Not That Kind of Rabbi

On this week’s episode of Not That Kind of Rabbi, Rabbi Amy Grossblatt Pessah discusses her upcoming book, The Wholeness of a Broken Heart, exploring resilience, renewal, and the spiritual journey through grief and loss. She shares personal stories, insights on faith, community, and the power of rituals in healing.

This book shares a lived experience of loss, hope, meaning, and spiritual courage in Judaism. Pessah’s book is rooted in honesty and compassion, emphasizing the need to meet life as it is—without denial—while cultivating meaning, connection, and joy.

Through Jewish texts and teachings, Rabbi Amy engages with the big questions—suffering, responsibility, purpose, and God—with depth, accessibility and emotional intelligence.  The Wholeness of a Broken Heart honors brokenness as part of the human experience and helps the reader to find joy, meaning, purpose, and connection.

Is it just me? What we call entertainment has, over the last thirty years, devolved into an often voyeuristic parade of extreme violence programming. Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, Highlander, even Seinfeld sport an a-morality that is the backdrop to a political and social reality that values the Psychopath and the vigilante more than the compassionate and the kind. Mafioso like John Gotti in the 90's became fashion plate mobsters. Today the heartless have grabbed power in our politics and in business. Patricia Pearson is an award winning journalist and author and she's my guest on this episode of Not That Kind Of Rabbi, this time to talk about the dark side of our cultural moment.

There's a book out right now that I think has a great deal of wisdom and asks the tough questions. It's called Zionism in Crisis-Jewish Power and Moral Responsibility After October 7th. In a time where the internal conversation about what it means to be Jewish, and where Israel sits in that question, has given us food for thought. Rabbi Zachary Truboff is the author, and my guest on this episode of Not That Kind of Rabbi.

What if the peak spiritual experience isn't the point? I talk with Rabbi Laura Duhan-Kaplan, Dean of the Aleph Ordination Program, about Jewish education, mystical practice, ecological spirituality, and the challenge of remaining in relationship across deep communal divides. We explore what it might mean to bring the mystical into ordinary life—and to build a Judaism that is both deeply rooted and open on all sides.

One of the defining features of what we call Jewish Renewal is the emergence of an Eastern inspired marriage of Buddhism and mystic Judaism. This has given rise to a new movement, Jewish meditation practices. Last week I got an email from Rabbi Jeff  Roth. The founder and Director of the Awakened Heart Project asked who I was and why I sent him a Sabbath greeting. I honestly don't remember doing that, but hey, since I had him on a thread I asked him to join me on this edition of Not That  Kind Of  Rabbi. Here's our conversation.

Estelle Frankel is a practicing psychotherapist, author, spiritual director and seasoned teacher of Jewish mysticism and meditation. For over forty years she has been a thought leader and popular public speaker on the integration of depth psychology, Kabbalah and the world's great spiritual traditions. Estelle is the author of numerous essays and two popular books: Sacred Therapy: Jewish Spiritual Teachings on Emotional Healing & Inner Wholeness and The Wisdom of Not Knowing: Discovering a Life of Wonder by Embracing Uncertainty. Info about Estelle's teaching schedule and other offerings can be found at www.estellefrankel.com

Yisroel Bernath was 15 years old living in Chicago and doing what lots of kids in the windy city were doing back then, playing basketball. He and his kippah wearing friends were having a pretty good time. Then everything changed. There were threats, a gun was drawn, shots were fired as he fled. Justice was served but could Yisroel ever forgive the perpetrators? On this episode of Not That Kind of Rabbi we join Rabbi Bernath to talk about his book, The Forgiveness Experiment.

Not so long ago in Spokane Washington, otherwise known as the heart of the inland empire, there was a little boy named Josh, later to become Yoshi. His friends went to Hebrew school, he didn't. His friends learned how to write doo doo in Hebrew, he didn't. But he wanted to so he went to Hebrew school. Well now, living in Cleveland, he has moved far beyond the days of doo doo. Now he leads a movement that aligns the spirit with the body. Embodied Judaism, gets us out of our heads and into our hearts. The Mitsui Collective and the Mitsui Method are his life's work at this moment. Let's check in with Yoshi Silverstein.

In his latest book , Diary of a Low-Born Cleric, We travel with him through the ebb and flow of his new'ish life as an Anglican Priest. Born to a Jewish father and Christian mother Michael has gone from an adamant right of centre Catholic to a progressive Anglican minister. It's been quite a ride.

On this episode of NTKR I spend some earthy time with Tiferet Nashman. She's the Executive Director of something called Shoresh. It's the centre for Jewish environmental programs. As easy as it is to keep our spiritual life contained in four walls and only visited occasionally, what would happen if we knocked those walls down and connected instead with the heaven that is all around us? Let's find out.