The Tefilah Podcast

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Length: 1 hour 1 minute
Synopsis: This evening (6/10/26), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we began the final perek in our "Kabbalas Shabbos" series: the short and thematically-difficult-to-pin-down Psalm 93! Translation didn't take long, so we were able to pitch several theories. I did my best to share my own, but knew going in that more work was necessarily. As Ha...

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Length: 1 hour 5 minutes
Synopsis: This evening (6/3/26), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we completed our learning of the Radak's commentary on our perek. After reviewing what we covered last time - the first six pesukim - we delved into the critical seventh pasuk which opened up his whole approach. We then finished learning [the critical parts of] his commentary,...

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Length: 1 hour 1 minute
Synopsis: This evening (5/27/26), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we began by reviewing the text and our questions. We then spent the rest of shiur learning the Radak's commentary on the first six pesukim, with forays into the Meiri, Rambam, and R' Avraham ben ha'Rambam. I COULD have rushed in order to finish the perek today, but there were ...

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Length: 1 hour 9 minutes
Synopsis: This evening (5/13/26), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we began our analysis of the Shir shel Yom of Shabbos. I gave shiur on this a long time ago (November 2020), but since we've been learning through all the "Kabbalas Shabbos" perakim, and this is the centerpiece, we had to take it up once again! Tonight, we translated the pere...

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Length: 1 hour 2 minutes
Synopsis: This evening (4/29/26), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we briefly reviewed our approach to 105, then tackled 106. We reread the whole thing, raised questions and problems - mostly on the intro and outro - and then started theorizing. Not only did we develop a solid approach for 106, but we also managed to unify it with 105! We ma...

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Length: 1 hour 3 minutes
Synopsis: This evening (4/22/26), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we briefly reviewed the translation of 105, asked a few more questions, then set out to understand the Radak's approach. Our theory emerged from Radak's commentary on the first few pesukim, Rav Hirsch's commentary on the last pasuk, and our own ideas. Although we still can't ...

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Length: 1 hour 3 minutes
Synopsis: What if I told you that we're going to take up TWO perakim of Tehilim, totaling 93 pesukim? You'd probably think, "This is gonna take MONTHS!" Well, I've long said that one of the tricks to learning Tehilim is to not lose the forest for the trees. These two perakim which I learned over Pesach put that principle to the test. They're long...

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Length: 1 hour 1 minute
Synopsis: This evening (3/25/26), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we began with the Radak's comments on the "ki le'olam chasdo" refrain, followed by a brief comment by Sforno's student on the fine-tuning of the universe, and then spent the rest of the shiur learning the Malbim's approach. We had a brief detour into an angel-related Haggadah ...

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Length: 1 hour 1 minutes
Synopsis: This evening (3/11/26), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we began by reviewing the translation and questions from last time, and then set out to explain the perek. Thankfully, we managed to come up with an excellent approach, inspired in part by Saadia Gaon and Rambam with a minor assist from Radak and Meiri. I'm really happy with ...

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Length: 1 hour
Synopsis: This evening (3/4/26), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we took another break from our "Kabbalas Shabbos" perakim to do something Pesach related: Hallel ha'Gadol (i.e. Tehilim 136). We began by reviewing the relevant halacha in the Shulchan Aruch and the Rambam as a sort of teaser for where I hope to go with this. We then commenced our usual...

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Length: 58 minutes
Synopsis: This evening (2/25/26), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we concluded our analysis of Tehilim 29. After reviewing the text and the original approach we came up with last week, we delved into R. Elia di Nola's commentary, inspired by Sforno. While I prefer our original interpretation in isolation, R. Elia di Nola's take fits right into th...

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Length: 1 hour
Synopsis: This evening (2/18/26), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we resumed our analysis of this perek after a little break. After reviewing the translation, our pivot point theories, and the questions, we came up with an original approach which ended up being fantastic! After that, we ventured into the unknown by reading the commentary of the Sforn...

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Length: 1 hour 1 minute
Synopsis: This evening (2/4/26), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we continued in our learning of the so-called "Kabbalas Shabbos" perakim, jumping back to 29. As usual, we devoted this first session to translating the perek and raising a bunch of questions. Does this have any thematic connection with 95-99? On the surface, it doesn't seem so...

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Length: 1 hour 7 minutes
Synopsis: This evening (1/28/26), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we took a brief detour from our we've so-called "Kabbalas Shabbos" perakim of Tehilim. We recently finished 95-99, and although the next perek according to the mainstream Ashkenazi minhag is 29, we unanimously decided to (re)learn 100, since it's part of the same series (a.k....

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Length: 1 hour 6 minutes
Synopsis: This evening (1/14/26), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we managed to "land the plane"! After reviewing the translation, questions, and observations from last time, we tossed around a few approaches, and then learned the Meiri, who held the key to a unified theory with a very practical message. And with that, we finished the porti...

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Length: 1 hour
Synopsis: This evening (1/7/26), in our first Wednesday night Tehilim shiur of 2026, we commenced our analysis of the next perek in our "Kabbalas Shabbos" series, which also happens to be the last perek in the 95-99 cluster before the minhag takes us back to 29. As usual, we spent the first two thirds of shiur translating the perek and the last third raisi...

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Length: 1 hour 15 minutes
Synopsis: This evening (12/24/25), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we learned through the Radak's commentary a second time, refining our understanding of the main idea we developed by trying to discern every phrase in every pasuk. We may not have figured out every single nuance, but I am SUPER happy with how our analysis turns out. THIS th...

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Length: 1 hour 11 minutes
Synopsis: This evening (12/17/25), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we began with a quick review, then made it our mission to learn through the entire commentary of the Radak. Thankfully, he states his main idea at the very beginning, so we were able to see how he develops it in his commentary on each pasuk. We went a bit overtime so that w...

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Length: 1 hour 6 minutes
Synopsis: This evening (12/10/25), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we (read: I) decided that we needed a break from the "Kabbalas Shabbos" series we've been learning. Since Chanukah is right around the corner, we took up the Shir shel Yom of Chanukah, which many people also recite every day. The translation took a bit more effort, so we did...