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
193 episodes
Tefilah Reexamined: Part 4 - Six Ways of Understanding Ramban on Tefilah
Length: 1 hour 27 minutesSynopsis: This morning (9/27/24), in our NEW Machshavah Lab series for women called "Tefilah Reexamined," we began with a grand review of the essential ideas in parts 1-3, focusing on the mitzvah de'oraisa of tefila...
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Season 14
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Episode 11
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1:27:49
Tehilim 24 REDUX: Sunday's Psalm (Shir Shel Yom Rishon b'Shabbos) (Part 4)
Length: 57 minutesSynopsis: Tonight (9/25/24), in Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, our goal was "to land the plane" - to distill all of our insights and observations into a unified theory - and land the plane we did! Thanks to Sforno and R' E...
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Season 14
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Episode 10
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58:18
Tefilah Reexamined: Part 3 - Ramban's Alternative View of Tefilah
Length: 1 hour 22 minutesSynopsis: This morning (9/20/24), in our NEW Machshavah Lab series for women called "Tefilah Reexamined," we began with a comprehensive review of Parts 1 and 2, then delved into the Ramban's critiques of the Rambam'...
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Season 14
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Episode 9
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1:23:03
Tehilim 24 REDUX: Sunday's Psalm (Shir Shel Yom Rishon b'Shabbos) (Part 3)
Length: 58 minutesSynopsis: Tonight (9/18/24), in Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, I decided not to review and refine the approaches we came up with last time, but instead, to jump right into the Sforno. We learned through his commentary at a...
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Season 14
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Episode 8
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59:11
Tefilah Reexamined: Part 2 - Rambam on "Avodah" (and the Allegory of the Palace)
Length: 1 hour 38 minutesSynopsis: This morning (9/13/24), in our NEW Machshavah Lab series for women called "Tefilah Reexamined," we began by reviewing our questions on the Rambam's initial presentation of the mitzvah of tefilah and the Ra...
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Season 14
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Episode 7
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1:39:26
Tehilim 24 REDUX: Sunday's Psalm (Shir Shel Yom Rishon b'Shabbos) (Part 2)
Length: 57 minutesSynopsis: Tonight (9/11/24), in Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we reviewed our cleaned-up translation of the perek from last time, went over all our questions (raising some new ones in the process), and then we opened the ...
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Season 14
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Episode 6
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57:43
Tefilah Reexamined: Part 1 - Questions and a First Step
Length: 1 hour 28 minutesSynopsis: This morning (9/6/24), in the first shiur of our NEW Machshavah Lab series for women called "Tefilah Reexamined." Since I'm designing and teaching a year-long course on tefilah for high school students, I ...
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Season 14
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Episode 5
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1:28:23
Tehilim 24 REDUX: Sunday's Psalm (Shir Shel Yom Rishon b'Shabbos) (Part 1)
Length: 57 minutesSynopsis: Tonight (9/4/24), in our first Wednesday night Tehilim shiur of the 2024-2025 season, we began our re-analysis of Sunday's Shir Shel Yom. We learned through this in shiur two years ago (10/26/22, 11/2/22), but fo...
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Season 14
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Episode 4
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57:53
Tehilim 7: Shigayon le'David (Part 3)
Length: 1 hour 9 minutesSynopsis: Last night (5/29/24), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we attempted to "land the plane." Since it had been two weeks since our last shiur, we began by reviewing everything - the translations, the quest...
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Season 14
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Episode 3
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1:10:03
Tehilim 7: Shigayon le'David (Part 2)
Length: 1 hour 3 minutesSynopsis: Last night (5/16/24), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we dove into our in-depth analysis of this perek, raising a bunch of questions, making a bunch of observations, and following our intuition. We di...
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Season 14
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Episode 2
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1:04:14
Tehilim 7: Shigayon le'David (Part 1)
Length: 1 hour 2 minutesSynopsis: Tonight (5/8/24), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we began a new and unfamiliar perek. I selected it because it's clearly about David's struggles with his enemies and (unfortunately) that theme contin...
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Season 14
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Episode 1
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1:03:00
Tehilim 113: Beginning of Hallel REDUX (Part 3)
Length: 1 hour 5 minutesSynopsis: This evening (4/17/24), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we concluded our relearning of Tehilim 113 with the commentary of the Abravanel - and boy did he deliver! I think we ended up in a similar place...
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Season 13
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Episode 13
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1:05:52
Tehilim 113: Beginning of Hallel REDUX (Part 2)
Length: 58 minutesSynopsis: 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...
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Season 13
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Episode 12
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58:36
Tehilim 113: Beginning of Hallel REDUX (Part 1)
Length: 1 hourSynopsis: 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 be...
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Season 13
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Episode 11
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1:00:40
Tehilim 22: Al Ayeles ha'Shachar (Part 3: An Approach)
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...
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Season 13
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Episode 10
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1:02:30
Tehilim 22: Al Ayeles ha'Shachar (Part 2: Developing an Approach)
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 2Length: 1 hour 4 minutesSynopsis: This evening (3/13/24), in our Wednes...
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Season 13
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Episode 9
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1:05:13
Tehilim 22: Al Ayeles ha'Shachar (Part 1: Reading and Translation)
Length: 1 hour 3 minutesSynopsis: 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...
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Season 13
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Episode 8
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1:03:50
Tehilim 139: You Investigated Me and You Know (Part 3)
Length: 1 hour 8 minutesSynopsis: 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....
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Season 13
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Episode 7
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1:08:37
Tehilim 139: You Investigated Me and You Know (Part 2)
Length: 1 hour 3 minutesSynopsis: 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 t...
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Season 13
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Episode 6
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1:04:09
Tehilim 139: You Investigated Me and You Know (Part 1)
Length: 1 hour 3 minutesSynopsis: 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 a...
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Season 13
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Episode 5
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1:04:43
The Berachos of Milah (Tefilah Exploration) Part 2
Length: 1 hour 8 minutesSynopsis: 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 ...
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Season 13
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Episode 4
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1:08:45
The Berachos of Milah (Tefilah Exploration) Part 1
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...
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Season 13
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Episode 3
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1:04:05
Tehilim 52: On Doeg-like Bad Guys (Part 2)
Length: 1 hourSynopsis: 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...
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Season 13
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Episode 2
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1:01:44
Tehilim 52: On Doeg-like Bad Guys (Part 1)
Length: 1 hour 3 minutesSynopsis: 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 las...
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Season 13
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Episode 1
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1:04:29
Tehilim 137: Al Naharos Bavel (Part 3)
Length: 58 minutesSynopsis: 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...
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Season 12
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Episode 17
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58:24