Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (6/1/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we began learning a chapter that some would have preferred to skip. Although we acknowledged that there are many outdated elements of the Rambam's health guidelines, our goal was to see how much is still relevant, and what insight these principles have to offer for our avodas Hashem. We got about halfway through, and will endeavor to complete the chapter on Thursday. (No shiur ...
Jun 01, 2021•57 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (5/31/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we started and finished Hilchos Deios Chapter 3 - arguably the most important chapter in all of Hilchos Deios, insofar as it outlines what the Torah holds ought to be the purpose of all of our actions. Tomorrow we'll attempt to get through as much of Chapter 4 as possible. ---------- מקורות: אבות ד:כז עם פירוש הרמב"ם רמב"ם - משנה תורה: ספר המדע, הלכות דעות פרק ג ---------- Bek...
May 31, 2021•56 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (5/27/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we finally finished Hilchos Deios Chapter 2! The penultimate halacha followed the pattern of the previous paragraphs in that it clarified what would otherwise be a difficult deah to understand, but the final paragraph seemed to just be miscellaneous deios guidelines. We understood what we could, then noticed that he continues aspects of this topic at the beginning of Chapter 3...
May 27, 2021•50 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Yesterday we learned the Rambam's strict view that "even a single word of pitui (seduction) and geneivas daas (trickery) is prohibited." We wondered what the Rambam would say about the classic cases when one is permitted to lie, and were puzzled by the omission of such cases from these halachos, and from Hilchos Deios in general. This afternoon (5/25/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we focused on the surprising place where the Ra...
May 25, 2021•1 hr
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (5/24/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we had yet another workout trying to work out what the Rambam was saying in his halachos about divrei chalakos u'pitui (words of smoothtalking and seduction), achas ba'peh v'achas ba'leiv (duplicity), and geneivas daas (trickery). This proved to be quite the Rubik's cube of terminology. By the end, we think we got it. You can be the judge of that! ---------- מקורות: רמב"ם - מש...
May 24, 2021•1 hr 7 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (5/21/21 at YBT) we resumed our Rambam Bekius chavurah after a week's hiatus. We focused on the last two paragraphs in the Rambam about the deah of silence, and arrived at some nice ideas. (FYI, the title of this shiur is a joke based on something we said in the shiur itself.) We started working on 2:6, about geneivas daas (trickery), pitui (seduction), and echad ba'peh v'echad ba'lev (lack of integrity), but we'll have to...
May 20, 2021•54 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (5/13/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we INTENDED to finish the next two paragraphs about silence. We began, as usual, by reviewing what we did last time. I even recorded a 60-second recap yesterday to make sure that we'd review efficiently. What ended up happening instead? Basically, we ended up tackling a bunch of fundamental questions that we had raised earlier, and - using silence as our test-case - we refined...
May 13, 2021•57 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (5/12/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we set out to understand the Rambam's "silent treatment" ... or "treatment of silence." We wasted no time in getting our hands dirty, delving into questions major and minor. It was a real workout, but a very productive discussion which ended up clarifying our understanding of some of the very basic principles of Hilchos Deios that we've been discussing for weeks. Tomorrow will...
May 12, 2021•1 hr 3 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (5/11/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we attempted to explain the remaining statements about anger in 2:3, and I think we did a decent job. We continued with the halachos about silence, and since we couldn't figure out how those halachos flowed from the previous ones or how they fit into the perek, we decided to just read the rest of the perek in its entirety, in order to get a birdseye view, with the intent of co...
May 11, 2021•56 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (5/10/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we finally managed (thanks to the footnote guy, and with Hashem's help, of course) to finally understand how and in what sense haughtiness and anger are exceptions to the "middle path" rule. Additionally, we were able to explain a number of the statements cited by the Rambam about the evils of haughtiness and anger. Tomorrow we'll try to wrap this up and move on to the other s...
