Human & Holy

Tonia Chazanow

Honest, spiritual conversations to unravel the essence of the human experience. Exploring Jewish & Chassidic wisdom, women's Torah, and the lived experience of Judaism. Hosted by Tonia Chazanow. Learn more about Human & Holy's work at humanandholy.com. 

  1. You Are Harder on Yourself Than G-d Is | Karen Hochhauser

    hace 22 h

    You Are Harder on Yourself Than G-d Is | Karen Hochhauser

    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 yourself mean letting yourself off the hook? We get into the Rambam's laws of teshuva, Rav Soloveitchik's framework of fate versus destiny, and a seminary interview answer that always made Karen uncomfortable. * * * * * * * With more than 25 years of dedicated experience in Jewish education, Karen Hochhauser brings a deep passion for learning and leadership to her role as Co-Director of the Miriam Glaubach Center. In this senior leadership position she helps guide the Center’s mission of supporting, educating and certifying Yoatzot Halacha—women trained as halachic advisors—and of strengthening communities across North America and beyond. Prior to this appointment, Karen spent 17 years at Tiferet, a thriving seminary in Ramat Beit Shemesh, both as a teacher and an administrator. During that time she developed expertise in mentoring young adults, designing and implementing enriching programs, and cultivating vibrant educational communities.She holds a B.A. in English Literature and an M.A. in Jewish Education from Yeshiva University. Karen lives in Beit Shemesh with her husband. Dr. Carl Hochhauser, and their five children. Find her on instagram @torahwithmymother. Karen can be reached at Karen@afnishmat.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: 0:00 — We are much harder on ourselves than G-d is 1:16 — Why the Torah begins with a series of human catastrophes 2:46 — "Failure is almost a four-letter word in my house" 5:04 — Adam, Kayin, Noach: what the Torah's biggest stumbles have in common 8:55 — Failure is inevitable. So why did Hashem design it that way? 9:01 — The Rambam's radical idea: return is always possible 10:53 — Asking for forgiveness vs. granting it, which is actually harder? 11:18 — The mirror exercise: what it really means to forgive yourself 12:38 — The seminary interview answer Karen couldn't stand 13:51 — The difference between shame that destroys and accountability that heals 15:26 — Chapter one of Tanya: why calling yourself a rasha is dangerous 17:32 — Rav Soloveitchik's fate vs. destiny 21:10 — From "why is this happening to me" to "what am I going to do with this" 22:01 — Can failure be fate? 23:59 — The missed train on the way to a lecture about failure 25:22 — "You don't have to do it alone" 26:22 — Was your worst mistake destined? 28:41 — The responsibility to respond 44:23 — Why letting your kids fail at small things is an act of love 45:59 — When the suffering isn't your fault at all 46:00 — The rabbi of the Warsaw Ghetto, what he wrote in his final year 48:50 — "G-d is right next to us, crying" 50:50 — What it means to not be alone in your pain 52:37 — "Hashem believes in you. So you need to believe in yourself."

    54 min
  2. It Already Belongs to You | Annie Nagel & Hadassah Shemtov on Women's Torah Study

    24 may

    It Already Belongs to You | Annie Nagel & Hadassah Shemtov on Women's Torah Study

