Machshavah Lab

Bo/Beshalach: How Many Israelites Died in the Plague of Darkness?

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 4-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 1/28/26 titled: Bo/Beshalach: How Many Israelites Died in the Plague of Darkness? This article spotlights a highly problematic midrash on a pasuk in Beshalach about an event in Bo which has bothered me for over a decade. Thankfully, I finally found a satisfying explanation.-----The Torah content for the month of January is sponsored by Naomi Schwartz in memory of her father, Dovid Yitzchok ben Chaim Yeruchum Fishel z”l, who dedicated his life to learning and teaching Torah to countless students b’simcha. His first yahrtzeit is the 23rd of Teves.-----If you've gained from what you've learned here, please consider contributing to my Patreon at www.patreon.com/rabbischneeweiss. Alternatively, if you would like to make a direct contribution to the "Rabbi Schneeweiss Torah Content Fund," my Venmo is @Matt-Schneeweiss, and my Zelle and PayPal are mattschneeweiss at gmail. Even a small contribution goes a long way to covering the costs of my podcasts, and will provide me with the financial freedom to produce even more Torah content for you.If you would like to sponsor a day's or a week's worth of content, or if you are interested in enlisting my services as a teacher or tutor, you can reach me at rabbischneeweiss at gmail. Thank you to my listeners for listening, thank you to my readers for reading, and thank you to my supporters for supporting my efforts to make Torah ideas available and accessible to everyone.-----Substack: rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/YU Torah: yutorah.org/teachers/Rabbi-Matt-SchneeweissPatreon: patreon.com/rabbischneeweissYouTube Channel: youtube.com/rabbischneeweissInstagram: instagram.com/rabbischneeweiss/"The Stoic Jew" Podcast: thestoicjew.buzzsprout.com"Machshavah Lab" Podcast: machshavahlab.buzzsprout.com"The Mishlei Podcast": mishlei.buzzsprout.com"Rambam Bekius" Podcast: rambambekius.buzzsprout.com"The Tefilah Podcast": tefilah.buzzsprout.comOld Blog: kolhaseridim.blogspot.com/WhatsApp Content Hub (where I post all my content and announce my public classes): https://chat.whatsapp.com/GEB1EPIAarsELfHWuI2k0HAmazon Wishlist: amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/Y72CSP86S24W?ref_=wl_sharel

Gam Zu l'Tovah: What does it mean and how do we live it? (Part 1 - Facts, Questions, and Set-up)

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!Length: 1 hour 26 minutesSynopsis: This morning (1/23/26), in our Friday morning Machshavah Lab series for women, we took a brief interlude from our learning of Sefer Iyov to analyze the well-known slogan of Nachum Ish Gam Zu, as well as the similar but lesser known slogan of his student, R. Akiva. We went through all the facts, raised a ton of questions, and took four solid steps, developing a general approach but stopping before developing a main idea. Next time, we'll take this approach and develop it into an explanation of the two Gemaras, answering most (if not all) of our questions (בג"ה). -----מקורות:תענית דף כא עמוד אמהרש"א - חידושי אדגותברכות דף ס עמוד ברמב"ם - פירוש המשניות ט:המצודת דוד - משלי יב:כה-----The Torah content for the month of January is sponsored by Naomi Schwartz in memory of her father, Dovid Yitzchok ben Chaim Yeruchum Fishel z”l, who dedicated his life to learning and teaching Torah to countless students b’simcha. His first yahrtzeit is the 23rd of Teves.-----If you've gained from what you've learned here, please consider contributing to my Patreon at www.patreon.com/rabbischneeweiss. Alternatively, if you would like to make a direct contribution to the "Rabbi Schneeweiss Torah Content Fund," my Venmo is @Matt-Schneeweiss, and my Zelle and PayPal are mattschneeweiss at gmail. Even a small contribution goes a long way to covering the costs of my podcasts, and will provide me with the financial freedom to produce even more Torah content for you.If you would like to sponsor a day's or a week's worth of content, or if you are interested in enlisting my services as a teacher or tutor, you can reach me at rabbischneeweiss at gmail. Thank you to my listeners for listening, thank you to my readers for reading, and thank you to my supporters for supporting my efforts to make Torah ideas available and accessible to everyone.-----Substack: rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/YU Torah: yutorah.org/teachers/Rabbi-Matt-SchneeweissPatreon: patreon.com/rabbischneeweissYouTube Channel: youtube.com/rabbischneeweissInstagram: instagram.com/rabbischneeweiss/"The Stoic Jew" Podcast: thestoicjew.buzzsprout.com"Machshavah Lab" Podcast: machshavahlab.buzzsprout.com"The Mishlei Podcast": mishlei.buzzsprout.com"Rambam Bekius" Podcast: rambambekius.buzzsprout.com"The Tefilah Podcast": tefilah.buzzsprout.comOld Blog: kolhaseridim.blogspot.com/WhatsApp Content Hub (where I post all my content and announce my public classes): https://chat.whatsapp.com/GEB1EPIAarsELfHWuI2k0HAmazon Wishlist: amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/Y72CSP86S24W?ref_=wl_sharel

