Machshavah Lab

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour Synopsis: This morning (6/7/24) we continued our analysis of the sugya we started on Wednesday night. After reviewing the facts and questions, we set out to define - or at least, attempt to define - the two main disagreements: (1) What was the structure of the takanah? (2) Which name of Hashem was this in reference to? I sha...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 39 minutes Synopsis: Tonight (6/6/24), in our Thursday night Pirkei Avos shiur for women, we continued our analysis of the mishnah about deriving worldly benefit from words of Torah. After a VERY brief review of the Rambam, to which Parts 1 and 2 were devoted, we examined the opposition as formulated by two Rishonim. Sforno...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In honor of the second yahrzeit of my rebbi, Rabbi Morton Moskowitz zt"l, I will be reposting all the "Rabbi Moskowitz Memory” Facebook posts that I wrote during the week of his passing. Rabbi Moskowitz Memory #7: Immortality in This World Length of article: 2 pages Length of audio: 4 minutes 40 seconds Synopsis: This is the last...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In honor of the second yahrzeit of my rebbi, Rabbi Morton Moskowitz zt"l, I will be reposting all the "Rabbi Moskowitz Memory” Facebook posts that I wrote during the week of his passing. I’m not going to edit any of them unless I find a typo. I want to preserve the spontaneous writing I did during that intense period of grieving....

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 6 minutes Synopsis: This evening (6/5/24), in lieu of our Wednesday night Tehilim/Tefilah shiur, we took up a halachic topic: the takanah (Rabbinic enactment) to greet one's fellow with the name of Hashem. This topic is so dense, intricate, and intertwined that we spent the entire time going through the facts and raisin...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In honor of the second yahrzeit of my rebbi, Rabbi Morton Moskowitz zt"l, I will be reposting all the "Rabbi Moskowitz Memory” Facebook posts that I wrote during the week of his passing. I’m not going to edit any of them unless I find a typo. I want to preserve the spontaneous writing I did during that intense period of grieving....

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In honor of the second yahrzeit of my rebbi, Rabbi Morton Moskowitz zt"l, I will be reposting all the "Rabbi Moskowitz Memory” Facebook posts that I wrote during the week of his passing. I’m not going to edit any of them unless I find a typo. I want to preserve the spontaneous writing I did during that intense period of grieving....

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In honor of the second yahrzeit of my rebbi, Rabbi Morton Moskowitz zt"l, I will be reposting all the "Rabbi Moskowitz Memory” Facebook posts that I wrote during the week of his passing. I’m not going to edit any of them unless I find a typo. I want to preserve the spontaneous writing I did during that intense period of grieving....

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In honor of the second yahrzeit of my rebbi, Rabbi Morton Moskowitz zt"l, I will be reposting all the "Rabbi Moskowitz Memory” Facebook posts that I wrote during the week of his passing. I’m not going to edit any of them unless I find a typo. I want to preserve the spontaneous writing I did during that intense period of grieving....

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In honor of the second yahrzeit of my rebbi, Rabbi Morton Moskowitz zt"l, I will be reposting all the "Rabbi Moskowitz Memory” Facebook posts that I wrote during the week of his passing. I’m not going to edit any of them unless I find a typo. I want to preserve the spontaneous writing I did during that intense period of grieving....

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In honor of the second yahrzeit of my rebbi, Rabbi Morton Moskowitz zt"l, I will be reposting all the "Rabbi Moskowitz Memory” Facebook posts that I wrote during the week of his passing. I’m not going to edit any of them unless I find a typo. I want to preserve the spontaneous writing I did during that intense period of grieving....

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 33 minutes Synopsis: This morning (5/31/24), in the FIRST of our Friday morning Machshavah Lab shiurim for women, we took up an old problem: Why is Olam ha'Ba only mentioned in Torah she'baal Peh but not Torah she'bi'Chsav. I wrote an article a few years ago in which I summarized seven views on this topic from t...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 55 minutes Synopsis: This morning (5/31/24), in the SECOND of our Friday morning Machshavah Lab shiurim for women, we learned Rav Hirsch's elucidation of Chazal's outline of the eight regressive stages of abandoning Torah. I initially planned to give a third shiur this morning on a strange midrash on the phrase "I sh...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length of the article: 2 pages Length of the audio: 8 minutes 57 seconds Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 2-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 5/31/24, entitled: Behar: The Torah’s Double Standard for Slave Labor (Part 4: Approach #3) . This third and final approach to answering our question about why t...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 33 minutes Synopsis: Tonight (5/30/24), in our Thursday night Pirkei Avos shiur for women, we continued our analysis of the mishnah through the eyes of the Rambam. We began with a VERY in-depth review of everything we covered last time (if you want to skip the review, start around 30 minutes into the shiur). We then read and...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length of the article: 2 pages Length of the audio: 7 minutes 46 seconds Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 2-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 5/29/24, entitled: Behar: The Torah’s Double Standard for Slave Labor (Part 3: Approach #2) . In this third installment, we examine a second approach to our ques...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length of the article: 2 pages Length of the audio: 9 minutes 26 seconds Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 2-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 5/27/24, entitled: Behar: The Torah’s Double Standard for Slave Labor (Part 2: Approach #1) . In Part 1 we raised the question of why the Torah only forbids us t...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length of the article: 1 page Length of the audio: 5 minutes 16 seconds Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 1-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 5/24/24, entitled: Behar: The Torah’s Double Standard for Slave Labor (Part 1: Questions) . The Egyptians oppressed us with a harsh form of labor called "avo...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 33 minutes Synopsis: Tonight (5/23/24), in our Thursday night Pirkei Avos shiur for women, we began learning the next mishnah, but our focus was on the Rambam's diatribe - and that really is the most accurate word - against those who take money for Torah. We set out clear objectives and non-objectives. Our main goal for...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length of the article: 4 pages Length of the audio: 14 minutes 40 seconds Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 4-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 5/23/24, entitled: Emor / Kedoshim: Should Kids Be Taken to Magic Shows? This article seeks to answer the question in the title, in light of the strongly worded...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 15 minutes Synopsis: This morning (5/17/24), in our Friday morning Machshavah Lab shiur for women, we deviated from our planned topic to address a question that was raised in our community WhatsApp group: Is it bad (or even prohibited) to take a kid to see a magic show? In the first part of this shiur, we read the PSA that w...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 24 minutes Synopsis: This evening (5/16/24), in our Thursday night Pirkei Avos shiur for women, we began learning the next mishnah which focuses on two motives for learning Torah and their outcomes. We raised WAY more questions and learned WAY more meforshim than I expected! Although we didn't solve all the problems, we...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 46 minutes Synopsis: This morning (5/13/24) we had a surprise Q&A! We took up four questions: (1) When a person senses that their relationship with learning has changed, how should they go about evaluating whether that change is positive or negative? (2) How can we tell which of our values are from Torah, from society, or from...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 55 minutes Synopsis: This morning's YBT Sunday shiur (5/12/24) pertains to a critical intersection between hashkafah and pedagogy. As a high school teacher in 2024, I get a LOT of questions about the mitzvos, prohibitions, and institutions in Torah which seem outdated or which students find objectionable because they ru...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length of the article: 2 pages Length of the audio: 10 minutes 27 seconds Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 2-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 5/10/24 (originally written on 3/18/14), entitled: Acharei Mos / Kedoshim: How Ancient Israelites Viewed Incest (and Why It Matters) . This article began with t...