The Mishlei Podcast

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 26:9 - A Thorn in the Hand of a Drunkard (Part 1) חוֹחַ עָלָה בְיַד שִׁכּוֹר וּמָשָׁל בְּפִי כְסִילִים: This morning (1/12/22), in our Morning Mishlei shiur, we began our analysis of the third and final pasuk in our series on the topic of "how fools use Mishlei." We came up with three approaches of our own, the third of w...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 26:8 - The Dangers of Honoring a Ksil (Part 2) כִּצְרוֹר אֶבֶן בְּמַרְגֵּמָה כֵּן נוֹתֵן לִכְסִיל כָּבוֹד: This morning (1/11/22), in our Morning Mishlei shiur, we continued our analysis of yesterday's pasuk. After recapping a related idea from last NIGHT's Mishlei pasuk (11:9), we recapped our approaches from yesterday a...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 11:9 - How Tzadikim Evade Flattery בְּפֶה חָנֵף יַשְׁחִת רֵעֵהוּ וּבְדַעַת צַדִּיקִים יֵחָלֵצוּ: This evening (1/10/22), in our Monday Night Mishlei Shiur, we learned yet another pasuk about tzadikim. This time, they were contrasted with someone other than the rasha. After experimenting with several different approaches and transla...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 26:8 - The Dangers of Honoring a Ksil (Part 1) כִּצְרוֹר אֶבֶן בְּמַרְגֵּמָה כֵּן נוֹתֵן לִכְסִיל כָּבוֹד: This morning (1/10/22), in our Morning Mishlei shiur, we began a new pasuk as a continuation of the sugya we started last week. This pasuk appears to be a simple analogy about giving honor to a ksil. The more we analyzed it, t...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 26:7 - A Mashal with a Limp (Part 2) דַּלְיוּ שֹׁקַיִם מִפִּסֵּחַ וּמָשָׁל בְּפִי כְסִילִים: This morning (1/7/22), in our Morning Mishlei shiur, we continued our analysis of the pasuk we started on Monday. Today was quite the fruitful day! We came away with a good 6-10 ideas, depending on how you count. I'm looking forward to...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 26:7 - A Mashal with a Limp (Part 1) דַּלְיוּ שֹׁקַיִם מִפִּסֵּחַ וּמָשָׁל בְּפִי כְסִילִים: This morning (1/3/22), in our Morning Mishlei shiur, we took a detour to start a Mishlei sugya in 26:7-9. My interest in these pesukim was prompted by a quotation from Amos Tversky (Israeli cognitive and mathematical psychologist, and recip...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:16 - Resting in the Congregation of the Dead אָדָם תּוֹעֶה מִדֶּרֶךְ הַשְׂכֵּל בִּקְהַל רְפָאִים יָנוּחַ: This morning (12/30/21), in our Morning Mishlei shiur, we began a new, dramatic pasuk. We came up with a really nice interpretation which was beautifully expanded upon by the Rav in Halakhic Man. We came up with what we THIN...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:15 - Joy in Justice and its Opposite (Part 2) שִׂמְחָה לַצַּדִּיק עֲשׂוֹת מִשְׁפָּט וּמְחִתָּה לְפֹעֲלֵי אָוֶן: This morning (12/29/21) we continued with the pasuk we learned yesterday. After developing an additional original approach, we learned another nice idea from the Meiri, then we went back to the Rabbeinu Yonah from yest...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:15 - Joy in Justice and its Opposite (Part 1) שִׂמְחָה לַצַּדִּיק עֲשׂוֹת מִשְׁפָּט וּמְחִתָּה לְפֹעֲלֵי אָוֶן: This morning (12/28/21) we began a new syntactically ambiguous pasuk that has something to do with the joy experienced by the tzadik when justice is done. Beyond that, our pasuk can be read in a number of ways. Today w...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 11:8 - How the Rasha Gets Into the Trouble from Which the Tzadik Escaped צַדִּיק מִצָּרָה נֶחֱלָץ וַיָּבֹא רָשָׁע תַּחְתָּיו: This evening (12/27/21), in our Monday Night Mishlei Shiur, we enjoyed had a "riddle style" pasuk that was quite straightforward to read. We managed to get several nice ideas from it which contribu...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! No, this isn't a mistaken upload! This morning (12/23/21), during our usual Mishlei time, we had a session of Rambam Bekius! Since the last two pesukim we learned were about how to relate and how not to relate to the poor, and since Mishlei was written to make Torah more accessible, we thought it would be appropriate to familiarize ou...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:14 - Secret Gifts, Bribes, and Anger (Part 3) מַתָּן בַּסֵּתֶר יִכְפֶּה אָף וְשֹׁחַד בַּחֵק חֵמָה עַזָּה: This morning (12/22/21) we continued plumbing the depths of our pasuk. We began with some pshat interpretations from the Malbim and Radak, then analyzed the first of the Meiri's derech nistar explanations, and concluded...