AI-Generated Podcast on My Paywalled Rav Kook Post (WARNING: Only 70% Accurate)

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!Length: 17 minutes 53 secondsSynopsis:  Last week (1/14/26), I published an article on my Substack titled Rav Kook: First Impressions of a New Chapter in My Learning. This was a surprisingly challenging article to write, but I’m proud of how it turned out, and I’ve received great feedback on it so far. However, I chose to keep most of it behind a paywall, for reasons I explain in the free introduction to the article. Fast forward to this week. Even though I’m a die-hard ChatGPT guy, I recently learned that I have access to the paid version of Google’s Gemini and other AI tools (thanks, NEJA). I’ve been playing around with different features and have been particularly intrigued by NotebookLM, which, among other uses, allows users to upload documents and generate an AI-created podcast based on them.I decided to generate a podcast version of my paywalled article on Rav Kook. It was HILARIOUS! If I had to guess, I’d say it was about 70% faithful to the actual article. It altered much of my careful phrasing, changed the order of presentation, introduced its own analogies, and editorialized without making a clear distinction between my own views and its views. It even introduced at least one possibly antizionist sentiment, which I did NOT express! And even though the tone of my article was enthusiastic, the AI went overboard on the dramatization. And let's not talk about the consistently inconsistent mangling of pronunciations and creepy "third party laughter."Anyway, against my better judgment, I’m going to share this here. (Felt cute; might delete later.) Despite its inaccuracies, it DOES convey the general tenor of the article, and I’m hoping this will make people curious enough to check out the real thing. Plus, I want to hear what people think. If you haven’t yet listened to an AI-generated podcast, you’re in for a laugh.Will I regret sharing this? Probably. But at least it'll be ENTERTAINING! :DThe Torah content for the month of January is sponsored by Naomi Schwartz in memory of her father, Dovid Yitzchok ben Chaim Yeruchum Fishel z”l, who dedicated his life to learning and teaching Torah to countless students b’simcha. His first yahrtzeit is the 23rd of Teves.If you've gained from what you've learned here, please consider contributing to my Patreon at www.patreon.com/rabbischneeweiss. Alternatively, if you would like to make a direct contribution to the "Rabbi Schneeweiss Torah Content Fund," my Venmo is @Matt-Schneeweiss, and my Zelle and PayPal are mattschneeweiss at gmail. Even a small contribution goes a long way to covering the costs of my podcasts, and will provide me with the financial freedom to produce even more Torah content for you.If you would like to sponsor a day's or a week's worth of content, or if you are interested in enlisting my services as a teacher or tutor, you can reach me at rabbischneeweiss at gmail. Thank you to my listeners for listening, thank you to my readers for reading, and thank you to my supporters for supporting my efforts to make Torah ideas available and accessible to everyone.-----Substack: rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/YU Torah: yutorah.org/teachers/Rabbi-Matt-SchneeweissYouTube: youtube.com/rabbischneeweissInstagram: instagram.com/rabbischneeweiss/"The Mishlei Podcast": mishlei.buzzsprout.com"The Tefilah Podcast":

Iyov Catch-up Crash Course - Part 2: Review, Bildad, and Tzofar (Ch8-14)

