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© 2026 The Mishlei Podcast
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My name is Rabbi Matt Schneeweiss, and this is the hub for all of my shiurim (classes) on Sefer Mishlei, a.k.a. The Book of Proverbs! Generally speaking we will follow the approach to Mishlei outlined by Saadia Gaon who views Mishlei as a guide for intelligent decision-making in everyday life with the goal of maximizing long-term pleasure and minimizing long-term pain. Each shiur will typically focus on one pasuk (verse), which we will attempt to analyze on our own before turning to the meforshim (commentators). If you have any questions feel free to email me at rabbischneeweiss at gmail. Thanks for listening!
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Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 25:16-17 - Don't Make Your Friend Vomit (Part 2) (טז) דְּבַשׁ מָצָאתָ אֱכֹל דַּיֶּךָּ פֶּן תִּשְׂבָּעֶנּוּ וַהֲקֵאתוֹ. (יז) הֹקַר רַגְלְךָ מִבֵּית רֵעֶךָ פֶּן יִשְׂבָּעֲךָ וּשְׂנֵאֶךָ: Length: 36 minutes Synopsis: This morning (2/12/26), in our Morning Mishlei shiur, we began by reviewing the main approach from yesterday. We delved a bit deeper into the derech nigleh, trying to understand exactly what makes a person sick of...
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 25:16-17 - Don't Make Your Friend Vomit (Part 1) (טז) דְּבַשׁ מָצָאתָ אֱכֹל דַּיֶּךָּ פֶּן תִּשְׂבָּעֶנּוּ וַהֲקֵאתוֹ. (יז) הֹקַר רַגְלְךָ מִבֵּית רֵעֶךָ פֶּן יִשְׂבָּעֲךָ וּשְׂנֵאֶךָ: Length: 46 minutes Synopsis: This morning (2/11/26), in our Morning Mishlei shiur, we learned a pair of pesukim that might have been the inspiration for Ben Franklin's quip: "Guests, like fish, stink after three days." Shlomo ha'Melech's vers...
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 25:15 - How to Dupe an Angry Superior (Part 2) בְּאֹרֶךְ אַפַּיִם יְפֻתֶּה קָצִין וְלָשׁוֹן רַכָּה תִּשְׁבׇּר גָּרֶם: Length: 46 minutes Synopsis: This morning (2/5/26), in our Morning Mishlei shiur, we learned through a TON of different meforshim on our pasuk. Some of them took it in similar directions to what we came up with yesterday. Others surprised us with their creativity. We came away with several nice ideas, but th...
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 25:15 - How to Dupe an Angry Superior (Part 1) בְּאֹרֶךְ אַפַּיִם יְפֻתֶּה קָצִין וְלָשׁוֹן רַכָּה תִּשְׁבׇּר גָּרֶם: Length: 46 minutes Synopsis: This morning (2/4/26), in our Morning Mishlei shiur, we learned a pasuk that you shouldn't let your boss know that you learned. (I'm only half-joking.) Truth be told, the title doesn't reflect the ONLY way to learn the pasuk, but it does reflect the direction we took. We had some...
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 17:16 - The Fool Who Attempts to Buy Chochmah לָמָּה זֶּה מְחִיר בְּיַד כְּסִיל לִקְנוֹת חׇכְמָה וְלֶב אָיִן: Length: 1 hour 53 minutes Synopsis: This evening (2/2/26), in our Monday Night Mishlei shiur, we learned a pasuk that was NOT so familiar to me. To my surprise and delight, we came up with close to a DOZEN interpretations! We barely had time to learn any of the meforshim, since there were so many original interpreta...
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 25:14 - Self-Praise Over a False Gift (Part 2) נְשִׂיאִים וְרוּחַ וְגֶשֶׁם אָיִן אִישׁ מִתְהַלֵּל בְּמַתַּת שָׁקֶר: Length: 30 minutes Synopsis: This morning (1/29/25), in our Morning Mishlei shiur, we began by reviewing yesterday's ideas, and then we explored three new approaches from the meforshim. I can't say either of them was a qualitatively new idea, but the applications and nuances were different enough for me to fee...
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 25:14 - Self-Praise Over a False Gift (Part 1) נְשִׂיאִים וְרוּחַ וְגֶשֶׁם אָיִן אִישׁ מִתְהַלֵּל בְּמַתַּת שָׁקֶר: Length: 45 minutes Synopsis: This morning (1/28/25), in our Morning Mishlei shiur, we started learning a "straight-up analogy" pasuk - one I've taught many times before. I'm already happy that we came up with a second "basic peshat," in addition to the one I usually teach. We also developed a few other approac...
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 17:15 - A Couple of Abominations of Hashem מַצְדִּיק רָשָׁע וּמַרְשִׁיעַ צַדִּיק תּוֹעֲבַת יְיָ גַּם שְׁנֵיהֶם: Length: Synopsis: This evening (1/26/26), in our Monday Night Mishlei shiur, we learned a pasuk that many of our usual commentaries didn't comment on because it was too obvious. A notable exception was the commentary attributed to Radak, which simply said, "This is clear." Nevertheless, we spent a good 30 mi...
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 17:14 - When to Stop Interpersonal Quarrels פּוֹטֵר מַיִם רֵאשִׁית מָדוֹן וְלִפְנֵי הִתְגַּלַּע הָרִיב נְטוֹשׁ: Length: 1 hour 16 minutes Synopsis: This evening (1/19/25), in our Monday Night Mishlei shiur, we learned a pasuk about interpersonal conflict that initially seemed a bit too obvious and direct. Thankfully, we were able to uncover several deeper insights, some original and some drawn from the meforshim. If you hav...