    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 reframe: that women's learning isn't damage control, but the direction history was always moving towards. We also talk about the practical experience of Torah study for women: How do you keep Torah alive when you're working eighty hours a week with three babies? What does learning look like in a season when deep scholarship simply isn't possible? And what would it take for the next generation of girls to believe, without question, that no Jewish book on the shelf is off-limits to them? EPISODE SPONSOR: This week's episode was sponsored by a woman who wants to empower other women to learn and take ownership of their birthright within Torah. * * * * * * Hadassah Shemtov is the founding director of Batsheva Learning Center, an organization that offers text-based Torah learning opportunities for women. She runs a chavrusa-based track at Ohel Chana High School and is the junior Rebbetzin at Young Israel of Los Angeles. Annie Nagel is a PhD candidate at the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies and teaches Chumash at YULA Girls High School. She holds a JD from UCLA School of Law and practiced real estate law in Los Angeles. * * * * * * 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 Torah belongs to every woman" — who this episode is for 02:19 Annie's story: from law to a classroom and a PhD in Tanakh 04:42 Hadassah's story: the year in Israel that set her trajectory 07:32 "I'm not making the time I want to for my own learning" 09:26 What the pivot cost Annie: trade-offs and peers making partner 13:55 Framing the sources: were we all really at Sinai? 16:07 The halacha, plainly: are women obligated in Torah study? 21:33 Why the hesitation was about an era, not about women's minds 22:03 Moshe waits a day: Hashem holds back the Shechinah until every woman is there 24:14 Do women feel the Torah is theirs? 28:03 How Annie kept Torah alive when life was consuming 33:08 The Lubavitcher Rebbe's reframe: not a concession to the times, but the trajectory toward Moshiach 38:19 The common language of the house is Torah 42:54 The "living Torah" — when your whole life is already an offering 47:00 "Listen to what stirs your neshama" — Torah study without pressure or guilt 50:01 Why reading it yourself is irreplaceable 53:35 What would it take for the next generation to know the Torah is theirs? 54:08 Ending the split between text and hashkafa 58:00 "No sefer on the shelf is off-limits to you" 01:00:13 Rapid fire: one text to start with, the woman who lost her practice, where to begin from zero 01:06:18 One message, soul to soul 01:07:00 Closing

    1 h 8 min
  3. To Be Both a Traveler and at Home: Receiving the Torah

    17 may

    To Be Both a Traveler and at Home: Receiving the Torah

    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 completely at home in your Judaism, swept up in it like one unifying truth? And what does it mean to be a traveler in it, seeing each piece of it on its own terms? A conversation about Sinai, sight and sound, the hedgehog and the fox, receiving the Torah as both a homecoming and an invitation to the road, and what to do when you feel like a stranger within your own Jewish self. This episode is dedicated in honor of Reuven Morrison hy"d, killed in the Bondi terror attack on Chanukah. May his memory be a blessing, and may his life continue to inspire Jews to live openly and proudly as themselves. * * * * * * * 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 on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts. * * * * * * * TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Welcome, and a Shavuos teaching on receiving the Torah 1:30 Preview: next Sunday's roundtable on women's Torah study 2:45 Dedication: Reuven Morrison hy"d 5:00 A joke the Lubavitcher Rebbe told: what is Judaism? 6:30 The question underneath the joke: general vs. particular 7:30 The first luchos vs. the second 8:30 Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Yishmael on how the Oral Torah was given 10:00 "They saw the thunder, they heard the lightning" — the verse at Sinai 11:00 Synesthesia, Beethoven, and scrambled senses 12:30 Sight vs. sound: the whole first, or the details first? 14:30 The Alter Rebbe and his grandson — who is Zaideh? 17:00 Isaiah Berlin's The Hedgehog and the Fox 18:30 Two temperaments, two ways of meeting the world 20:00 Returning to R' Akiva and R' Yishmael through this frame 21:30 Why they each had a different orientation 23:00 Back to the joke: Shabbos within Judaism vs. Shabbos as itself 24:00 A relationship has a story, but it also has its moments 25:30 Home vs. traveling, and why we see the details when we travel 27:00 Areas of our Judaism where we feel at home, and areas where we feel like strangers 28:30 Allow yourself to be a stranger in your own life 29:30 Receiving both the panorama and the particulars 30:30 What I'm taking with me into Shavuos

    30 min
  4. Why Rest Doesn't Cure Burnout: A Conversation with My Friend, Zisi Zirkind

