Neshamos.org Podcast: Stories of Hope and Healing

By Neshamos.orgHealth & Fitness Mental Health

Neshamos.org Podcast: Stories of Hope and Healing episodes

November 08, 2021 No Longer Hiding (feat. Rivka Tauber)
Rivka Tauber is a writer, Torah educator, and public speaker who grew up in Crown Heights and recently made aliyah to Jerusalem.
In this episode, Rivka shares her journey from the challenges of depression and the struggle of finding reasons to live to the wholeness she discovered in her connection with others, her relationship with G-d, in therapy, and so much more along the way.
Thank G-d, today, she is free from the obsession over the future and is able to live in the present. Today, she helps others who are struggling and works to show up as her whole self.
You can follow Rivka on instagram at instagram.com/rivkamakesaliyah.
1 hr 5 min
September 05, 2021 A Sofer in Sobriety (feat. Yankel Maislin)
Yankel Maislin is a sofer (Torah scribe), author, public speaker and mentor who lives in Crown Heights, Brooklyn with his wife and five children. To the casual observer, he looks like your typical Chabad rabbi, spending his day in prayer, holy work, and raising a family.
While that may be true now, there was a time when Yankel’s identity couldn’t be more of a contradiction to what it is today.
Yankel grew up in a small town in Long Island, NY. As a physically small child with a unique personality and ideas, he was the target of school bullies for many years. Deeply unhappy and anxious, he turned to weed, alcohol, and other drugs as a way to self-medicate and soothe his battered sense of self.
Eventually, his drug habit grew to be too expensive to cover with his high school allowance money. That’s when Yankel turned first to stealing, which soon became unsustainable, and eventually to dealing drugs, which came along with handling weapons, associating with mafia members, and engaging in dangerous behaviors.
It wasn’t until Yankel was forced to flee from threats to his life that he truly committed to rehab and AA gatherings, where he discovered religion, spirituality, and a new direction in life.
Now, Yankel joins us on the Neshamos Podcast to share his story of leaving his personal exile, which included addiction, bullying, drug dealing, violence, and constant running, to find his redemption in sobriety, accountability, happiness, fulfillment, and peace.
Today, Yankel has been sober for 14 years.
“I firmly believe that everything that I went through from the day I was born until today is in the service of helping someone else,” Yankel reflects. “Otherwise, why would I have gone through such crazy things? And since that's the way I view it, I must pass it on in order to help someone else.”
Yankel can be reached via Whatsapp at 718-714-8201 or at [email protected].
1 hr 23 min
August 22, 2021 Love Addiction (feat. Tzipora Zelmanowitz)
Meet Tzipora Zelmanowitz, a recovering Love Addict.
Tzipora, a practicing attorney who lives in Queens, New York, has been in recovery from her love addiction for 5.5 years.
Her journey into the world of recovery began after years of unsuccessful dating, when she eventually began to wonder… why weren’t things working? Why was she dating the kind of men she didn’t actually want to marry? Were things supposed to be this hard?
As she started looking within, she began to understand that she struggled with addiction—specially, an addiction to love.
“The turning point was me realizing that there’s something wrong with me needing to be different with every person I'm encountering,” Tziporah reflects. “I didn't know what I liked or how I was going to show up as a spouse in a relationship…. I was going to be whoever my husband wanted me to be.”
Now, years later, after attending therapy and a 12-step program,Tziporah joins us to discuss the pain of carrying a constant, insatiable need for love, validation, and acceptance, the fear of rejection that came along with that, and her recovery from love addiction and codependency.
Today, she's building self-love and acceptance, and inspiring and educating others to do the same.
1 hr 13 min
August 01, 2021 Medication Doesn’t Do the Work; You Do (feat. Nechamy Rabin)
Nechamy Rabin, a high-powered, upbeat mom of three who has her Masters Degree and works in Special Education, is not the kind of person you’d imagine would cry over a parking spot.
Growing up in Pittsburgh in a large family, Nechamy always knew she wanted to have a large family of her own someday.
“It couldn’t be that hard,” Nechamy recalls thinking. “Everyone looks great pushing their Bugaboos up Kingston Avenue.”
For the most part, things worked out after her first child. But after the birth of her second, “I went from functional to completely not functional. I remember crying because I couldn't find parking.’
Now, Nechamy joins the Neshamos Podcast to share her story of experiencing, overcoming, and growing from Postpartum Depression.
Eventually, Nechamy’s husband urged her to seek support. With the help of medication and a qualified therapist, Nechamy worked through her PPD and gained skills and perspective to help her thrive.
Today, Nechamy is an advocate for women's mental health and is passionate about educating women about Postpartum depression and mental wellness.
1 hr 13 min
July 05, 2021 "It Was the First Time I Felt Hope" (feat Shiri Kornblit)
Shiri Kornblit joins the Neshamos Podcast to share her story of surviving traumatic early childhood loss of a parent, the coping mechanisms she developed as a result, and her process of learning and recovery as she began healing from helplessness and many patterns of unhealthy behaviors including addiction to drugs and alcohol.

As an adult, Shiri joined Alcoholics Anonymous and eventually became a baalat teshuva. Today, she lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband and two children and works as an emergency room Physician's Assistant. Shiri was an active volunteer with The Gedalya Society during the height of Covid and continues to give back to the Crown Heights community.

