The Mishlei Podcast

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:9 - Precarious Solitude vs. Good Friends and a Toxic Wife (Part 2) טוֹב לָשֶׁבֶת עַל פִּנַּת גָּג מֵאֵשֶׁת מִדְיָנִים וּבֵית חָבֶר: This morning (11/30/21) we continued our analysis of yesterday's pasuk, beginning with a shockingly different translation in which "beis chaver" is translated not as "a house of...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 11:5 - The Progress and Pitfalls of the Tamim צִדְקַת תָּמִים תְּיַשֵּׁר דַּרְכּוֹ, וּבְרִשְׁעָתוֹ יִפֹּל רָשָׁע: "Breaking your teeth on Gemara" is a well-known idiom. This evening (11/29/21), in our Monday Night Mishlei Shiur, we "broke our teeth on Mishlei." The the pasuk we learned wasn't inherently dif...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:9 - Precarious Solitude vs. Good Friends and a Toxic Wife (Part 1) טוֹב לָשֶׁבֶת עַל פִּנַּת גָּג מֵאֵשֶׁת מִדְיָנִים וּבֵית חָבֶר: This morning (11/29/21) we began learning a pasuk about the deleterious effects of a "contentious wife." According to the approach we took today, based on the Malbim's commentary, it...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:8 - Estranged by Your Own Inconsistency (Part 2) הֲפַכְפַּךְ דֶּרֶךְ אִישׁ וָזָר, וְזַךְ יָשָׁר פׇּעֳלוֹ: This morning (11/23/21) we continued our analysis of yesterday's pasuk. We ended up with a handful of fruitful approaches - all of which yielded insight into decision-making, and none of which were completely refined. B...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 11:4 - Tzedakah Saves from Death Yet Again לֹא יוֹעִיל הוֹן בְּיוֹם עֶבְרָה וּצְדָקָה תַּצִּיל מִמָּוֶת: This evening (11/22/21), in our Monday Night Mishlei Shiur, we learned a pasuk in chapter 11 which was nearly identical with a pasuk we learned over a year ago in chapter 10. The challenge was to see it in a new light and not ju...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:8 - Estranged by Your Own Inconsistency (Part 1) הֲפַכְפַּךְ דֶּרֶךְ אִישׁ וָזָר, וְזַךְ יָשָׁר פׇּעֳלוֹ: This morning (11/22/21) we began learning a pasuk with a highly dubious hapax legomenon and highly confusing wording. This led us down a little rabbit hole about what to do with such cases. For some reason, today's shiu...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This morning (11/18/21) we had a special Mishlei Methodology shiur in which I ranked all the Mishlei commentaries I know of - not in terms of how OBJECTIVELY good they are, but in terms of how valuable I have PERSONALLY found them to be in my OWN twenty years of intensive Mishlei learning and teaching. After explaining the tiers in my rank...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:7 - Fear-Inducing Plunder (Part 2) שֹׁד רְשָׁעִים יְגוֹרֵם כִּי מֵאֲנוּ לַעֲשׂוֹת מִשְׁפָּט: This morning (11/17/21) we continued working on yesterday's pasuk. Since we had three times as many guys in shiur, we decided to analyze the pasuk from scratch. After exploring several approaches from the guys, we learned Saadia Gao...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:7 - Fear-Inducing Plunder (Part 1) שֹׁד רְשָׁעִים יְגוֹרֵם כִּי מֵאֲנוּ לַעֲשׂוֹת מִשְׁפָּט: This morning (11/16/21) we began learning a strange pasuk. This is one of those pesukim with "mix-and-match" translations, but no matter which way you slice it, the hava amina is weird. We came up with two approaches and some p...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 11:3 - Rabbeinu Yonah on Tam, Yashar, and Bogeid תֻּמַּת יְשָׁרִים תַּנְחֵם וְסֶלֶף בֹּגְדִים יְשָׁדֵּם: This evening (11/15/21), in our Monday Night Mishlei Shiur, we learned Rabbeinu Yonah's commentary on last week's pasuk. Rabbeinu Yonah begins with an exposition on the personalities of the tam and the yashar and then...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:6 - Bank Accounts that Beat You to Death Before Vanishing פֹּעַל אֹצָרוֹת בִּלְשׁוֹן שָׁקֶר הֶבֶל נִדָּף מְבַקְשֵׁי מָוֶת: This morning (11/15/21) we learned a pasuk which initially appeared to be too confusing to make ANY moves, but ended up feeling so "Mishleically cliche" that we had a hard time seeing a chidush. We...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:5 - The Yields of Diligence and Haste (Part 2) מַחְשְׁבוֹת חָרוּץ אַךְ לְמוֹתָר וְכׇל אָץ אַךְ לְמַחְסוֹר: This morning (11/11/21) we set out to learn the meforshim (plural) on yesterday's pasuk, but Rabbeinu Yonah's commentary was so rich that we spent the entire time delving into that! This was a very "meta-Mish...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:5 - The Yields of Diligence and Haste (Part 1) מַחְשְׁבוֹת חָרוּץ אַךְ לְמוֹתָר וְכׇל אָץ אַךְ לְמַחְסוֹר: This morning (11/10/21) we began a pasuk with a clear topic: diligence versus haste. The implications of the pasuk were less clear: is diligence being depicted in a good light here, as we would expect from Mishlei, or is th...