Emmi Polansky: Finding Agency as a Single Mother [Teshuva IV 4/5]

This series is sponsored by Mira and Daniel Stokar, and this episode is sponsored by dailygiving.org.In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to musician Matisyahu Miller—known as “Matisyahu”—who has publicly re-embraced his Judaism and Zionism since October 7.Matisyahu’s public persona has long been subject to scrutiny and analysis. Comparatively few people, though, have listened to his story in depth. In this episode we discuss:How has the public expression of Matisyahu’s Jewish identity ebbed and flowed throughout his life?Is there anything Matisyahu would change about the Orthodox community?How has the inwardness of Matisyahu’s Jewish identity guided him throughout his life?Tune in to hear a conversation about what it means to be, in Matisyahu’s words, “a pnimius Yid.”Grammy-nominated artist Matisyahu is a singer, songwriter, rapper, and alternative rock musician. He's known for his skill in blending reggae and hip hop as he provides a raw expression of his spirituality. His long and winding career consists of seven albums including chart-topping Light, Youth, Spark Seeker, Akeda, and Undercurrent with hits such as "One Day", "Sunshine", and "King Without A Crown". Through his lyrics, Matisyahu develops a personal, artistic, and sophisticated way to express the yearning for deep spiritual meaning, and as his own beliefs opened up to find more variety and depth, the desire for his performances to match the unpredictable flow of life developed as well. References:The Office Light by MatisyahuAkeda by MatisyahuHoly Brother: Inspiring Stories and Enchanted Tales about Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach by Yitta Halberstam MandelbaumThe Sabbath by Abraham Joshua HeschelPolitics Of Experience by R.D. Laing"Spiritual Schadenfreude: The Case of Matisyahu’s Beard" by David BashevkinBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/18forty-podcast--4344730/support.

8 Okt 20241h 18min

In this special episode of the 18Forty Podcast, in honor of the anniversary of October 7, we revisit and reflect on the conversations we’ve had that have helped us process this tumultuous time. The past year has been long and painful, and we’ve been constantly reminded that the trajectory of Jewish history is still at stake. This makes it imperative for us to examine our lives and our relationship to God and to the Jewish People during these Ten Days of Repentance. In this episode we discuss:What is the role of memory in the Jewish experience, and what are the memories of October 7 that we will hold with us? How has the terror attack altered the way we live and the way we understand the world?How have our theological and ideological beliefs developed over the past year?Tune in to hear a conversation about what it means to be a Jew during this consequential period in the Jewish story.Interview highlights begin at:    Rachel Goldberg-Polin: 16:17    Danny Brom: 23:27    Dina: 30:23    Jonathan Gribetz: 37:29    Doron Perez: 46:29    Noa Lewis: 59:22References:Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran FoerZakhor: Jewish History and Jewish Memory by Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi“The Man in the Arena” by Theodore Roosevelt“Shomer Yisroel” by Omek Hadavar18Forty Podcast: Rachel Goldberg-Polin: “A Hostage’s Mother Fighting for His Freedom”18Forty Podcast: “The Trauma of War: Mental Health Professionals in Israel”18Forty Podcast: “A Haredi Mother Sending Her Children To Serve”Defining Neighbors: Religion, Race, and the Early Zionist-Arab Encounter by Jonathan Marc GribetzReading Herzl in Beirut: The PLO Effort to Know the Enemy by Jonathan Marc Gribetz18Forty Podcast: “Jonathan Gribetz: Teaching the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict”18Forty Podcast: “Doron Perez: One Child Married, One Child Missing”18Forty Podcast: “On Loss: Defending Israel on Oct. 7”Ecclesiastes 318Forty Podcast: “Noa Lewis: How Can We Help Israel?”Genesis 29:17Rashi on Genesis 29:17“Forgive Me, My King I Did Not Know You Were Also a Father” by David BashevkinYoma 39bBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/18forty-podcast--4344730/support.

