Human & Holy

How did Jewish life come to take the shape we know today? In this conversation, Sheva Deren, a Jewish history teacher in Melbourne, Australia, talks about the upheavals, choices, and debates that shaped Jewish practice.

We explore the Second Temple era, the development of the Jewish calendar and oral law, and the ways halacha (Jewish law) has responded to changing realities. Who gets to decide how Judaism evolves? What is the balance between protecting inherited practice and finding creative responses to new circumstances? And why do certain visible practices, like modesty, receive so much cultural attention in modern Jewish life?

This conversation explores what our ancestors have given us, how questions and disagreements help make the halachic system a living, breathing thing, and why knowing the history behind familiar practices can make them feel more alive.

Support Human & Holy for $18/month at humanandholy.com/join and receive bonus virtual events and resources!
* * * * * * *
To inquire about sponsorship & advertising opportunities, please email us at info@humanandholy.com
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 Episode introduction
01:41 Sheva’s path into teaching
03:11 Leaving one chapter and building a new life in Melbourne
06:12 The freedom to try a different path
07:44 Why the Second Temple era fascinates Sheva
11:02 Competing visions of Jewish continuity
12:15 Why rabbinic Judaism became the path most Jews followed
14:14 Jewish life in Babylonia and the question of the new moon
18:09 Calendar disagreements and the practice of Pesach
20:15 How Jewish history helps students connect to their identity
21:47 How Halacha encounters new realities, including IVF
24:45 A halachic responsum on keeping Pesach under persecution in Spain
28:31 Disagreement over prayer and the role of angels
31:50 The Ramban, debate, and the role of questions
34:07 Are we obsessed with modesty?
39:02 Safety and the history of Jewish poetry
41:25 Is there a correlation between emancipation and assimilation?
44:11 Why Jewish history matters to Jewish identity
45:54 Sheva’s message to the women who came before her
47:02 Closing message to listeners

Motherhood is deeply spiritual work, yet many mothers feel inadequate, as if their contribution doesn’t count by the world’s standards of success, or as if motherhood falls outside the spiritual work Judaism so often celebrates.

Today, with guest Miri Lipskier, we explore Jewish and Chassidic teachings on motherhood, including the biblical prophetess Chana’s choice to remain home with her son and the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s teachings on the dignity and sanctity of the private act of motherhood. We explore what the Kohanim's physical service in the Temple can teach us about domestic work, how spiritual meaning can get lost in the daily demands of caring for children, and how mothers can make room for prayer, learning, and support without guilt.

* * * * * * *

Support Human & Holy for $18/month and receive virtual live events and bonus resources around holiday seasons. Visit humanandholy.com. Thank you for bringing our work into the world!

Miri Lipskier is a wife, mother and shlucha in Chabad Youth of Melbourne, Australia, overseeing educational and community programs for children, teens, and young women. She directs Bnos Chabad, CGI day camps and high school overnight camps, and YLIV, a volunteer organisation of 200 people. With over 20 years of teaching experience, Miri is passionate about mentorship, meaningful relationships, and empowering every individual to grow into the best version of themselves. Contact: miri@chabadyouth.org

To inquire about sponsorship & advertising opportunities, please email us at info@humanandholy.com

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 “I’m a Mother”: The Feeling of Inadequacy
00:33 A Jewish Perspective on Motherhood
02:33 Meet Miri Lipskier 04:18 Motherhood and Communal Work
06:38 The Lubavitcher Rebbe on Womanhood and Motherhood
08:38 The Spiritual Value of Raising Children
12:18 Chana’s Choice to Stay Home
15:00 Why Chana’s Story Matters Even If You Aren't a Stay at Home Mother
17:20 Motherhood and Society’s Measures of Success
21:08 Can Any Choice Protect Us from Regret?
22:22 The Physical Demands of Motherhood
24:00 A Morning in the Life of a Mother
26:00 Finding G-dliness in the Physical
28:28 The Kohanim and the Holiness of Domestic Work
31:09 When Caregiving Feels Spiritually Disconnecting
33:25 Making Room for Prayer and Learning
36:18 Spiritual Nourishment Without Guilt
38:00 Finding Inspiration Through Motherhood
41:20 Asking for Practical Support
42:03 Building a Joyful Jewish Home Together
43:37 Celebrating Jewish Holidays With Creativity
45:40 Using Music to Shape the Home
46:10 Household Help as an Investment in the Family Unit
47:00 Creating a Personal Home for Hashem
48:51 “I Already Sent Someone”: Recognizing Your Own Strength
50:54 Closing Reflections

How can we experience crushing pain without experiencing it as suffering? Again and again, life brings us to a crossroads: will we hold our pain by ourselves, or let G-d meet us in it?

In this conversation, Chaya Cowen reflects on grief, personal experiences of devastation, and the leap of allowing G-d into moments shaped by self-blame and anger toward Him. She shares how the loss of her first pregnancy, which ended in stillbirth, shaped her relationship with Hashem, and offers a moving reading of Eicha as a journey through self-blame, anger, and the search for connection.

We also talk about how to pass Judaism on with honesty and joy: welcoming children’s questions, meeting the feelings beneath them, and modeling what it looks like to balance exploration with commitment.

