in our Thursday Night Pirkei Avos shiur, we took up the next mishnah in chapter 3. If you were to take a poll of Americans at any time in recent history and ask them how they'd feel about davening for the government, it's likely that half of them wouldn't be so keen on doing so, and a percentage of t...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This morning (10/20/22), in our Friday Q&A (bumped up to Thursday because there's no shiur tomorrow), we covered five questions, depending on how you count: (1) How should one go about learning neviim and why is it so difficult? (2) What assumptions do we make about the role of hashgachah pratis in meeting people? (3) How should n...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In today's Friday morning "Machshavah Lab" shiur for women (10/30/22) we took up a rather obscure topic: What does Judaism have to say about the four days between Yom ha'Kippurim and Sukkos? At first glance, it seems like there's not much going on here, but upon closer examination of the halachos, minhagim, and mid...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This morning (10/6/22), in our Friday Q&A (bumped up to Thursday because I'll be leaving for Sukkos), we covered five questions, depending on how you count: (1) Why are there so many "Al Cheit"s in the Yom ha'Kippurim Vidui which pertain to speech? (2) How can one tell whether something is hashgachah pratis or not?...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 1-page article I cranked out a few hours before Yom ha'Kippurim, entitled, Yom ha’Kippurim 5783: Musings on Erev Yom ha’Kippurim Anxiety. Perhaps this shouldn't have been written as a 1-page article. My hope is that I wrote it in such a manner that it will yield truth and insight regardl...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In today's Friday morning "Machshavah Lab" shiur for women (9/30/22) we took up a very basic question. I can PRETTY much guarantee that if I ask you, "What is Neilah?" the answer you give will be incorrect. There are some basic facts about Neilah of which most people are unaware. In today's shiur we examined N...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This morning (9/30/22), in our Friday Q&A, we covered a number of questions relevant to the Aseres Ymei Teshuvah, including: (1) How does the judgment on Rosh ha'Shanah and Yom ha'Kippurim work? (2) Why do we stand when the Aron ha'Kodesh is open? (3) How can we live up to the seemingly impossible ideal of making use of...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This evening (9/29/22), in our Thursday Night Pirkei Avos shiur, we took up a mishnah in Chapter 4 in hopes that it would help us to up our mitzvah and teshuvah game for the Aseres Ymei Teshuvah. We examined two approaches: an original approach inspired by the Rambam, and an attempt at understanding Rabbeinu Bachya's approach which wa...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Earlier this year I gave a three-part shiur (in my Machshavah Lab series for women) on a mishnah in Pirkei Avos about how Hashem judges the world. The question that sparked the shiur was: What is this doing HERE? Avos is a practical masechta about ethics - not metaphysics! Thankfully, we found a commentator who translates these seemingly m...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Nitzavim: Is Teshuvah/Torah REALLY That Easy? In today's Friday morning "Machshavah Lab" shiur for women (9/23/22) we focused on a question that bothers me every year. Devarim 30:11-14 describes how easy and accessible "ha'mitzvah" is. There's a machlokess Rishonim whether "ha'mitzvah" here...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In today's Friday morning "Machshavah Lab" shiur for women (9/16/22) we focused on the twelve transgressors which are singled out and "cursed" by Hashem. Our goal was to understand (1) what these twelve categories of transgressions have in common, and (2) what makes them more "curse-worthy" than others. W...