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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
204 episodes
Modim (Part 4: Tying Up Loose Ends)
Length: 58 minutesSynopsis: Tonight (12/18/24), in our Wednesday night tefilah shiur, we attempted to "land the plane" - or at least, to tie up some loose ends. After a brief review of last time, I tried yet again to say over the idea that ...
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Season 15
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Episode 11
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58:46
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The Nature of Nusach (Liturgy) Part 3: Rambam's Position (WARNING: Highly Technical)
Length: 1 hour 14 minutesSynopsis: This morning (12/13/24), in our tefilah-focused Machshavah Lab series for women, we attempted to understand the Rambam's view, as expressed in a pair of seemingly contradictory halachos. We learned through...
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Season 15
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Episode 10
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1:14:34
Modim (Part 3: The Living Bow to the Living)
Length: 57 minutesSynopsis: Whoops! I forgot to upload last week's tefilah shiur. Last Wednesday (12/11/24), in our Wednesday night tefilah shiur, we continued our analysis Modim. After reviewing and refining what we covered last time, we a...
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Season 15
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Episode 9
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58:12
The Nature of Nusach (Liturgy) Part 2: The Big Nusach Myth vs. the Historical and Halachic Truth
Length: 1 hour 13 minutesSynopsis: This morning (12/6/24), in our tefilah-focused Machshavah Lab series for women, we continued our exploration of the nusach ha'tefilah. After reviewing what we covered in Part 1, we busted what I call "The ...
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Season 15
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Episode 8
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1:14:48
Modim (Part 2: "Modim Anachnu Lach")
Length: 58 minutesSynopsis: This evening (12/4/24), in our Wednesday night tefilah shiur, we continued our analysis Modim. After reviewing our updated translation, going over a few insights I accrued since last week, and examining three anc...
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Season 15
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Episode 7
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59:20
Modim (Part 1: Reading and Translation)
Length: 57 minutesSynopsis: This evening (11/27/24), in our Wednesday night Tehilim/Tefilah shiur on Erev Thanksgiving, we commenced our in-depth analysis of the blessing of thanksgiving: Modim! We began with a 15-minute review of my "MMMMM...
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Season 15
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Episode 6
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57:44
Tehilim 23 REDUX: The Lord is My Shepherd (Part 3)
Length: 58 minutesSynopsis: Tonight (11/13/24), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we successfully "landed the plane"! Last time we ran through the Radak to get the big picture and I shared the core of my theory. This time we read throug...
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Season 15
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Episode 5
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58:41
The Nature of Nusach (Liturgy) Part 1: How and Why Ezra Changed Tefilah
Length: 46 minutesSynopsis: This morning (11/8/24), in our tefilah-focused Machshavah Lab series for women, we began a new topic: the nusach ha'tefilah (liturgy). We began by reviewing the relevant facts: what the mitzvah of tefilah from th...
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Season 15
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Episode 4
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46:22
Tefilah Reexamined: Part 5 - Recap of Four Models of Tefilah
Length: 26 minutesSynopsis: This morning (11/8/24), in the "Tefilah Reexamined" series of our Machshavah Lab for women, I decided to start with a review of the three models of tefilah we've learned in Parts 1-4, followed by a quick overview...
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Season 15
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Episode 3
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26:58
Tehilim 23 REDUX: The Lord is My Shepherd (Part 2)
Length: 58 minutesSynopsis: Tonight (11/6/24), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we quickly reviewed the perek and all the questions from last time. After exploring an approach from one of the shiur attendees, we learned the Radak's com...
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Season 15
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Episode 2
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58:58
Tehilim 23 REDUX: The Lord is My Shepherd (Part 1)
Length: 58 minutesSynopsis: Tonight (10/30/24), in our Wednesday night Tehilim shiur, we began (re)learning what I believe is the most well-known psalm of them all. The last time I gave shiur on this was WAAAY back in November 2020, and I f...
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Season 15
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Episode 1
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57:57
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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1:27:46
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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58:15
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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1:22:59
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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59:08
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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1:39:23
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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57:39
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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1:28:20
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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57:49
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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1:09:59
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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1:04:11
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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1:02:57
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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1:05:48
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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58:33
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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1:00:37