Machshavah Lab

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 30 minutes Synopsis: Tonight (5/9/24), in our Thursday night Pirkei Avos shiur for women, we began learning the next mishnah which focuses on chilul ha'shem ba'seiser (the private desecration of Hashem's name) and its consequences. On the surface, this sounds paradoxical: How can a person desecrate Hashem&apos...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Q&A #38: Shefoch, Split-Hallel, Babies, Begin w/Degradation, Baruch ha'Makom, Haggadah Methodology Length: 1 hour 3 minutes Synopsis: This morning (4/18/24), in our pre-Pesach women's Q&A, we took up six questions: (1) What's the deal with the "shefoch chamasecha" intro to Hallel? (2) Why do we interrupt Ha...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 35 minutes Synopsis: This evening (4/18/24), in lieu of our usual Thursday night women's Pirkei Avos shiur, we decided to do a deep dive into one of the most cryptic derashos in the Haggadah: the drashah on the phrase "and numerous," which quotes a pair of perplexing pesukim from Sefer Yechezkel. We raise a fe...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length of the article: 1 page Length of the audio: 3 minutes 54 seconds Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 1-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 4/12/24 (originally written on 3/18/14), entitled: Haftaras Tazria: Charging Money for Miracles . How would you react if a Jewish holy man did a miracle for you?...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 25 minutes Synopsis: This evening (4/4/24), in lieu of our usual Thursday night women's Pirkei Avos shiur, we decided to prepare ourselves for the upcoming solar eclipse of April 8, 2024 by learning through enough key sources to develop an authentically "Jewish" framework for our eclipse experience. We began b...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length of the article: 1 page Length of the audio: 4 minutes Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 1-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 4/4/24 (originally written on 3/21/14), entitled: Shemini: DUI (Davening Under the Influence) . Nadav and Avihu's punishment seems harsh, especially if their sin was dr...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length of the article: 3 pages Length of the audio: 11 minutes 8 seconds Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 3-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 3/29/24, entitled: Tzav: Heavenly Fire and Hidden Miracles . Purim may not always fall out during the week of Parashas Tzav, but there is a thematic connection b...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 16 minutes Synopsis: This evening (3/28/24), in our Thursday night Pirkei Avos shiur for women, we began learning the next mishnah which is about humility - or, to be precise, "extreme lowliness of spirit." We started learning through the Rambam's lengthy commentary, which is essentially a treatise on humility...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Note: You do NOT need to have listened to Parts 1 or 2 in order to follow Part 3. Length: 1 hour 5 minutes Synopsis: This morning (3/22/24), in our Machshavah Lab series for women, we continued learning through the Ralbag's toalos, continuing at the beginning of Chapter 4 and concluding Chapter 5. Whereas many of the toalos we discuss...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length of the article: 3 pages Length of the audio: 11 minutes 13 seconds Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 3-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 3/21/24, entitled: The Ambiguous Vibe of Taanis Esther . How should we feel on Taanis Esther? I attempted to use this article to figure out the answer for mysel...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length of the article: 2 pages Length of the audio: 7 minutes 1 seconds Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 2-page article I originally published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 3/16/22 and 3/17/22, entitled: A Theory Connecting Purim to Yom ha’Kipurim Which is NOT Based on Specious Linguistics , which I edited and republished...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 5 minutes Synopsis: This morning (3/15/24), in our Machshavah Lab series for women, we continued learning through the Ralbag's toalos. After an introduction, in which we spoke about the difference between Chazal's "villainize the wicked" approach and the Ralbag's toeles method, we pressed on in the t...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length of the article: 1 pages Length of the audio: 4 minutes 14 seconds Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 1-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 3/15/24, entitled: Vayakhel/Pikudei: Tedious by Design . In this newsletter dvar Torah from 2012, we examine four answers offered by Ralbag to the most pressing...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 18 minutes Synopsis: This evening(3/14/24), during our regularly schedule Pirkei Avos shiur for women, we instead embarked on an exciting Purim-related journey. As is his style, the Ralbag concludes sections of his Biblical commentaries with "toalos" (a.k.a. lessons) in halacha, middos, and philosophical ideas whic...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length of the article: 8 pages Length of the audio: 22 minutes 59 seconds Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 4-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 3/8/24, entitled: Four Pillars of Classroom Management (2012 Edition) . This is the email I send to new teachers who are struggling with classroom management. A...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length of the article: 4 pages Length of the audio: 15 minutes 48 seconds Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 4-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 3/1/24, entitled: Ki Tisa: “Please Erase Me From Your Book.” What was Moshe thinking when he asked Hashem to erase him from His book? I began writing an article...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length of the article: 4 pages Length of the audio: 15 minutes 34 seconds Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 4-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 2/23/24, entitled: Tetzaveh: Urim v’Tumim – the Emergency (Outdated?) Divine Telegraph System . In this article we examine three reasons why the staves of the A...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 1 minute Synopsis: This morning (2/16/24), in a women's Q&A, we took up four questions - or at least, a cluster of related questions, followed by three isolated questions: (1) LOTS of questions about moshiach! (2) What short-form shiurim/Torah would I recommend? (3) What steps can we take to make sure that we don&ap...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 8 minutes Synopsis: This evening (2/15/24), in our Thursday night Pirkei Avos shiur for women, we took up the next mishnah in our perek. This one was also authored by Ben Azzai, but unlike the last one, this did NOT seem like it belonged in Avos. It felt much more like a pasuk from Mishlei, in content and in style. But we we...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 37 minutes Synopsis: This morning (2/15/24), in our Q&A, we took up three questions, in what turned out to be the most important Q&A of the 2023-2024 year thus far: (1a) What role should guilt play in our lives and (1b) how should we deal with it? (2) What strategies can we use to strengthen our attachment to and observance...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length of the article: 2 pages Length of the audio: 7 minutes 50 seconds Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 2-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 2/15/24, entitled: Terumah: Badei ha’Aron (The Staves of the Ark) . In this article we examine three reasons why the staves of the Ark may not be removed. Each r...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length of the article: 2 pages Length of the audio: 8 minutes 2 seconds Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 2-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 2/9/24, entitled: Mishpatim: Which Gerim Shouldn’t We Oppress? We're familiar with the Torah's repeated warnings about how we treat a ger. We assume tha...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 26 minutes Synopsis: This evening (2/8/24), in our Thursday night Pirkei Avos shiur for women, we spent a second night analyzing Ben Azzai's teaching about mitzvos and aveiros. After reviewing our questions and the basic ideas we came up with last time, we learned the Rambam's approach, followed by the Sforno'...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 36 minutes Synopsis: This morning (2/2/24), in our Machshavah Lab series for women, we continued our analysis of the wacky midrash we started last week. I was nervous because I had only had a few steps to bring to the table prior to starting shiur, but thanks to the combined powers of the minds of those who attended, we mana...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 33 minutes Synopsis: This evening (2/1/24), in our Thursday night Pirkei Avos shiur for women, we began a new mishnah about how we should relate to mitzvos and aveiros. We spent the first half of shiur raising questions and taking some steps on our own, and we spent the second half of shiur learning the approaches of Rabbein...