Today, I’m speaking with Sara Eisemann. Sara is a licensed clinical therapist and educator based in Oak Park, Michigan. Sara currently serves as Co-Director of Education for Core's Mashpia Mentor Counselor (MMC) Training Program—a rigorous two-and-a-half-year initiative that equips women to provide Torah-based spiritual mentorship and emotional support within their communities. In addition to her clinical work, Sara is a certified dating coach. She is a regular contributor to Family First and she hosted the MakeShift podcast. Today, Sara is speaking about the concept of “shalom,” or finding peace within all of the parts that make up who you are. In her clinical work, she’s come to see it as the thread that goes through so many different issues that come up with her clients. As we move through Elul and gear up for the chagim, it’s a transformational framework to keep in mind. In the episode she uses this mindset to speak about: -What shalom looks like within a family, community and within yourself -How this helps a recovering perfectionist move away from unrealistic standards -How we can make space for the “and” in life — the things that bring us joy and challenge at the same time, or the parts of ourselves that we both like and struggle with, for example -Letting our authentic selves come through and getting rid of the “shoulds” that come up in any scenario  -How we can avoid getting caught up in the worry about what others think of us and put more emphasis on what we think of ourselves -The power of this work and how it’s designed to help you stay in the healthy headspace it creates …and so much more! While this topic may feel esoteric or lofty on the surface, it is filled with practical steps and shifts that you can make as soon as you turn off the episode. As we move through Elul and this period of self-reflection, it will help unlock that version of yourself you are striving for — or honestly, just let her come through.

Today, I’m speaking with Torah educator, Goldie Sion. Goldie was born in Caracas, Venezuela, and raised in Hollywood, Florida. She has worked with organizations in the past that include Olami Manhattan, Aish Aspire, Jam Israel and now works for Olami Souled. She is passionate about teaching Torah, giving shiurim, and inspiring others through creativity and connection with her Instagram: @goldiesjournal. If you want to be feel connected and are on Instagram, I highly recommend you checking it out. Goldie’s words truly enter the soul. She has a way of making a connection to Hashem feel effortless, even though she acknowledges that it takes work.  Our conversation is basically like one big emunah injection which is perfect as we’re about to enter the final week of Elul leading up to Rosh Hashanah. In our conversation, Goldie speaks so eloquently about: -How she brings Hashem into her day to day life from the big moments to the mundane -How she elevates basic actions that make up her life -What to do when you’re going through a difficult time or having trouble feeling connected to Hashem -How to reframe your mindset when the answer you keep hearing is “no” -What prayer can look like when you’re completely overwhelmed -What the healthiest form of growth looks like -How prayer really changes our lives ...and so much more! If there is someone you want to see on The Chai on Life Podcast, email me at [email protected] or send me a DM @chaionlifemag. Thanks again, see you next week!

Hi everyone, welcome back to another episode of The Chai on Life Podcast. I’m Alex Segal, and today we have a REALLY exciting guest — Danielle Renov, the recipe developer and cookbook author of the brand, Peas, Love & Carrots. Danielle has been a dream guest of mine for many reasons. One, being that I absolutely love her recipes and they are fully a part of my weekly rotations, but mainly because of her ever-inspiring simchas hachaim and unwavering bitachon. This episode is of course coming out at a powerful time. It’s not only the aseret yemei teshuva, or the ten days of repentance but it’s also October 7th. Danielle’s words will help us get through the darkness and the unknown with a renewed dedication to Hashem, and that of course, is everything. In the episode, we speak about: -How she got started with Peas Love & Carrots -How she balances motherhood with her work -What it meant to rely on Hashem when her world went dark and how she continues to until today -How she builds her bitachon muscle daily -Where her simchas hachaim comes from and how she works to cultivate it -How she handles life with small children — how she gets through the tough moments and still finds time for herself -How she balances posting about her life on social media and staying present in real life -What's next for Peas Love & Carrots ...and SO much more! She also leaves us with a message about getting through this year’s Simchat Torah that deeply resonated with me and I will definitely be thinking about as we head into what will G-d willing be a beautiful yet difficult day. NOTE: We will be off through Sukkot but G-d willing back in Cheshvan with all new episodes! Wishing everyone a meaningful rest of the chagim. Special thank you to Tania Friedlander, our podcast partner! Tania is so helpful for professionals in any area — budding entrepreneurs, business owners, seasoned employees, leaders looking to take their companies to the next level, and more. Maybe you need clarity and direction, you’re trying to achieve better work/life balance, not sure what next steps to take in your career, you’re motivated but also burnt out, you’re realizing leading people isn’t simple or are fearful that you don’t have what it takes to succeed. So, if you are at all interested in working with Tania, you can book a complimentary call with her at TaniaFriedlander.com/contact.