7 Okt 20241h 21min

This series is sponsored by Mira and Daniel Stokar, and this episode is sponsored by dailygiving.org.In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Tuvia Tenenbom, a formerly Haredi and now secular Jew and the author of Careful, Beauties Ahead!, about how he developed a new love for Haredi religious life.When Tuvia Tenenbom wrote a book about Haredim in Mea Shearim, he found that all Jews—no matter how different their communities—are interconnected in more ways than we might think. In this episode we discuss:How did the Haredi community respond to October 7?What do outsiders misunderstand about Haredi Jews?Is humor the universal Jewish language? Tune in to hear a conversation about what it means to truly love the entirety of the Jewish family. Interview begins at 28:37.Tuvia Tenenbom is an Israeli-American theater director, playwright, and author who is the founding artistic director of the Jewish Theater of New York. He authored several books that deal with themes of Jewish life, Jewish culture, antisemitism, and the Holocaust, including his well-known Catch The Jew!. He joins us to discuss the year he, a secular Jew, spent with the Haredi Jews of Mea Shearim. References:18Forty Podcast: “Joshua Leifer and Shaindy Ort: How Progressive Activists Rediscovered Traditional Jewish Life”Tosafot on PesachimCareful, Beauties Ahead! by Tuvia TenenboCatch The Jew! by Tuvia TenenbomWorks of Tuvia TenenbomBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/18forty-podcast--4344730/support.

24 Sep 20241h 33min

This series is sponsored by Mira and Daniel Stokar, and this episode is sponsored by dailygiving.org.In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Yussie Zakutinsky, rabbi of K’hal Mevakshei Hashem in Lawrence, New York, about his vision for a Judaism that unites the entire Jewish People—no matter how wide the gaps between us. Since October 7, of the many schisms within the Jewish People, some have mended while others are torn anew. As a nation, we have much further to go. In this episode, we discuss:How can we see the divinity in Jews with whom we profoundly disagree?What do we mean when we say “the entirety of the Jewish People is an expression of God”?How can we rescue the divinity within ourselves and within one another?Tune in to hear a conversation about, as the Baal Shem Tov described it, vanquishing the dragon and redeeming the princess—i.e., elevating the good in all the Jewish People. Interview begins at 20:27. Rabbi Yussie Zakutinsky is a rabbi and spiritual leader. He is the rabbi of K’hal Mevakshei Hashem in Lawrence, New York, and is a sought-after lecturer and leader of spiritual happenings.References:Mesillat Yesharim by Moses Chaim LuzzattoDerekh Hashem by Moses Chaim LuzzattoAvodah Zarah 9arabbiywilk.comGenesis 12:518Forty Podcast: “Rabbi YY Jacobson: How Did the Rebbe Revolutionize Judaism?”Works of Rav KookWorks of Rav Tzadok HaKohenDivrei Soferim 16Pachad Yitzchok by Rav Yitzchok HutnerBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/18forty-podcast--4344730/support.

17 Sep 20241h 38min

This series is sponsored by Mira and Daniel Stokar, and this episode is sponsored by dailygiving.org.In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Joshua Leifer and Shaindy Ort, married progressive activists who are reembracing traditional Jewish life.Joshua and Shaindy grew up in Conservative and Yeshivish communities, respectively, but struggled to find a Jewish community as they joined left-wing circles, specifically those highly critical of Israel. After October 7, Joshua resigned from the anti-Zionist magazine Jewish Currents, and in August, he published Tablets Shattered: The End of an American Jewish Century and the Future of Jewish Life, which made headlines after a Brooklyn bookstore canceled Joshua’s planned talk because it included a Zionist rabbi. In this episode we discuss:Has October 7 changed anything for progressive Jews highly critical of Israel?Why do left-wing circles struggle to maintain engaged Jewish life?What differentiates the Israeli left from the American left?Tune in to hear a conversation about return and renewal for progressive Jews seeking a life of traditional Jewishness.Interview begins at 16:44.Joshua Leifer is a journalist, editor, and translator. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, The Nation, and elsewhere, and he is the author of the new book Tablets Shattered: The End of an American Jewish Century and the Future of Jewish Life.Shaindy Ort-Leifer is an attorney who works in the fields of strategic litigation and international law.Joshua and Shaindy are married.References:Orot HaTeshuvah by Abraham Isaac HaCohen KookTablets Shattered: The End of an American Jewish Century and the Future of Jewish Life by Joshua LeiferSiddur Sefard: “Upon Arising, Upon Entering Synagogue”Jew Vs Jew: The Struggle For The Soul Of American Jewry by Samuel G. FreedmanAfter Virtue by Alasdair MacIntyreHirsch Haggadah by Samson R. HirschArukh HaShulchan by Yechiel Michel EpsteinKitzur Shulchan Arukh by Shlomo GanzfriedDeuteronomyBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/18forty-podcast--4344730/support.