“I’m sharing my experiences so that anyone who is currently suffering (or who has a family member who is suffering) from addiction or self-destructive patterns and behaviors who needs to hear this can hear a message of, ‘there is a way out’. This isn't a hopeless state of mind and body.”
1 hr 18 min
May 23, 2021 At-Risk-Teen Turned Rabbi (feat. Shloimy Fuchs)
Shloimy Fuchs was born and bred in Crown Heights, Brooklyn and currently serves as a mashpia in Yeshivas Bais Menachem of Wilkes Barre (now located in the Poconos).
In this episode of the Neshamos podcast, Shloimy talks about his struggles with anxiety, addiction, and low self esteem. In his younger years, he was a “problem student” who was expelled from yeshiva and spent time on the streets shoplifting and committing petty crimes. Later, he sought comfort in alcohol, relationships, and a party lifestyle, which only led him further away from his true self.
In this episode, Shloimy takes us along on his journey through different Yeshivas, different stages of religious commitment, and his growth along the way.
With the help of therapy, meditation, Alcoholics Anonymous, and supportive mashpias and friends, Shloimy turned his life around and began living a conscious, meaningful, and proactive life. Today he continues to grow and maintain his mental and spiritual health and helps others do the same.
“It’s doing the work, taking the steps,” Shloimy reflects. “It’s a daily avodah and it brings you closer to yourself and to the truth. It’s a blessing to have these tools that I can use to heal myself.”
1 hr 2 min
April 11, 2021 “Grief is Not One Size Fits All” (feat. Sarah Rivkah Kohn)
Today, Sarah Rivkah is comfortable with who she is and uses her own experience with childhood loss to help others who are going through similar situations. Her annual shabbaton for children who have lost a parent gathers some 225 children from all over the world and gives them an opportunity to make friends, heal, and grow together.
You can find Sarah Rivkah on Instagram at instagram.com/links_shlomiesclub or via her website, www.wereinittogether.org.
1 hr 22 min
January 31, 2021 Soul Substance (feat. Elka Cubacub)
Elka (Malamud) Cubacub is a yoga teacher and Psychology student born and bred in Chicago, where she currently resides with her husband and daughter.
For years, Elka struggled with Bulimia/Binge Eating Disorder that first began when she attended seminary in Israel. As she struggled with restrictive eating habits and bingeing compulsions, she began to understand that at the root of her unhealthy behaviors were underlying emotions and a sense of disconnect. What followed were years of ups and downs as she delved deeper into her inner self, weathered bouts of depression and disordered eating, and began the journey toward healing.
Over time, Elka utilized self-help tools such as journaling, meditation, mindfulness techniques and talk therapy to discover the wholeness within that became the foundation for her eventual recovery.
Today, Elka is an assistant facilitator for group Psychotherapy sessions at a residential recovery facility and has launched her own organization called Soul Substance, which helps members foster healthy relationships with their bodies.
You can learn more about Soul Substance or contact Elka by visiting her website, soulsubstance.org.
1 hr 13 min
December 27, 2020 I Experienced Sexual Assault (feat. Rochel Spangenthal)
Rochel Spangenthal is a psychiatric nurse practitioner and writer from North Carolina. At a young age, Rochel’s family made the transition to a religious lifestyle, becoming Baalei Teshuva and joining the Chabad community.
Rochel took her religious responsibilities seriously, determined to be the perfect daughter and student and aspired toward a relationship with a man befitting her religious status. She was scrupulous in her Torah observance, carefully maintaining her distance from men as she sought a “good” shidduch (match).
As an adult, Rochel experienced sexual assault and began questioning everything: herself, her relationship with G-d, her status as a religious Jew, her future and any future relationships. She believed she was “ruined.” Rochel was told she had to hide her story and be ashamed of what had happened to her so that it wouldn’t impact her reputation and her shidduch chances.
In this episode, Rochel relates how her experience launched the beginning of her journey toward growth and healing. She talks about how she shared her story with others, and the reactions she received as a result. Now, Rochel has integrated her story into who she is today and uses it to drive herself forward. She has learned that she has an untouchable, innate purity regardless of her circumstances.
“Bad things happen and we can’t go back, but we can choose how we go forward,” she concludes.
54 min
December 06, 2020 Just Me Being Alive is Enough (feat. Mushky Rosenfeld)
As a child, Mushky York (now Rosenfeld) suffered from severe anxiety which affected her social, academic, and general wellbeing. Eventually, her anxiety got so bad that she suffered from constant nausea and couldn’t keep food down and began losing weight.
Soon, Mushky began receiving compliments and comments on her body changes. While that lifted her mood, it also meant she felt better and was able to eat more--which led to weight gain, which led to less compliments, which led to anxiety and depression, which led to weight loss, and so the vicious cycle continued. At the age of 11, craving that validation that had come with her weight loss, Mushky began obsessively focusing on losing an extreme amount of weight.
The obsession with weight, body image, and fitness spiralled quickly and Mushky’s weight-consciousness quickly morphed into Anorexia. At the age of 13, Mushky collapsed while exercising and was brought to the hospital, where the nursing staff told her parents that she might have only hours left to live.
Mushky entered years of in-patient treatment, where she also began taking medication to treat her previously undiagnosed anxiety. With lots of ups-and-downs and learning experiences along the way, she began to recover and enter a healthier mindset.
Today, Mushky resides in Crown Heights with her husband and children and manages her own business. While she still struggles with her anxiety and remnants of her eating disorder at times, she now has the tools, awareness, and emotional insight to manage her tendencies and live a healthy, happy, and meaningful life.
We’d like to thank Mushky for her bravery and openness in sharing her story with us!
54 min