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:4 - Furrows of the Wicked (Part 2) רוּם עֵינַיִם וּרְחַב לֵב נִר רְשָׁעִים חַטָּאת: This morning (11/9/21) we continued our analysis of yesterday's pasuk, beginning with a review of yesterday's idea. We then attempted to support that approach with two meforshim (Radak and Rabbeinu Yonah), only to realize that they were...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 11:3 - The Integrity of the Upright תֻּמַּת יְשָׁרִים תַּנְחֵם וְסֶלֶף בֹּגְדִים יְשָׁדֵּם: This evening (11/8/21), in our Monday Night Mishlei Shiur, we tackled a VERY difficult pasuk in which literally every word needed to be defined conceptually. Not only that, but this pasuk introduced us to not one, not two, but THREE new Mish...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:4 - Furrows of the Wicked (Part 1) רוּם עֵינַיִם וּרְחַב לֵב נִר רְשָׁעִים חַטָּאת: This morning (11/8/21) we started a pasuk which was doubly difficult to read, due to its idiomatic terminology and its ambiguous syntax. We struggled to work out viable approaches for most of the shiur and finally hit upon a good one in the last...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:3 - Tzedakah and Mishpat vs. Sacrifice (Part 2) עֲשֹׂה צְדָקָה וּמִשְׁפָּט נִבְחָר לַי״י מִזָּבַח: This morning (11/4/21) we continued our analysis of yesterday's pasuk by learning through six or seven meforshim. We were able to extract full ideas from some of them and partial ideas from others, but either way, we emerged w...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:3 - Tzedakah and Mishpat vs. Sacrifice (Part 1) עֲשֹׂה צְדָקָה וּמִשְׁפָּט נִבְחָר לַי״י מִזָּבַח: This morning (11/3/21) we started learning a very non-Mishleic pasuk - "non-Mishleic" in the sense that it discusses korbanos. We developed three nice approaches on our own. Tomorrow the plan is to learn the meforshim, st...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 11:2 - Mishleic Tznius בָּא זָדוֹן וַיָּבֹא קָלוֹן וְאֶת צְנוּעִים חׇכְמָה: This evening (11/1/21), in our Monday Night Mishlei Shiur, we learned Mishlei's take on tznius (modesty) and its relationship with chochmah. The pasuk was difficult in that it was quite vague - yet, we were able to come up with a good four or five soli...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:2 - Subjective Evaluations vs. Hashem כׇּל דֶּרֶךְ אִישׁ יָשָׁר בְּעֵינָיו וְתֹכֵן לִבּוֹת י״י: This morning (11/1/21) we learned one of those "Duh!" pesukim, which seem like they're stating an obvious idea. In cases like these, the challenge is to find an intellectual chidush (new insight), an emotional chidush,...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 21:1 - Do Kings Have Free Will? (Part 2) פַּלְגֵי מַיִם לֶב מֶלֶךְ בְּיַד י״י עַל כׇּל אֲשֶׁר יַחְפֹּץ יַטֶּנּוּ: This morning (10/28/21) we learned three meforshim on yesterday's pasuk: Saadia Gaon, Meiri, and Rabbeinu Yonah. We got some nice ideas from the first two, but ran into difficulty with Rabbeinu Yonah, thanks in no...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! (NOTE: The internet went out 30 minutes in, which forced me to split the recording into Part A and Part B. If I had the time and the skill I'd merge the two videos into one, but at the present, I have neither.) Mishlei 21:1 (Part A) Do Kings Have Free Will? (Part 1) פַּלְגֵי מַיִם לֶב מֶלֶךְ בְּיַד י״י עַל כׇּל אֲשֶׁר יַחְפֹּץ יַטֶּנּ...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! (NOTE: The internet went out 30 minutes in, which forced me to split the recording into Part A and Part B. If I had the time and the skill I'd merge the two videos into one, but at the present, I have neither.) Mishlei 21:1 (Part B) Do Kings Have Free Will? (Part 1) פַּלְגֵי מַיִם לֶב מֶלֶךְ בְּיַד י״י עַל כׇּל אֲשֶׁר יַחְפֹּץ יַטֶּנּ...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 20:30 - Wounds that Purge and Polish Evil (Part 2) חַבֻּרוֹת פֶּצַע [תַּמְרוּק] (תמריק) בְּרָע וּמַכּוֹת חַדְרֵי בָטֶן: This morning (10/26/21) we continued our learning of yesterday's pasuk. We began by reviewing the ideas we went over yesterday, including Rabbeinu Yonah's, for which we developed an approach. We then lea...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 11:1 - Hashem Hates Deceitful Scales מֹאזְנֵי מִרְמָה תּוֹעֲבַת י״י וְאֶבֶן שְׁלֵמָה רְצוֹנוֹ: This evening (10/25/21), in our Monday Night Mishlei Shiur, we learned a pasuk which came preloaded with a unique set of challenges. Not only is this pasuk a repition of what the Torah already says, but Shlomo HIMSELF essentially repeats...