Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!Length of the article: 2 pagesLength of the audio: 8 minutes 1 secondsSynopsis: This is the audio version of the 2-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 7/5/24 entitled: Korach: The Sexual Allegations Against Moshe Rabbeinu. Did you know that Korach led a nationwide smear campaign against Moshe by accusing him of sexual impropriety? I wasn't until this year. This article is an analysis of that midrash.-----The T...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!Length of the article: 4 pagesLength of the audio: 15 minutes 31 secondsSynopsis: This is the audio version of the 4-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 6/28/24 entitled: Shelach: Shadal’s Radical Take on the Forty Years in the Wilderness. What if I told you that Israel were not condemned to wander in the Wilderness for 40 years as a punishment for the Sin of the Spies? That's what Shadal holds! Here's my atte...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!Length of the article: 1 pageLength of the audio: 4 minutesSynopsis: This is the audio version of the 1-page article I originally published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 6/24/22, which I've edited and republished on 6/27/24, entitled: Shelach: Challah as a Consequence of the Cheit ha'Meraglim. Why does the Torah introduce the mitzvah of separating challah after the account of the Sin of the Spies? What does one have to do with t...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!Length: 52 minutesSynopsis: This morning (6/21/24) we had a surprise Q&A as our last shiur in yeshiva of the 2023-2024 year! We took up seven questions: (1) How do we reconcile/account for the differences in the average working hours today vs. in the time of Chazal and the Rishonim, insofar as our learning is concerned? (2) What is meant by the term "ego"? (3) What's up with the waving of the Leviim in Behaalosecha? (4) What benefi...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!Length of the article: 2 pagesLength of the audio: 7 minutes 41 secondsSynopsis: This is the audio version of the 2-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 6/21/24, entitled: Behaalosecha: Moshe’s Short[ened] Tefilah. Why was Moshe's tefilah for Miriam so short? Was this his intent or was he forced to shorten it? Either way, what implications does this have for our tefilah?-----The Torah content for this wee...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!Length: 1 hour 17 minutesSynopsis: This evening (6/19/24), in our last Wednesday night Tehilim/Tefilah shiur of the year, we took up a tefilah-related topic in the parashah: Moshe's short tefilah for Miriam. We raised a bunch of questions, and then set out to gain as many insights as we could. There was so much to cover that we went over time and didn't even finish!----------מקורות:במדבר יב:יגתרגום אונקלוספרשגןרבינו בחייהרכסים לבקעהרמב...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!Length of the article: 4 pagesLength of the audio: 15 minutes 3 secondsSynopsis: This is the audio version of the 4-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 6/18/24, entitled: Emulating Darwin: A Jewish Approach to Seeking God. I recently read some Darwin for the first time and was so impressed by the character reflected in his writing that I was moved to write this article.-----The Torah content for this week has ...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!Length of the article: 2 pagesLength of the audio: 5 minutes 8 secondsSynopsis: This is the audio version of the 2-page article I originally wrote on 6/20/13 which I edited and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 6/14/24, entitled: Naso: Shivim Panim la'Torah in Context. The idiom "Shivim Panim la'Torah" is well-known but its origin is not. An analysis of its source in context sheds light on its usage by the Rishonim.-----Th...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!Length of the article: 7 pagesLength of the audio: 21 minutes 19 secondsSynopsis: This is the audio version of the 7-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 6/11/24, entitled: Shavuos is NOT About the Giving of the Torah. This article, originally published on 5/30/17, is one of the few I've written about Shavuos. It deals with a basic question: What is the theme of the holiday? -----The Torah content for this week...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!Length: 1 hour 23 minutesSynopsis: This morning (6/7/24), in our Friday morning Machshavah Lab shiurim for women, we decided to do a sequel to our Megilas Esther shiurim from earlier this year. As is his style, the Ralbag concludes sections of his Biblical commentaries with "toalos" (a.k.a. lessons) in halacha, middos, and philosophical ideas which he gleans from the text. He concludes Megilas Esther with 16 such lessons. Since this nu...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!Length: 1 hourSynopsis: This morning (6/7/24) we continued our analysis of the sugya we started on Wednesday night. After reviewing the facts and questions, we set out to define - or at least, attempt to define - the two main disagreements: (1) What was the structure of the takanah? (2) Which name of Hashem was this in reference to? I shared the various approaches that my chavrusa and I developed, and although we didn't manage to defin...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!Length: 1 hour 39 minutesSynopsis: Tonight (6/6/24), in our Thursday night Pirkei Avos shiur for women, we continued our analysis of the mishnah about deriving worldly benefit from words of Torah. After a VERY brief review of the Rambam, to which Parts 1 and 2 were devoted, we examined the opposition as formulated by two Rishonim. Sforno provided a clean, straightforward argument which demonstrated a completely different framework from...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!In honor of the second yahrzeit of my rebbi, Rabbi Morton Moskowitz zt"l, I will be reposting all the "Rabbi Moskowitz Memory” Facebook posts that I wrote during the week of his passing.Rabbi Moskowitz Memory #7: Immortality in This WorldLength of article: 2 pagesLength of audio: 4 minutes 40 secondsSynopsis: This is the last of the Facebook posts I wrote during the period immediately following the death of my rebbi zt"l. Like the othe...