* * * * * * *

Chaya Cowen is a Sacks Scholar, the Head of Learning & Teaching at Beth Rivkah Ladies College in Melbourne, and oversees a comprehensive high school curriculum and teaches courses in Tanach, Jewish History, and Jewish Philosophy. She has a passion for education with a focus on meaningful, empowered and personalized Jewish learning, and explores the interface between Judaism and the wider world. Chaya resides in Melbourne, Australia with her husband and four children. She can be reached at cowen.chaya@gmail.com

To inquire about sponsorship & advertising opportunities, please email us at info@humanandholy.com
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 The difference between pain and suffering
00:15 Welcome and the episode’s central question
03:35 Meet Chaya Cowen, educator and mother
05:13 Choosing a relationship with Hashem through life’s challenges
08:57 Fertility, loss, and facing what we can’t control
11:26 Reading Eicha as a journey through grief
17:31 Why we blame ourselves after tragedy
18:37 What happens when anger turns toward G-d
21:16 The leap of letting G-d into our pain
23:02 Drawing strength from ancestors and Jewish stories
24:42 The story of Zusha and a different view of suffering
26:04 Finding a way to express and process grief
28:01 How to acknowledge pain without being alone in it
30:58 How to support someone who is grieving
34:23 The lasting mark of pain and asking it for a blessing
36:14 Helping children build a relationship with Hashem
37:11 The educator as a “midwife” to Torah
41:10 Welcoming students’ questions without judgment
45:12 Balancing exploration with commitment
46:28 Modeling beauty and meaning in Jewish practice
49:34 Teaching Torah with joy and continued learning
52:25 Finding a personal path into Jewish life
54:33 Bringing joy, Shabbos, and questions into the home
55:21 Chaya’s closing message

Get a free download of Human & Holy's conversation cards for your Sukkah by becoming a monthly supporter of Human & Holy at humanandholy.com ❤️

* * * * * * *

The sukkah is called the "shade of faith," but what happens when we sit inside it and feel nothing? What if we are entering Sukkos feeling more tapped into the uncertainty of life's winds, than the certainty of G-d's hug?

Today, we explore Sukkos as a full-body experience of faith, absorbed simply by showing up to be there. Shoshana shares how she envisioned herself in the Sukkah's embrace when she was curled up inside the radiation machine for cancer treatment, and teaches the deeper Torah behind how we can carry the Sukkah's lingering touch through the inevitable joy, uncertainty, illness and hiddenness that we experience in daily life.

* * * * * * *

Shoshana Judelman is passionate about learning and growing through Chassidus. She is the founder of Nekaveh Lecha women’s seminary. She gives shiurim in Chassidus for women across Israel and in Midreshet Rachel V’Chaya in Jerusalem. Her shiurim can be found on Spotify and SoundCloud (Shiurim with Shoshana Judelman). Shoshana is also a guide at Yad Vashem and leads journeys to Poland and other countries for JRoots. She can be contacted at shoshanaj613@gmail.com

To inquire about sponsorship & advertising opportunities, please email us at info@humanandholy.com

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
01:48 — Welcome to Human & Holy
02:24 — Why Sukkos is Shoshana’s favorite holiday
03:25 — Entering the sukkah and reenacting the Clouds of Glory
05:17 — How lockdown changed the way Shoshana’s family celebrates Sukkos
06:19 — Intellectual versus embodied knowing
08:27 — Why do we celebrate Sukkos after Yom Kippur?
09:09 — The Golden Calf and the departure of the Clouds of Glory
10:21 — Yom Kippur, forgiveness and returning to relationship with Hashem
11:39 — The deeper embrace that follows rupture and repair
13:09 — Sukkos as a bridge between Yom Kippur and ordinary life
15:50 — A mitzvah rooted in presence rather than constant action
16:36 — Learning to see life through the lens of Hashem’s reality
18:00 — Building a reservoir of emunah for a random Tuesday in February
20:11 — The storm that destroyed Shoshana’s sukkah
22:42 — How the community rebuilt the sukkah within hours
24:00 — What a temporary structure teaches us about uncertainty
25:22 — The sukkah as the shelter of trust and haven of faith
27:33 — When it feels as though the Clouds of Glory have holes
28:02 — Life as a spiritual training ground
30:25 — Can painful experiences really be understood as expressions of love?
31:31 — Turning the sukkah into an “emunah gas station”
33:19 — Receiving a breast cancer diagnosis shortly before Sukkos
35:53 — Carrying the sukkah’s embrace into treatment
37:11 — Did Shoshana feel Hashem’s presence during radiation?
38:31 — The different “flavors” of Hashem in celebration and hiddenness
39:30 — “I don’t like it, but I know that this is also You”
40:55 — Practical ways to experience the sukkah more deeply
41:25 — The spiritual meaning of the arba minim
43:34 — Drawing embodied knowledge into the heart
44:28 — Bringing Divine love into our eyes, speech, posture and emotions
47:11 — How deeper Torah transforms our experience of a mitzvah
48:54 — Slowing down and using imagination while shaking the lulav
50:04 — Spending more time in the sukkah without pressuring ourselves to feel
52:11 — Shoshana’s message: believe that you can grow and change
53:05 — Growth is happening even when we cannot see it
54:02 — Carrying hope into the new year
55:00 — Closing and ways to support Human & Holy

A short excerpt from this week's Human & Holy pre-Yom Kippur morning in New Haven, CT. A poem, a conversation with Sara Rosenstein about returning to Hashem after years of disconnection, original music by Rivka Fenton about finding safety in leaning into God, and personal notes on being carried by God by our host, Rosie Gurevitch.

* * * * * * *

To inquire about sponsorship & advertising opportunities, please email us at info@humanandholy.com

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.