Shoshana Manssouri stumbled into the role of being a mikveh attendant as a young woman. Over the years, she has developed a deep reverence for the experience of accompanying women to immerse in the mikvah's holy waters.

Today, she shares the deeper meaning behind mikvah immersion, what makes these ritual waters holy, and the experiences that made her fall in love with her role.

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To support our work, visit humanandholy.com/sponsor.

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How do the past versions of ourselves prevent us from experiencing who we are? How can we become more present to what exists in our lives, to the people, callings, and divine encounters that reveal themselves to us every day?

The Zohar says "The righteous live every day as if it is their last."

What does this teaching illuminate about living life with more presence, living with less attachment to the days that came before this one, to meet each moment fully, to shed old identities and fully experience what exists right now in our lives?

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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 Raizy Fried about discovering the Godly purpose of her natural personality, the way resurrection of the dead (Techiyas Hameisim) can be a practical, emotional experience, the realization that Hashem wants our full hearts, how Raizy's personal questions led her to deeper Torah study, how gossip and judgment can be a reflection of our own unfulfilled purpose, what compels her to stick her neck out to discuss taboo topics, and a transformative teaching from the Tanya that changed Raizy's life.

Raizy Fried is a world-renowned author of the Lekovod Shabbos Kodesh series and The Anatomy of a Yenta, and a beloved speaker known for her warm, honest, and deeply relatable style. She brings clarity and depth to topics ranging from Shabbos to emotional wellness and personal growth.

Through her platform, Inspired Living, Raizy reaches thousands of women with thoughtful content designed to uplift and enrich everyday life.

Link to Inspired Living: watch.raizyfried.com

Find her on instagram @raizyscookin

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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 happens when we are called to a mission, but we don't have what it takes? Why is the world we live in one of specificity, where every person experiences a very individual life and purpose? Can we be channels for divine light in this world, as our imperfect selves?

When God tells Moshe to speak to Pharoh, he says: "I am not a man of speech." His inability to communicate is not just a technical inability, it is a spiritual one. What follows is a rich lesson about the advantage of deep, expressed light over the highest, disembodied light and the power of communication, both in life and speech: the power of compressing limitless information into contained expression, the power of taking the raw material of our potential and building a life with it.

Source: Torah Ohr, Parshas Shemos

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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 do we trust God when we face unfathomable challenges in our lives? How do we believe that God is good when He says no to the things we most want? How can we expand our vessels to receive more blessing in our lives, to make space for better even when it's already good?

A live Human & Holy podcast recorded in Woodmere, NY with Miriam Rubenstein on the subject of Bitachon (trust in God). Includes audience questions, vulnerable shares about trusting even when God says no, and women sharing the personal transformations that they experienced through studying this subject.

Miriam Rubenstein is a Rebbetzin at Cong. Aish Kodesh in Woodmere, and an experienced facilitator whose Bitachon Chaburas have uplifted the lives of many women. She is passionate about helping women step into their light, and inspires growth, trust, and joy through her teaching and guidance. To contact Miriam: [email protected]

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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.

There are so many bittersweet flavors to our emotional landscape: our grief intermingled with relief, the tears of compassion when those who have hurt us express their regrets, the push and pull between our inner and outer worlds, the existential ache of not finding full expression in any world, the relief at expressing who we are aloud only to discover that we still only belong to ourselves, the lonely costs of success, the recognition that what was broken in our lifetime may not be made whole for hundreds more years, and a thousand more inner contradictions.

Yosef's story is the story of a dreamer whose dreams came true. But even stories with the happiest endings come with an underlying ache.

As we close Yosef’s story in this week's Parsha, we analyze Yosef's emotional world through the astounding record of Yosef’s tears, a central character in the Torah who is plainly recorded in verse after verse as weeping: sometimes in private, sometimes in public, sometimes so loudly that the entire land can hear.

How do we make meaning of these tears? What story do they tell us about Yosef’s experience of his life’s triumphs and hardships, of the inner, emotional world that beat beneath this powerful figure, who rose from the pit to find astounding success as viceroy in Egypt, and as he released his restraint on his buried identity, expressed an emotional landscape that echoes the complexity of each of our own inner worlds?

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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 the life of a Jew an individual journey with God or a communal one? What is being asked of the Jewish people right now? When your faith fractures, how do you find wholeness again in your relationship with God?

