Judaism Unbound

Elul is the 12th and final month of the Jewish calendar year. Elul Unbound is a Judaism Unbound initiative all about making Elul meaningful, through creative digital modalities. In this conversation, Lex Rofeberg and Wendie Bernstein Lash kick off this year's Elul Unbound experience. This Elul bonus episode is the first in a series of four that will be released as part of Elul Unbound 2025 (our 26th-29th Elul episodes overall).--------------------------------------Energized about Jewish learning and unlearning? Dive into our upcoming 3-week mini-courses in the UnYeshiva! Classes include Elul: Your On-Ramp into Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Anti-Fascist Mussar, The Siddur (Prayer-Book) Unbound, and Comix Midrash: Drawing the Orchards (Pardes) of Elul. Head to JudaismUnbound.com/classes to learn more! Financial aid is available for all who need it.To check out all our Elul bonus episodes from previous years, which can still be relevant to your experience of Elul this time around, click here. Join our bi-weekly journey through Elul Unbound 2025 by signing up at this link, and sign up for our Elul Unbound Shabbat gatherings here, where we will be forging our kavanot (intentions) for the new year in real time with fellow Unbounders.

Miriam’s well sustained her people step by step in the wilderness. In this episode of Survival Guide for a Spiritual Wilderness (featuring Judaism Unbound Gemara/commentary from Lex and Rena Yehuda), to tap into this wellspring of belonging. In addition, connect to the Tao de Ching, what it means to be a “Miriam person,” twilight creations, the mystical meaning of wells, Lakewood New Jersey, and a practice for bringing Miriam’s wisdom to life.----------------------------------We are proud to introduce the 3rd podcast in the Judaism Unbound family of podcasts: Survival Guide for a Spiritual Wilderness, hosted by Jericho Vincent. "We are the ancestors of the future." This new podcast offers a spiritual home for listeners seeking to connect Jewish ancestral, feminist wisdom with their own svara: moral intuition. Each episode of this limited series delves into a different story of our ancestor Miriam, illuminating her mystical teachings and offering practical tools for navigating and flourishing in personal or political spiritual wildernesses. We're thrilled to periodically feature episodes of Survival Guide for a Spiritual Wilderness here on Judaism Unbound. But we don't only feature those episodes alone. Lex Rofeberg and Rena Yehuda Newman, two members of Judaism Unbound's team, supplement each episode with some gemara (commentary) as well. We hope that our ideas will help spur you to form your own gemara, and channel your unique teachings -- about this podcast and beyond -- into the world. Subscribe to Survival Guide for a Spiritual Wilderness anywhere that podcasts are found!-----------------------------------Energized about Jewish learning and unlearning? Dive into our upcoming 3-week mini-courses in the UnYeshiva! Classes include Anti-Fascist Mussar, Elul: Your On-Ramp into Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, The Siddur (Prayer-Book) Unbound, and Comix Midrash: Drawing the Orchards (Pardes) of Elul. Head to JudaismUnbound.com/classes to learn more! Financial aid is available for all who need it.-------------------------------------

Sara Lippman and Seth Rogoff believe that "foundational texts must be read anew or they become tools of conservatism and reaction." But it's not just a belief they hold -- together, they actualized it into a new book, entitled Smashing the Tablets: Radical Retellings of the Hebrew Bible. This book offers a wide variety of new texts, radically revisioning stories from the Bible in many creative forms. The two co-editors join Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg for a conversation about their book, about re-envisioning the Bible more generally, and why "smashing" inherited texts is not only a rebellious act, but also an important tool in the spiritual toolbox.------------------------------------Judaism Unbound's offerings for 3-week mini-courses in the UnYeshiva are now open for registration! Check out class descriptions (on topics ranging from "Elul: Your on-Ramp into Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur" to "The Siddur Unbound: Making the Prayer-Book Your Own") at JudaismUnbound.com/classes. Financial aid is available for all UnYeshiva classes! Interested in thinking about how to reframe and reinvigorate your meditations on the cycles of grief and change? Sign up for Elul Unbound 2025 to receive biweekly wisdom and introspective prompts to guide you through the late summer days.Access full shownotes for this episode via this link. If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help us keep things going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation -- support Judaism Unbound by clicking here!

Even the most intimate relationships can experience strain around the topic of Israel-Palestine. Dan and Lex are joined by Amy Eilberg and Penina Eilberg-Schwartz, who share their experience discussing and processing their conversations about Israel-Palestine across generational divides.--------------------------Judaism Unbound's offerings for 3-week mini-courses in the UnYeshiva are now open for registration! Check out class descriptions and more to sample a taste of everything from Comix/Comics-making to Anti-Fascist Mussar.Interested in thinking about how to reframe and reinvigorate your meditations on the cycles of grief and change? Sign up for Elul Unbound 2025 to receive biweekly wisdom and introspective prompts to guide you through the late summer days.Access full shownotes for this episode via this link. If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help us keep things going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation -- support Judaism Unbound by clicking here!

Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg discuss the inherent potential, along with the limitations, of the Jewish holiday of Tisha B’av (the 9th of Av) — understood by many to be the saddest day on the Jewish calendar. What does it mean to mourn a past pain in the present? In this week’s episode, Dan and Lex consider the meanings of grief and reflection as the month of Av progresses and we move towards the month of introspection, Elul.------------------------Tisha B’av punctuates the end of the Jewish calendar with a bright, momentary grief. Soon after comes the month of Elul, often thought of as the on-ramp to the contemplations and reflections asked of us during the High Holiday period. Interested in thinking about how to reframe and reinvigorate your meditations on the cycles of grief and change? Sign up for Elul Unbound 2025 to receive biweekly wisdom and introspective prompts to guide you through the late summer days.Access full shownotes for this episode via this link. If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help us keep things going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation -- support Judaism Unbound by clicking here!

For Mandie McGlynn, founder of Selah Spiritual Care, tarot can serve as a deeply meaningful modality for Jewish experience. McGlynn joins Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg on this week’s episode to discuss her use of tarot as part of the preparatory work of the month of Elul (the on-ramp month before the High Holidays), through an initiative she created called “Turning Toward Life.” This episode is the second in a mini-series of Judaism Unbound episodes exploring tarot through Jewish lenses.Access full shownotes for this episode via this link. If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help us keep things going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation -- support Judaism Unbound by clicking here!

Tarot is known to be a practice of reading, of uncovering important meaning behind the symbols each card evokes. But what if there’s an even deeper, secret connection to not just our lives as a whole, but our lives as Jews? For data scientist and author Stav Appel, happening upon a 17th century forgotten tarot deck took him on a journey through Torah and time.Appel’s Deck and accompanying Booklet, analyzing the Noblet Tarot’s connections to Jewish tradition, are available for preorder through our friends at Ayin Press -- order it here!-------------------------------------Access full shownotes for this episode via this link. If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help us keep things going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation -- support Judaism Unbound by clicking here!

We are proud to introduce the 3rd podcast in the Judaism Unbound family of podcasts: Survival Guide for a Spiritual Wilderness, hosted by Jericho Vincent. "We are the ancestors of the future." This new podcast offers a spiritual home for listeners seeking to connect Jewish ancestral, feminist wisdom with their own svara: moral intuition. Each episode of this limited series delves into a different story of our ancestor Miriam, illuminating her mystical teachings and offering practical tools for navigating and flourishing in personal or political spiritual wildernesses. We're thrilled to periodically feature episodes of Survival Guide for a Spiritual Wilderness here on Judaism Unbound. But we don't only feature those episodes alone. Lex Rofeberg and Rena Yehuda Newman, two members of Judaism Unbound's team, supplement each episode with some gemara (commentary) as well. We hope that our ideas will help spur you to form your own gemara, and channel your unique teachings -- about this podcast and beyond -- into the world. Subscribe to Survival Guide for a Spiritual Wilderness anywhere that podcasts are found!------------------------------------Amid pain and fear, joy can sometimes feel like betrayal. Yet, the mystics point out that Miriam’s joyful song at the Red Sea is a major liberatory act. In this episode of Survival Guide for a Spiritual Wilderness (with Judaism Unbound Gemara/commentary from Lex and Rena Yehuda), our teacher Miriam has some sharp and clear advice. We also dive into the subject of tambourines, somatic experiencing, the mystical power and gender politics of a circle, bell hooks, and a practice for bringing Miriam’s living Torah into our own lives. 

In Pirkei Avot, one can find the Hebrew teaching to “carry the burden with your friend.” In today’s episode, Torah Studio leaders Lexi Kohanski and Liana Wertman join the Judaism Unbound podcast to discuss their latest offerings in keeping with this lesson, including a class on personal torah and stewardship called Trans Torah for Our Terrible Times. They also share ideas regarding what the significance of torah/Torah can mean for communal and creative learning, in a moment that demands a new level of spiritual grit and gentleness.------------------------------Access full shownotes for this episode via this link. If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help us keep things going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation -- support Judaism Unbound by clicking here!

Now, we’re down to the marrow. Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg wrap a mini-series dive into the role of meat— and specifically, the pig — in Jewish life. They do this with an assessment of their own eating habits, reflections on autonomy and identity, and thoughts for practitioners the world over on how to incorporate more openness into our understandings of what it means to eat Jewishly.------------------------------Catch up on previous episodes in this mini-series on the Jewish discourse around meat with Episode 488- Meat: The Key to Jewish History? - John Efron and Episode 487: Pigs Are Very Jewish - Jordan Rosenblum.Access full shownotes for this episode via this link. If you're enjoying Judaism Unbound, please help us keep things going with a one-time or monthly tax-deductible donation -- support Judaism Unbound by clicking here!