The Tefilah Podcast
My name is Rabbi Matt Schneeweiss, and this is the hub for all of my shiurim (classes) on Tefilah (Prayer) and related topics, such as Tehilim (Psalms) and Berachos (Blessings)! The shiurim I upload here are given in a variety of formats with different lengths and intended for different audiences. The common theme which unites all of these shiurim is our focus on strengthening our relationship with Hashem through Avodah she'ba'Lev (Service of the Heart). If you have any questions feel free to email me at rabbischneeweiss at gmail. Thanks for listening!
Episodes
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Length: 2 hours 6 minutes
Synopsis: The halachah states: “One who davens must have kavanah during all the berachos, but if one is unable to have kavanah in all of them, one should at least have kavanah in Avos” (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim 101:1). Last year, in my Machshavah Lab tefilah shiurim for women, I gave an eleven-part series aimed at elucidating each word of t...
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Length: 1 hour 2 minutes
Synopsis: This evening (10/22/25), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we began the next perek in our "Tehilim we say at Kabbalas Shabbos" series. This one was very ... "Tehilimmy"! As usual, we spent the bulk of the first session translating the perek with all its nuances. I couldn't help but add my commentary as to w...
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Length: 45 minutes
Synopsis: This morning (10/1/25), in place of our Morning Mishlei shiur, we attempted to understand the preface to the Vidui Yom ha'Kippurim: what are we saying, and why? Drawing on the Rambam's framework for teshuvah, we developed an approach that will unlock a new level of functionality in the vidui, for those who follow through.
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Length: 58 minutes
Synopsis: Tonight (9/17/25), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we (read: I) realized that we're going to miss the next FOUR Wednesdays on account of the Moadim! Given that consideration, I decided to expedite our usual process and attempt to arrive at a main idea and practical takeaway TONIGHT instead of developing an approach with meforshim ...
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Length: 56 minutes
Synopsis: Tonight (9/10/25), in our first Wednesday night Tehilim shiur of the 2025-2026 season, we began Tehilim 95, a.k.a. the first perek in Kabbalas Shabbos. I didn't choose it because of Kabbalas Shabbos (though it's always nice to learn perakim we're already somewhat familiar with), but because I noticed during Kabbalas Shabbos la...
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Length: 1 hour 1 minute
Synopsis: Tonight (6/4/25), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we started and finished (?) an extremely short perek about an unfortunately relevant topic: How should we approach Hashem when we, the Jewish people, are held in contempt by the nations of the world in our exile? Since this perek only had four pesukim, we managed to conduct a full...
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Length: 57 minutes
Synopsis: Tonight (5/28/25), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we concluded our experimental learn-through of Sforno and R' Elia di Nola on our perek. We began by clarifying Sforno’s nuanced take on Torah u’Mada, then explored his view of the role Moshiach will play in educating humanity. We wrapped up with a summary of the perek’s purpose, ...
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Length: 57 minutes
Synopsis: Tonight (5/21/25), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we continued our experiment of learning through Sforno (and R' Elia di Nola) on Tehilim 45! After a recap and a re-pitch of the perek, we continued on, making past the pivot point into the next section. It was ... interesting! We definitely gained some ideas about how to engage in...
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Length: 1 hour 30 minutes
Synopsis: This Friday morning (5/16/25), in our tefilah-focused Machshavah Lab series for women, we finished our analysis of the first berachah! Not that anyone can truly finish it, but we completed THIS round. After a quick review, we spent the bulk of the time analyzing the penultimate clause in the berachah, and rode that momentum through th...
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Length: 1 hour 2 minutes
Synopsis: This Friday morning (5/9/25), in our tefilah-focused Machshavah Lab series for women, we took up the entire clause: וְזוֹכֵר חַסְדֵי אָבוֹת, וּמֵבִיא גוֹאֵל לִבְנֵי בְנֵיהֶם, לְמַעַן שְׁמוֹ בְּאַהֲבָה. My understanding, based largely on the Tur, is that this multi-part sentence conveys a unified idea - one I hope we managed to unpack i...
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Length: 58 minutes
Synopsis: Tonight (5/7/25), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we did something experimental. Instead of learning the next perek the way we usually do, entirely from the ground up, we started with the commentary of Sforno (and that of his student, R' Elia di Nola) and focused on THEIR approach. (I explain my reasons for doing this at the begin...
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Length: 1 hour 7 minutes
Synopsis: This past Friday morning (5/2/25), in our tefilah-focused Machshavah Lab series for women, we began with a 12-minute mega-review of the main ideas for each phrase in the first berachah up until v'Koneh ha'Kol. We then analyzed that phrase and emerged with three interpretations based on three Rishonim (along with a half-baked ...
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Length: 58 minutes
Synopsis: Tonight (4/30/25), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we finished the perek! This was due, in part, to the fact that I didn't have my usual chavrusa this week AND didn't have time to prepare shiur. Nevertheless, we reviewed what we did last time and refined the theory I came up with, running it through the whole perek and bringi...
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Length: 57 minutes
Synopsis: Tonight (4/23/25), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we began a new chapter of Tehilim. Yeah, yeah, I know that we had STARTED Tehilim 42 last time and didn't even get to the analysis, but that was over a month ago, and most of the shiur attendees wanted to start something new. Plus, I started learning this perek over Yom Tov and I ...
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Length: 1 hour 13 minutes
Synopsis: This past Friday morning (3/28/25), in our tefilah-focused Machshavah Lab series for women, we began with a review/relearning of our E-l Elyon analysis, which led to a nice sharpening of points. We then moved on to Gomel Chasadim Tovim and completed a fuller analysis of that. We then started our analysis of v'Koneh ha'Kol, b...
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Length: 1 hour 12 minutes
Synopsis: This past Friday morning (3/21/25), in our tefilah-focused Machshavah Lab series for women, we began with a review of the ideas we've learned for each phrase in the first berachah up until now. We re-learned the two explanations of "ha'E-l ha'Gadol ha'Gibor ve'ha'Nora" that we did last time, the...
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Length: 57 minutes
Synopsis: Tonight (3/19/25), in our Wednesday night tefilah shiur, we began learning the perek before the one we did last time. We had seen opinions that 43 is part of 42, and the proof definitely seems to be in the pudding, so we're going to proceed on that assumption. The translation was a bit quicker than usual, since so many phrases were fami...
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Length: 56 minutes
Synopsis: Tonight (3/12/25), in lieu of our Wednesday night tefilah shiur, we took up a Purim-related tefilah topic: Esther’s tefilah! "But wait," you might object, "where in the Megillah does it say that Esther davened?" The answer: it doesn’t—at least not explicitly. But the Midrashim and midrashic Targumim contain several refere...
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Length: 1 hour 4 minutes
Synopsis: This Friday morning (3/7/25), in our tefilah-focused Machshavah Lab series for women, we resumed our analysis of berachos. After reviewing and slightly expanding upon our explanation of what kavanah to have when we say Hashem's name, we delved into a question that tends to escape the notice of many Jews: that throughout davening a...
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Length: 56 minutes
Synopsis: Tonight (3/5/25), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we successfully and SMOOTHLY "landed the plane"! Not only did we get the main idea and purpose of the perek, but we explained nearly every phrase in the perek - except for the very last phrase, which we decided we can't fully understand without learning the previous perek...
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