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The Stoic Jew
My name is Rabbi Matt Schneeweiss. I am, first and foremost, an Orthodox Jew. I am also a student of the Stoic masters: Epictetus, Seneca, and Marcus Aurelius. This podcast is dedicated to exploring the relationship between Judaism and Stoicism - where they overlap, where they differ, and how they complement each other. I also use this podcast to think out loud about how to apply the principles of Judaism and Stoicism to my own life, with all its ups and downs.
Episodes
329 episodes
My Oura Ring Was Stolen! ... But Only In My Mind (Epictetus - Discourses 2.18-30)
Length: 21 minutes 25 secondsSynopsis: There's nothing like a real-world example to showcase Stoic principles. This incident that happened to me a couple of weeks ago illustrates one of the core ideas in Epictetus's teachings: the use of "i...
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Season 16
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Episode 3
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21:25
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Don't Be Shocked By Evil (Aurelius - Meditations 7:1)
Length: 14 minutes 6 secondsSynopsis: In an effort to jumpstart weekly TSJ episodes, I've decided to start from the beginning of Meditations Book 7 and work my way through. Chapter 1 is very reminiscent of Koheles ... or is it? You can be t...
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Season 16
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Episode 2
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14:06
The Car Repair Saga of Summer 2024 (Epictetus - Enchiridion 1:1)
Length: 14 minutes 9 secondsSynopsis: On July 19th, while I was in Seattle for the summer, my car - which I had been renting to a talmid - was rear-ended. What followed was a rollercoaster of bureaucratic insurance annoyances accompanied by...
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Season 16
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Episode 1
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14:09
The Stoic Jew Shiur #07: Existential Procrastination (Meditations 2:4)
Length: 59 minutesSynopsis: This evening (8/7/24), in our final Stoic Jew Shiur of this summer, we learned the fourth entry in Marcus Aurelius's journal. This, too, is a self-reminder to keep his principles at the forefront of his mind - bu...
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Season 15
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Episode 8
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59:06
The Stoic Jew Shiur #06: How Stoics and Jews React to the Deaths of the Wicked (Meditations 2.1)
Length: 1 hour 28 minutesSynopsis: This evening (7/31/24), in our Stoic Jew Shiur, we deviated from our sequential learn-through of Meditations and took up a timely question: What do Stoicism and Judaism have to say about the doubl...
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Season 15
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Episode 7
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1:28:21
The Stoic Jew Shiur #05: Marcus Aurelius, Rambam, and Kuzari on "Gam Zu l'Tovah!" (Meditations 2:3)
Length: 1 hour 19 minutesSynopsis: This evening (7/24/24), in our Stoic Jew Shiur, we learned the third entry in Meditations Book II, which deals with some weighty topics: God, the universe, hashgachah (providence), and theodicy (the questi...
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Season 15
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Episode 6
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1:18:38
The Stoic Jew Shiur #04: Self-Talk About Your True Self (Meditations 2:2)
Length: 1 hour 28 minutesSynopsis: This evening (7/17/24), in our Stoic Jew Shiur, we learned and discussed the second chapter in Book II, which had a markedly different tone than the first chapter. Here we see Marcus reminding - or rebukin...
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Season 15
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Episode 5
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1:27:43
Three Years of Gratitude, Even for Insomnia!
Length: 15 minutes 31 secondsSynopsis: I can't believe it, but this past Friday marked three YEARS of gratitude journaling! In this episode, as I usually do in these "gratitude milestone episodes," I recap my gratitude journal practice and ...
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Season 15
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Episode 4
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15:31
The Stoic Jew Shiur #03: Stoic Values vs. Jewish Values (Meditations 2:1)
Length: 1 hour 10 minutesSynopsis: This evening (7/10/24), in our Stoic Jew Shiur, we achieved our goal of finishing our analysis of the opening entry of Book II. After reviewing and continuing what we did last time, we raised a question th...
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Season 15
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Episode 3
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1:09:52
The Stoic Jew Shiur #02: Good and Bad, in Stoicism and Judaism (Meditations 2:1)
Length: 1 hour 32 minutesSynopsis: This evening (7/3/24), in our Stoic Jew Shiur, we attempted to do an orderly review of what we covered last time, but instead, we slipped right into a fresh analysis of some of the most fundamental questio...
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Season 15
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Episode 2
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1:27:14
The Stoic Jew Shiur #01: Marcus's Morning Reminder (Meditations 2:1)
Length: 1 hour 37 minutesSynopsis: This evening (6/26/24) was our inaugural "Stoic Jew Shiur"! After a brief overview of who Marcus Aurelius was and what his Meditations are, we dove RIGHT into the text of Book 2 Chapter 1. We quickly disco...
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Season 15
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Episode 1
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1:36:52
Announcing: The Stoic Jew Shiur! (Wed, 8-9pm EDT)
I should have made this announcement more than an hour before the first shiur, but better late than never! 😅-----The Torah content for this week has been sponsored by Meir Areman, l'zeicher nishmas Zelda bas Ziesel, his grandmother, who...
