Machshavah Lab

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 2 hours 19 minutes Synopsis: This morning (5/17/26), in my last YBT Sunday Shiur of the season, I gave an updated version of my Judaism Demystified episode titled "Can God Do Anything/Everything? Can God Do the Impossible?" The shiur had three parts: (1) in the first hour of the shiur, I presented seven approaches to answ...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 2-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 5/14/26 titled: Bamidbar / Korach: What We Guard in the Mikdash . Why is the Tribe of Levi commanded to guard the Mikdash? Do the Rambam and Torah Temimah disagree? And what relevance does this mitzvah have to the current st...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 28 minutes Synopsis: This morning (5/15/26), in our Friday morning Sefer Iyov series for women, we moved on to the next - and last! - subseries within our overarching series on Iyov. Over the course of the next eight chapters, the Rambam presents his views on God's knowledge, hashgachah, and Sefer Iyov. Today we covered...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 25 minutes Synopsis: This morning (5/8/26), in our Friday morning Sefer Iyov series for women, we review what we covered last time, then learned and discussed the rest of the Rambam's Moreh ha'Nevuchim 3:12, in which he outlines the three types of ra that befall human beings. In addition to the points explicitly ra...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 7-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 5/7/26 titled: Behar: The Torah’s Double Standard for Slave Labor . In this article (first published in 2024), we examine three approaches to understanding why the Torah forbids us to work a Jewish slave with oppressive labo...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 53 minutes Synopsis: This morning (5/1/26), in our shorter-than-usual Friday morning Sefer Iyov series for women, we began with an efficient review of the Rambam's theory of ra which we covered last time in 3:10. We then read and discussed the short 3:11 about the cause of interpersonal ra. Finally, we learned through the firs...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 43 minutes Synopsis: This evening (4/30/25), in our Thursday night women’s shiur, we learned through the entire chapter in the Moreh ha'Nevuchim in which the Rambam discusses the purpose of the universe. Technically speaking, this is part of our Friday morning Sefer Iyov Machshavah Lab series for women, but in order to...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 22 minutes Synopsis: This morning (4/24/26), in our Friday morning Sefer Iyov series for women, we began with a review of 3:8 and the satan, then quickly learned through 3:9 while avoiding epistemological potholes, and finally began 3:10, one of the most important chapters in the series. Here the Rambam formally presents his...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 22 minutes Synopsis: This morning (4/17/26), in our Friday morning Sefer Iyov series for women, we finally began the "Moreh ha'Nevuchim" portion of our Iyov journey. After a very brief review of matter and form, we read, analyzed, and discussed the Moreh 3:8 about the relationship between matter and ra. We con...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 3-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 4/16/26 title: Shemini / Tazria / Metzora: What a REAL Rationalist Would Say About Tumah . These three parshiyos all deal with tumah (impurity), which many regard as a mysterious force. Self-described rationalists will likel...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 28 minutes Synopsis: This morning (4/16/26), in lieu of our usual morning Mishlei, we had a short Q&A session! We discussed three questions: (1) To what degree can we "diagnose" whether something in our life was hashgachah pratis? (2) What does the Rambam mean by all the aggadic statements he brings down in Hilchos De...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 7 minutes Synopsis: This Friday morning (3/20/26), in our Friday morning Sefer Iyov series for women, we were GOING to begin the section of the Rambam's Moreh ha'Nevuchim that will be our focus for the next couple of months, beginning with 3:8 on the nature of matter. However, five minutes before shiur, I spontaneo...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 47 minutes Synopsis: Turns out, I accidentally forgot to upload last Friday's Iyov shiur! This past Friday morning (3/13/26), in our Friday morning Sefer Iyov series for women, I gave a shiur with the aim of introducing the basics of Aristotelian "hylomorphic" thinking, explaining the concepts of "matter&...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 1-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 3/20/26 title: Vayikra: Toward a Theory of Jewish Guilt . Most people who think they know what the asham talui (suspended guilt-offering) is for are missing an important fact - one that sheds light on the Torah's concep...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 50 minutes Synopsis: This week (3/19/26), in our Thursday night Machshavah Lab series for women, we continued the topic we embarked on the week before. First, we revised our understanding of the Rambam's approach and my "Pillow Theory." Then we answered all the questions we raised last time. We then learned th...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 1-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 3/11/26 titled: Vayakhel / Pikudei: Remembering Minas Tirith … I Mean Mikdash . Saadia Gaon states that contemplating the architecture of the Mishkan earns us reward. What is the nature of this reward? How should this shape...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! DISCLAIMER: I almost didn't post this shiur because it wasn't as clear as I hoped AND because we revised it in Part 2. I'm happy with Part 2, but I'm posting Part 1 for the sake of thoroughness and transparency. Just know that if you listen to it, you should NOT expect the level of clarity that I typically aim for. Leng...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 4-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 3/11/26 titled: Post-Purim 5786: Operation Growling Bear . This began as a recap of a Mishlei/Megilah/Midrash crossover shiur I gave before Purim. Then Operation Roaring Lion, which commenced on Shabbos Zachor, added another...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 2-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 3/9/26 titled: What Modern Orthodoxy Means to Me (or Rabbi Fox’s 2007 NYHS Commencement Address) . Since NYHS’s annual fundraising campaign is in full swing, I figured this would be a good time to share the educational philo...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 40 minutes Synopsis: This evening (3/5/25), in our Thursday night women’s shiur, we continued our exploration of Rabbeinu Yonah on bitachon. The bad news is that I didn't have a chance to prepare. The good news is that our review went SO far in-depth that we ended up covering a whole lot that I hadn't planned. In t...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 1-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 3/5/26 titled: Ki Tisa: Is Shabbos a Day of Simchah?  If so, why isn't it presented this way in the Torah and in halacha? And if not, then why are there so many references to Shabbos joy in the songs we sing on Shabbos?...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 31 minutes Synopsis: This morning (3/5/26), in lieu of our usual morning Mishlei, we had a Q&A session! We discussed four questions: (1) What's the nature of the halacha of "learning the halachos of the chag 30 days before the chag"? (2) How necessary is it for people to read and understand every line of the Hagg...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 26 minutes Synopsis: This morning (2/27/26), in our Friday morning Sefer Iyov series for women, we capped off our series of shiurim on malachim with a midrash on Megilas Esther about a malach (in preparation for Purim, of course). This is a well-known midrash, but the version in the Gemara differs markedly from the version i...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 46 minutes Synopsis: This evening (2/26/25), in our Thursday night women’s shiur, we continued our exploration of Rabbeinu Yonah on bitachon. After a lengthy, in-depth review of what we covered last time on Mishlei 3:5, we began learning his commentary on Mishlei 3:6. If Part 1 focused on the theoretical aspects of bitachon,...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 2 hours Synopsis: Back in 2022, I gave a shiur on the extremely niche topic of avunculate marriage, that is, an uncle marrying his niece. Two years later, I received an email titled “Avunculate Marriage: Need Some Spiritual Guidance” from an aunt and nephew who were in love and seeking rabbinic guidance about whether their relation...