A conversation with Dr. Mijal Bitton exploring faith in God, the current Jewish experience, Judaism not just as a religion but as a family, the significance of our ancestral bonds and the power and necessity of individual contributions to the collective Jewish narrative.

Dr. Mijal Bitton is a spiritual leader, public intellectual, and sociologist. She serves as Scholar in Residence at the Maimonides Fund and Rosh Kehilla of the Downtown Minyan in New York City. A Visiting Researcher at NYU Wagner, she directed pioneering research on Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews in the United States.

Mijal is an alumna of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship, a New Pluralist Field Builder, and a Sacks Scholar. She co-hosts the podcast Wondering Jews and shares weekly reflections on Jewish life, identity, and resilience in her Substack newsletter, Committed.

Substack: https://mijal.substack.com/

Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/1cU0NTHYQZOTARwuXTbpLU?si=uPmpMnd6RbycOuFli-N9Sg

Website & contact: mijalbitton.com

Instagram: @mijalbitton

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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.

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TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Introducing Mijal Bitton

03:12 The Jewish Experience: Identity and Collective Responsibility

05:56 Faith and Imperfection: Navigating Belief in Difficult Times

08:48 Judaism Beyond Religion: A Family and Community

12:04 The Interconnectedness of Faith and Peoplehood

14:56 Finding Your Individual Path Within a Collective Identity

17:48 The Role of My Ancestors in Shaping My Faith

21:10 Hope vs. Optimism: A Jewish Perspective on Challenges

23:53 The Joy of Being Jewish

27:13 The Future of Judaism: A Vision for the World

30:02 Fighting for Our Place: Political Mobilization and Community Engagement

32:54 Personal Practices: Staying Centered Amidst Responsibilities

36:10 Sephardic Heritage: A Unique Perspective on Tradition

38:56 Closing Thoughts: Embracing Our Roles in the Jewish Community

What is the Jewish response to existential threat? Is political activism, investment in physical security and self protection the Jewish response? Is increased prayer and good deeds enough, to the exclusion of all else?

Using the biblical record of Yaakov's response to Esav in his moment of danger, the Purim story, and the Lubavitcher Rebbe's response to the 1954 massacre in Kfar Chabad, we explore when it is a time to grieve, when it is a time to pray, and when it is a time to mobilize to confront the realities of our world.

Episode dedicated to the Refuah Sheleima, the complete healing, of Yehudah Leib Ben Manya.

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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 Miriam Pineles, a practitioner of Chinese medicine, Chassidus teacher and founder of Ayin Healing, exploring the intersection of Chinese medicine and Chassidic ideas. Miriam shares how an understanding of the elements within a person can lead to personal healing and balance, the role that the inner dimension of Torah plays in finding wholeness, and practical tools for releasing stored emotions.

Miriam Pineles is a licensed, board-certified Acupuncturist and Chinese Herbalist in NYC, specializing in women's health, fertility, pain, anxiety, and digestive issues, with a focus on integrative healing using Dr. Richard Tan's Balance Method and custom herbal formulas to treat both physical and emotional well-being, helping bodies function optimally and promoting self-care. She holds a Master's degree from Pacific College of Oriental Medicine and is also a Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine (DACM).

Miriam is the founder of Ayin Healing, an organization supporting Jewish women in their journey of healing from the wound of childhood sexual abuse.She is also the teacher of popular weekly Chassidus chaburahs.

For more information about Ayin Healing, visit ayinhealing.com

To book an appointment with Miriam Pineles, visit conscioushealthandwellness.com.

Find her on instagram @dr.miriampineles

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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.

In this Chanukah episode, we gather the light of eight Torah teachers, offering one luminous idea for each night. Exploring the depth behind halachic questions, modern lessons from our ancient victory, and chassidic insight into this festival of light.

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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.

We celebrated Season Six of the podcast with an evening in LA, celebrating the innermost teachings of Torah with a spiritual gathering of art, poetry, and deep connection.

Link to watch on Youtube: https://youtu.be/bUQrJUFWpmY

Link to the conversation cards created for this evening: humanandholy.com/download

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 Share.Fund.

Florals & lamps sponsored by Lark Floral Event & Design. Find out more at larkla.com. Instagram @larklosangeles

Event planning, setup & magnificent foodscape by Shaina Liberow-Schmukler of The Graze LA. Found out more at thegrazela.com. Instagram @thegrazela

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.