The Tefilah Podcast

Length: 58 minutes
Synopsis: This evening (4/3/24), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we continued our relearning of the first chapter of Hallel. After reviewing our translation, our questions, and our approach - which we developed a bit - we decided to start learning the Abravanel's explanation in his haggadah commentary. We only got through the first three pesukim, but MAN were there a lot of fundamental ideas about ...

Length: 1 hour
Synopsis: This evening (3/27/24), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we began a new project: re-learning Hallel! (or at least, the first two chapters) The last time I gave shiur on Hallel was three years ago, and there's been enough distance and enough natural forgetting that I feel like I can learn everything with a relatively fresh mind. And even if I can't, we have SOOO many more resources on AlHa...

Note: You are advised to at LEAST listen to Part 2 before this one, but in a pinch, you'll probably still gain if you just listen to Part 3, since we begin with a review of everything we covered in Parts 1 and 2.

Length: 1 hour 2 minutes
Synopsis: This evening (3/20/24), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we had one objective: to "land the plane" (i.e. bring our analysis to a close), and with Hashem&a...

Tehilim 22: Al Ayeles ha'Shachar (Part 2: Developing an Approach)

Note: In this case, you do NOT need to have listened to Part 1 in order to follow Part 2

Length: 1 hour 4 minutes
Synopsis: This evening (3/13/24), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we had a LOT of work to do, since we barely got any analysis done last time. I was hopeful but worried about whether we'd make any progress, since this...

Length: 1 hour 3 minutes
Synopsis: This evening (3/6/24), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we began a new perek: the somewhat lengthy and exceedingly difficult-to-read chapter 22. We chose this because Chazal hold that it's about Esther, but we'll follow our usual approach and attempt to learn it on its own before delving into that approach. We ended up needing to spend the entire hour cranking out a translation ...

Length: 1 hour 8 minutes
Synopsis: This evening (2/28/24), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we aimed to wrap up our analysis. After a thorough review of what we covered last time, we read the Meiri's commentary on the final six pesukim. This drew us into the esoteric vortex-like topic of God's Omniscience. We spent as much time on that as we needed (and perhaps a little more), then finished the Meiri and attempte...

Length: 1 hour 3 minutes
Synopsis: This evening (2/21/24), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we continued our analysis of Tehilim 139. After reviewing our translation, our questions, and our approaches from last week, we began learning the Meiri's beautiful pasuk-by-pasuk commentary. We covered the first section of the perek, and decided to stop at the pivot point. Next week (בג"ה) we'll read the rest of his ...

Length: 1 hour 3 minutes
Synopsis: This evening (2/14/24), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we began a new perek, and was it a DOOZY of a perek! Lengthy, poetic, filled with cryptic words and phrases and the abrupt pivot-point of them all. Daunting as it was, we raised a bunch of good questions and mapped out several approaches which look like they have potential. We'll have to wait until next week to see whether we s...

Length: 1 hour 8 minutes
Synopsis: Tonight  (2/7/24), in our Wednesday night Tehilim/Tefilah shiur, we continued our (unprepared) exploration of the berachos said at a bris milah, with a focus on the third berachah. We read through the commentaries of the Rambam (in one of his tshuvos), Rashi (on the Gemara), and the Abudarham, and while we weren't able to go TOO in-depth, we did walk away with some nice ideas and question...

NOTE: I made a mistake in my translation of the response to the 2nd berachah, according to the Rambam. It should be: "just as YOU brought him into the covenant, so should you bring him to Torah, to chuppah, and to good deeds."

Length: 1 hour 3 minutes
Synopsis: This evening (1/31/24), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we had a last-minute change of plans. Since the bris milah of the first son of my frien...

Length: 1 hour
Synopsis: This evening (1/10/24), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we set out to answer our two most pressing Tehilim questions: (1) What is the main idea of the perek? (2) What is the purpose? Thanks to the commentary of R' Elia di Nola (a.k.a. Shiurei R' Ovadyah Sforno) we did just that! Even though it looked like this perek was more about David and Doeg, we ended up seeing how it can be applied ...

Length: 1 hour 3 minutes
Synopsis: This evening (1/3/24), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we began learning a new perek that I had never seen before. I was drawn to it because it promises to shed new light on the familiar themes of lashon ha'ra and trust in Hashem. Tonight we translated the perek, raised a bunch of questions, and began theorizing. Next week (בג"ה) we'll see if we can get the main idea!
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Length: 58 minutes
Synopsis: This evening (12/13/23), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we reviewed what we did last time, took a couple of hesitant steps to explain the perek on our own, and then decided to let me Malbim "spoon-feed" us. We read through his commentary, then stepped back to analyze it, and BAM - we came up with a theory for the main idea and the purpose of the perek based on the Malbim's appr...

Length of the article: 7 pages
Length of the audio: 20 minutes 36 seconds
Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 7-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 12/10/23 (originally published on Kol ha'Seridim on 12/15/20), entitled: Asking for Miracles on Chanukah: Updated for 2023, in Light of the War with Hamas. Most versions of Al ha'Nissim include a request for Hashem to do miracles for us...

Length: 1 hour 3 minutes
Synopsis: This evening (12/6/23), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, continued working on our perek. After reviewing the translation, the questions, and the moves we made last time, we learned a bit of Tehilim methodology from Ibn Ezra, then introduced a critical fact we were missing last time which shifted the way we approached the perek. After reading through the Radak's commentary on the enti...

Length: 1 hour
Synopsis: This evening (11/29/23), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we took up Al Naharos Bavel. After an introductory "myth-busters" mini-shiur on the REAL minhag of Shir ha'Maalos (which most people do NOT follow) and a methodological interlude from William Hazlitt, we translated the perek, identified the pivot point, and began raising questions and problems - especially with regards to the ...

Length: 1 hour
Synopsis: This evening (11/22/23), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we began reviewing the translations, questions, and approaches we took last time. We then learned through the Sforno's commentary and used his explanation of many of the phrases to develop our own approach. In the end, we answered nearly all of our questions AND came up with a solid theory for the main idea, and how to utilize this pere...

Length: 1 hour
Synopsis: This evening (11/15/23), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we began relearning Tehilim 121, which I gave shiur on in May 2022. I found a new approach I wanted to share, but we spent all of tonight analyzing the perek on our own, which was really thought-provoking. Next time (בג"ה) we'll attempt to learn the perek according to the Sforno.
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מקורות:
תהלים פרק קכא
Robert A...

Length: 1 hour 3 minutes
Synopsis: This evening (11/8/23), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we continued and completed (for now) our learning of this perek! After a review of the text and the questions, we figured out an approach to the main idea, found support in the meforshim, and then developed that main idea into an understanding of the purpose of the perek with a focus on how we can apply it to the situation in Israel...