The Mishlei Podcast

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! תַּחֲנוּנִים יְדַבֶּר רָשׁ וְעָשִׁיר יַעֲנֶה עַזּוֹת: In our morning Mishlei shiur (12/2/20 at YBT) we learned Mishlei 18:23. This is a great example of a pasuk which looks like it's about a very particular scenario, but the idea turns out to have a far broader application. -------------------------------------------------------------...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! :בִּשְׂפָתָו יִנָּכֵר שׂוֹנֵא וּבְקִרְבּוֹ יָשִׁית מִרְמָה :כִּי יְחַנֵּן קוֹלוֹ אַל תַּאֲמֶן בּוֹ כִּי שֶׁבַע תּוֹעֵבוֹת בְּלִבּוֹ In our morning Mishlei shiur (12/1/20 at YBT) we learned Mishlei 26:24-25. To be honest, I debated whether to upload this one. Chazal say "the words of Torah are poor in their place and rich in another pl...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! זֵכֶר צַדִּיק לִבְרָכָה, וְשֵׁם רְשָׁעִים יִרְקָב: In our Monday Night Mishlei shiur (11/30/20 with Lomdeha, hosted at YBT) we learned the pasuk which is the source of the famous phrase "zeicher tzadik li'vrachah" (zt"l). We arrived at the main idea by thinking about the pasuk, and then refined our understanding in ligh...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! מָצָא אִשָּׁה מָצָא טוֹב וַיָּפֶק רָצוֹן מֵי״י: In our morning Mishlei shiur (11/30/20 at YBT) we learned Mishlei 18:22, which is either about marriage per se, or marriage to an intelligent wife. We worked out one approach for each reading, and concluding with a rather amusing interpretation which connected our pasuk to the two pesukim tha...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! אָח נִפְשָׁע מִקִּרְיַת עֹז, [וּמִדְיָנִים] (ומדונים) כִּבְרִיחַ אַרְמוֹן: In our morning Mishlei shiur (11/25/20 at YBT) we revisited Mishlei 18:19, which we learned this past Monday, hoping to refine the idea we got from Rabbeinu Yonah. We learned through the Meiri, both in the nigleh and the nistar, and we dabbled in the Chukah (a.k.a....

