Machshavah Lab

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!

This is an "audiobook version" of a dvar Torah I wrote in June 2018 entitled: Parashas Shelach: The Torah's View of Temptation. Click here for a link to the written version, which is also available as a PDF. And if you're a fan of these "audiobook versions" of my divrei Torah and blog posts, please let me know, since this will encourage me to record more.
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If you have questions, comments, or feedback, I would love to hear from you! Please feel free to contact me at rabbischneeweiss at gmail.
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Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/rabbischneeweiss
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/rabbischneeweiss
Blog: https://kolhaseridim.blogspot.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rmschneeweiss
"The Mishlei Podcast": https://mishlei.buzzsprout.com
"The Stoic Jew" Podcast: https://thestoicjew.buzzsprout.com
"Rambam Bekius" Podcast: https://rambambekius.buzzsprout.com
"Machshavah Lab" Podcast: https://machshavahlab.buzzsprout.com 
"The Tefilah Podcast": https://tefilah.buzzsprout.com
Our Yeshiva: https://www.yeshivabneitorah.org/
Guide to the Torah Content of Rabbi Matt Schneeweiss: https://kolhaseridim.blogspot.com/2021/04/links-to-torah-content-of-rabbi-matt.html

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!

Tonight (6/2/21 at YBT) we took up the question: What does the Torah mean by "toeivah" (abomination)? The impetus for taking up this topic was Mishlei 20:10, which referred to unjust weights and measures as a "toeivah," and which we spent a couple of days working on. I mentioned that I came up with a theory for the Torah's use of "toeivah" years ago, and felt that it was time to revisit it to see if it still held up. We began shiur by reading every instance of the term "toeivah" in the Chumash in context. (We did NOT go so far as to read every instance in Nach or Kesuvim, which would have been too ambitious.) I then presented my theory, supported by the Sefer ha'Chinuch, the Rambam, and a Gemara in Nedarim. Towards the end of shiur I was asked whether this shiur should be publicized. I acknowledged my ambivalence, and then compromised by publicizing the main shiur but without the thoughts I shared afterwards about the implications of the idea. (If you listen to the entire shiur and are curious as to what those thoughts were, you are welcome to ask me in person.)
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מקורות:
בראשית מג:לב; מו:לד
שמות ח:כב
ויקרא יח:כב, כו-ל; כ:יג
דברים ז:כה-כו; יב:לא; יג:טו; יד:ג; יז:א,ד; יח:ט,יב; כ:יח; כב:ה; כג:ח,יט; כד:ד; כה:טז; כז:טו; לב:טז
ספר החינוך – מצוה קפח (לא תקרבו לגלות ערוה)
רמב"ם – מורה הנבוכים ג:מא
נדרים דף נא עמוד א
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If you have questions, comments, or feedback, I would love to hear from you! Please feel free to contact me at rabbischneeweiss at gmail.
----------
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/rabbischneeweiss
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/rabbischneeweiss
Blog: https://kolhaseridim.blogspot.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rmschneeweiss
"The Mishlei Podcast": https://mishlei.buzzsprout.com
"The Stoic Jew" Podcast: https://thestoicjew.buzzsprout.com
"Rambam Bekius" Podcast: https://rambambekius.buzzsprout.com
"Machshavah Lab" Podcast: https://machshavahlab.buzzsprout.com 
"The Tefilah Podcast": https://tefilah.buzzsprout.com
Our Yeshiva: https://www.yeshivabneitorah.org/
Guide to the Torah Content of Rabbi Matt Schneeweiss: https://kolhaseridim.blogspot.com/2021/04/links-to-torah-content-of-rabbi-matt.html

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!

Tonight (5/26/21 at YBT), in lieu of our Chumash Methodology Shiur, we took a leaf from the playbook of Saadia Gaon by tackling a fundamental question in epistemology: "What are ideas?" This question, with its right and wrong answers, had surfaced numerous times in various discussions over the course of the year, and I kept on telling my talmidim, "You NEED to go through the first chapter of Adler's Ten Philosophical Mistakes!" They asked me if we could go through it together, and we decided to do so tonight. THIS SHIUR ISN'T FOR EVERYONE! It was a lot of reading, a lot of discussion, and - despite having set aside two hours - we had to skip some parts and table some questions in order to finish on time.

