The Tefilah Podcast

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 2 minutes Synopsis: This evening (10/22/25), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we began the next perek in our "Tehilim we say at Kabbalas Shabbos" series. This one was very ... "Tehilimmy"! As usual, we spent the bulk of the first session translating the perek with all its nuances. I couldn't hel...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 45 minutes Synopsis: This morning (10/1/25), in place of our Morning Mishlei shiur, we attempted to understand the preface to the Vidui Yom ha'Kippurim: what are we saying, and why? Drawing on the Rambam's framework for teshuvah, we developed an approach that will unlock a new level of functionality in the vidui, for thos...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 58 minutes Synopsis: Tonight (9/17/25), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we (read: I) realized that we're going to miss the next FOUR Wednesdays on account of the Moadim! Given that consideration, I decided to expedite our usual process and attempt to arrive at a main idea and practical takeaway TONIGHT instead of develop...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 56 minutes Synopsis: Tonight (9/10/25), in our first Wednesday night Tehilim shiur of the 2025-2026 season, we began Tehilim 95, a.k.a. the first perek in Kabbalas Shabbos. I didn't choose it because of Kabbalas Shabbos (though it's always nice to learn perakim we're already somewhat familiar with), but because I not...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 1 minute Synopsis: Tonight (6/4/25),  in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we started and finished (?) an extremely short perek about an unfortunately relevant topic: How should we approach Hashem when we, the Jewish people, are held in contempt by the nations of the world in our exile? Since this perek only had four pesuki...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 57 minutes Synopsis: Tonight (5/28/25),  in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we concluded our experimental learn-through of Sforno and R' Elia di Nola on our perek. We began by clarifying Sforno’s nuanced take on Torah u’Mada, then explored his view of the role Moshiach will play in educating humanity. We wrapped up with a s...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 57 minutes Synopsis: Tonight (5/21/25), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we continued our experiment of learning through Sforno (and R' Elia di Nola) on Tehilim 45! After a recap and a re-pitch of the perek, we continued on, making past the pivot point into the next section. It was ... interesting! We definitely gained so...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 30 minutes Synopsis: This Friday morning (5/16/25), in our tefilah-focused Machshavah Lab series for women, we finished our analysis of the first berachah! Not that anyone can truly finish it, but we completed THIS round. After a quick review, we spent the bulk of the time analyzing the penultimate clause in the berachah, an...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 2 minutes Synopsis: This Friday morning (5/9/25), in our tefilah-focused Machshavah Lab series for women, we took up the entire clause: וְזוֹכֵר חַסְדֵי אָבוֹת, וּמֵבִיא גוֹאֵל לִבְנֵי בְנֵיהֶם, לְמַעַן שְׁמוֹ בְּאַהֲבָה. My understanding, based largely on the Tur, is that this multi-part sentence conveys a unified idea - on...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 58 minutes Synopsis: Tonight (5/7/25), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we did something experimental. Instead of learning the next perek the way we usually do, entirely from the ground up, we started with the commentary of Sforno (and that of his student, R' Elia di Nola) and focused on THEIR approach. (I explain my reas...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 7 minutes Synopsis: This past Friday morning (5/2/25), in our tefilah-focused Machshavah Lab series for women, we began with a 12-minute mega-review of the main ideas for each phrase in the first berachah up until v'Koneh ha'Kol. We then analyzed that phrase and emerged with three interpretations based on three Ris...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 58 minutes Synopsis: Tonight (4/30/25), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we finished the perek! This was due, in part, to the fact that I didn't have my usual chavrusa this week AND didn't have time to prepare shiur. Nevertheless, we reviewed what we did last time and refined the theory I came up with, running it thr...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 57 minutes Synopsis: Tonight (4/23/25), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we began a new chapter of Tehilim. Yeah, yeah, I know that we had STARTED Tehilim 42 last time and didn't even get to the analysis, but that was over a month ago, and most of the shiur attendees wanted to start something new. Plus, I started learning...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 13 minutes Synopsis: This past Friday morning (3/28/25), in our tefilah-focused Machshavah Lab series for women, we began with a review/relearning of our E-l Elyon analysis, which led to a nice sharpening of points. We then moved on to Gomel Chasadim Tovim and completed a fuller analysis of that. We then started our analysis...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 12 minutes Synopsis: This past Friday morning (3/21/25), in our tefilah-focused Machshavah Lab series for women, we began with a review of the ideas we've learned for each phrase in the first berachah up until now. We re-learned the two explanations of "ha'E-l ha'Gadol ha'Gibor ve'ha'Nora&q...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 57 minutes Synopsis: Tonight (3/19/25), in our Wednesday night tefilah shiur, we began learning the perek before the one we did last time. We had seen opinions that 43 is part of 42, and the proof definitely seems to be in the pudding, so we're going to proceed on that assumption. The translation was a bit quicker than usual,...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 56 minutes Synopsis: Tonight (3/12/25), in lieu of our Wednesday night tefilah shiur, we took up a Purim-related tefilah topic: Esther’s tefilah! "But wait," you might object, "where in the Megillah does it say that Esther davened?" The answer: it doesn’t—at least not explicitly. But the Midrashim and midrashic...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 4 minutes Synopsis: This Friday morning (3/7/25), in our tefilah-focused Machshavah Lab series for women, we resumed our analysis of berachos. After reviewing and slightly expanding upon our explanation of what kavanah to have when we say Hashem's name, we delved into a question that tends to escape the notice of many J...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 56 minutes Synopsis: Tonight (3/5/25), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we successfully and SMOOTHLY "landed the plane"! Not only did we get the main idea and purpose of the perek, but we explained nearly every phrase in the perek - except for the very last phrase, which we decided we can't fully understand with...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 59 minutes Synopsis: Tonight (2/26/24), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we continued our analysis of the short perek we began last time. After reviewing our translation, our pivot point theories, and our questions, we came up with a few ideas and approaches. I presented the findings that my chavrusa and I came up with, which...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 7 minutes Synopsis: This morning (2/21/25), in our tefilah-focused Machshavah Lab series for women, we resumed our analysis of the first berachah of the shemoneh esrei ... well, of ALL berachos! We began by reviewing what we covered last time - namely, what we mean by "Hashem" - which we reinforced with additional...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 58 minutes Synopsis: Tonight (2/19/24), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we began a new and (to us) unknown chapter towards the beginning of Book II. I chose it because it was unfamiliar, short, and looked like it might help us to cope with the current situation Israel is in, and the despondent feelings of many Jews around the...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 57 minutes Synopsis: This morning (2/14/25), in our tefilah-focused Machshavah Lab series for women, I decided on a last-minute change of plans. After reviewing the main ideas and takeaways we've developed so far, we went back to the beginning of the berachah with the INTENT to analyze the phrase, "Baruch atoh Hashem,&quo...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 58 minutes Synopsis: Tonight (2/12/24), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we attempted to "land the plane" - and I believe we succeeded! We reviewed our analysis from last time, honed in on the key questions we intended to resolve, then managed to synthesize the steps we took, thanks to one new step which tied everyth...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Length: 1 hour 18 minutes Synopsis: This morning (2/7/25), in our tefilah-focused Machshavah Lab series for women, we continued our analysis of the first berachah of the Amidah. Since it's been a while, we began by reviewing what we covered last time, refining it in the process. We then focused on three explanations of "the Great...