The Tefilah Podcast

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This evening (7/27/21 at YBT) we began our inquiry into the halachos of tikun ha'guf (loosely translated as "bodily posture") in tefilah. After reading the halacha in the Rambam, I shared two quick insights: the first was a technique for maintaining kavanah (which I wrote about in my article entitled, Bodily Posture as a Sen...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This evening (6/17/21 at YBT), in our final Tehilim shiur of the year, we changed the plans that we set forth on Tuesday. Instead of trying to figure out Tehilim 25, we focused on the reason that brought us there in the first place: the opening phrase in the 7th berachah of the Shemoneh Esrei. The Abudirham traces this phrase to a pasuk in...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In tonight's Tehilim shiur (6/15/20 at YBT) we began our analysis of Tehilim 25. However, since we only have one remaining Tehilim shiur before we break for the summer, we're not going to attempt to fully analyze the entire thing. Instead, our aim will be three-fold: (1) to find the pivot point, (2) to define the main idea, or at...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (6/14/21 at YBT), at the beginning of my Rambam Bekius shiur, I shared a tefilah-related epiphany I had as a result of our learning Hilchos Deios. I realize that this idea is still in its nascent form, but since this is the last week of yeshiva, I thought it would be a good idea to capture it in some form, even if it's...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Tonight (6/8/21 at YBT), instead of our regular Tehilim shiur, I wanted to go over four "tefilah techniques" I've recently discovered and am going to try to implement. The first one is something I mentioned in an earlier shiur, but the other three are applications of concepts and perspectives I've learned from reading &...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In tonight's Tehilim shiur (6/1/20 at YBT) we started AND finished the very short Perek 93. Short as it may be, it proved to be tricky to figure out how to approach on our own. We ended up learning the Meiri, and although we didn't understand exactly how every single pasuk fit in, we did manage to arrive at a nice "main idea...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In tonight's Tehilim shiur (5/20/20 at YBT) we finished THIS iteration of our learning of Tehilim Chapter 1. After a lengthy review/development of our understanding of the first four pesukim, we learned the Meiri on the remaining two pesukim, then attempted to define the main idea and explain why this is the beginning of the sefer. Al...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In this week's Lomdeha Friday Seminar (5/14/21) I gave Part 1 of my "How to Learn Tehilim" shiur, which I gave in yeshiva earlier this year. There are some minor tweaks to the presentation here and there, but the core of it is the same. I figured I'd still record it and upload it anyway.  ---------- If you missed the ot...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In tonight's Tehilim shiur (5/11/20 at YBT) we continued learning the first perek of Tehilim with the commentary of the Meiri. After reviewing what we said before, we hacked our way through the rest of his commentary on 1:3-4. We didn't get as many profound ideas this time as we did in the last two sessions, but that's how t...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In tonight's Tehilim shiur (5/6/20 at YBT) we continued learning the first perek of Tehilim with the commentary of the Meiri. We finished the first pasuk (about what to avoid), learned the second pasuk (about what to strive for), and made it halfway through the third pasuk (about the beneficial results). Do we feel bad about our pace?...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In tonight's Tehilim shiur (5/4/20 at YBT) we continued learning the first perek of Tehilim. However, I decided that the Meiri had a smoother and more accessible approach - at least, for our purposes - so we jumped ship on the Ibn Ezra and began afresh with the Meiri, after reviewing the pesukim and questions from last time. Although...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In tonight's Tehilim shiur (4/29/20 at YBT) we began learning the first perek in Tehilim - and what an unusual perek it is! In many ways, this felt more like a cluster of Mishlei pesukim than a psalm, and we approached it as such. We started developing some approaches, but it looks like we'll have to wait until next time to see i...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In tonight's Tehilim shiur (4/27/20 at YBT) we set out to wrap up our analysis of Tehilim 118. Did we succeed? No, we did not. Did we walk away with valuable ideas and insights? Most definitely. And did this "failure" in and of itself prove to be a "success" in accordance with the ideas of the perek itself? You bet...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Sometimes you set out to finish learning a perek of Tehilim, but instead, you end up having a discussion about what The Good is. Tonight was one of those nights. In tonight's Tehilim shiur (4/22/20 at YBT) we started to summarize the main idea of each cluster of pesukim, but ran into a problem that I addressed on this morning's e...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In tonight's Tehilim shiur (4/20/20 at YBT) we continued our analysis of Tehilim 118. We began by reviewing and refining the ideas we came up with last time, and then we finished learning the Radak's commentary. בג"ה, we will finish our learning of Hallel according to the Radak next time we meet. Our goal will be threefold:...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In tonight's Tehilim shiur (4/15/20 at YBT) we continued our analysis of Tehilim 118. We began by reviewing the ideas we came up with last time, and then we continued learning each pasuk with the Radak. One thing was clear from this shiur: we see a theme, and the theme is what we suspected, if not what our pivot point seems to indicat...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In tonight's Tehilim shiur (4/14/20 at YBT) we continued our analysis of Tehilim 118. First we reviewed and attempted to solidify the main idea from last time (Adler's Question #1). Then we delved into the task of understanding each part and how it fits into the whole (Adler's Question #2). We utilized the Radak's comme...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In tonight's Tehilim shiur (4/8/20 at YBT), after a brief recap of our method of learning Tehilim (since there were several new people in the shiur), we began working on the final perek of Hallel, and oh what a difficult perek it is! The unity is difficult to discern, and is made even more difficult by how we tend to divide it up when...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In tonight's Tehilim shiur (4/6/21 at YBT) we decided to take up a side-topic: the meaning of the word הללויה. I figured that we'll encounter it eventually (and already did, back when we did 146), and rather than go off on a tangent then, we'll just discuss it now. Plus, it comes up so much in davening. Although we read thro...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In tonight's Tehilim shiur (3/18/20 at YBT) we learned the entirety of Tehilim 117 - the shortest perek in the entire sefer, consisting of only two pesukim. Our analysis began flowing from the text itself (which we analyzed like a Mishlei pasuk, since it was so short), and was strengthened by the Radak's commentary. We then went...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In tonight's Tehilim shiur (3/16/20 at YBT) we continued our analysis of the 4th perek of Hallel. We started with a review of the pivot point and all the key comments of the Radak. We supplemented this with some excerpts from the Meiri, and then we discussed a possible approach to the main idea of the perek in light of the three perak...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In tonight's Tehilim shiur (3/11/20 at YBT) we began our analysis of the 4th perek of Hallel. This one differed markedly in style and complexity compared to the first three - so much so that after identifying the pivot point, we decided to read through the entire Radak before attempting to theorize about the main idea. We did finish r...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In tonight's Tehilim shiur (3/9/20 at YBT) we reviewed the first three chapters of hallel in an attempt to understand (a) how each one relates to the other, and (b) what role they play in the seder. If you missed the shiurim on each of these chapters, I think you'll still be able to get the main ideas from this review, but if you...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In tonight's Tehilim shiur (3/4/20 at YBT) we started and finished (gasp!) an analysis of the third perek of Hallel. This one came together quite nicely. We ended shiur thinking we'd need another session to polish the idea, but we ended up using the next session to tie together the first three chapters. ---------- מקורות: תהלים פ...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! In tonight's Tehilim shiur (2/23/21 at YBT) we took up a question based on the Rambam's statement about the theme(s) of Purim. At first glance he seems to be suggesting that the theme is tefilah, based on a pasuk in Devarim. This reading is borne out by many of the commentators on the megilah. However, he explains this pasuk diff...