If this shiur appealed to you, then I highly recommend getting your own copy of Ten Philosophical Mistakes, available on Amazon.
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If you have questions, comments, or feedback, I would love to hear from you! Please feel free to contact me at rabbischneeweiss at gmail.
----------
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/rabbischneeweiss
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/rabbischneeweiss
Blog: https://kolhaseridim.blogspot.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rmschneeweiss
"The Mishlei Podcast": https://mishlei.buzzsprout.com
"The Stoic Jew" Podcast: https://thestoicjew.buzzsprout.com
"Rambam Bekius" Podcast: https://rambambekius.buzzsprout.com
"Machshavah Lab" Podcast: https://machshavahlab.buzzsprout.com  
"The Tefilah Podcast": https://tefilah.buzzsprout.com
Our Yeshiva: https://www.yeshivabneitorah.org/
Our Women's Program: https://www.lomdeha.org/

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!

Tonight (5/25/20 at YBT), in lieu of our Tehilim shiur, we took up a topic inspired by our Rambam Bekius shiur last week, which focused on the virtue of silence. One of the statements cited by Chazal on silence was from Avos 3:13: "a fence for wisdom is silence." I found Rabbeinu Yonah's commentary on this statement to be illuminating, but was disappointed that he didn't go into detail about HOW to implement these strategies. Then I remembered a blog post I wrote in 2017 which was a compilation of teachings by Krishnamurti on the art of listening. These teachings lined up almost exactly with what Rabbeinu Yonah said. The goal of this shiur was to present Rabbeinu Yonah's ideas, and then discuss them in conjunction with Krishnamurti's strategies. Unfortunately, our shiur time was diminished by about 10 minutes, which forced us to rush through the end, but hopefully there's enough here to provide some benefit.
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מקורות:
רבינו יונה - אבות ג:יג
https://kolhaseridim.blogspot.com/2017/07/krishnamurti-on-listening.html
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If you have questions, comments, or feedback, I would love to hear from you! Please feel free to contact me at rabbischneeweiss at gmail.
----------
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/rabbischneeweiss
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/rabbischneeweiss
Blog: https://kolhaseridim.blogspot.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rmschneeweiss
"The Mishlei Podcast": https://mishlei.buzzsprout.com
"The Stoic Jew" Podcast: https://thestoicjew.buzzsprout.com
"Rambam Bekius" Podcast: https://rambambekius.buzzsprout.com
"Machshavah Lab" Podcast: https://machshavahlab.buzzsprout.com 
"The Tefilah Podcast": https://tefilah.buzzsprout.com
Our Yeshiva: https://www.yeshivabneitorah.org/
Our Women's Program: https://www.lomdeha.org/

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!

In tonight's Chumash Methodology shiur (given at YBT on 5/19/21) we continued learning through the section of his book "The Tao of Jeet Kune Do" (1975) entitled "Organized Despair." If you haven't seen Part 1, I suggest you do so before watching Part 2, since that's where I explain who Bruce Lee is to me, and how his teachings form the foundation of my own approach. In Part 2 our discussion centered on methodology of learning and on how Bruce Lee's teachings help us to engage with the Torah system on the highest levels, despite the apparent incompatibilities.

For Part 1 in this series, click here.

For the text of "Organized Despair," click here.
To purchase the book "The Tao of Jeet Kune Do," click here.

I wrote two articles on some of these passages: The Instinct to Follow and Imitate and The Emergence of Styles.

See also Bruce Lee: On the Three Stages of Art (and No-Mindedness) and Bruce Lee: On Lefum Tzaara Agra.  

Did I mentioned I've learned a lot from Bruce Lee?
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If you have questions, comments, or feedback, I would love to hear from you! Please feel free to contact me at rabbischneeweiss at gmail.
----------
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/rabbischneeweiss
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/rabbischneeweiss
Blog: https://kolhaseridim.blogspot.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rmschneeweiss
"The Mishlei Podcast": https://mishlei.buzzsprout.com
"The Stoic Jew" Podcast: https://thestoicjew.buzzsprout.com
"Rambam Bekius" Podcast: https://rambambekius.buzzsprout.com
"Machshavah Lab" Podcast: https://machshavahlab.buzzsprout.com
"The Tefilah Podcast": https://tefilah.buzzsprout.com
Our Yeshiva: https://www.yeshivabneitorah.org/
Our Women's Program: https://www.lomdeha.org/

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!