10 Sep 20241h 55min

This episode is sponsored by Nishmat, the Jeanie Schottenstein Center for Advanced Torah Study for Women, whose Online Beit Midrash returns on Sept. 8. Women of all backgrounds can learn Talmud, Tanach, Halacha, and more from the comfort of home. For a full class schedule and registration, go here. In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to historian and professor Pawel Maciejko about the false messiah Sabbatai Zevi, Sabbateanism, and the roots of Jewish secularism. Gershom Scholem, the scholar of Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism, saw a connection between the 17th-century messianic movement of Sabbateanism and the later movement of Jewish secularism. Was he right? In this episode we discuss:What was the impact of Sabbateanism after its messianic fervor died down? How can studying Jewish history deepen one’s connection with Judaism? What is Frankism, and why is it a fascination of present-day antisemitic conspiracy theorists?Tune in to hear a conversation about what the rupture from the Sabbatean movement can teach us about the wide range of Jewish identities we see today. Interview begins at 17:05.Pawel Maciejko is an associate professor of history and Leonard and Helen R. Stulman Chair in Classical Jewish Religion, Thought, and Culture at Johns Hopkins University. Between 2005 and 2016 he taught at the Department of Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His first book, The Mixed Multitude: Jacob Frank and the Frankist Movement, 1755–1816, was awarded the Salo Baron Prize by the American Academy of Jewish Research and the Jordan Schnitzer Book Award by the Association for Jewish Studies.References:Not in the Heavens: The Tradition of Jewish Secular Thought by David BialeMakers of Jewish Modernity: Thinkers, Artists, Leaders, and the World They Made edited by Jacques Picard, Jacques Revel, Michael P. Steinberg, and Idith Zertal “The Holiness of Sin” by Gershom ScholemMishnah Chagigah 2Ezekiel 1Accounting for the Commandments in Medieval Judaism by Elliot R. WolfsonSabbatian Heresy: Writings on Mysticism, Messianism, and the Origins of Jewish Modernity edited by Pawel MaciejkoThe Mixed Multitude: Jacob Frank and the Frankist Movement, 1755-1816 by Pawel Maciejko“The Messianic Feminism of Shabbatai Zevi and Sarah Ashkenazi” by Jericho VincentOn Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World by Danya Ruttenberg“A Portrait of the Kabbalist as a Young Man: Count Joseph Carl Emmanuel Waldstein and His Retinue” by Pawel Maciejko“Gershom Scholem’s dialectic of Jewish history: the case of Sabbatianism” by Pawel MaciejkoSeforimchatter’s Sabbatai Zevi SeriesBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/18forty-podcast--4344730/support.

3 Sep 20241h 12min

In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we speak to the Perez family, whose son Daniel, Hashem yikkom damo, was killed defending Israel and the Jewish People on October 7. We’re joined by Daniel’s father, Doron; his mother, Shelley; and his siblings, Shira, Adina, and Yonatan, to hear about Daniel’s courageous life and the unfathomable loss endured by his family and the Jewish People. In this episode we discuss:What does living a life of sanctity and purpose mean, especially in the face of terror and tragedy? How did Daniel’s siblings cope with the loss of their beloved brother? Amid the absence of loss, how can we find the presence of purpose?Tune in to hear a conversation about the clarity of mission that might help us heal from the trauma of October 7.Interview begins at 28:00.References:Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot 2:4 Parshat Sh'lachShuvi V'nechze Al H'torah by Rabbi Moshe ShapiroPeri Tzadik by Rav Tzadok HaKohen of LublinJerusalem Talmud Berakhot 1:1Psalms 121“Brother” by KodalineEzekiel 16:6The Bayit in every BayitBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/18forty-podcast--4344730/support.

11 Aug 20242h 22min