So...how are we doing? We're ringing in the new Jewish year with a Jewish State of the Union: where have we been this last year and where are we headed? Today, I sit down with four people who each have a finger on a different pulse of Jewish life. ChayaLeah Sufrin, executive director of Beach Hillel and host of the Ask a Jew podcast, walks through the year's defining global stories, reflects on what this moment is asking of the Jewish people and gives us some predictions for the year ahead. Comedian Chani Lisbon joins for a lighter, faster cultural check-in: why comedians are having a moment, what the whole Jewish world got obsessed with this year, and a rapid-fire round of "in or out" on everything from Pesach programs to WhatsApp statuses. Rivki Rabinowitz, a beauty influencer and interior designer whose work has been featured in Architectural Digest, The Wall Street Journal and more, gives modest fashion the real trend report it deserves: what's replacing slip skirts, her one unforgivable fashion sin, and how she holds beauty and depth as the same thing, not opposites. Closing with a brilliant bang is writer and culture shaper Mimi Hecht's reflections on language: why the term "Hashem" is having a comeback, why words like "healing" and "capacity" have worn thin, the return of words like service and collective, and why specificity is rising in our culture's choice of words. Underneath every conversation, one thread kept showing up: this is the year where every Jew just wants to feel like a Yid. * * * * * * * To inquire about sponsorship & advertising opportunities, please email us at [email protected] To support our work, visit humanandholy.com/sponsor. Find us on Instagram @humanandholy & subscribe to our channel to stay up to date on all our upcoming conversations ✨ Human & Holy podcast is available on all podcast streaming platforms. New episodes every Sunday & Wednesday on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts. * * * * * * * TIMESTAMPS: 00:00:00 Segment 1— ChayaLeah Sufrin: The Jewish Year in Review 00:03:31 The five biggest Jewish stories of the year 00:07:35 How to stay informed without living in fear 00:12:54 What is this moment asking of the Jewish people? 00:13:36 A worry people should let go of 00:16:16 What Israel needs from Diaspora Jews right now and vice versa 00:21:18 ChayaLeah's predictions for the new year 00:24:44 Young Jews seeking authentic, substantial Judaism 00:27:00 Segment 2 — Chani Lisbon: A Cultural State of the Union 00:27:59 Why comedians are having a cultural moment right now 00:29:16 Top cultural moment of the year 00:30:06 What everyone got obsessed with this year 00:32:43 Hot take: Why Chani doesn't want a "trendy" rabbi 00:36:15 Rapid-fire "In or Out": pickleball, WhatsApp status, and group tours to Kazakhstan 00:43:11 What people are actually craving 00:45:00 Segment 3 — Rivki Rabinowitz: The Modest Fashion Report 00:46:43 How social media made modest fashion mainstream and immediate 00:52:27 The current "modest girl uniform" 00:52:46 Fashion predictions for the year ahead 00:55:46 Modest makeovers by profile 00:57:01 Rapid-fire 01:00:12 Can aesthetics and depth coexist? 01:04:58 What modesty invites her into creatively 01:09:01 Segment 4: Mimi Hecht on the State of words 01:09:10 Returning to the word "Hashem" 01:15:02 Why we reached for substitute language in the first place 01:18:18 Choosing specific Jewish language as an act of confidence 01:19:34 Why is our culture tired of the word "healing"? 01:26:04 A generational shift in language from self-focus back toward giving 01:32:11 Rapid-fire "Replace the Word" 01:36:29 Defining Chassidic terms in plain language: neshama, mitzvah, and kelipah 01:45:02 Why the term Avodas Hashem makes Mimi emotional 01:46:55 Using words honestly 01:48:43 Host's Outro

Human & Holy is on a season break for the rest of the summer! During this time, we're airing your favorite moments from the past few seasons. Watch the original episode in full here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhnlNd2zd2w In this excerpt from a past episode with Devori Nussbaum, we explore healing a blocked heart, rooted in Tanya and Chassidic thought. We explore why arrogance and honesty are opposites, the Torah's real definition of humility, and the difference between grief and depression. Devori shares how the animal soul keeps us "small, safe, and in control" and the exact language for asking G-d for help from wherever you honestly are, not where you think you should be. If you've been feeling numb, disconnected, or far from Hashem, this episode is a way back