In this week's Lomdeha Friday Seminar (5/7/21) I gave over a presentation that I've given every year in my hashkafah class in Shalhevet (a"h). The foundation of this presentation was a series of shiurim given by Rabbi Fox at Northwest Yeshiva High School a number of years ago in which he identified three schools of thought (or trends) in Jewish thinking: Rationalist, Traditionalist, and Blind Faith. I only heard two of the shiurim in that series, but I took the model he proposed and developed it in accordance with my own understanding, which is still evolving. This is the current iteration.

If you are interested in a far more comprehensive and informed presentation of "the Blind Faith" approach, listen to Rabbi Fox's shiur entitled: Pathways to Hashem - An Analysis of the Approaches to Emunah b'Hashem.
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If you have questions, comments, or feedback, I would love to hear from you! Please feel free to contact me at rabbischneeweiss at gmail.
----------
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/rabbischneeweiss
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/rabbischneeweiss
Blog: https://kolhaseridim.blogspot.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rmschneeweiss
"The Mishlei Podcast": https://mishlei.buzzsprout.com
"The Stoic Jew" Podcast: https://thestoicjew.buzzsprout.com
"Rambam Bekius" Podcast: https://rambambekius.buzzsprout.com
"Machshavah Lab" Podcast: https://machshavahlab.buzzsprout.com 
"The Tefilah Podcast": https://tefilah.buzzsprout.com
Our Yeshiva: https://www.yeshivabneitorah.org/
Our Women's Program: https://www.lomdeha.org/

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!

In tonight's Chumash Methodology shiur (given at YBT on 5/5/21) I undertook the daunting task of attempting to convey to my talmidim the impact that Bruce Lee has had on my personal derech. Although I've quoted Bruce Lee's teachings here and there over the course of the year, I've never really devoted time to explaining exactly how his teachings have shaped my own approach to teaching and learning, specifically when it comes to methodology. I decided to use the section of his book "The Tao of Jeet Kune Do" (1975) entitled "Organized Despair" as the anchor of our discussion. I was nervous that I wouldn't be able to do "my teaching rebbi" justice, but once I started, my love and admiration took over. The fact that my talmidim asked for a sequel is a good sign that they saw at least some of his greatness.

For the text of "Organized Despair," click here.
To purchase the book "The Tao of Jeet Kune Do," click here.

I wrote two articles on some of these passages: The Instinct to Follow and Imitate and The Emergence of Styles.

See also Bruce Lee: On the Three Stages of Art (and No-Mindedness) and Bruce Lee: On Lefum Tzaara Agra.  

Did I mentioned I've learned a lot from Bruce Lee?
 ----------
If you have questions, comments, or feedback, I would love to hear from you! Please feel free to contact me at rabbischneeweiss at gmail.
----------
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/rabbischneeweiss
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/rabbischneeweiss
Blog: https://kolhaseridim.blogspot.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rmschneeweiss
"The Mishlei Podcast": https://mishlei.buzzsprout.com
"The Stoic Jew" Podcast: https://thestoicjew.buzzsprout.com
"Rambam Bekius" Podcast: https://rambambekius.buzzsprout.com
"Machshavah Lab" Podcast: https://machshavahlab.buzzsprout.com 
"The Tefilah Podcast": https://tefilah.buzzsprout.com
Our Yeshiva: https://www.yeshivabneitorah.org/
Our Women's Program: https://www.lomdeha.org/

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!

In last week's Lomdeha Friday Seminar (4/30/21) we learned three answers to the question, "What is the theme of the Chag ha'Shavuos?" - that of the Ralbag, the Abravanel, and Rav Hirsch. In every machlokess there will be strengths and weaknesses to each side, and we attempted to identify the strengths and weaknesses in each of these three. We ended off with a handful of questions that remain to be answered. My hope is that this shiur paves the way for the next level of understanding!

