Are the inward parts of life a step away from our external contributions? Is the only way to influence others through a concerted focus on our outer purpose? Does our personal development and divine service bear fruit in tangible ways?

Lessons from our biblical patriarch Yitzchok, whose life of inwardness is titled "Toldos" (offspring) in this week's Torah portion, teaching us a deep lesson about what our inwardness brings to the world, and helping us understand the relationship between our purpose and our inner work.

Source:

Parshas Toldos, Likutei Sichos, Volume 25, Sicha 2

* * * * * * *

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.

A conversation delving into the complexities of the mitzvah of honoring one's parents, exploring the emotional struggles many face in fulfilling this commandment. By turning our focus of the mitzvah towards G-d, we create more pathways for acceptance of our parents and the ways they've shaped us into who we are, while opening up channels for healthier, deeper relationships with the people we love.

* * * * * * *

Ita Cagen is co-director of Chabad of Rancho Penasquitos in S. Diego, California.

Ita is the cohost of All The Answers, a new podcast featuring conversations with Chassidic thinkers that explore how Tanya offers practical guidance for our everyday lives. Contact her at [email protected]

Listen to All The Answers here: https://open.spotify.com/show/10CxKsrzGW9J7owOEBeqls?si=clKN4DJHRsC39tksNMZYwA

* * * * * * *

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.

Is your body's experience a threat to your soul's expression? What impact does the body's wellbeing have on the soul? Does the body have any inherent wisdom worth listening to?

Today's episode is an exploration of the value of the body's experience within Judaism, why the Zohar explains the deeper meaning of Avraham and Sarah's exchange as being an instruction to "listen to everything the body tells us", how it is possible that in the future "the soul will receive its nourishment from the body" and how to approach our body's cues, resistance and wisdom within the framework of a spiritual life.

Based on a talk from the Lubavitcher Rebbe said on Parshas Chayei Sarah, 24 Cheshvan, 5711, recorded in Likkutei Sichos, Volume 1.

* * * * * * *

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.

A conversation with Helana Herman about integrating the Baal Shem Tov's teachings of connecting to G-d within nature, finding stillness, a Jewish path to manifesting and voicing our desires, the three stages of close relationships and how to move through conflict, deepened community impact through a deeper connection to oneself and the journey to parenting children with religious differences with true love and acceptance.

Helana Herman is a Life and Relationship Coach and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner. She and her husband, Rabbi Pinney Herman, were shluchim in Raleigh, North Carolina for thirty years. The Herman’s are Certified Imago Relationship Educators, offering tools for compassionate communication and teaching couples how to turn conflict into connection. Helana blends somatic tools with Torah and Chassidic wisdom to help women and couples live with more safety, connection, and joy. Contact her at [email protected]

* * * * * * *

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.

What does it mean to see yourself inside the story of Torah, not as a spectator of the past, but as a co-author of the Jewish future?

In honor of the fifth anniversary of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks' passing, we explore his writings and ideas on themes of leadership, purpose, love of Torah, love of others, lifelong learning and the call to moral imagination.

Rabbi Sacks invites us to see Judaism as a living book, one with our family’s name inscribed on the cover, waiting for us to write the next chapter.

Through his vision of moral courage, intellectual clarity, and deep love for the Jewish people, the voice of Rabbi Sacks continues to remind us that the story of Torah is still being written, and that we are being called to write it.

References:

Tradition Journal: The Intellectual Legacy of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

"Traditional in an Untraditional Age" by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

"Covenant & Conversation" by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

"To Heal a Fractured World: The Ethics of Responsibility" by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

* * * * * * *

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.

Lessons from our biblical matriarchs on owning our Judaism, giving while maintaining personal boundaries, the personal process of rebuilding our Judaism after periods of disillusionment, growing into the choices we've made in our youth, and navigating our own spiritual evolution.

Chana Herzog was born and raised in Australia and now lives in Encino, California, with her husband and four spirited children, where they are dedicated to bringing joyful and authentic Jewish experiences to their community.

She is inspired by family, friendship, stories of faith and bravery, and the quiet wisdom of the ocean.

Chana is passionate about combining creative expression with soulful intention to bring meaning to everyday life. My Inner Spark is her first book—so far. Purchase My Inner Spark here: www.innerspark.world.

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.

G-d's call to Avraham is the call to a life of openness, attention, inner transformation, self awareness and trust.

Lessons from Parshas Lech Lecha on finding the courage to answer the call of the open road, develop our inner worlds and step into the unknown.

* * * * * * *

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.

