Machshavah Lab

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Tonight (12/22/21), in our aptly named "Chumash Exploration," we set out to glean as many insights as we could from the three episodes recounted about Moshe Rabbeinu before the burning bush - all of which had to do with his intervention for the sake of justice and righteousness. We anchored our approach in the Abravanel, but vent...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This morning (12/27/21), in our "Machshavah Lab" series for women, we took up the mishnah in Pirkei Avos chapter 5 about the four categories of relating to the Beis Midrash (and yes, that phrasing was intentionally vague). We brought a few personal agendas to the table, which we acknowledged at the beginning of shiur. Our plan wa...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This evening (12/16/21), in our Thursday night hashkafah shiur (which is usually not recorded), we continued our multi-part series on the Rambam's shitah about hashgachah, using David Guttman's essay "Divine Providence - Goals, Hopes, and Fears, כי כל דרכיו משפט" as our guide. After reviewing the view of the Atomists an...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Tonight (12/15/21), in our aptly named "Chumash Exploration," we set out to understand the four pesukim (Bereishis 49:33 - 50:3) which describe the death and mummification of Yaakov Avinu. After learning a few approaches to the basic pshat and a nice little philosophical interpretation from Rav Hirsch, we moved to the famous midr...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This evening (12/9/21), in our Thursday night hashkafah shiur (which is usually not recorded), we began a multi-part series on the Rambam's shitah about hashgachah, as presented in the Moreh ha'Nevuchim Chelek 3. I have recently come to the realization that I'm due to reexamine the Rambam's view of hashgachah - mostly d...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Tonight (12/8/21), in our aptly named "Chumash Exploration," we set out to explore the extraordinarily weird conversation between Yaakov and Paroh which spans five pesukim (Bereishis 47:7-10). Our main difficulty was aptly expressed by the Radak: "I don't know why this account was written." We learned three types o...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! FYI, this is being posted in my Machshavah Lab podcast because it's about a holiday and also in my Tefilah podcast because it's about tefilah. It's the same shiur, though. This evening (12/2/21), in our tefilah shiur, we attempted to take a fresh look at Al ha'Nissim, and when we did, we discovered a major theme that ha...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Tonight (12/1/21), in our aptly named "Chumash Exploration," we set out to explore a very, VERY weighty question: how to respond when something bad happens. Our investigation focused on two episodes: the incident of Yosef and Potiphar's wife in Vayeishev, and the response of Yosef's brothers to their predicament in Mike...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This morning (11/19/21), in our "Machshavah Lab" series for women, we continued our quest for practical guidelines on how to cultivate humility. After reviewing the sources and questions from last time, and resolving one apparent contradiction which came up, we delved into the Abravanel's ... interesting strategies for comba...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Tonight (11/17/21), in our aptly named "Chumash Exploration," we had two objectives: the primary objective was to analyze the Torah's account of the “fifth matriarch” according to both drash and pshat (in that order) and discuss the methodological implications, and the secondary objective was to answer the question: “Would t...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This morning (11/12/21), in our "Machshavah Lab" series for women, we began what I hope will be the first shiur in a (non-consecutive) series. Out of all the good middos, anavah (humility) is considered to be the greatest - but is anavah merely a natural result of our learning and our adherence to the Torah, or are there active s...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Tonight (11/10/21), in our aptly named "Chumash Exploration," we attempted to understand the puzzling neder (vow) that Yaakov Avinu took the morning after his dream. After raising a number of questions, we ended up focusing on three aspects of his neder: (1) its conditionality, which made it seem like he was in doubt about whethe...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Tonight (11/3/21) we concluded our multi-part series of shiurim on "The Saga of Kayin." Don't be misled by the title: this may have been the conclusion of an epic, but the conclusion itself wasn't exactly epic, since I didn't have enough time to work EVERYTHING out. Still, the theory we proposed in Part 3 was succe...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This morning (10/29/21), in our "Machshavah Lab" series for women, we had two objectives: (1) to examine the permissibility of Eliezer's actions in this week's parashah in light of the Torah prohibition of nichush (divination/omen-reading), and (2) to clarify on a theoretical level the distinction between permissible an...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Tonight (10/27/21) we continued our multi-part series of shiurim on "The Saga of Kayin." After reviewing our Unifying Theory from last shiur and its application to the birth of Kayin and Hevel, we applied it to the first eight pesukim of The Saga of Kayin: the korbanos, Hashem's rebuke of Kayin, and Kayin's murder of He...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Every year when we read about Sedom and Amorah, I can't help but feel like I'm watching a "reverse auction," in which Avraham Avinu quantitatively "bargains" for the lowest number of tzadikim that Hashem would be willing to save. This morning (10/22/21), in our "Machshavah Lab" series for women, we l...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 1-page dvar Torah I wrote entitled, Avraham and Islam . Were YOU aware that Hashem alludes to the rise of Islam in one of his statements to Avraham? That's what R' Avraham ben ha'Rambam thinks. And lest one view his statement as inappropriately "pro-Islamic," then perhaps...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Tonight (10/20/21) we continued our multi-part series of shiurim on "The Saga of Kayin." The bulk of this shiur was spent analyzing a mishnah in Pirkei Avos. Why? Because the Meiri's explanation of this mishnah is the basis of my unifying theory for the Saga of Kayin. After we arrived at the theory, we only had time to apply...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Last year (9/16/20, 9/23/20, and 10/1/20) I gave a series of three shiurim on the Ralbag's approach to Torah, as outlined in the introduction to his commentary on Chumash. This Sunday Shiur (10/17/21) is intended to be a more concise presentation of that series with the aim of showcasing the Ralbag's unique approach to Torah. For...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This morning (10/15/21), in our "Machshavah Lab" series for women, we aimed to answer two major questions: (1) What do Chazal mean when they say that some of the builders of Migdal Bavel were punished by being transformed into "monkeys, spirits, demons, and liliths"? and (2) Why does the Torah say that Sheis was born to...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Tonight (10/13/21) we continued our multi-part series of shiurim on "The Saga of Kayin," in an effort to achieve our goal of understanding the unity of Kayin's entire story which is told in Bereishis Perek 4. We picked up where we last left off in our "close read" and continued identifying every question, problem,...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 1-page dvar Torah I wrote entitled, Migdal Bavel and the Hindu Account of the Mabul . The midrash states that the Dor Haflagah built Migdal Bavel to prevent another Mabul, which they believed to be a cyclical phenomenon. As it so happens, Hindus believe the same thing. But there is a key differenc...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This morning (10/8/21), in our "Machshavah Lab" series for women, we attempted to understand the pshat of the Migdal Bavel story, free from any midrashic biases. With the Ibn Ezra and Ralbag as our guides, we learned through the story and emerged with a fresh (and somewhat radical) view with implications for our present day lives...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Tonight (10/6/21) we began a multi-part series of shiurim on "The Saga of Kayin." In previous years I had learned specific parts of Kayin's story (i.e. his korban, Hashem's pep talk, his murder of hevel), but I had never asked questions like: What is the unity of Chapter 4? How does each part contribute to the whole? Wh...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 1-page dvar Torah I wrote entitled, Bereishis: (How) Did Hashem Speak to Kayin? The problem is that Kayin doesn't seem cut out to be a navi. Radak offers a shocking interpretation in his "esoteric commentary." Although I do not believe that this interpretation adequately solves our...