Hi everyone! Welcome back to another episode of The Chai on Life Podcast. I’m Alex Segal and today I have Gila Levitt on the show.  Gila is aTorah Marriage and Intimacy Specialist with over 20 years of experience empowering Jewish women to create emotionally connected, deeply fulfilling marriages. As the creator of Heart of Marriage: Soul Satisfying Oneness, she blends timeless Torah values with the latest research in emotional intelligence, brain science, and relational well-being. Gila’s work is grounded, warm, and deeply respectful on each woman’s inner world. She offers not just guidance—but clarity, chizuk, and a path forward for the woman who wants to become her best, most authentic self in her marriage. Through mindset shifts, emotional insight, and practical tools, she helps women align with who they truly want to be—in marriage and in life.   This episode was one I wasn’t sure I wanted to do to be totally honest. It covers a really vulnerable topic and one that isn’t often spoken about publicly. That being said, it’s an important one, one that affects every marriage and every woman in some way so when Gila reached out, I really thought it through and it felt like a good opportunity to delve into things a little more. Because intimacy is such a private thing, it can be one women don’t really feel comfortable getting help on or seeking support if they need it and I’m hoping this episode will help break a little bit of that stigma. In the episode we cover a lot — from what intimacy actually looks like in a Torah marriage — the mindset around it and the body-soul relationship to practical ways to achieve more connection to it if it’s something that’s hard for you. We speak about the differences between men and women in general and in this space that could be coming up and realistic expectations to have around its impact on your marriage. For more from Gila, visit heartofmarriage.org or reach out to Gila at [email protected]. For more classes from Gila on Kol Halashon, click here. -- If there is someone you want to see on The Chai on Life Podcast, email me at [email protected] or send me a DM @chaionlifemag.

Hi everyone! Welcome back to another episode of The Chai on Life Podcast. I’m Alex Segal and today, I am so excited to welcome Atara Weisberger to the podcast. Atara is a trailblazing health and wellness coach, personal development mentor, and co-author of the transformative book How to Soul: Navigate Your Life Path with Clarity, Inner Peace, and Joy. With a unique ability to blend ancient wisdom with actionable strategies, Atara empowers individuals to break free from emotional blocks, rediscover their inner strength, and cultivate lives rooted in authenticity and joy. She of course, has her own personal journey to getting where she is today. Her own baal yeshiva story has shaped her mission to help others find meaning and connection in today's fast- paced, often overwhelming world. As the founder of The Tribe, a holistic wellness community, Atara leads a growing movement where spiritual growth meets modern self-care. She is very active herself and is a runner, yogi and loves to explore healthy cooking. In the episode, we’re talking all about her new book that she wrote with Rabbi Dov Lipman which is all about reconnecting to your soul, your real inner essence which can so easily get lost in today’s world. You know the feeling you get when you go to a really good shiur? It’s like everything just clicks and makes sense and you feel aligned with who you are really meant to be. That is this book. Anxieties, insecurities, awkward social interactions, social media, meetings, family dynamics and more can easily make us feel like we’re not enough and can throw us off balance from knowing who we really are. The goal of this book is to remind you of your inner essence, to give you tools to always be able to get back to your soul and to feel like you’re really living a connected life in the true meaning of the word — not the 2025 version. In the episode, we speak about  -Atara’s journey to writing this book -Her main goal that she wants readers to take away from it -How to connect more deeply to your soul and how to get back to it when you feel like you’ve strayed -How to find balance and meaning in religious halacha and how that goes hand in hand with spirituality and a real relationship with Hashem -Why the struggle and the process of growth is the way and why growth is never linear -Practical tools to utilize in this world to get you back to a more spiritual place -How we can make peace with social media and living a life in a technological world without making it black and white -Cultivating more emunah and bitachon with the wisdom that she shares ..and so much more! If you want more from Atara, visit Howtosoulbook.com — at the bottom you can get two free heart-opener meditations. To get in touch, you can email Atara at [email protected].