in. Devori is an integrative psychotherapist who has trained in many different healing modalities including body psychotherapy, imago therapy, logotherapy, the energetics of food, quantum touch, breathwork, CBT, NLP, EMDR, IFS, inner child work and somatic modalities. She is also passionate about teaching Chassidus in a way that is accessible, relevant and embodied, showing people that these teachings are not just nice ideas, but a description of our reality. Get in touch with Devori and find out more about her work on www.devorinussbaum.com. * * * * * * * To inquire about sponsorship & advertising opportunities, please email us at [email protected] To support our work, visit humanandholy.com/sponsor. Find us on Instagram @humanandholy & subscribe to our channel to stay up to date on all our upcoming conversations ✨ Human & Holy podcast is available on all podcast streaming platforms. New episodes every Sunday & Wednesday on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts. * * * * * * * TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 — The antidote to the desire to be "transformed" 0:15 — Presencing your block: how to begin when you feel numb or disconnected 1:09 — Why honesty is what unlocks connection to Hashem 1:40 — The Tanya's teaching on the oneness of God and the kelipah (shell) of separation 2:57 — Pain vs. suffering: the difference between what hurts and the story we tell about it 4:08 — The void as a portal: Ayin (nothingness) as the source of infinite potential 5:09 — Bringing G-d's presence into your darkness: how tears open the way to joy 5:30 — The classic teaching: "To open hearts, to know what one sees and hears" 6:59 — Seeing past people's defenses to "the light behind their eyes" 8:22 — Living in constant one-on-one conversation with G-d 9:14 — Why we judge the external shell before we ever see the soul underneath 10:22 — The frequency of oneness: hearing it like a heartbeat, an undercurrent 11:49 — Clearing the noise: expanding your capacity to notice the sacred in ordinary things 13:31 — Where blocked hearts really come from: unacknowledged grief 14:12 — Grief, attachment, and learning to move through the seasons of life 17:25 — Is being present with pain against Jewish values? 17:56 — Merirut vs. atzvut: the Tanya's distinction between grief and depression 19:26 — Moving through the cycle of grief back into joy 21:41 — "Ask for help from where you actually are" 23:04 — Arrogance and honesty as opposites, and what true humility actually means 24:00 — Moshe Rabbeinu, humility, and the honesty of naming your own greatness 25:28 — "Small, safe, and in control": the animal soul's real agenda 26:26 — Living from the divine soul: success and failure as opportunities, not identity 28:20 — The real cost of letting go of an identity you've outgrown 30:22 — Peeling away the layers: why every threshold in life asks you to release something 31:51 — Closing thoughts

What is Rosh Hashanah, the birthday of the world, inviting us to? In this recording of our Human & Holy Rosh Hashanah event in LA, we sit with powerful Torah sources to look at the opportunity available right now to co-create a new year with G-d. This episode explores why Rosh Hashanah is a relationship story, this time of year as a renewal of our capacity for choice, why being fully seen by Hashem can fill us with safety rather than dread, and why the mitzvah of the shofar has no single "right" sound, because the sound it's supposed to produce is whatever it produces in you. Join us on Youtube to follow along with the slideshow of sources. * * * * * * * To inquire about sponsorship & advertising opportunities, please email us at [email protected] To support our work, visit humanandholy.com/sponsor. Find us on Instagram @humanandholy & subscribe to our channel to stay up to date on all our upcoming conversations ✨ Human & Holy podcast is available on all podcast streaming platforms. New episodes every Sunday & Wednesday on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts. * * * * * * * TIMESTAMPS: 00:00–01:44 Capacity for choice & waking up from sleep 01:45–03:56 Breath and the Shofar 03:57–07:25 Moving to a shorter line 07:26–07:53 Judgment or compassion? 07:54–12:09 Being fully seen by Hashem 12:19–14:07 What if you have a fear of being seen? 14:08–16:38 Teshuvah as ongoing relational repair 16:40–20:13 Hour by hour of the first day of creation 20:14–24:22 Ayeka: where are you? 24:41–29:36 What if.I bring no intention to Shofar? 29:37–30:16 Only the individual can say "You are my King" 32:31–35:15 What does the Shofar's sound produce in you?

