Machshavah Lab
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.
Episodes
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Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 1-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 9/25/26 titled: Maimonidean Musings: Mitzvos Between Man and God, or Between Man and Himself? Is there such a category as “bein adam la’atzmo”? How does the Rambam understand the categories of mitzvos? Here are two insights: one I found shock...
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Length: 1 hour 39 minutes
Synopsis: Tonight (9/10/26), in our Thursday night Machshavah Lab series for women, I gave a shiur on a topic I THOUGHT I had never given shiur on before. As it turns out, an hour before shiur I realized that I gave shiur on this exact topic three years ago - and when I checked the transcript, I discovered that I said almost exactly the same thin...
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Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 5-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 8/28/26 titled: Ki Savo – Is It Really a Great Mitzvah to Be Happy All the Time? Rebbe Nachman and the Rambam both make statements about the role of simchah in serving Hashem. Both statements are problematic in different ways, especially in light of...
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Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 5-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 8/21/26 titled: Ki Teitzei – Sanitation and Shechinah. I had a radical reading of these two obscure mitzvos and was delighted to discover that Ho’il Moshe took the same approach. Once I started writing, I couldn’t NOT include Shadal, Ralbag, ...
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Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 5-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 8/6/26 titled: Re’eh: Rav Kook’s Anti-Vegetarian Views. This article is my first foray into Rav Kook's stance on vegetarianism, but what motivated me to write it is his revolutionary view of chukim as seeds planted for a future we aren't ready for....
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Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 5-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 7/31/26 titled: Eikev: All You Need is Fear. According to R. Chanina, Moshe tells us that Hashem asks only fear of us, and only fear is in our hands. But the pesukim list far more. The Torah Temimah and the Rambam provide opposite solutions.
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The Torah...
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Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 3-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 7/24/26 titled: Vaeschanan: Rashba on What “Shema Yisrael” Demands of Us. There's a lot to think about in the Shema, but how many of us pause to consider what the word "Shema" is instructing us to do? Thankfully, the Rashba provides a comprehe...
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Length of audio: 1 hour 16 minutes
Synopsis: This is the recording of the Tishah b'Av shiur I gave at the Island Synagogue on 7/23/26. The good news is that this might be the most important Tishah b'Av shiur I've given. It's certainly my favorite, both because of the ideas and because it went according to plan (which doesn't always happen with my Tishah b'Av shiurim).&nbs...
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Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 2-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 7/17/26 titled: Devarim: When Judges Are Threatened with Violence. What would you do if you were a judge and a litigant threatened to kill you? The Torah commands judges not to be afraid. This article explores the halacha and its underlying philosophy.
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The...
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Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 2-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 7/9/26 (a revised version of an article originally published on 7/25/14) titled: Masei: The Release of Unintentional Killers.
Why are the unintentional killers exiled to the cities of refuge released when the Kohen Gadol dies? Here are two answers, fr...
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Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 4-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 6/25/26 titled: Chukas: Three Radical Takes on the Sin of Moshe and Aharon. There are over a dozen theories about which sin barred Moshe and Aharon from leading the people into the Land. Here are three relatively unknown approaches from three relatively u...
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Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 4-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 6/24/26 (originally on 7/7/17) titled: Balak: The Appeal of Baal Peor (and Darwin). Worshiping an idol by defecating on it: what could the appeal possibly be, and what does it have to do with us today? Rav Hirsch has a theory, and it has to do with Darwinism.
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Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 2-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 6/19/26 titled: Korach: How Did Korach and His Followers Think They Could Get Away With It? Korach and his men claim to be chosen by Hashem. Moshe says, "Let's test it." Korach agrees. They fail the test. One cannot help but wonder: What did they EXPECT to hap...
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Length:49 minutes
Synopsis: This morning (6/18/26), in lieu of morning Mishlei, we had the last Q&A - and last shiur! - of the 2025-2026 season. We took up four questions: (1) What are the parameters of philosophical/ethical bribery? (2) How do you navigate having friends who could potentially have a bad influence on you, and how might you have a good influence on the...
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Synopsis: Here's the audio recording of the graduation charge I delivered to the NEJA Graduating Class of 2026 on June 14th, 2026. Transcript is available here.
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The Torah content for this month has been sponsored by Meir Areman, l’zeicher nishmas Zelda bas Ziesel, his grandmother, whose yahrzeit is on the 21st of Sivan.
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If you've gained from what you've learned...
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Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 2-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 6/11/26 titled: Shelach: The Sin of the Spies and the Root of Idolatry. There are many theories about the cause of this catastrophic sin. Sforno aims to explain the Israelites' perplexing accusation: that Hashem hates them. Their error is more insidious than i...
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Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 3-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 6/9/26 titled: Behaalosecha: Don’t Cry Over Lost Fish / Forbidden Relations (FULL Article). Sometimes a fish is just a fish, but sometimes it's a euphemism. At least, that's the disagreement in the Gemara. What is the basis of this disagreement, and what...
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Length: 1 hour 20 minutes
Synopsis: This morning (6/5/26), in our last Friday morning Sefer Iyov series for women of the season, we concluded the Rambam's INITIAL presentation of the true view of hashgachah, as understood from the Torah by the multitude of Sages, and as understood by the Rambam himself. Because we're going to be pausing our Iyov shiurim for the summer, I ...
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Length: 1 hour 35 minutes
Synopsis: Tonight (6/4/26), in our Thursday night Machshavah Lab series for women, was not a shiur but an exploration with an agenda (which I explain toward the beginning and won't divulge here). We read the famous aggadah about the four Tannaim who entered Pardes - R. Akiva, Acher, Ben Zoma, and Ben Azzai - along with several other sources that ...
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Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 5-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 5/29/26 titled: Naso: Three Explanations of the Chatas ha’Nazir (Nazrite’s Sin-Offering). Why must every nazir bring a chatas? I knew about the diametrically opposed answers given by the Rambam and Ramban, but I recently found a third and intermedi...
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