Hi everyone, welcome back to another episode of The Chai on Life Podcast. I’m Alex Segal and today I am so excited to have Rebbetzin, Author and Speaker, Sara Yoheved Rigler, on the podcast. In this episode, we are talking all about her incredible book, Holy Woman, the woman who inspired it — Rebbetzin Chaya Sara Kramer, and some Shavuot lessons we can all take to enter the holiday in the best mindset we can. Rebbetzin Rigler has become someone I’ve really learned a lot from in my own Jewish journey. I am a member of her weekly marriage webinar run through Jewish Workshops, where she helps women around the world work on themselves and improve their marriages; and I’m also someone who has really benefitted from her books. Even though Holy Woman is technically a biography, it reads like a novel and you become riveted from early on. Plus, Rebbetzin Rigler writes it with takeaways along the way so you can think about your own struggles and choices in life and become more prepared to tackle them. In the episode, we speak about: -Chaya Sara Kramer’s life — the prophetic nature she was born with and how she nurtured that  -The immense challenges she encountered along the way -How Rebbetzin Rigler met Rebbetzin Kramer and the relationship they developed following -What defines being in a good place versus a bad place in life — this was really life-changing -What we can learn from Rebbetzin Kramer about passing our own tests in life -How Rebbetzin Kramer lived every day with true simcha and what we can all learn from that -Creating more of a Oneness between us and Hashem -What it’s like to live with bitachon versus just living with emunah -What Judaism really says about guilt -The main lesson Rebbetzin Rigler applies to her life daily that she learned from Rebbetzin Kramer …and SO MUCH MORE. The reason we are doing this episode now is because it is the 20th yahtzeit of Rebbetzin Kramer and because she didn’t have any biological children — something you’ll learn more about — she was always concerned no one would light a candle for her.  So the goal with this is that all those listening will learn more about her and light a candle for her on her upcoming yahrzeit — gimmel Sivan, which starts on the night of 29th of May and goes into the following day, May 30. The full name for prayer is Chaya Sara bas Mendel Yosef. More about Sara Yoheved Rigler: Sara Yoheved Rigler is the author of seven books on Jewish spirituality: Holy Woman; Lights from Jerusalem; Battle Plans: How to Fight the Yetzer Hara (with Rebbetzin Tziporah Heller); G-d Winked: Tales and Lessons from My Spiritual Adventures; Heavenprints; and Emunah with Love and Chicken Soup: The Story of Rebbetzin Henny Machlis, the Brooklyn-born Girl who became a Jerusalem Legend. Her newest book, I’ve Been Here Before: When Souls of the Holocaust Return, is the product of 8 years of research into reincarnated souls from the Holocaust. She gives a weekly Marriage Webinar for Jewish women on a spiritual approach to marriage, with hundreds of members throughout the world. She lives in Jerusalem. Her website is: sararigler.com. Her YouTube channel is "From Within the Walls of Jerusalem", where she relates stories, presents gems of Jewish wisdom, and teaches practical life tools.

