442 episodes
Machshavah Lab Rabbi Matt Schneeweiss
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- Religion & Spirituality
My name is Rabbi Matt Schneeweiss. My goal as a Torah educator is not merely to teach my students my OWN hashkafah. Rather, my goal is to equip them with the foundations, the methodological training, and the tools which will enable them to arrive at their OWN understanding of Judaism and cultivate their OWN relationship with Hashem and His Torah. This podcast is devoted to the shiurim I give which are geared specifically towards that end. As such, the range of topics covered here will be diverse. There will be shiurim on Jewish philosophy, Chumash methodology, aggadic midrashim, maybe even some non-Jewish philosophy as well. Merriam-Webster defines "laboratory" as a place providing opportunity for experimentation, observation, or practice in a field of study. I call this podcast "Machshavah Lab" because this is where we will conduct Torah "experiments" by exploring questions, texts, and ideas in an effort to develop our machshavah in a "hands on," exploratory, firsthand manner.
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Emor / Kedoshim: Should I Take My Kid to a Magic Show?
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!Length: 1 hour 15 minutesSynopsis: This morning (5/17/24), in our Friday morning Machshavah Lab shiur for women, we deviated from our planned topic to address a question that was raised in our community WhatsApp group: Is it bad (or even prohibited) to take a kid to see a magic show? In the first part of this shiur, we read the PSA that was posted in the chat and learn through all the sources referenced therein. In the second part, I m...
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Avos 4:5 - Two Motives for Learning
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!Length: 1 hour 24 minutesSynopsis: This evening (5/16/24), in our Thursday night Pirkei Avos shiur for women, we began learning the next mishnah which focuses on two motives for learning Torah and their outcomes. We raised WAY more questions and learned WAY more meforshim than I expected! Although we didn't solve all the problems, we did end up discussing some fundamental insights about how we ought to relate to our learning and practi...
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Q&A #39: Relationship with Learning, Identifying Social vs. Torah Values, Shlish, Curtailed Learning
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!Length: 46 minutesSynopsis: This morning (5/13/24) we had a surprise Q&A! We took up four questions: (1) When a person senses that their relationship with learning has changed, how should they go about evaluating whether that change is positive or negative? (2) How can we tell which of our values are from Torah, from society, or from a combination? (3) How do we classify various subjects within the Rambam's "shlish" program of Talm...
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How the (Seemingly) Outdated Elements of Torah Are Evidence of Its Perfection (REDUX)
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!Length: 1 hour 55 minutesSynopsis: This morning's YBT Sunday shiur (5/12/24) pertains to a critical intersection between hashkafah and pedagogy. As a high school teacher in 2024, I get a LOT of questions about the mitzvos, prohibitions, and institutions in Torah which seem outdated or which students find objectionable because they run contrary to modern Western values. Over time, I've developed an eight-pronged framework (or "suite of ...
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Acharei Mos / Kedoshim: How Ancient Israelites Viewed Incest (and Why It Matters)
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!Length of the article: 2 pagesLength of the audio: 10 minutes 27 secondsSynopsis: This is the audio version of the 2-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 5/10/24 (originally written on 3/18/14), entitled: Acharei Mos / Kedoshim: How Ancient Israelites Viewed Incest (and Why It Matters). This article began with the two questions in the title and evolved into a theory about the Torah's campaign against arayos in ...
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Avos 4:4 - Desecrating Hashem's Name in Secret
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!Length: 1 hour 30 minutesSynopsis: Tonight (5/9/24), in our Thursday night Pirkei Avos shiur for women, we began learning the next mishnah which focuses on chilul ha'shem ba'seiser (the private desecration of Hashem's name) and its consequences. On the surface, this sounds paradoxical: How can a person desecrate Hashem's name if there is no one to witness them? After reviewing the halachos of chilul ha'shem, we delve into the nuanced a...