Machshavah Lab

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In tonight's Chumash Methodology shiur (given at YBT on 5/19/21) we continued learning through the section of his book "The Tao of Jeet Kune Do" (1975) entitled "Organized Despair." If you haven't seen Part 1, I suggest you do so before watching Part 2, since that's where I explain who Bruce Lee is to me,...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In this week's Lomdeha Friday Seminar (5/7/21) I gave over a presentation that I've given every year in my hashkafah class in Shalhevet (a"h). The foundation of this presentation was a series of shiurim given by Rabbi Fox at Northwest Yeshiva High School a number of years ago in which he identified three schools of thought (...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In tonight's Chumash Methodology shiur (given at YBT on 5/5/21) I undertook the daunting task of attempting to convey to my talmidim the impact that Bruce Lee has had on my personal derech. Although I've quoted Bruce Lee's teachings here and there over the course of the year, I've never really devoted time to explaining...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In last week's Lomdeha Friday Seminar (4/30/21) we learned three answers to the question, "What is the theme of the Chag ha'Shavuos?" - that of the Ralbag, the Abravanel, and Rav Hirsch. In every machlokess there will be strengths and weaknesses to each side, and we attempted to identify the strengths and weaknesses in...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In tonight's Chumash Methodology shiur (given at YBT on 4/28/21) emerged from a machlokess Rishonim on how we should divide our learning time. Let's call it Rambam vs. Rabbeinu Tam, for simplicity's sake. Like it or not, most (if not all) of us have been raised in an educational model predominantly influenced by Rabbeinu Tam...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In last week's Lomdeha Friday Seminar (4/23/21) we attempted to do something that, traditionally, we haven't been very good at: learning bekius (i.e. to cover ground). Since Parashas Kedoshim contains SO many fundamental mitzvos, I wanted to attempt to cover as many as possible, and in so doing, to demonstrate a paradigm for fami...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In last night's Chumash Methodology shiur (given at YBT on 4/21/21) we took up a the controversial but important topic identified by the title. Since I have neither the qualifications nor the desire to tackle such a weighty issue on my own, I decided to read and discuss Rabbi Marc Shapiro's essay יש חיוב להאמין שהזוהר נכתב על ידי...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This morning's Sunday shiur (4/18/21 at YBT) was inspired by a Richard Feynman anecdote in which he recounts crisis which caused him to abandon Judaism as a kid. I believe that many Jewish educators are setting their students up for a similar crisis - a crisis I refer to as "Midrashic Betrayal." In this shiur I provide an ov...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Today's Lomdeha Friday Seminar (4/16/21) was about the role of humor in Torah study, as reflected in a statement by Chazal. This shiur is not intended to be a comprehensive overview of the topic, or even a full analysis of this Gemara. Rather, as the name of this series - "Machshavah Lab" - implies, this was just an explorat...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Tonight's Chumash Methodology shiur (given at YBT on 4/14/21) is a follow-up to our shiur on Shadal's Opposition to Philosophical Judaism (given at YBT on 4/9/21). At the end of that shiur I was asked, "What is Shadal's approach to Chumash?" I was disappointed that he didn't write a methodological introduction...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This episode is an "audiobook style" reading of an article I wrote on August 4, 2015 entitled Mussar Without "Should"s and "Shouldn't"s .   Click here to access the article  on my blog.  ---------- If you have questions, comments, or feedback, I would love to hear from you! Please feel free to contact me...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Today's Lomdeha Friday Seminar (4/9/21) was intended to expand the horizons of my particular students, who (a) have been immersed in a largely Maimonidean Torah framework, and (b) have never been exposed to an anti-Maimonidean polemic. This shiur centered on Shadal's commentary on Devarim 6:5, about ahavas Hashem (love of God), w...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In today's Iyov class (4/7/20 at Lomdeha) we tackled one of the classic "spicy questions": Can God do the impossible? We examined four "no" answers: one based on logic, and the other three given by various meforshim (Rambam, Saadia Gaon, and the Sefer ha'Ikkarim). Some questions we left unanswered, but hopeful...