Hi everyone! Welcome back to another episode of The Chai on Life Podcast. I’m Alex Segal and today, we have the amazing Rachel Rosenberg on the podcast.  Rachel is a certified mindset, health, and behavior change coach who helps women break free from emotional eating, binge cycles, and the exhausting all-or-nothing mindset. Blending neuroscience, CBT tools, and over 12 years of experience, she guides her clients to build a healthy relationship with food — and with themselves. Her work isn’t about more control. It’s about freedom. It’s about peace. It’s about learning to trust your body again. This was a topic I was excited to explore more deeply — while it’s focused on creating a healthy lifestyle, there is so much more around that that we delve into when it comes to building the life you want to be living and the habits that support it. We speak about letting go of perfectionism on that journey, how to navigate what a healthy lifestyle actually looks like for you and then the emotions that may come up along the way when getting there. As women, our relationship with food can be layered and it’s one that comes up multiple times a day. Rachel works with women to get to a much freer place when it comes to choosing what to eat every day and just how to approach this aspect of our lives with a lot more calm. These days, weight loss drugs are a hot topic as well and it feels that conversations around weight loss really run the gamut — first, we’re focusing more on body acceptance and not wanting to change to focusing on everyone doing weight loss drugs and how we feel about that to maybe feeling shame about wanting to lose weight and speaking openly about that to also wanting to love ourselves the way we are! — there can be feelings across the whole spectrum at different times in our lives and sometimes all at the same time. In this conversation, we speak about a lot of that. How you can feel confident and okay with wanting to lose weight if that’s your goal AND also work on loving yourself as you are. Rachel has a new group opening up in July so reach out now! You can follow her on Instagram at @coach rachel rosenberg or connect via email at [email protected].

Hi everyone, welcome back to another episode of The Chai on Life Podcast. I’m Alex Segal and today we have Rebbetzin Ruthi Lynn on the show.  Ruthi is a Marriage and Family therapist. For more than 15 years, she has conducted seminars, lectures and online classes for parents. As a therapist, Ruthi specializes in parenting, teens and relational issues within the family. Her ultimate goal is to help parents have amazing relationships with their kids, to see themselves as leaders to their children and to build the next generation strong, moral and passionate. She is also the mother of 8 kids bli ayin hara so she has a little experience herself in the thick of it. Ruthi has worked closely with Rebbetzin Sima Spetner, the renowned chinuch expert from Eretz Yisrael, and has become a teacher of her work. She was basically like an apprentice and went around Israel with her for years, eventually even taking over some of her classes. Now, she’s continuing to bring that wisdom to others. She is running a 10-week seminar based on Rebbetzin Spetner’s teachings this summer and it starts tonight, Monday June 16, via Zoom to anyone around the world. To sign up, contact Rivky Weiss at 216-965-4107. If you happen to be listening to this once the class is started, you can still reach out and catch up on the recordings that you missed. In our conversation, Ruthi and I speak about  -how she became so connected with Rebbetzin Spetner and what that relationship looked like at that time -How to get back in touch with your intuition when it comes to parenting and why it gets lost for so many of us -How to know when a kid’s behavior is important to respond to or you can let go a little bit more -How we can bring Hashem consistently back into our parenting -How Ruthi achieved such a beautiful relationship with her own kids with one of the main things she credits that to -How to get through hectic and changing summer schedules and any upcoming travel you may be taking -What a realistic life looks like when you have multiple children of various ages and genders under one roof …and so much more! This episode is informative, relatable and just so necessary when it comes to all we’re dealing with consistently as parents. I hope that Ruthi will help you take some of the pressure off and really allow you to have fun and enjoy the summer with your family. Enjoy!