I recently opened a box of my middle school journals, and found the question that has followed me for nearly twenty years: could I honestly call myself a chossid of a Rebbe I had never met? In honor of Gimmel Tammuz, the anniversary of the Lubavitcher Rebbe's passing, I explore some of the questions that have gnawed at me for as long as I can remember: Should my relationship to the Rebbe be defined by longing? Am I fundamentally missing out on a nostalgic, golden age of Chabad if I never met him? What distinct message did the Rebbe have for a generation with a strong emphasis on the self? Is our determination to feel deeply "aligned" with our life choices a flaw, or a gift? Was the Rebbe passing on the baton, and if yes, to who? Drawing on a community survey and a close reading of V'atah Tetzaveh, this episode explores the generational shift the Rebbe himself outlined, what a relationship shaped by ignition, not loss, might look like, and how the Rebbe encouraged each person to step into their mission, to embrace the specificity of their identities and be the unique, unrepeatable messengers of Hashem the world is waiting for. * * * * * * * To inquire about sponsorship & advertising opportunities, please email us at [email protected] To support our work, visit humanandholy.com/sponsor. Find us on Instagram @humanandholy & subscribe to our channel to stay up to date on all our upcoming conversations ✨ Human & Holy podcast is available on all podcast streaming platforms. New episodes every Sunday & Wednesday on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts. * * * * * * * TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Finding my middle school journals 01:33 "Do we have the right to call ourselves a Chossid?" 04:00 Should I yearn for the physical presence of a Rebbe I never met? 06:00 Growing up on shlichus in Houston, TX 08:30 The enormous grief of Gimmel Tammuz 10:30 The community survey about the Rebbe 12:00 The message from the Rebbe that changed people's lives 13:15 Would you call yourself a chossid? 14:30 The final piece of the Torah the Rebbe distributed 15:30 Generation of self-sacrifice vs. religious freedom 17:55 Exploring V'atah Tetzaveh 19:30 What is higher than self-sacrifice? 21:36 Why connect to a Tzadik? 24:00 This generation's power 27:00 The specificity of who you are is your mission 30:00 Every person can be a Rebbe 33:00 When the Rebbe passed on the baton 35:58 Am I a follower of the Lubavitcher Rebbe? 37:48 The vision of Moshiach 38:50 Outro

Human & Holy is on a season break for the rest of the summer! During this time, we're airing your favorite moments from the past few seasons. In today's excerpt with Jackie Glaser, we cover spiritual bypassing, noticing the patterns that keep showing up in our lives, cultivating self-worth and self-trust, navigating rejection, our flaws as filters while dating, recognizing that matchmakers do not have control over people's future when navigating the shidduch system, and strengthening our trust in God. To watch the full episode this excerpt is from, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=243HxQfOx9E To contact Jackie or learn more about her courses, you can find her at jackieglaser.com or find Jackie on Instagram: datingbyjackieg * * * * * * * To inquire about sponsorship & advertising opportunities, please email us at [email protected] To support our work, visit humanandholy.com/sponsor. Find us on Instagram @humanandholy & subscribe to our channel to stay up to date on all our upcoming conversations ✨ Human & Holy podcast is available on all podcast streaming platforms. New episodes every Sunday & Wednesday on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts. * * * * * * * TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Spiritual bypassing 2:04 How our patterns are signposts from Hashem, not punishments 3:07 Why we avoid taking responsibility, and turn anxiety into blaming Hashem instead 5:27 Going inward with compassionate curiosity instead of judgment 7:11 Turning to G-d as an escape hatch 7:21 Normalizing the pattern before moving forward 9:08 Self-trust as the real foundation behind who you marry 9:17 The somatic work begins: tuning into the body as a source of real data 12:45 Surrendering 14:23 Clearing subconscious blockage to make more room for closeness with Hashem 16:13 How our internal beliefs get projected onto strangers 17:35 Why healing the felt state dissolves the belief system underneath it 18:58 How the fear of rejection actually dissolves with this work 20:42 "I reject myself" — the most important relationship you'll ever build is with you 22:23 Disability or flaws as a filter in dating, not a disqualifier 24:05 Boundaries with matchmakers 25:44 When parents choose to "play the game" with a difficult shadchan for their child's sake 26:27 Hashem was never limited to a shadchan