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Season 14
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Episode 5
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1:58
Be Bees, My Friend (Seneca - Letter #84: On Gathering Ideas)
Length: 25 minutes evenSynopsis: You might have heard of Bruce Lee's "Be Water, My Friend" analogy, and if you're a listener of this podcast, you might have also heard of Marcus Aurelius's fire analogy, but have you heard of Seneca's BEE an...
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Season 14
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Episode 4
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25:00
Epictetus's Baths, Seinfeld's Equilibrium, and How to Say Baruch Dayan ha'Emes with Joy (Epictetus - Enchiridion 4)
Length: 19 minutes even (Steven)Synopsis: This episode was inspired by four occurrences that recently befell me, each of which involved what we'll dub "a minor monetary fluctuation." The rest of the episode is devoted to unpacking the insig...
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Season 14
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Episode 3
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19:00
Bees, Epictetus, Tehilim 118, Israel's War, and Yom haShoah (Epictetus - Enchiridion 1:5; Discourses 2:18)
Length: 17 minutes 48 secondsSynopsis: Yesterday I walked into a swarm of bees. In this episode, I reflect on that experience and follow my musings to the writings of Epictetus, to the bee reference in Tehilim 118, to musings about Israel's...
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Season 14
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Episode 2
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17:48
1000 Days of Gratitude (Haggadah)
Length: 21 minutesSynopsis: And The Stoic Jew Podcast is BACK! Or is it? Well, it's back for at least this episode, in which I reflect on 1000 days of gratitude and muse on the relationship between my gratitude accountability practice and t...
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Season 14
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Episode 1
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20:53
Does Insomnia Even Matter? (Aurelius - Meditations 6:1-2; 2:14)
Length: 22 minutesSynopsis: And we're back! By "we" I mean The Stoic Jew Podcast AND my insomnia! :D I've been up since 3:35am this morning, and I decided to make a podcast episode about my latest Stoic Jew take on my situation, based on th...
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Season 13
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Episode 9
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21:59
Deathbed Moments of U.S. Presidents, Japanese Monks, Chazal, Victims of the October 7th Massacre, and My Rebbi zt"l
Length: 34 minutes 10 secondsSynopsis: What will you do or say in your last moments, when (God willing) you are on your deathbed? In this episode I reflect on the final words of U.S. presidents, the death poems of Zen monks and Japanese hai...
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Season 13
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Episode 8
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34:09
God of Time or Dog Eating Its Own Vomit? (a "Rabbi Schneeweiss Substack" Crossover Episode)
Length: 8 minutes 11 secondsSynopsis: This is the audio version of the 2.5-page article I published on rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/ on 11/17/23, entitled:
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Season 13
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Episode 7
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8:11
Matt Schneeweiss, the God of Time (Seneca - On the Shortness of Life)
Length: 29 minutes 47 secondsSynopsis: In today's unscripted "Stoic self-talk workshop" episode, I reflect aloud on a mistake I caught myself making, in which I fell victim to the "God fantasy" of living life as though I were outside of tim...
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Season 13
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Episode 6
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29:46
A Stoic Approach to the Aseres Ymei Teshuvah (Aurelius - Meditations 5:11)
Length: 18 minutes 28 secondsSynopsis: My morning reading of Marcus Aurelius's Meditations, combined with my review of the Rambam's Hilchos Teshuvah and my reading of the most recent issue of The Imperfectionist (by Oliver...
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Season 13
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Episode 5
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18:28
Aurelius and Rav Soloveitchik on the Problem with Vidui (Aurelius - Meditations 10.30)
Length: 16 minutes 9 secondsSynopsis: This morning I read a passage in Meditations which answered a question I've had about the formulation of vidui (confession) for many years. This answer is similar to answer I happened ...
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Season 13
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Episode 4
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16:09
How My First Week Went, Thanks in Part to Epictetus (Enchiridion 1, 7, 17, 21)
Length: 29 minutes 44 secondsSynopsis: Seven days ago I made an episode about my thoughts and feelings about starting this new teaching job. In this episode I talk how four Stoic principles from Epictetus helped me to have the best first we...
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Season 13
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Episode 3
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29:44
Stoic Jew Thoughts on the First Day at a New School
Length: 9 minutes 25 secondsSynopsis: I recorded this while sitting in the parking lot before entering my new school on Day 1 in the few minutes before school started. I wanted to preserve my thoughts and feelings in a manner untainted by h...
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Season 13
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Episode 2
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9:25
Two MAJOR Professional/Life Updates for the 2023-2024 Academic Year
Length of audio: 47 minutesSynopsis: Have you been what I'll be up to this coming year? Have you heard me allude to a MAJOR update that I said I'd announce about my professional life in the near future? Are you aware of one of these u...
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Season 13
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Episode 1
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47:05