[This episode originally aired on July 29, 2024] Hi everyone, welcome to another episode of The Chai on Life Podcast. I’m Alex Segal and today, we are speaking with Dr. Hilla Aboody, an amazing teacher, mother, wife and mentor currently living in Eretz Yisrael who I invited to come on to speak about this heavy time on the Jewish calendar. Hilla has such a beautiful way of explaining things — it’s so deep and profound yet easy to comprehend at the same time. A little background on her: She is a wife and mother of five, living in Eretz Yisrael after making Aliyah 7 years ago from Brooklyn, NY. She is a teacher and Em Bayit (house mother) at Midreshet Eshel, a Sephardic seminary for post High school students from around the world. Her educational background includes studying at Michlalah and receiving her bachelor’s degree from Bar-Ilan University and a Master’s and PhD in Jewish History from New York University. She has published her study on Eliyahu the Prophet in Talmudic literature and midrashim in her book, “Through the Prism of Wisdom”. As an educator and kallah teacher, Hilla dedicates her time in guiding students to creating a relationship with Hashem and tips and tools to thrive in their marriages and in life. In our conversation, we speak about: -What the Jewish perspective is on sadness and pain -How we can connect to Hashem during this time and in this unique way, especially if it feels daunting for you right now -Why this particular time period brings about more heaviness and actually the reason why we take more precautions -The rich energy that lies in the months of Tammuz and Av — what the letters associated with each month mean, why the sense of each month is important and what we can individually and collectively take from all of that -Why crying is actually a sign of bravery -Practical things you can do now to get through this time with more faith, in a more connected way to yourself, Hashem and those around you -How to deal with difficult emotions with your kids …and SO MUCH MORE This podcast with Hilla is basically an hour long shiur. I got chills like 17 times as I was listening to her and it’s definitely one of the most important ones I’ve done so far in terms of our spirituality. If there is someone you want to see on The Chai on Life Podcast, email me at [email protected] or send me a DM @chaionlifemag. Thanks again, see you next week!

Hi everyone, welcome back to The Chai on Life Podcast! I’m so happy to be back after a postpartum hiatus. Baruch Hashem I am so grateful for the little miracle baby that I now have in my life and so grateful to have had the quality time with him and now so grateful to be able to focus back on the podcast a bit more. Gd willing, I will be doing a full episode on the birth story and some reflections from that, so if that’s interesting to you stay tuned. But now, I’ve been busy working on some interviews with really incredible people and I am so excited to share them. Today’s episode is with Shoshana Judelman. I got connected to Shoshana through Midreshet Rachel — she is a teacher there now and has always been passionate about teaching Torah and Jewish History. She holds a Bachelor’s in History and a Master’s in Jewish History. She made aliyah with her husband and six children to Efrat in 2013. In addition to teaching at MRC, Shoshana teaches Chassidus for the Shirat David Community in Efrat as well as for BeOr Panecha in Elazar. She is a guide in Poland with JRoots and co-leads inspirational trips to Ukraine and around Eretz Yisroel. Shoshana has also been a guide at Yad Vashem since 2014. In this episode, she is sharing so much about her connection to the world of Chassidus, what we can learn from it and how we can connect to Chanukah more deeply through its teachings. She speaks about:-How she got into Chassidus and became a baal teshuva -What the difference is between Chassidus and other perspectives on Torah -How we can interpret the world through the lens of our human soul and Gdly soul which was a really interesting and helpful teaching -What it really means that just a little bit of light can dispel a lot of darkness (with a really great mashal included in that) -How to cope when it feels like the darkness is getting darker, whether in your own personal world or in the world at large -How you can personally connect through the lighting of the Chanukah candles and practically a great tip if you have a busy household and it’s hard to focus when your family is lighting together -Her own personal struggle at the moment and how she’s dealing with it and becoming closer with Hashem in the process. This was so beautiful I was really getting emotional  …and so so much more! To daven for Shoshana, her full name is Shoshana Yonah bat Aidel Learn more from Shoshana here.