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! מִפְּרִי פִי אִישׁ תִּשְׂבַּע בִּטְנוֹ, תְּבוּאַת שְׂפָתָיו יִשְׂבָּע: מָוֶת וְחַיִּים בְּיַד לָשׁוֹן, וְאֹהֲבֶיהָ יֹאכַל פִּרְיָהּ: In our morning Mishlei shiur (11/24/20 at YBT) we learned Mishlei 18:20-21 - a pair of pesukim featuring a bizarre and somewhat grotesque allegory. Miraculously, we managed to figure out a good explanation wh...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! בְּרָכוֹת לְרֹאשׁ צַדִּיק וּפִי רְשָׁעִים יְכַסֶּה חָמָס: In our Monday Night Mishlei shiur (11/23/20 with Lomdeha, hosted at YBT) we began by struggling through the translation of 10:6. After the dust settled, and we formulated our questions, the sailing was rather smooth. We got a least two ideas for the pasuk, and discussed a lot of Mis...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Just a quick thought about Mishlei's methodology with (what I hope is) a practical outcome! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/rabbischneeweiss --------------------------------------------------------------------------- מקורות: שיר השירים רבה א:א --------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you have que...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! אָח נִפְשָׁע מִקִּרְיַת עֹז [וּמִדְיָנִים] (ומדונים) כִּבְרִיחַ אַרְמוֹן: In our morning Mishlei shiur (11/23/20 at YBT) we tackled the difficult Mishlei 18:19. The upside is that the difficulty caused us to make recourse to the commentaries quicker than we usually do, and we came up with a few ideas with their help. ----------------------...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! מִדְיָנִים יַשְׁבִּית הַגּוֹרָל וּבֵין עֲצוּמִים יַפְרִיד: In our morning Mishlei shiur (11/19/20 at YBT) we continued and concluded our analysis of Mishlei 18:18 and came up with an explanation that answers all of our questions. Please feel free to leave your questions, insights, and feedback in the comments! -----------------------------...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! מִדְיָנִים יַשְׁבִּית הַגּוֹרָל וּבֵין עֲצוּמִים יַפְרִיד: In our morning Mishlei shiur (11/18/20 at YBT) we began Mishlei 18:18 which focuses on the use of a lottery to end quarrels. We spent this morning debating the parameters of this method. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! צַדִּיק הָרִאשׁוֹן בְּרִיבוֹ [וּבָא] (יבא) רֵעֵהוּ וַחֲקָרוֹ In our morning Mishlei shiur (11/17/20 at YBT) we continued learning Mishlei 18:17, this time according to Rabbeinu Yonah, who had a different take on the facts of the pasuk. After defining the according to him and fleshing out the practical implications, we clarified our underst...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! אֹגֵר בַּקַּיִץ בֵּן מַשְׂכִּיל נִרְדָּם בַּקָּצִיר בֵּן מֵבִישׁ: In our Monday Night Mishlei shiur (11/16/20 with Lomdeha, hosted at YBT) we learned Mishlei 10:5 which deals with the peculiar case of someone who plants during the planting season, but sleeps through the harvest. We learned three explanations: one original, one based on Met...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! צַדִּיק הָרִאשׁוֹן בְּרִיבוֹ [וּבָא] (יבא) רֵעֵהוּ וַחֲקָרוֹ In our morning Mishlei shiur (11/16/20 at YBT) we began learning Mishlei 18:17 which seems to be about what in modern terms would be called "anchoring bias." We attempted to learn the pasuk on our own, then turned to Metzudas David and Ralbag. Tomorrow we'll refine...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! מַתָּן אָדָם יַרְחִיב לוֹ וְלִפְנֵי גְדֹלִים יַנְחֶנּוּ In our morning Mishlei shiur (11/12/20 at YBT) we continued our analysis of Mishlei 18:16, defining and refining our understanding of the pasuk according to Rabbeinu Yonah, with a little bit of Meiri thrown in at the end. If you have questions, comments, or feedback, I would love to h...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! מַתָּן אָדָם יַרְחִיב לוֹ וְלִפְנֵי גְדֹלִים יַנְחֶנּוּ: In our morning Mishlei shiur (11/11/20 at YBT) we began our analysis of Mishlei 18:16. We raised questions, discussed some methodology, then read Rabbeinu Yonah's commentary for one approach. Tomorrow we'll develop that approach into a solid idea. Please feel free to leave...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In our morning Mishlei shiur (11/10/20 at YBT) we continued our analysis of Mishlei 18:15, formulating our understanding of the key terms, the main idea, and the practical ramifications. לֵב נָבוֹן יִקְנֶה דָּעַת וְאֹזֶן חֲכָמִים תְּבַקֶּשׁ דָּעַת: Please feel free to leave your questions, insights, and feedback in the comments! ----------...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In our Monday Night Mishlei shiur (11/9/20 with Lomdeha, hosted by YBT) we learned a pasuk which seemed fairly simple on its surface. This gave us an opportunity to push past the surface-level interpretation and search for a chidush (novel insight), which we did! And over the course of our analysis, we explored the topics of Mishleic lazin...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In our morning Mishlei shiur (11/9/20 at YBT) we began our analysis of Mishlei 18:15 which compares the manner in which the chacham and the navon relate to knowledge. Since this is the first pasuk we've done which deals with the terms chochmah, binah, and daas, we discussed the difficulties posed by these terms. We then proceeded to c...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In our morning Mishlei shiur (11/5/20 at YBT) we developed our understanding of how Mishlei advises us to deal with worry, delving deeply into the topic and discussing practicality. If you find yourself fraught with worry, stress, and anxiety about the future, then this shiur is for you! דְּאָגָה בְלֶב אִישׁ יַשְׁחֶנָּהוְדָבָר טוֹב יְשַׂמְ...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In our morning Mishlei shiur (11/4/20 at YBT) we set out to refine our understanding of 18:4, which we've been working on for the past two days. Instead, we learned a new approach from Rashi which happened to tie into an idea we discussed in our Koheles shiur last night, rooted in the Rambam's commentary on Berachos Perek 9 Mishn...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In our morning Mishlei shiur (11/3/20 at YBT) we took a different approach to Mishlei 18:14, based on those meforshim who hold that this pasuk is about the relationship between the mind (intellect and/or psyche) and the health and illness of the physical body. We saw several different approaches, and will attempt to unify or synthesize the...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In our Monday Night Mishlei shiur (11/2/20 with Lomdeha, hosted by YBT) we took up the difficult-to-translate and challenging-to-understand Mishlei 10:3. The first half of the pasuk boldly asserts that Hashem will not starve a tzadik. The second half then says ... what, exactly? Thankfully, we managed to emerge with two or three nice ideas...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In our morning Mishlei shiur (11/2/20 at YBT) we began learning Mishlei 18:14, the wording of which is difficult and ambiguous. The chief ambiguity pertains to the word "ruach," which can be translated as either "psyche" or "intellect." Today we took the latter approach and managed to work out most of an idea....

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In our morning Mishlei shiur (10/30/20 at YBT) we continued our analysis of Mishlei 18:13, drawing upon Rabbeinu Yonah and the Radak for our understanding. מֵשִׁיב דָּבָר בְּטֶרֶם יִשְׁמָע אִוֶּלֶת הִיא לוֹ וּכְלִמָּה: Please feel free to leave your questions, insights, and feedback in the comments! ----------------------------------------...