Machshavah Lab

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This episode is an "audiobook style" reading of an article I wrote on July 2, 2014 entitled Seltzer Theories vs. Jam Theories .   Click here to access the article  on my blog and click here for a PDF version. ---------- If you have questions, comments, or feedback, I would love to hear from you! Please feel free to contact me at...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In today's Lomdeha Friday Seminar (2/5/21) we continued our "guided reading" of Rabbi Dr. Joshua Berman's book. In the last shiur we covered four out of six guidelines for how to respond to claims, questions, and problems raised by archeologists and scholars of ancient history against the historicity (and validity) of t...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In this morning's Jewish Ethics class (2/4/21 at Lomdeha) we resumed our analysis of "know what to respond to an apikores (heretic)." After a brief review, we learned the commentaries of Rashi, Rambam, and Meiri and discussed their practical implications. ---------- מקורות: אבות ב:יד ---------- If you have questions, comment...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In this morning's Jewish Ethics class (2/2/21 at Lomdeha) we began learning the famous injunction "know what to respond to an apikores (heretic)." As usual, we began by raising all of the questions and problems we could think of, and then started to answer these questions on our own. Tomorrow we'll learn the meforshim. ...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In today's Lomdeha Friday Seminar (1/15/21) we tackled a treacherous but important topic: how to respond to claims, questions, and problems raised by archeologists and scholars of ancient history against the historicity (and validity) of the Torah. In this shiur I identify six guidelines to bear in mind when navigating these issues, t...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In tonight's Chumash Methodology shiur (given at YBT on 1/13/21) we finished R' Avraham ben ha'Rambam's essay on the drashos of Chazal. We began by reviewing all five categories of drashah and the four categories of Talmudic anecdotes, raising a few questions and making some clarifications along the way. We then read th...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! There's a reason why my Friday Lomdeha Seminar series is called "Machshavah Lab" - namely, because do experiments in machshavah! In this morning's shiur (1/8/21 at Lomdeha) we examined a "hidden" source in the Rambam, in which he hints at what turns out to be a very egalitarian stance on men and women in relat...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In tonight's Chumash Methodology shiur (given at YBT on 1/6/21) we continued R' Avraham ben ha'Rambam's essay on the midrashim of Chazal, beginning his classification of the four types of Talmudic anecdotes. Tonight we made it through the second, third, and fourth category of Talmudic anecdotes, attempting to "deco...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In this morning's shiur (1/1/21 at Lomdeha) we learned the views of five different meforshim on the incident involving Reuven and Bilhah and discussed the methodological implications for learning similar cases. ---------- מקורות: קהלת ז:כ בראשית מט:ג-ד בראשית לה:כב דברי הימים א' ה:א-ב תלמוד בבלי – שבת דף נה עמוד ב רש"י – ברא...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In tonight's Tehilim shiur (12/31/20 at YBT) we had PLANNED on finishing Tehilim 114. Instead, I felt compelled to use this "Erev New Years" to reflect on 2020 through a Tehilim-esque lens. This led to an informal discussion on bitachon (trust in Hashem), which in turn led us to read R' Avraham ben ha'Rambam's...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In tonight's Chumash Methodology shiur (given at YBT on 12/30/20) we continued R' Avraham ben ha'Rambam's essay on the midrashim of Chazal, beginning with his classification of the four types of Talmudic anecdotes. The first of these four types had four subcategories, each with a couple of examples. We spent most of the...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In this morning's shiur (12/25/20 at Lomdeha) we set out to accomplish three objectives: (1) to learn, on a basic level, the prophecy in Sefer Yechezkel about the event we are commemorating today (2) understand the transgressions which led to the catastrophe that are being highlighted in this prophecy (3) to translate these insights i...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This morning's shiur (12/18/20 at Lomdeha) was an adventure in "tefilah archaeology" focusing on a curious addition to the end of Al ha'Nissim involving a request for miracles. After surveying the evidence which establishes that this is the authentic version of Al ha'Nissim, we investigate the reason why most Ashke...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In tonight's Chumash Methodology shiur (given at YBT on 12/16/20) we continued R' Avraham ben ha'Rambam's essay on the midrashim of Chazal, completing the 4th and 5th categories of drashos, supplemented by the relevant footnotes in the new edition. Part 1: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1576750/7068922 Part 2: https://www.b...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This morning's shiur (12/11/20 at Lomdeha) is a continuation of our exploration of the midrash about Hashem transforming into a human barber and cut Sancheriv's hair. After a methodological introduction from the Rambam and Rav Hirsch, we conduct a general overview of seven approaches to the most difficult part of this midrash - o...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In tonight's Chumash Methodology shiur (given at YBT on 12/9/20) we continued R' Avraham ben ha'Rambam's essay on the midrashim of Chazal - THIS time with the recently published critical edition. We went back and read a section from the introduction which didn't appear in our version, as well as some jam-packed foo...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This morning's shiur (12/4/20 at Lomdeha) was prompted by a question I was sent by a listener about a statement in the Gemara to the effect that Hashem transformed into a human barber and cut Sancheriv's hair. I was asked what I thought about this Gemara and figured this would make for a good "midrash workshop." In Part...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In tonight's Chumash Methodology shiur (given at YBT on 12/2/20) we began R' Avraham ben ha'Rambam's essay on the midrashim of Chazal. We covered his introduction, in which he praises Chazal's intellectual honesty and criticizes those people who would accept their non-halachic statements simply because Chazal said...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This morning's Sunday shiur (11/22/20 at YBT) was inspired by a poem by Richard Feynman entitled, "The Universe in a Glass of Wine." Our aim in this shiur was three-fold: (1) to conceptualize the mitzvah of kiddush as "the universe of Torah in a glass of wine," (2) to explain a trio of strange midrashim, and (3) to...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In tonight's Topics in Jewish Philosophy shiur (11/19/20 at YBT) we reviewed the Rambam's Palace Allegory in the Moreh ha'Nevuchim 3:51 in order to see what insights it yielded this time around, and in order to respond to those who accuse the Rambam of being an elitist. ---------- מקורות: רמב"ם - מורה הנבוכים ג:נא -----...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In tonight's Chumash Methodology shiur (given at YBT on 11/18/20) we learned through the Rashbam's three "introductions" to his commentary. The word "introductions" is in quotations because he doesn't have a formal introduction; rather, these are three sources in which he states his approach and different...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In today's Lomdeha Seminar shiur (11/13/20) we took up the juicy question in the title, focusing primarily on the framework provided by the Rambam's explanation of "al tifnu el ha'elilim" and "lo sasuru acharei levavchem v'acharei eineichem." I won't spoil the answer with any teasers. Let's...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In tonight's Chumash Methodology shiur (given at YBT on 11/11/20) we concluding learning the Ibn Ezra's introductions to Chumash. After reviewing the first four methods, learning the fourth one inside the text his "Shitah Acheres" commentary, we read his presentation of the fifth method - HIS method. In addition to desc...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In today's Lomdeha Seminar shiur (11/6/20, Parashas Vayeira) we took up three non-mainstream explanations of Akeidas Yitzchak: that of Shadal, Ralbag, and Rashbam. We also applied a useful three-question Chumash methodology formula to maximize what we gained from these three approaches. DISCLAIMER: some of these views might be perceiv...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In tonight's Chumash Methodology shiur (given at YBT on 11/4/20) we continued learning the Ibn Ezra's introduction to Chumash. We began with his criticism of "the third approach," in which he discusses when it is and isn't acceptable to interpret pesukim allegorically. We read about this in two other places: the in...