Human & Holy is on a season break for the rest of the summer! During this time, we're airing your favorite moments from the past few seasons. This episode is an impactful moment extracted from the original conversation. Watch the episode in full here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VuF9NwQt8o Rebbetzin Rachel Jacobs built a Jewish community in Birmingham, UK from the ground up: a Chabad house, a Torah Tots nursery, a Hebrew school, and a role as the only Jewish studies teacher in a school of 160 students. In this excerpt, we explore what happens when you feel called to build something and no one shows up, and how she learned to measure success by relationships instead of numbers. Rachel shares the Torah teaching that convinced her to start a Hebrew school with just six kids, and what it felt like years later watching those same kids read fluently from the Torah at their own bar and bat mitzvahs. A conversation about faith, community building, Jewish education, and redefining what success actually means. Rachel Jacobs, originally from Los Angeles, California, currently serves as Rebbetzin of Singers Hill Synagogue in Birmingham, England. She is also the Educational Director of the Torah Tots nursery school, the Cheder, and the Jewish studies program at the local King David Primary School. Over the past 20 years, Rachel has gained recognition as an inspiring Jewish speaker, with a particular focus on women’s issues and marriage. Her warmth, charisma, and insightful teachings have touched the lives of Jewish women across the United States and Europe. You can contact Rachel via [email protected] and on instagram @Rachelcjacobs. * * * * * * * To inquire about sponsorship & advertising opportunities, please email us at [email protected] To support our work, visit humanandholy.com/sponsor. Find us on Instagram @humanandholy & subscribe to our channel to stay up to date on all our upcoming conversations ✨ Human & Holy podcast is available on all podcast streaming platforms. New episodes every Sunday & Wednesday on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts. * * * * * * * TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 — The ache of being called to something and hearing crickets back 00:23 — Rachel on the early, hardest days of building a Chabad house 04:03 — The real question underneath it all: are we measuring success by numbers? 04:21 — Starting Torah Tots with six kids: "affecting children from a young age is infinite" 05:41 — The reality now: down to two kids, and showing up anyway 05:53 — Called into King David School as the lone Jewish voice for 11 students among 160 07:35 — Leading through bureaucracy and red tape: "you have to go back to your why" 09:23 — Redefining the metric of success: deep impact on one person over reach to many 09:50 — Rachel's husband and the minyan he shows up for every night, no matter the count 12:53 — The Torah source that named her calling: Matos Masei and the tribes who chose to build 12:54 — Starting Cheder Club with five boys and one girl 14:56 — Years later: those same kids reading fluently from the Torah at their bar and bat mitzvahs 16:04 — "It's the positivity. People want to be part of success." 16:14 — Outro

A conversation about the connection between Rosh Hashana and centrality of the home within Judaism, the role that Jewish women's candle-lighting plays in welcoming a new year, the rising of a feminine energy within Judaism, the challenges of being wrapped up in domestic tasks or the role of motherhood when you want to be absorbed in the deeper meaning of the day, and more. Based on a talk from the Lubavitcher Rebbe given to a women's only audience. This episode is sponsored by Zelda Hair, a wig company that champions the holistic process of hair covering for Jewish women. Shop Zelda Hair at zeldahairshop.com and discover the heart behind the brand on instagram @zeldahair. Sources mentioned in this episode: Talk from the Lubavitcher Rebbe given on 27 Elul, 5744. Linked here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/13WGzdFn9jly1dSFuYDlcaGQUuiBHbdS0/view?pli=1 Reach out to Nechama at [email protected]. We love hearing your feedback! Email us at [email protected] to get in touch. To sponsor an episode, reach out to us via email or visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.humanandholy.com/sponsor⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Become a monthly supporter of the podcast on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.patreon.com/humanandholy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. You can find us on instagram @humanandholy.