A conversation with parenting coach Chani Heyman about imparting Jewish values to our children. We explore the importance of owning our own values fully, establishing routines for our children from a young age, and cultivating a strong emotional connection to each child through intentional quality time and physical touch. Chani emphasizes the need for parents to find their own love for Judaism and gives practical tools to create a positive environment that fosters a genuine relationship with each child, even as they transition into their teenage years.

Chani Heyman is a dynamic parenting coach, motivational speaker, educator, and Torah teacher who's passionate about empowering families to thrive. Originally from Los Angeles, Chani now calls Israel home. With a background rooted in the timeless wisdom of Rebbetzin Spetner and her own experiences as a mother of eight, Chani shares practical and inspiring guidance with parents worldwide.Through her engaging group classes, popular parenting column, and vibrant Instagram community @parentingwithchani, Chani sparks meaningful connections and helps families unlock their full potential.

Episode sponsored in honor of the shloshim of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Kalmenson from New Haven, Yosef Yitzchok ben Yekusiel Dovber ob"m.

* * * * * * *

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.

How can precise spiritual language bring G-d to life in our lives? What happens when deep ideas become hollow, when holy words become strangers to the meaning they hold?

References:

"People of the Word" by Mendel Kalmenson, Zalman Abraham

"Chassidus Through the Eyes of a Psychotherapist" by Devori Nussbaum

Story of the Lubavitcher Rebbe re "House of Healing": https://www.chabad.org/blogs/blog_cdo/aid/1099296/jewish/A-Hospital-is-Not-a-House-of-the-Sick.htm

* * * * * * *

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.

What does the biblical description of the world's creation have to teach us about our role in the world's future?

In a time of rapid technological change, our place in co-creating the development of reality has never felt more pressing.

Through an exploration of the converge of science and Torah and the deep lessons within our origin story in the book of Bereshit, we explore how we are each being called to co-create reality, what role divine acts have to play in awakening our interconnectedness, the importance of individuality in spiritual expression, and the renewed opportunities available to us within our world's continuous creation.

Charlotte Broukhim is a Jewish mom from Los Angeles who explores the intersections of Jewish mysticism, science, and politics. She studied comparative religion at Harvard, and her upcoming Substack will share practical reflections and insights at the crossroads of ancient wisdom and today’s world. Find her on instagram @cbroukhim and contact her at [email protected].

* * * * * *

EPISODE SPONSOR:

Today’s episode is sponsored by SHARE, a global initiative connecting individuals to the timeless teachings of the inner dimension of Jewish wisdom, known as Pnimiyut Hatorah. Their mission is to inspire soulful living and learning by translating ancient insights for the contemporary moment. You can learn more on https://share.fund/learn/

Explore their new book, an English translation of Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag’s Introduction to the Zohar: The Wisdom of Truth here: https://korenpub.com/products/introdu...

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 Introduction

03:15 When Judaism Began to Impact my Worldview

06:33 Where is Our Technological Development Leading Us?

8:47 Where Science and Torah Converge

12:00 Bringing G-d Consciousness into the Development of AI

16:00 The Wisdom of Shabbat in a Digital World

18:25 Divine Responsibility Keeps Us Tethered to a Global Reality

19:42 Why Should a Spiritual Life Include Divine Laws (Halachah)?

23:19 Four Levels of Understanding Truth

24:16 What is the Messianic Era?

26:20 Spiritual Knowledge Without Responsibility

28:23 Being Like Our Creator: The Greatest Pleasure is to Give

31:20 The First Verse of the Torah: Why Do We Begin With a Story?

32:50 Torah as a Description of Reality

33:13 The World Has a Beginning

34:30 G-d Spoke the World into Existence: What Does That Mean?

37:50 Why Isn't the First Verse of the Torah a Commandment?

38:15 Two Levels of Divine Light

39:30 Co-Creating a Future With G-d

41:00 Our Lives Are a Gift

43:00 The Illusion of Separateness

44:44 Individuality: Distinct Divine Light

47:00 Does Religion Mean Removing Channels for Self-Expression?

48:50 The Limitations of a Fixed Identity

50:08 Channeling Your Unique Soul

50:47 G-d Consciousness Brings Me Freedom

52:15 The Soul Vs. The Ego

53:40 This is Who I Am: Judaism Beyond Obligation

58:45 Mitzvot as Remembrances

1:00:00 Activating Your Power Through Divine Acts

1:01:54 You Are Not Measured Against Anyone But Yourself

1:04:10 Can We Experience Objective Truth?

1:07:30 Cancel Culture and the Power to Recreate Yourself

1:10:15 Teshuvah Was Created Before Creation

1:14:10 Did G-d Create the World and Then Leave It?