Human & Holy

A conversation about the gritty, messy experience of faith when the things you want are not a "not yet" but a "no", life as a mother of five adopted children while grieving a permanent infertility diagnosis, why sometimes we need to stop waiting for a miracle, trying again and being told “no” again by God after 20 years of accepting, the impact of life setbacks on marriage and...

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 de...

An honest, joyful, and deeply practical conversation about Jewish parenting. We talk about how to genuinely infuse your home with love of Judaism, what to do when you want to teach a value you don't fully keep yourself, the difference between an inherited Judaism and discovered Judaism, how to see every child as an individual, and what to do when your child doesn't fit the school system. We explor...

The Torah opens up with failure after failure, we have laws of repair (teshuvah) baked into our Judaism, and yet many who live a value-driven life live in enormous fear of failing. Why are we harder on ourselves than G-d is? Today, we talk about the Jewish perspective on failure, along with Karen's own experiences. How do you hold your mistakes seriously without becoming them? Does forgiving y...

Does the Torah belong to every woman? This week, I host a roundtable with two women who've built their lives around Torah: Annie Nagel, who left a thriving law career for the classroom and a PhD in Tanakh, and Hadassah Shemtov, founder of Batsheva Learning Center. We trace the halachic sources on women's Torah study, where the historic hesitation came from, and the Lubavitcher Rebbe's radical refr...

What does it mean to be both a stranger and at home in your Judaism? To be deeply connected to your faith and still feel othered from a piece of your own practice? This week, in honor of Shavuos, we sit with a Talmudic dispute between Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Yishmael about how the Jewish people received the Torah at Sinai, and the much bigger question underneath it. What does it mean to be completel...

Today, I sit down with my friend, Zisi Zirkind for an unscripted conversation about burnout, motherhood, faith, friendship, and the holy delusion of believing your soul is needed in this world. This isn't an interview; it's a conversation between two close friends. We talk about why it's not always doing less that restores our energy, the undervaluing of women's work and how we each experience mea...

A conversation with Chana Kalmenson: shlucha of Chabad of Belgravia in London, poet, and teacher of Jewish mysticism, on the Sefirot of the Omer. Chana walks through each of the seven emotional Sefirot: Chesed, Gevurah, Tiferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, and Malchut. What each one is, how they relate to each other, and how they show up in everyday emotional life. The episode also covers how the months...

A live Human & Holy Women's Open Mic Night in Jerusalem, exploring the theme "I Am a Dreamer". A deeply moving evening of poetry, prose and song about dreams fulfilled and dreams shattered, on the dreams laid to rest and the ones held onto with quiet persistence, on the courage to keep dreaming. Listen for an expansive, heart opening hour of soulful art that will dare you to your own dreams. T...

Join our virtual Tanya class here: https://humanandholy.mykajabi.com/tanyaclass Chana Bennet grew up in the religious system, but found herself searching for something from a young age. With nowhere to turn, she turned to God. In this conversation, Chana discusses the concept of devekut (attachment to God), the role of a Tzadik in awakening the soul, and what it actually looks like to live in dail...

A personal essay about motherhood, the way it awakens my childhood self, and a fleeting, luminous moment where I allowed myself to experience its simplicity. Sharing this as we enter into an immersive Pesach season, as an invitation to let yourself feel these moments when they come. Read the essay here: https://open.substack.com/pub/toniachazanow/p/let-it-be-simple?r=c8uie&utm_campaign=post&am...

Meet Ricka Razel, the Israeli musician who has been leading thousands of women in monthly Rosh Chodesh gatherings across Israel during one of the country's darkest times. In this conversation, Ricka shares how she experiences music as prayer, why she and fellow musicians became the "Brigade of Joy" visiting evacuated families in hotels, how music became therapeutic catharsis for Isra...

Nissan, the month of freedom, is an invitation for personal freedom. Today, we explore the many dimensions of personal freedom: lack of external attachments, knowing our life force, taking a leap, finding the words, allowing ourselves to feel the bitterness of our slavery, and being able to tolerate the uncertainty of what comes after our own personal exile. * * * * * * * Based on Pesach teachings...