May 10, 2021•57 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (5/6/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we had one goal: to finish READING the exceptions to the Rambam's rule of the middle path. We had to actively fight against the impulse to start analyzing in-depth in order to make sure that we finished. We did permit ourselves to raise questions, but we tried to keep our speculations about answers to a minimum until we made sure that we had gotten all of the facts. And guess w...
May 06, 2021•58 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (5/5/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we took another couple of baby steps in our understanding of Hilchos Deios. We started reading about the two exceptions to the middle path rule, but decided after reading the first one that we'd use the exception to understand the rule itself. This led to a protracted discussion about what makes the middle path "good," as preparation for understanding why the extremes are good ...
May 05, 2021•59 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (5/4/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we attempted to answer some of the questions we raised last Thursday while making sure we learned at least a couple more halachos. We did manage to clear up some of our terminology issues, while simultaneously getting bogged down in more. All in all, I think it was a productive day. We'll see where tomorrow takes us! ---------- מקורות: רמב"ם - משנה תורה: ספר המדע, הלכות דעות ב:...
May 04, 2021•1 hr
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (4/29/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we only made it through one halacha, but we covered a lot in terms of our analysis. Broadly speaking our goal was to understand the Rambam's terminology in Hilchos Deios. Specifically, we wanted to understand the differences between different types of deios problems, and we also wanted to understand why he calls them "deios" instead of just "middos." Although we didn't arrive ...
Apr 29, 2021•58 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (4/28/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we finished the first chapter of Hilchos Deios. Here the Rambam introduces us to the concept of "the middle path" (or "the middle deah"), and formulates the mitzvah of ve'halachta bi'drachav in those very terms. There were a number of questions we raised and couldn't answer, some having to do with terminology, others having to do with core concepts, and others which we couldn'...
Apr 28, 2021•57 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (4/27/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we began a new section: Hilchos Deios! As usual, we began with by reading the Rambam's formulation of the mitzvah in the Sefer ha'Mitzvos and in the minyan ha'mitzvos in the Introduction to the Mishneh Torah, and then we began the halachos with the koseres. Today's learning revolved around some basic questions: What are "deios"? Why does the Rambam call them that? How do we ma...
Apr 27, 2021•57 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Thank you to all of my generous Patrons who help support my production and distribution of Torah content! If you have gained from this podcast (and/or others) and would like to support my efforts to make Torah available and accessible to everyone, please consider contributing to my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/rabbischneeweiss ---------- Bekius Disclaimer: Note that this is a bekius chavurah - as opposed to an iyun shiur . Each sessi...
Apr 26, 2021•8 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (4/22/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we continued learning the Rambam's discourse on nevuah in the Introduction to the Commentary in the Mishnah. WARNING: since we were only learning this for the Rambam's new points, I sped-read and didn't translate anything that the Rambam already covered in the Mishneh Torah. Also, we wanted to finish this topic today so that we can start Hilchos Deios next week, AND because th...
Apr 22, 2021•1 hr 9 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (4/21/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we finished Hilchos Yesodei ha'Torah! (Chas v'shalom that we FINISHED finished it! Rather, we completed one reading of it) We began by reading one more halacha about the distinction between prophecies for the good and prophecies for punishment, and then we leared the concluding halacha about the prohibition to doubt the established navi's prophecy or to test him exceedingly. A...
Apr 21, 2021•57 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (4/20/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we began by going over the eighth and ninth yesodos in the Peirush ha'Mishnayos (i.e. the ikkarim that are covered in the last three chapters of Hilchos Yesodei ha'Torah). After that we began the tenth and final chapter of Hilchos Yesodei ha'Torah. After making a number of references to the procedure for authenticating a navi, the Rambam here spells it out. We didn't quite fin...
Apr 20, 2021•59 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (4/19/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we started and finished the ninth chapter of Hilchos Yesodei ha'Torah, which focused on the topic of the immutability of Torah and the commandment to listen to the navi. We began by reading the Sefer ha'Mitzvos on the latter, and then learned through the halachos. בג"ה, we'll finish Hilchos Yesodei ha'Torah this week. ---------- מקורות: רמב"ם - ספר המצוות, מצות עשה קעב רמב"ם -...