    10 may

    Why Rest Doesn't Cure Burnout: A Conversation with My Friend, Zisi Zirkind

    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 meaning in our homes, why faith doesn't have to be rigid to be strong, how we hold paradox in every identity, and how friendship can help us each remember who we are. Zisi Zirkind is the Rebbetzin of Yeshiva Center in Melbourne, teaches Chassidus through her weekly women’s Torah classes, teaches guided research classes at Ohel Chana Seminary, and is the host of the podcast Standing Between Earth and Sky. Find her podcast here: https://open.spotify.com/show/0EOKqR8gwDDnEEvq7W02z3?si=0c228c7fbde34a5f Contact her at zisiwolf@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: 00:00:00 Host's Intro: A Conversation Between Friends 00:02:25 Welcome Zisi Zirkind 00:02:50 Springboarding ideas as a way of bridging the human and holy 00:04:01 How much do I trust myself? 00:04:53 When you're taking a leap 00:05:19 A friend who can see you clearly 00:06:14 Sustained creative devotion is supported by a witness 00:08:14 Why sharing an idea forces it to become real 00:10:10 Is this my animal soul or my divine soul? 00:11:41 Delusion of separateness vs. delusion of holiness 00:12:54 Does what I do matter? 00:14:28 Burnout happens when you're not lit up by what you're doing 00:14:41 What will actually energize you? 00:17:06 Busy but not doing the right things 00:17:36 The Rebbe's "add another one" — what was he actually saying? 00:18:27 Showing up before the energy comes 00:20:27 The seductive permission to wallow 00:21:50 "I had to make a choice that I'm going to love my life again" 00:22:08 Hosting vs. being hosted — what really makes a place yours 00:24:08 Dissolution of self prepares you to rise 00:24:50 When to add, and when you need more support 00:25:42 Delegating what depletes you -- "I'm sick of cleaning" 00:27:10 Excellence and pride in the work nobody sees 00:27:55 Bringing the same creativity to home life 00:28:35 Why the years that look like pause are often the years that change you 00:31:51 Bringing your full self into your home 00:32:29 Letting yourself enjoy what you didn't think was "you" — dropping the identity attachment 00:33:43 Paradox: when opposing realities exist at once 00:35:17 Teaching style: opening to the text vs. filing it into systems 00:38:05 Tanya's permission for multiple parts of self to coexist 00:38:08 Trusting that Torah's truth can hold your questions 00:38:39 After the Bondi terror attack: "Faith doesn't have to be rigid to be strong" 00:41:51 Faith from intuition, not intellect 00:42:35 Why paradox can only be experienced 00:43:02 Faith as identity: "I'm here. This is who I am." 00:44:34 The ego in Torah study, and what it costs us 00:45:50 The never-ending process 00:47:38 Host's Outro

    48 min
  5. Loved Into Existence: A Soulful Guide to Sefiras Ha'Omer | Chana Kalmenson

    3 may

    Loved Into Existence: A Soulful Guide to Sefiras Ha'Omer | Chana Kalmenson

    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 of Nissan, Iyar, and Sivan mirror human development from childhood to maturity, why the inner work of the Omer is what prepares us to receive the Torah at Sinai, and how to approach the counting without falling into perfectionism. The conversation goes especially deep on three Sefirot: Hod (humility, gratitude, surrender), Tiferet (compassion, holding paradox, the antidote to shame), and Malchut (dignity, agency, authentic expression). Chana shares what she learned about humility from her father-in-law, the Chassidic teaching on the soul's forgetting at birth, and how to step out of comparison with others. A grounded, accessible introduction to the Sefirot for anyone counting the Omer or wanting to understand the Kabbalistic map of the inner life. * * * * * * * 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: 0:00 Opening reflection: loved into existence, loving me as me 00:31 Tonia's Intro 01:58 Welcome, and Chana on women's circles 05:25 What is Sefirat HaOmer, really? Pesach as emergence, Sinai as the destination 11:38 Nissan, Iyar, Sivan — the child, the teenager, the partner 17:45 Walking through each Sefirah: Chesed, Gevurah, Tiferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, Malchut 22:10 Why we use consciousness to look at the inner emotional life 29:17 When perfectionism hijacks the practice (and what to do instead) 33:03 On Hod: humility, gratitude, the quiet power of the left leg 40:33 What Chana learned from her father-in-law about humility 46:10 The trauma of forgetting at birth, and the long work of remembering 50:37 On Tiferet: holding paradox, growing up, why compassion is truth 56:09 Self-compassion as the antidote to shame 1:00:14 On Malchut: dignity, agency, and what emerges when everything inside has a voice 1:09:33 Soul to soul

    1 h 13 min

Información

Honest, spiritual conversations to unravel the essence of the human experience. Exploring Jewish & Chassidic wisdom, women's Torah, and the lived experience of Judaism. Hosted by Tonia Chazanow. Learn more about Human & Holy's work at humanandholy.com. 

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