For a written version of this shiur, check out my article entitled Shavuos is NOT About Matan Torah.
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מקורות:
הרלב"ג - שמות יט:א; ויקרא פרק כג
אברבנאל - ויקרא כג:כא
רש"ר הירש - ויקרא כג:כא
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If you have questions, comments, or feedback, I would love to hear from you! Please feel free to contact me at rabbischneeweiss at gmail.
----------
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/rabbischneeweiss
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/rabbischneeweiss
Blog: https://kolhaseridim.blogspot.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rmschneeweiss
"The Mishlei Podcast": https://mishlei.buzzsprout.com
"The Stoic Jew" Podcast: https://thestoicjew.buzzsprout.com
"Rambam Bekius" Podcast: https://rambambekius.buzzsprout.com
"Machshavah Lab" Podcast: https://machshavahlab.buzzsprout.com 
"The Tefilah Podcast": https://tefilah.buzzsprout.com
Our Yeshiva: https://www.yeshivabneitorah.org/
Our Women's Program: https://www.lomdeha.org/

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!

In tonight's Chumash Methodology shiur (given at YBT on 4/28/21) emerged from a machlokess Rishonim on how we should divide our learning time. Let's call it Rambam vs. Rabbeinu Tam, for simplicity's sake. Like it or not, most (if not all) of us have been raised in an educational model predominantly influenced by Rabbeinu Tam. Tonight's shiur is not intended to be a comprehensive analysis of the entire sugya. Instead, I just want to showcase an example of the type of insight into mitzvos we are prone to missing out on if we are too immersed in Rabbeinu Tam's curriculum.
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מקורות:
קידושין דף ל עמוד א עם פירוש רש"י ותוס' ד"ה לא צריכא ליומי
עבודה זרה דף יט עמוד ב עם פירוש רש"י
רמב"ם - משנה תורה, ספר המדע, הלכות תלמוד תורה א:י-יב; הקדמה א,לט
סנהדרין דף כד עמוד א ותוס' ד"ה בלולה במקרא ובמשנה וכו׳
ויקרא יט:כג-לב
רלב"ג - ויקרא יט:כג-ל
שד"ל - ויקרא יט:כט
אברבנאל - ויקרא פרק כג
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If you have questions, comments, or feedback, I would love to hear from you! Please feel free to contact me at rabbischneeweiss at gmail.
----------
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/rabbischneeweiss
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/rabbischneeweiss
Blog: https://kolhaseridim.blogspot.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rmschneeweiss
"The Mishlei Podcast": https://mishlei.buzzsprout.com
"The Stoic Jew" Podcast: https://thestoicjew.buzzsprout.com
"Rambam Bekius" Podcast: https://rambambekius.buzzsprout.com
"Machshavah Lab" Podcast: https://machshavahlab.buzzsprout.com 
"The Tefilah Podcast": https://tefilah.buzzsprout.com
Our Yeshiva: https://www.yeshivabneitorah.org/
Our Women's Program: https://www.lomdeha.org/

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!

In last week's Lomdeha Friday Seminar (4/23/21) we attempted to do something that, traditionally, we haven't been very good at: learning bekius (i.e. to cover ground). Since Parashas Kedoshim contains SO many fundamental mitzvos, I wanted to attempt to cover as many as possible, and in so doing, to demonstrate a paradigm for familiarizing oneself with mitzvos. We didn't get very far, but I hope we covered enough mitzvos to convey the general idea of this type of approach!
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מקורות:
פרשת קדושים עם מפרשים שונים (too many to list)
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If you have questions, comments, or feedback, I would love to hear from you! Please feel free to contact me at rabbischneeweiss at gmail.
----------
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/rabbischneeweiss
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/rabbischneeweiss
Blog: https://kolhaseridim.blogspot.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rmschneeweiss
"The Mishlei Podcast": https://mishlei.buzzsprout.com
"The Stoic Jew" Podcast: https://thestoicjew.buzzsprout.com
"Rambam Bekius" Podcast: https://rambambekius.buzzsprout.com
"Machshavah Lab" Podcast: https://machshavahlab.buzzsprout.com 
"The Tefilah Podcast": https://tefilah.buzzsprout.com
Our Yeshiva: https://www.yeshivabneitorah.org/
Our Women's Program: https://www.lomdeha.org/