The Stoic Jew

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: Since my last episode was about hashgachah (Divine providence), I thought it would be interesting to examine the Stoic view of hashgachah , as expounded by Seneca. In today’s episode we compare Seneca’s tacit rebuke of his student’s impatient inquiry of this lofty topic with the challenges I faced when I was asked to teach Sefer...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: On Day #5 of my January 2022 solo cabin retreat, I got a call from my Rosh ha’Yeshiva. The subject? Hashgachah pratis. This longer-than-normal episode is my recollection of that conversation, supplemented by my own extensive footnotes and reflections. I’m posting this as an episode of The Stoic Jew Podcast AND the Machshavah Lab...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This is the second installment of a two-part reflection on my upcoming Winter Break 2022. In today’s episode, we revisit the excerpts from Seneca and Marcus Aurelius which I reflected on after Winter Break 2021, and reexamine them in light of the tools I’ve gained since then. Next, we discuss my discovery of avodah zarah thinking...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This is the first installment of a two-part reflection on my upcoming Winter Break 2022. In today’s episode, Seneca and the Meiri join forces to give me permission – within the framework of my own psychological drives – to take this winter break, and actually use it to relax and recharge. Related Rabbi Schneeweiss Content:  - Tha...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: What does it mean to "live an authentic life" or to "be an authentic person"? In this episode I argue that the answers given by Judaism and Stoicism are closely related, if not identical - in contrast to the popular conception. I then apply this idea to a rather amusing experience that happened to me a few mon...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This episode begins with a review of what I think of as the three stages of Stoic development. I then share a new way of conceptualizing these stages as three ways we relate to fate (i.e. to those things we cannot control), which I apply to a situation of uncertainty I am currently facing in my life. Related Rabbi Schneeweiss Con...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: Today is my 38th birthday! In this episode I reflect on where I was last year at this time, what happened in between, and where I hope I’m going.  Related Rabbi Schneeweiss Content: - TSJ Interlude - 37th Birthday Reflections: On the Allegory of the Soldier - Torah as Melachah (Craft) - Simone Biles is My Hero Sources: - Aurelius...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: I recently attended the wedding of a dear friend. It would be accurate to say that the dancing at the wedding started out the same as at any Orthodox Jewish wedding and ended as a rave. In this episode I argue that this was a GOOD thing, and that it reflects a concept I suspect is unique to Judaism: simchah shel mitzvah . The epi...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: In today’s (short!) episode we compare Epictetus’s unrealistic and inhuman standards of grieving (or lack thereof) with the tempered and realistic alternative taught by Seneca, as codified by the Rambam in the Mishneh Torah. The explanation Seneca provides for why people grieve excessively raises an interesting question about the...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: I came across a quotation from Thoreau which resonated with me, thanks to my “Counting the Weeks of My Life” experiment. In this episode we expand upon Thoreau’s thoughts with excerpts from Epictetus, du Lair, and Pirkei Avos.   Related Rabbi Schneeweiss Content: - Remember that You're ALREADY Dead - How to Shower Like You&a...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: I recently started reading a book called The Anatomy of Peace . This morning’s reading triggered an insight into another critique I have of Epictetus’s Stoicism, beyond what I’ve expressed in the past. In my opinion, Marcus Aurelius’s Stoicism doesn’t partake of this flaw in the same way, and Judaism’s ethics actively opposes it....

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: Since today is the 10th of Teves, I decided to devote the episode to a reflection on how the very existence of The Stoic Jew Podcast is directly related to one of the three events we commemorate on this day – namely, the translation of the Torah into Greek.  Related Rabbi Schneeweiss Content: - TSJ Interlude: A Defense of This Po...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: Last night I gave a Chumash shiur on the brief and bizarre conversation between Yaakov Avinu and Paroh in Parashas Vayigash. Three of the interpretations we learned featured Stoic ideas: two from Shadal (one in the name of Rav Reggio and Gesenius, and the other in the name of his late son, Filosseno), and another from Rav Hirsch....

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: I seem to be on a memento mori kick as of late. In today’s episode I discuss the biggest impact (thus far) of my “Counting the Weeks of My Life” experiment, which I spoke about in one of last week’s episodes. For those who are turned off to memento mori practices because they see them as overly negative or morbid might find Marcu...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: Today we return to a familiar theme: how to live like it’s your last day. In past episodes we’ve discussed the challenges to implementing this in practice. Thanks to some insights from Mark Nepo and Steve Jobs, I think I’ve found another piece to the puzzle. This is one of those “thinking aloud” episodes in which I explore how th...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: In today’s episode I reflect on the unique experience I had in which I counted every single week of my life. Like,  I physically marked off each of my 1,977 weeks on the “Weeks of My Life” calendar I bought on Amazon. Will this help me to internalize the ideas in Tehilim 90:12, Seneca’s On the Shortness of Life , and Thornton Wil...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: In today’s episode I muse out loud about some thoughts I had on and about Thanksgiving in light of my Thanksgiving meal and my reflections on my 21st geriversary (i.e. anniversary of converting to Judaism). This week's Torah content has been sponsored in memory of Rabbi Dr Leon & Frances Gersten.   Related Rabbi Schneewe...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This Thanksgiving (i.e. tomorrow) I'll be meeting up with my dad's family. Some I haven't seen in a few years; others, in a decade; others in two decades; still others, I've never met. I thought I wasn't nervous about this reunion, but the fact that I woke up this morning at 3:30am and couldn't stop...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: In my Rambam Bekius Chavurah we’ve been learning Hilchos Talmud Torah Chapter 3, in which the Rambam prescribes guidelines for attaining the Crown of Torah. I recently came across a letter from Seneca in which he tells his pupil, Lucilius, what he’ll need to do in order to succeed in the life of philosophy. I couldn’t help but no...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: This morning we attempt to understand Marcus Aurelius’s nonchalant statement about how easy it is to instantly attain inner peace, which is reminiscent of Moshe Rabbeinu’s nonchalant statement about how easy it is to fear Hashem. The question that prompted this episode is the question in the title: is it really THAT easy? This we...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: In this episode we explore the parallels between the halachic and Stoic approaches to kibud u’mora av v’eim (honoring and revering one’s parents), in light of an observation made by Moshe Halbertal in his biography of the Rambam.  This week's Torah content has been sponsored by Shirley, and since she didn't specify a de...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: The first instance of a neder (vow) in the Torah in Parashas Vayeitzei, when Yaakov Avinu makes a neder upon waking up from his dream about the ladder. Rav Hirsch provides a beautiful exposition on the folly of making nedarim. Ironically, his comments contain far more Stoicism than the actual writings of the Stoics on this topic!...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: Do you find yourself making the same bad decisions again and again because you’re duped by your own emotions? Epictetus repeatedly warns us to not be “taken by impressions” – that is to say, fooled into making mistakes based on inaccurate perceptions of reality. In this excerpt from the Discourses , Epictetus teaches us a powerfu...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: Do you hate yourself? Do you love death? You might instinctively think the answer is, “Of course not!” but Marcus Aurelius, Shlomo ha’Melech, and Dr. Theodore I. Rubin beg to differ. Today’s episode is about a single line from the first chapter of Meditations Book 5 and focuses on an idea I alluded to at the end of the previous e...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Synopsis: I’ve mentioned on numerous occasions that my favorite chapter in Aurelius’s meditations is 2:1, in which the Stoic Emperor talks about how he’d begin his day. But there’s a very important step which comes before this: getting out of bed. In today’s episode we compare Aurelius’s advice on how to get out of bed when it’s cold outsi...