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!In honor of the second yahrzeit of my rebbi, Rabbi Morton Moskowitz zt"l, I will be reposting all the "Rabbi Moskowitz Memory” Facebook posts that I wrote during the week of his passing. I’m not going to edit any of them unless I find a typo. I want to preserve the spontaneous writing I did during that intense period of grieving.Rabbi Moskowitz Memory #6: His True MemorialLength of article: 4 pagesLength of audio: 8 minutes 22 secondsS...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!Length: 1 hour 6 minutesSynopsis: This evening (6/5/24), in lieu of our Wednesday night Tehilim/Tefilah shiur, we took up a halachic topic: the takanah (Rabbinic enactment) to greet one's fellow with the name of Hashem. This topic is so dense, intricate, and intertwined that we spent the entire time going through the facts and raising questions. We're going to TRY to do Part 2 on Friday morning (because if we don't, there's a VERY good...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!In honor of the second yahrzeit of my rebbi, Rabbi Morton Moskowitz zt"l, I will be reposting all the "Rabbi Moskowitz Memory” Facebook posts that I wrote during the week of his passing. I’m not going to edit any of them unless I find a typo. I want to preserve the spontaneous writing I did during that intense period of grieving.Rabbi Moskowitz Memory #05b: Addendum - Fat Guys in the WoodsLength of article: 2 pagesLength of audio: 3 mi...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!In honor of the second yahrzeit of my rebbi, Rabbi Morton Moskowitz zt"l, I will be reposting all the "Rabbi Moskowitz Memory” Facebook posts that I wrote during the week of his passing. I’m not going to edit any of them unless I find a typo. I want to preserve the spontaneous writing I did during that intense period of grieving.Rabbi Moskowitz Memory #05: Tishah b’Av - The Most Enjoyable Day of the SummerLength of article: 3 pagesLeng...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!In honor of the second yahrzeit of my rebbi, Rabbi Morton Moskowitz zt"l, I will be reposting all the "Rabbi Moskowitz Memory” Facebook posts that I wrote during the week of his passing. I’m not going to edit any of them unless I find a typo. I want to preserve the spontaneous writing I did during that intense period of grieving.Rabbi Moskowitz Memory #04: The HikeLength of article: 4 pagesLength of audio: 6 minutes 50 secondsSynopsis:...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!In honor of the second yahrzeit of my rebbi, Rabbi Morton Moskowitz zt"l, I will be reposting all the "Rabbi Moskowitz Memory” Facebook posts that I wrote during the week of his passing. I’m not going to edit any of them unless I find a typo. I want to preserve the spontaneous writing I did during that intense period of grieving.Rabbi Moskowitz Memory #03: A Rebbi of Students He Never MetLength of article: 3 pagesLength of audio: 7 min...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!In honor of the second yahrzeit of my rebbi, Rabbi Morton Moskowitz zt"l, I will be reposting all the "Rabbi Moskowitz Memory” Facebook posts that I wrote during the week of his passing. I’m not going to edit any of them unless I find a typo. I want to preserve the spontaneous writing I did during that intense period of grieving.Rabbi Moskowitz Memory #02: Burying My Rebbi Admit Tears and Suppressed LaughterLength of article: 4 pagesLe...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!In honor of the second yahrzeit of my rebbi, Rabbi Morton Moskowitz zt"l, I will be reposting all the "Rabbi Moskowitz Memory” Facebook posts that I wrote during the week of his passing. I’m not going to edit any of them unless I find a typo. I want to preserve the spontaneous writing I did during that intense period of grieving.Rabbi Moskowitz Memory #01: Random Learning Session with Ben and Me and 2011Length of article: 2 pagesLength...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!Length: 55 minutesSynopsis: This morning (5/31/24), in the SECOND of our Friday morning Machshavah Lab shiurim for women, we learned Rav Hirsch's elucidation of Chazal's outline of the eight regressive stages of abandoning Torah. I initially planned to give a third shiur this morning on a strange midrash on the phrase "I shall cast your corpses onto the corpses of your idols" (Vayikra 26:30), but we discovered that the midrash was conn...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!Length: 33 minutesSynopsis: This morning (5/31/24), in the FIRST of our Friday morning Machshavah Lab shiurim for women, we took up an old problem: Why is Olam ha'Ba only mentioned in Torah she'baal Peh but not Torah she'bi'Chsav. I wrote an article a few years ago in which I summarized seven views on this topic from the Rishonim along with one view of my own (see the show notes for a link to the article). I began this morning's shiur ...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!Length of the article: 2 pagesLength of the audio: 8 minutes 57 secondsSynopsis: This is the audio version of the 2-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 5/31/24, entitled: Behar: The Torah’s Double Standard for Slave Labor (Part 4: Approach #3). This third and final approach to answering our question about why the Torah permits avodas parech of an eved Canaani is the most radical of them all.-----The Torah cont...

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!Length: 1 hour 33 minutesSynopsis: Tonight (5/30/24), in our Thursday night Pirkei Avos shiur for women, we continued our analysis of the mishnah through the eyes of the Rambam. We began with a VERY in-depth review of everything we covered last time (if you want to skip the review, start around 30 minutes into the shiur). We then read and discussed several additional sources in other works of the Rambam where he discusses this, focusin...