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 43 minutes Synopsis: In today's Lomdeha Friday Seminar (3/19/21) we explored one of the most underappreciated themes of Pesach, namely, maror. People talk about the Egyptian slavery and oppression, but not the specific quality of "bitterness." In this shiur we utilize the best Chumash commentary in the entire world t...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 42 minutes Synopsis: Yesterday a student asked "why chametz is such a big deal" (my words, not hers). In this morning's Jewish Ethics class (3/16/21 at Lomdeha) we answered this question by learning/reviewing an excerpt from "the famous Ramban at the end of Parashas Bo" in which he explains the significance...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! [Note: If you have not yet listened to Part 1 , it is critical that you listen to it first!] In today's Lomdeha Friday Seminar (3/12/21) we continued discussing the topic we raised last week, focusing on the last three out of the seven premises enumerated last time, with one final premise thrown in for good measure. All three premises...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This evening (3/11/21 at YBT) I made a mistake. I had a really rough week and was super exhausted. I knew I'd be able to give my Tehilim shiur, but I seriously considered cancelling my haggadah shiur. Unfortunately, my feelings of guilt got the better of me, and I pushed ahead anyway. Bad move. I could barely think during the shiur, a...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This evening (3/10/21 at YBT) we continued learning through the Ritva's commentary on the Haggadah, focusing on Avadim Hayinu and the various halachos surrounding that portion of the text. ---------- מקורות: פירוש הריטב"א להגדה של פסח תלמוד בבלי פסחים דף קטז עמוד א ---------- If you have questions, comments, or feedback, I would...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In today's Lomdeha Friday Seminar (3/5/21) we broached a broad, deep, and nuanced topic: what to make of the elements of Torah which seem to be obsolete, or worse. The goal of this shiur was to initiate the conversation and to present my own perspective on how to address such questions and problems. My "answer" involves seve...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This evening (3/3/21 at YBT) we began our hagadah preparation for the year! We've chosen to focus on the Ritva (for reasons I explain at the beginning of the video), and we began learning his commentary from the beginning. He ended up providing a non-intuitive reading of Ha Lachma Anya which certainly gave us food for thought. We brie...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! I was about to sit down to reread an article I wrote on Purim two years ago (Purim 5779, 3/21/19) entitled  Haman's Ancient Motive , when I thought to myself, "Why don't I just read it out loud, record it, and upload it as a podcast episode?" and so I did! If you're in the mood for 20-minute "audiobook style&q...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In today's Lomdeha Friday Seminar (2/19/21) we learned a pischa (or pesichta) - that is, a midrashic introduction to Megilas Esther. We explained the main idea of the midrash and how it serves as a thematic framework for reading the megilah, and we concluding by connecting this theme (albeit with a speculative theory) to the obligatio...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In tonight's Topics in Jewish Philosophy shiur (2/18/21 at YBT) I attempted to capture and articulate an epistemological upheaval I recently underwent, triggered by my binge-reading of Barry Lopez's award winning wildlife book "Of Wolves and Men" (1978). As I mention at the outset, I was hesitant to give this shiur beca...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Note: This is essentially the same shiur I gave in my Rambam Bekius chavurah at YBT on 2/15/21 , but this one is slightly shorter, due to the length of the periods at Lomdeha. Also, I didn't mistakenly refer to the Riaz as the Rid in this shiur! This morning (2/16/21 at Lomdeha) we took up a side-quest: to defend the Rambam against a...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Note: I initially gave this over at YBT as a Chumash Methodology shiur, but since I felt that the Lomdeha version was clearer, I replaced the earlier upload with this one. In today's Lomdeha Friday Seminar (2/12/21) we examined the question of how the Torah commands our emotions. I am of the opinion that the Torah NEVER commands us to...