Apr 19, 2021•49 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (4/15/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we started and finished the eighth chapter of Hilchos Yesodei ha'Torah, which focused on the topic of the relationship between the event at Sinai and Moshe's nevuah. In many ways, this was an extension of the topics covered in the previous chapter, especially because nevuas Moshe is the basis for our acceptance of all other neviim. Anytime the topic of Torah mi'Sinai comes up ...
Apr 15, 2021•56 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (4/14/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we finished the seventh chapter of Hilchos Yesodei ha'Torah. First we learned the halachos about the unique nevuah of Moshe Rabbeinu, which we found surprisingly confusing. We took a brief detour to the first half of the Rambam's formulation of the 8th ikkar in the Peirush ha'Mishnayos, simply to reassure ourselves of the basis of our confusion. We then moved on and completed ...
Apr 14, 2021•51 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (4/13/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we continued from where we left off last time. The Rambam begins describing the process of standard nevuah. He pauses to contrast this with the nevuah of Moshe Rabbeinu. We decided at that point to read his formulation of the seventh ikkar in the Peirush ha'Mishnayos, and since I had to end a few minutes early today, we stopped there. Next time we'll pick up with the Rambam's ...
Apr 13, 2021•51 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (4/12/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we had an unprecedented accomplishment: we set out to review what we did last time (the three paragraphs which comprise 7:1) and we didn't even complete the review (we only covered two paragraphs)! I refer to this as an "accomplishment" because we achieved a level of clarity far beyond what we had last time, thanks to a special guest. Next time we'll begin with the third parag...
Apr 12, 2021•58 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (4/8/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we began the next topic in Hilchos Yesodei ha'Torah: nevuah. We started off by trying to guess what the Rambam included in his formulation of the ikkar of nevuah. We then read his definition of that ikkar in his Intro to Perek Chelek and tried to make sense of what he was saying. We ended off by reading his definition of nevuah, his description of neviim, and his account of the...
Apr 08, 2021•1 hr
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (4/7/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we concluded our side-topic of "the Omer." Today we learned about the procedure for preparing and bringing the Minchas ha'Omer in the Mikdash, then we learned some of the halachos regarding the prohibition to harvest produce before the bringing of the Omer, and we concluded with the Rambam's halachos of counting the Omer. ---------- מקורות: רמב"ם - משנה תורה, ספר עבודה, הלכות ת...
Apr 07, 2021•41 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (4/6/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we began a side-topic: the Omer. The Rambam begins with the mussafim of Rosh Chodesh and Pesach. We took a brief moment to discuss ALL the mussafim. The Rambam then goes on to recount the procedure for harvesting the Omer, and the measures taken to refute the view of the Tzedukim. ---------- מקורות: רמב"ם - משנה תורה, ספר עבודה, הלכות תמידין ומוספין ז:א-יא ---------- Bekius Dis...
Apr 07, 2021•52 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This afternoon (3/22/21 at YBT) in our Rambam Bekius chavurah we learned another shiur from The Kuntress. This one was about the meaning - yes, the meaning - of the mnemonic for the ten plagues. As expected, the Baal ha'Kuntress showed us a new perspective with far reaching implications. ---------- מקורות: בעל הקונטרס - סברות במשנה תורה להרמב"ם: דצ"ך עד"ש באח"ב ---------- Bekius Disclaimer: Note that this is a bekius chavurah - as oppose...
Mar 22, 2021•54 min
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! This evening (3/18/21 at YBT) in our evening hashkafah shiur we learned another shiur from The Kuntress. This one focused on the berachah at the end of Maggid, but was really about the nature and purpose of sipur and the hagadah. ---------- מקורות: בעל הקונטרס - סברות במשנה תורה להרמב"ם: גאולה לנו ולאבותינו ---------- Bekius Disclaimer: Note that this is a bekius chavurah - as opposed to an iyun shiur . Each session consists of us readin...
Mar 19, 2021•58 min