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!Length: 1 hour 28 minutesSynopsis: This morning (1/16/25), in our Friday morning Machshavah Lab series for women, we concluded our catch-up crash course. After reviewing our mission and Iyov's exchange with Eliphaz, we covered Bildad's speech and Iyov's thorough response, then wrapped things up with Tzofar's speech and an even briefer summary of Iyov's response. While I would have loved to spend many more weeks taking up each of these speeches in-depth, and then conducting an equally in-depth analysis on Rounds 2 and 3, I'm afraid that's not in the cards. The plan now is to return to the beginning of the book to decode the allegory of the satan, then learn through the relevant chapters in the Moreh ha'Nevuchim as preparation for The Answer towards the end of Sefer Iyov. But first, a brief interlude: tune in next week for gam zu l'tovah! -----מקורות:מלבי"ם - איוב פרקים ח-ידאיוב מב:זתרגום אונקלוס - בראשית ב:זתרגום אונקלוס - שמות כ:דרש"י - בראשית ה:כב-כד-----The Torah content for the month of January is sponsored by Naomi Schwartz in memory of her father, Dovid Yitzchok ben Chaim Yeruchum Fishel z”l, who dedicated his life to learning and teaching Torah to countless students b’simcha. His first yahrtzeit is the 23rd of Teves.-----If you've gained from what you've learned here, please consider contributing to my Patreon at www.patreon.com/rabbischneeweiss. Alternatively, if you would like to make a direct contribution to the "Rabbi Schneeweiss Torah Content Fund," my Venmo is @Matt-Schneeweiss, and my Zelle and PayPal are mattschneeweiss at gmail. Even a small contribution goes a long way to covering the costs of my podcasts, and will provide me with the financial freedom to produce even more Torah content for you.If you would like to sponsor a day's or a week's worth of content, or if you are interested in enlisting my services as a teacher or tutor, you can reach me at rabbischneeweiss at gmail. Thank you to my listeners for listening, thank you to my readers for reading, and thank you to my supporters for supporting my efforts to make Torah ideas available and accessible to everyone.-----Substack: rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/YU Torah: yutorah.org/teachers/Rabbi-Matt-SchneeweissPatreon: patreon.com/rabbischneeweissYouTube Channel: youtube.com/rabbischneeweissInstagram: instagram.com/rabbischneeweiss/"The Stoic Jew" Podcast: thestoicjew.buzzsprout.com"Machshavah Lab" Podcast: machshavahlab.buzzsprout.com"The Mishlei Podcast": mishlei.buzzsprout.com"Rambam Bekius" Podcast: rambambekius.buzzsprout.com"The Tefilah Podcast": tefilah.buzzsprout.comOld Blog: kolhaseridim.blogspot.com/WhatsApp Content Hub (where I post all my content and announce my public classes): https://chat.whatsapp.com/GEB1EPIAarsELfHWuI2k0HAmazon Wishlist: amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/Y72CSP86S24W?ref_=wl_sharel

Vaeira: An Explanation of Hashem Hardening Paroh’s Heart You May Not Have Heard

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!Synopsis: This is the audio version of the 2-page article I wrote and published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 1/16/26 titled: Vaeira: An Explanation of Hashem Hardening Paroh’s Heart You May Not Have Heard. Many explanations have been offered for Hashem hardening Paroh’s heart, some more satisfying than others. Here is an approach I only recently encountered that is simple yet thought-provoking.-----The Torah content for the month of January is sponsored by Naomi Schwartz in memory of her father, Dovid Yitzchok ben Chaim Yeruchum Fishel z”l, who dedicated his life to learning and teaching Torah to countless students b’simcha. His first yahrtzeit is the 23rd of Teves. -----If you've gained from what you've learned here, please consider contributing to my Patreon at www.patreon.com/rabbischneeweiss. Alternatively, if you would like to make a direct contribution to the "Rabbi Schneeweiss Torah Content Fund," my Venmo is @Matt-Schneeweiss, and my Zelle and PayPal are mattschneeweiss at gmail. Even a small contribution goes a long way to covering the costs of my podcasts, and will provide me with the financial freedom to produce even more Torah content for you.If you would like to sponsor a day's or a week's worth of content, or if you are interested in enlisting my services as a teacher or tutor, you can reach me at rabbischneeweiss at gmail. Thank you to my listeners for listening, thank you to my readers for reading, and thank you to my supporters for supporting my efforts to make Torah ideas available and accessible to everyone.-----Substack: rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/YU Torah: yutorah.org/teachers/Rabbi-Matt-SchneeweissPatreon: patreon.com/rabbischneeweissYouTube Channel: youtube.com/rabbischneeweissInstagram: instagram.com/rabbischneeweiss/"The Stoic Jew" Podcast: thestoicjew.buzzsprout.com"Machshavah Lab" Podcast: machshavahlab.buzzsprout.com"The Mishlei Podcast": mishlei.buzzsprout.com"Rambam Bekius" Podcast: rambambekius.buzzsprout.com"The Tefilah Podcast": tefilah.buzzsprout.comOld Blog: kolhaseridim.blogspot.com/WhatsApp Content Hub (where I post all my content and announce my public classes): https://chat.whatsapp.com/GEB1EPIAarsELfHWuI2k0HAmazon Wishlist: amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/Y72CSP86S24W?ref_=wl_sharel