Human & Holy

Human & Holy is on a season break for the rest of the summer! During this time, we're airing your favorite moments from the past few seasons. This episode is an impactful moment extracted from the original conversation. Watch the episode in full here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VuF9NwQt8o

Rebbetzin Rachel Jacobs built a Jewish community in Birmingham, UK from the ground up: a Chabad house, a Torah Tots nursery, a Hebrew school, and a role as the only Jewish studies teacher in a school of 160 students. In this excerpt, we explore what happens when you feel called to build something and no one shows up, and how she learned to measure success by relationships instead of numbers. Rachel shares the Torah teaching that convinced her to start a Hebrew school with just six kids, and what it felt like years later watching those same kids read fluently from the Torah at their own bar and bat mitzvahs. A conversation about faith, community building, Jewish education, and redefining what success actually means.

Rachel Jacobs, originally from Los Angeles, California, currently serves as Rebbetzin of Singers Hill Synagogue in Birmingham, England. She is also the Educational Director of the Torah Tots nursery school, the Cheder, and the Jewish studies program at the local King David Primary School. Over the past 20 years, Rachel has gained recognition as an inspiring Jewish speaker, with a particular focus on women’s issues and marriage. Her warmth, charisma, and insightful teachings have touched the lives of Jewish women across the United States and Europe. You can contact Rachel via rachelcjacobs@aol.com and on instagram @Rachelcjacobs.

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To inquire about sponsorship & advertising opportunities, please email us at info@humanandholy.com
To support our work, visit humanandholy.com/sponsor.
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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 — The ache of being called to something and hearing crickets back
00:23 — Rachel on the early, hardest days of building a Chabad house
04:03 — The real question underneath it all: are we measuring success by numbers?
04:21 — Starting Torah Tots with six kids: "affecting children from a young age is infinite"
05:41 — The reality now: down to two kids, and showing up anyway
05:53 — Called into King David School as the lone Jewish voice for 11 students among 160
07:35 — Leading through bureaucracy and red tape: "you have to go back to your why"
09:23 — Redefining the metric of success: deep impact on one person over reach to many
09:50 — Rachel's husband and the minyan he shows up for every night, no matter the count
12:53 — The Torah source that named her calling: Matos Masei and the tribes who chose to build
12:54 — Starting Cheder Club with five boys and one girl
14:56 — Years later: those same kids reading fluently from the Torah at their bar and bat mitzvahs
16:04 — "It's the positivity. People want to be part of success."
16:14 — Outro

Human & Holy is on a season break for the rest of the summer! During this time, we're airing your favorite moments from the past few seasons. Watch the original episode in full here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhnlNd2zd2w

In this excerpt from a past episode with Devori Nussbaum, we explore healing a blocked heart, rooted in Tanya and Chassidic thought. We explore why arrogance and honesty are opposites, the Torah's real definition of humility, and the difference between grief and depression. Devori shares how the animal soul keeps us "small, safe, and in control" and the exact language for asking G-d for help from wherever you honestly are, not where you think you should be. If you've been feeling numb, disconnected, or far from Hashem, this episode is a way back in.

Devori is an integrative psychotherapist who has trained in many different healing modalities including body psychotherapy, imago therapy, logotherapy, the energetics of food, quantum touch, breathwork, CBT, NLP, EMDR, IFS, inner child work and somatic modalities. She is also passionate about teaching Chassidus in a way that is accessible, relevant and embodied, showing people that these teachings are not just nice ideas, but a description of our reality. Get in touch with Devori and find out more about her work on www.devorinussbaum.com.

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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.

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TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 — The antidote to the desire to be "transformed"
0:15 — Presencing your block: how to begin when you feel numb or disconnected
1:09 — Why honesty is what unlocks connection to Hashem

1:40 — The Tanya's teaching on the oneness of God and the kelipah (shell) of separation
2:57 — Pain vs. suffering: the difference between what hurts and the story we tell about it
4:08 — The void as a portal: Ayin (nothingness) as the source of infinite potential

5:09 — Bringing G-d's presence into your darkness: how tears open the way to joy
5:30 — The classic teaching: "To open hearts, to know what one sees and hears"
6:59 — Seeing past people's defenses to "the light behind their eyes"
8:22 — Living in constant one-on-one conversation with G-d
9:14 — Why we judge the external shell before we ever see the soul underneath
10:22 — The frequency of oneness: hearing it like a heartbeat, an undercurrent
11:49 — Clearing the noise: expanding your capacity to notice the sacred in ordinary things
13:31 — Where blocked hearts really come from: unacknowledged grief
14:12 — Grief, attachment, and learning to move through the seasons of life
17:25 — Is being present with pain against Jewish values?
17:56 — Merirut vs. atzvut: the Tanya's distinction between grief and depression
19:26 — Moving through the cycle of grief back into joy
21:41 — "Ask for help from where you actually are"
23:04 — Arrogance and honesty as opposites, and what true humility actually means
24:00 — Moshe Rabbeinu, humility, and the honesty of naming your own greatness
25:28 — "Small, safe, and in control": the animal soul's real agenda
26:26 — Living from the divine soul: success and failure as opportunities, not identity
28:20 — The real cost of letting go of an identity you've outgrown
30:22 — Peeling away the layers: why every threshold in life asks you to release something
31:51 — Closing thoughts

Human & Holy is on a season break for the rest of the summer! During this time, we're airing your favorite moments from the past few seasons. Watch the original episode in full here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3u2c4ErF-4

In this excerpt, we discuss why being "chosen" isn't a status, but a responsibility to model moral clarity for a world that's lost it. Why the Lubavitcher Rebbe called Shabbos candles a campaign, a mitzvah, an army, and why that language matters more after October 7th than it ever has before. Why the Haggadah spends almost no time on our slavery and nearly all of it on our freedom, and what that says about the story we choose to live inside of right now. This is an episode about the difference between reporting on darkness and building light, and why Inbal chooses the second one, every single day.