Sivan Rahav-Meir has been on Israeli television since age six, and became religious at fifteen after a chance encounter with three girls who simply said, "Bo l'Shabbat." In this conversation recorded in Jerusalem, Sivan shares how she's channeled three decades of journalism skills toward teaching Torah, why she sees a massive post-October 7th hunger for practical Jewish doing (no...

The Medrash teaches that every person has three names: the one our parents give us, the one our friends give us, and the ones we make for ourselves. In this episode, we dive deep into a single verse in Parshat Vayakhel to explore what it truly means to name ourselves, and why the greatness of our ancestors only becomes relevant once we become a person in our own right. * * * * * * * Join our new v...

A deeply personal and Torah-rich conversation on facing darkness from within. Kiki opens up about her own journey with anxiety and depression, sharing how she moved from resenting the darkness she experienced to believing in its inherent blessing. Drawing on biblical stories, Kiki weaves profound insight with raw personal honesty. She explores what it practically means to face darkness, profession...

The power of having our blindspots revealed to us, why seeing ourselves clearly (both our flaws and potential) is the beginning of all growth, the spark of Moshe in each soul that allows us to experience an unfiltered version of our soul's descent, and the subtle movements we make in our lives that initiate a much larger expansion. Source: Maamer Vekibel Hayehudim 5738 Join our new virtual Tan...

A lesson from the Purim story about self-education, becoming a student of life, waking up to the gap between where we are and what is possible for our soul's expression in this world, and the internal, conscious choice that the Jews during the Purim story were finally able to make to accept the Torah in their lives. Source: Maamer Vekibel Hayehudim 5738 Join our new virtual Tanya class! We wil...

In this deeply honest conversation, Shani opens up about the origins of her love for Torah, a genuine religious crisis she experienced in college, and how wrestling with philosophy ultimately widened her faith. We talk about Jewish womanhood, halacha, and why Shani wants women to stop being afraid of their own bodies and their own questions. With remarkable vulnerability, Shani reflects on the cos...

In honor of Rosh Chodesh Adar, we talk about the mystical underpinnings of this month of joy: why humor is the very space where contradictions can breathe, how the soul finds expression in lighthearted depth, why taking ourselves less seriously can be a conduit for our fullest expression, and play as a way to find expression for our soul's experience. * * * * * * * Join our new virtual Tanya class...

A live conversation with my mother about joy, reflections on life when living so close to hardship, her work caring for people in their most tenuous moments, the privilege of being in a position of giving, raising children with Jewish values outside of a Jewish community, letting yourself dream, and so much more. Rochel Lazaroff is the co-founder and co-director of Aishel House, a hospitality home...

Episode sponsored by Naomi Gruber. Dedicated in honor of my dear father’s neshama, דב ברל בן יצחק . May his neshama have the highest aliyah! * * * * * * * Can any of us experience objective truth? What do we make of the ebbs and flows of our inner worlds? If a spiritual experience felt real, but didn't last, was it ever genuine? Sharing one of my favorite ideas from the Tanya about truth as a...

A conversation about the deaths and rebirths that we experience throughout our lives, the existential shift of motherhood, the personal language required to choose faith, the philosophy behind Chabad outreach and how it democratizes spirituality, why the concept of Moshiach (messiah) cannot be disentangled from the purpose of the Jewish people, and the small concessions to our vices that have outs...

A conversation about the nature of human desire, why we were each created with enormous wanting, and how to transform our desire to take into a desire to receive in order to give what we have. We talk about perfection as wholeness, not a lack of flaws, making sense of our relationship to materiality, and the deep, personal fulfillment that happens through merging our own desires with the divine wi...

A conversation exploring the introduction to the Zohar, through some of life's biggest questions, like: Why are we here? Why do humans suffer? If everything is part of a divine plan, what is our role in God's broader story? We explore the opportunities for growth in facing our own resistance, what our suffering can invite us to, the call to adventure within daily life, studying mysticism w...