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:14 - Secret Gifts, Bribes, and Anger (Part 2) מַתָּן בַּסֵּתֶר יִכְפֶּה אָף וְשֹׁחַד בַּחֵק חֵמָה עַזָּה: This morning (12/21/21) we continued learning yesterday's pasuk. After refining the approach we took yesterday, we learned the commentaries of the Meiri and Rabbeinu Yonah, who connect this pasuk to the previous one, wh...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 11:7 - The Hopeless Death of the Rasha בְּמוֹת אָדָם רָשָׁע תֹּאבַד תִּקְוָה וְתוֹחֶלֶת אוֹנִים אָבָדָה: This evening (12/20/21), in our Monday Night Mishlei Shiur, we enjoyed a respite from the "teeth-breaking" pesukim about the tam and the yashar with a nice pasuk about the death of a rasha! The reading, translation, an...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:14 - Secret Gifts, Bribes, and Anger (Part 1) מַתָּן בַּסֵּתֶר יִכְפֶּה אָף וְשֹׁחַד בַּחֵק חֵמָה עַזָּה: This morning (12/20/21) we began a new pasuk. Like most pesukim which LOOK simple, this one turned out to be difficult, even to read and translate. The problem we encountered was the pasuk's generality, which leant it t...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:13 - The Consequences of Shutting Your Ear to the Poor (Part 2) אֹטֵם אׇזְנוֹ מִזַּעֲקַת דָּל גַּם הוּא יִקְרָא וְלֹא יֵעָנֶה: This morning (12/16/21) we continued our analysis of yesterday's pasuk. Thanks to the Malbim's definition of "dal" - we were able to develop and expand upon the approaches we came up...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:13 - The Consequences of Shutting Your Ear to the Poor (Part 1) אֹטֵם אׇזְנוֹ מִזַּעֲקַת דָּל גַּם הוּא יִקְרָא וְלֹא יֵעָנֶה: This morning (12/15/21) we began a new and "spicy" pasuk which states a very clear midah kneged midah consequence. We developed two approaches and nodded our heads to a third, which we didn&apo...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:12 - How the Tzadik Helps the Rasha Succeed (Part 2) מַשְׂכִּיל צַדִּיק לְבֵית רָשָׁע מְסַלֵּף רְשָׁעִים לָרָע: This morning (12/14/21) we began with a brief discussion about giving tzedakah on Asarah b'Teves (unrelated to our pasuk in Mishlei), we reviewed what we said yesterday and developed a variant on my own approach t...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 11:6 - How Loyalty to Reality Pays Off צִדְקַת יְשָׁרִים תַּצִּילֵם וּבְהַוַּת בֹּגְדִים יִלָּכֵדוּ: This evening (12/13/21), in our Monday Night Mishlei Shiur, we learned yet ANOTHER extremely difficult pasuk on the subject of the yashar (upright) and the bogeid (Mishleic traitor) - one which looked almost identical to the previou...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:12 - How the Tzadik Helps the Rasha Succeed (Part 1) מַשְׂכִּיל צַדִּיק לְבֵית רָשָׁע מְסַלֵּף רְשָׁעִים לָרָע: This morning (12/13/21) we began learning a pasuk which presents itself as counterintuitive no matter how you read it. We played around with a couple of approaches and ended with my favorite explanation, which I first...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:11 - How the Pesi Learns from Others (Part 3) בַּעֲנׇשׁ לֵץ יֶחְכַּם פֶּתִי וּבְהַשְׂכִּיל לְחָכָם יִקַּח דָּעַת: This morning (12/9/21) we spent a third day on our pasuk. We began with some additional points on two of yesterday's approaches. We then learned the Meiri's derech nistar approach, which we supplemented wit...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:11 - How the Pesi Learns from Others (Part 2) בַּעֲנׇשׁ לֵץ יֶחְכַּם פֶּתִי וּבְהַשְׂכִּיל לְחָכָם יִקַּח דָּעַת: This morning (12/8/21) we continued learning yesterday's pasuk about how the pesi learns. After refining yesterday's approach, we learned the derech nigleh explanation given by the Meiri, followed by Rabbei...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:11 - How the Pesi Learns from Others (Part 1) בַּעֲנׇשׁ לֵץ יֶחְכַּם פֶּתִי וּבְהַשְׂכִּיל לְחָכָם יִקַּח דָּעַת: This morning (12/7/21) we began a new pasuk, which is certainly about the pesi (naive simpleton), but might also be about the chacham (wise person), and maybe even the leitz (scoffer). Today we developed an approach...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:10 - The Illusory Favor of the Rasha (Part 2) נֶפֶשׁ רָשָׁע אִוְּתָה רָע, לֹא יֻחַן בְּעֵינָיו רֵעֵהוּ: This morning (12/2/21) we continued our analysis of yesterday's pasuk and took two different approaches: one inspired by Kantian ethics, as explained by Ralbag, Saadia Gaon, and Malbim, and another about the relationship...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:10 - The Illusory Favor of the Rasha (Part 1) נֶפֶשׁ רָשָׁע אִוְּתָה רָע, לֹא יֻחַן בְּעֵינָיו רֵעֵהוּ: This morning (12/1/21) we began a new pasuk - the first half of which seemed obvious, and the second half of which seemed like a non-sequitur. After exploring several approaches today, we arrived at a nice explanation, based i...