The Tefilah Podcast

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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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Length: 59 minutes
Synopsis: Tonight (2/26/24), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we continued our analysis of the short perek we began last time. After reviewing our translation, our pivot point theories, and our questions, we came up with a few ideas and approaches. I presented the findings that my chavrusa and I came up with, which I think carry real promise. The...

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Length: 1 hour 7 minutes
Synopsis: This morning (2/21/25), in our tefilah-focused Machshavah Lab series for women, we resumed our analysis of the first berachah of the shemoneh esrei ... well, of ALL berachos! We began by reviewing what we covered last time - namely, what we mean by "Hashem" - which we reinforced with additional sources. We then learned throug...

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Length: 58 minutes
Synopsis: Tonight (2/19/24), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we began a new and (to us) unknown chapter towards the beginning of Book II. I chose it because it was unfamiliar, short, and looked like it might help us to cope with the current situation Israel is in, and the despondent feelings of many Jews around the world. We spent much of the ti...

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Length: 57 minutes
Synopsis: This morning (2/14/25), in our tefilah-focused Machshavah Lab series for women, I decided on a last-minute change of plans. After reviewing the main ideas and takeaways we've developed so far, we went back to the beginning of the berachah with the INTENT to analyze the phrase, "Baruch atoh Hashem," but we "only" ende...

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Length: 58 minutes
Synopsis: Tonight (2/12/24), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we attempted to "land the plane" - and I believe we succeeded! We reviewed our analysis from last time, honed in on the key questions we intended to resolve, then managed to synthesize the steps we took, thanks to one new step which tied everything together. We emerged with a...

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Length: 1 hour 18 minutes
Synopsis: This morning (2/7/25), in our tefilah-focused Machshavah Lab series for women, we continued our analysis of the first berachah of the Amidah. Since it's been a while, we began by reviewing what we covered last time, refining it in the process. We then focused on three explanations of "the Great, Mighty, and Awesome God"...

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Length: 56 minutes
Synopsis: Tonight (2/5/24), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we continued our analysis of the perek we began last week. Day 2 of learning a new perek is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you're going to get. I was actually a bit worried that we wouldn't get ANYWHERE tonight, as sometimes happens on Day 2, but I was pleasantl...

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Length: 57 minutes
Synopsis: Tonight (1/29/24), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we began a new perek! I chose this one because of the famous opening line (which is central to the Rambam's writings about praising Hashem). As usual, we spent much of this first session reading and translating the perek, and BOY WAS IT A TEETHBREAKER! The words, grammar, and synt...

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Length: 1 hour 16 minutes
Synopsis: This morning (1/10/24), in our tefilah-focused Machshavah Lab series for women, we continued our analysis of the first berachah of the Amidah. Due to personal circumstances and a reconsideration of halachic priorities, we deviated from our original plan of focusing on the conclusion of the berachah. Instead, we began analyzing each wo...

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Length: 1 hour
Synopsis: Tonight (1/8/24), in our Wednesday night tefilah shiur, we continued our analysis of what we mean when we say that Hashem loves us. We began by reviewing the essence of what we covered last time, but in a much slower, clearer, and thought-out manner than last time. As we reviewed the sources, we sharpened last week's approach. We then read ...

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Length: 1 hour 17 minutes
Synopsis: This morning (1/3/24), in our tefilah-focused Machshavah Lab series for women, we began a new series: an analysis of the berachos in the amidah! What, exactly, does this entail? That's what we spent the first 20 minutes of shiur discussing: how can we get the most out of our analysis, given our temporal limitations, and what shou...