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 17:13 - Mishleic Karma מֵשִׁיב רָעָה תַּחַת טוֹבָה, לֹא [תָמוּשׁ] (תמיש) רָעָה מִבֵּיתוֹ: Length: 1 hour 34 minutes Synopsis: This evening (1/12/26), in our Monday Night Mishlei shiur, we revisited a pasuk that I have taught many times in my high school Mishlei classes. As I had hoped, we not only rediscovered the core ideas I had previously emphasized, but also pushed beyond them, uncovering new nuances, fresh perspectives...
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 25:13 - The Cool Emissary (Part 2) כְּצִנַּת שֶׁלֶג בְּיוֹם קָצִיר, צִיר נֶאֱמָן לְשֹׁלְחָיו וְנֶפֶשׁ אֲדֹנָיו יָשִׁיב: Length: 37 minutes Synopsis: This morning (1/8/26), in our Morning Mishlei shiur, we began with a quick review of yesterday's approaches, then moved on to the meforshim. We were pleased to see them echo our ideas, and to see how differently they took the central mashal. I'm excited to see how our theory of...
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 25:13 - The Cool Emissary (Part 1) כְּצִנַּת שֶׁלֶג בְּיוֹם קָצִיר, צִיר נֶאֱמָן לְשֹׁלְחָיו וְנֶפֶשׁ אֲדֹנָיו יָשִׁיב: Length: 45 minutes Synopsis: This morning (1/7/26), in our Morning Mishlei shiur, we moved onto a new topic: shlichus! Our pasuk has a weird mashal and is structurally anomalous, but we were able to develop some fruitful approaches right away which coalesced into a unified approach with a couple of readily...
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 17:12 - Better an Angry Bear Than a Foolish Fool פָּגוֹשׁ דֹּב שַׁכּוּל בְּאִישׁ, וְאַל כְּסִיל בְּאִוַּלְתּוֹ: Length: 1 hour 39 minutes Synopsis: This evening (1/5/26), in our first Monday Night Mishlei shiur of 2026, we learned a pasuk that was simultaneously easy, fun, and chock-full of ideas. It was in this pasuk many years ago that I discovered an important principle of Mishlei methodology, one that dictated the entir...
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 25:12 - Rebuke as Valuable Adornments (Part 2) נֶזֶם זָהָב וַחֲלִי כָתֶם, מוֹכִיחַ חָכָם עַל אֹזֶן שֹׁמָעַת: Length: 46 minutes Synopsis: This morning (12/25/25), in our Morning Mishlei shiur, we began by reviewing what we covered yesterday. We found support for one of our approaches in the Ralbag. We then resumed working on Metzudas David and came up with a nice idea that built off of the previous pasuk. We then took up Sa...
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 25:12 - Rebuke as Valuable Adornments (Part 1) נֶזֶם זָהָב וַחֲלִי כָתֶם, מוֹכִיחַ חָכָם עַל אֹזֶן שֹׁמָעַת: Length: 48 minutes Synopsis: This morning (12/24/25), in our Morning Mishlei shiur, we moved on to the next pasuk, which also involves gold and might be a continuation of the previous pasuk. We came up with several really nice approaches on our own. Looking forward to learning the meforshim tomorrow (בג"ה), beginning...
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 17:11 - The Fate of a Rebel Without a Cause אַךְ מְרִי יְבַקֶּשׁ רָע, וּמַלְאָךְ אַכְזָרִי יְשֻׁלַּח בּוֹ : Length: 1 hour 24 minutes Synopsis: This evening (12/22/25), in our Monday Night Mishlei shiur, we learned a pasuk I was NOT very familiar with. Despite an unusually complicated-to-translate first half, we were able to develop several beautiful and practical ideas of our own. We were delighted to see connections to ou...
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 25:11 - Golden "Apples" in Silver Filigree (Part 4) תַּפּוּחֵי זָהָב בְּמַשְׂכִּיּוֹת כָּסֶף דָּבָר דָּבֻר עַל אׇפְנָיו Length: 34 minutes Synopsis: This morning (12/18/25), in our Morning Mishlei shiur, we spent one more day on this fundamental pasuk. We began with Metzudas David who (ironically!) we understood through the lens of the Rambam in the hakdamah of the Moreh (albeit different part). After going down a little ra...
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 25:11 - Golden "Apples" in Silver Filigree (Part 3) תַּפּוּחֵי זָהָב בְּמַשְׂכִּיּוֹת כָּסֶף דָּבָר דָּבֻר עַל אׇפְנָיו Length: 40 minutes Synopsis: This morning (12/17/25), in our Morning Mishlei shiur, we continued our analysis of this fundamental pasuk. We began by reviewing the Rambam we read last time, using a different translation. We gained some additional clarity, but came away with more questions than answers - par...
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 17:10 - Frightening Rebuke and Thorough Beatings תֵּחַת גְּעָרָה בְמֵבִין מֵהַכּוֹת כְּסִיל מֵאָה: Length: 1 hour 33 minutes Synopsis: This evening (12/15/25), in our Monday Night Mishlei shiur, we learned another pasuk that used to be part of my high school Mishlei curriculum. I knew we'd arrive at some solid ideas; the question was whether we'd see any NEW insights. I'm pleased to report that we did! We developed a few ap...
Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text! Mishlei 25:11 - Golden "Apples" in Silver Filigree (Part 2) תַּפּוּחֵי זָהָב בְּמַשְׂכִּיּוֹת כָּסֶף דָּבָר דָּבֻר עַל אׇפְנָיו Length: 30 minutes Synopsis: This morning (12/11/25), in our shorter-than-usual Morning Mishlei shiur, we spent the first half reviewing and refining yesterday's ideas, and the second half reading through the Rambam's understanding of our pasuk in the introduction to the Moreh ha'Nevuchim. Although we pick...
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