Inbal Levin is a writer, former fashion model, and social media director for Chabad on Campus. You can connect with her via instagram @itsinbal.

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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.

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TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 — Being chosen means holding up a mirror
07:21 — The Seven Noahide Laws and moral clarity for everyone
09:02 — The Baal Shem Tov's answer to "Moshiach, when are you coming?"
11:24 — Trusting Hashem in the long security line and the delayed flight
14:15 — How every Jewish girl, age three and up, started lighting Shabbos candles
18:03 — The menorah they wouldn't let into Auschwitz
20:14 — Why the Rebbe used military language for mitzvahs
23:25 — Choosing to build light instead of reporting on darkness
26:15 — What Dara Horn's People Love Dead Jews gets right
26:56 — The Rebbe never said the word "antisemitism": what the Haggadah teaches about what you choose to emphasize
30:53 — Closing thought: you're not just living a story, you're choosing which one it is

Human & Holy is on a season break for the rest of the summer! During this time, we're airing your favorite moments from the past few seasons. Watch the original episode in full here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_0i0EAAC_4

This excerpt with Chanie Krasnianski explores the Jewish view on sexual intimacy and marriage. We explore the soul-level magnetism between men and women that is sourced in the creation of the world, and talk honestly about the lived experience: what it means when attraction shows up outside your marriage, why halacha starts to feel like a checklist the second you lose the relationship underneath it, and what it looks like to reclaim the mikvah as an immersion into light instead of one more item on the list.

We also sit in the places that don't resolve as cleanly: religious guilt, growing spiritually at a different pace than your spouse, wanting closeness during niddah and not always getting it, and navigating personal discomfort around immersion in the mikvah.

Mrs. Chanie Krasnianski is the shlucha in the Upper East Side in Manhattan, NY and a seasoned educator and Torah teacher. Contact Chanie at ckrasnianski@gmail.com.
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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 soul-level reason for attraction between husband and wife
04:05 — Attraction outside your marriage: where it's really coming from
07:23 — Halacha as relationship, not checklist
10:32 — When the framework feels restricting, not freeing
12:44 — "We're human, not angels"
13:58 — Trust in Hashem, and the mikvah as immersion into light
20:18 — Bare minimum vs. growing on purpose
22:11 — Why halacha is freedom, not restriction
24:16 — Body image and privacy at the mikvah
26:30 — The headstand story
29:18 — Checking in with yourself when you won't call a rabbi
30:35 — Why none of us are objective about our own lives
37:53 — Calling a rabbi on a different continent — privacy and permission
40:05 — Religious guilt and "you're not your spouse's rabbi"
43:30 — Growing faster than your spouse — baby steps, not pressure
47:07 — When you're the one resisting your spouse's growth
48:49 — Your spouse as your mirror — the Adam-and-Eve reframe
50:49 — Does absence really make the heart grow fonder?
52:25 — Marriage as decades of weather
55:49 — Closing reflection and outro

Human & Holy is on a season break for the rest of the summer! During this time, we're airing your favorite moments from the past few seasons.

In this excerpt, Shternie describes the way she moves through the world: not with a basket she guards, protecting what's "owed" to her, but with an empty one, open-handed, saying thank you every time something lands in it.

Shternie Rosenfeld went through what she calls her own tsunami: a devastating divorce that cracked her open completely. In this conversation, she shares what actually got her through: a relationship with Hashem that is raw, honest, and full of open gratitude.

We talk about the difference between feeling entitled to goodness and feeling worthy of it and about how gratitude isn't whitewashing our pain, but allowing it to live in the same body that is screaming, grieving, and being honest with G-d.

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Shternie Rosenfeld has spent more than 25 years in Jewish education and community leadership, teaching everyone from preschoolers to seniors. She spent 15 years as director of the Chabad Fox Chapel Jewish Center, building its Hebrew School, summer camp, and adult education programs from the ground up. She went on to found The Jewish Spark, a nonprofit running weekly Kabbalah classes and community Shabbat and holiday programming, and now serves as Program Director of the Yonah Foundation, where she supports 38 community centers worldwide and empowers women to lead Torah classes globally. She has also taught at Yeshiva Schools, Hillel Academy, and Tzohar Seminary. Find out more at shternie.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.
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00:00 — What got her through divorce
02:16 — Talking to Hashem like a best friend
03:55 — A real relationship, not a performed one
05:02 — Seeing kindness as Hashem's hand
05:40 — The basket metaphor
10:36 — Entitlement vs. worthiness
11:41 — What to do when you feel shortchanged
13:54 — Gratitude in the tiny things
15:08 — Modeh Ani as the daily reset
16:40 — The Torah source on what is owed to us
18:29 — Is gratitude ever dishonest?
19:28 — "There's room for both"
20:40 — Day by day
22:41 — Marriage as a mirror for Hashem
23:30 — Outro