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In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to rabbi, attorney, and professor Shlomo Pill about how Torah and teshuva have helped him handle his struggle with addiction.
In this episode we discuss:
—How do we bring ourselves to do teshuva when things outwardly appear to be going well?
—How can we give our children Jewish tools for processing, explaining, and coming to terms with life’s difficulties?
—How can Torah help us in the inner work of overcoming our negative impulses?
Interview begins at 4:53.
Tune in to hear a conversation about addiction, teshuva, and the ways Torah can help us make sense of life’s struggles and find a path toward growth.
Rabbi Dr. Shlomo C. Pill is a rabbi, attorney, and law professor whose scholarship focuses on Jewish, Islamic, and American law, religious liberty, and the relationship between religious traditions and the American legal system. He is an Assistant Professor of Law at Texas Southern University’s Thurgood Marshall School of Law and previously taught at Emory University. He is the co-author of Setting the Table: An Introduction to the Jurisprudence of Rabbi Yechiel Michel Epstein’s Arukh Hashulchan and is also the founder of Beis Midrash Nishmas HaTorah in Houston, where he teaches Torah and Penimiyus haTorah.
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Story of Our Lives: An Epic Quest for the Soul of our Tradition by Yaakov Klein
Attached by Yakov Danishefsky
In this special episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Professor Jonathan Haidt about the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in honor of his yahrtzeit.
Rabbi Yaakov Klein joins us to discuss the soul of God, Jewish particularism, and personal identity.
We mark the yahrtzeit of Rav Ezra Dovid Halevi Neuberger with remembrances from Dovid Bashevkin and David Fohrman.
We speak with Rabbi Aaron Kotler about the beginnings of the American yeshiva world.
In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Judah, Naomi, and Aharon Akiva Dardik—an olim family whose son went to military jail for refusing to follow to IDF orders and has since become a ceasefire activist at Columbia University—about sticking together as a family despite their fundamental differences.
In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we sit down with Rav Moshe Weinberger, rabbi and educator, to discuss the role of mysticism in modern-day Judaism.
In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Liel Leibovitz and Lisa Ann Sandell about what happens when one partner wants to increase their religious practice.
In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we sit down for a special podcast with our host, David Bashevkin, to discuss the podcast’s namesake, the year 1840.
In this edition of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to David’s rebbe, Rav Yisroel Kaminetsky, longtime principal of DRS Yeshiva High School, about the state of Jewish education in America.
In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we sit down with Joey Rosenfeld, social worker and kabbalist, to talk about the differences between mysticism and rationalism and the roles they should play in our lives.
In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Frieda Vizel—a formerly Satmar Jew who makes educational content about Hasidic life—about her work presenting Hasidic Williamsburg to the outside world, and vice-versa.
In this episode, we talk to a father and daughter who were estranged and then reunited.
Efraim Palvanov answers questions on misinformation, prayer as self-reflection, and every Jew’s role in bringing Mashiach.
We talk to Rabbi YY Jacobson about how each of us can experience redemptive consciousness by feeling Hashem’s infinite love and presence in this moment.
In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we sit down with Dr. Ora Wiskind, professor and author, to discuss her life journey, both as a Jew and as an academic, and her attitude towards mysticism.
Israel is a heroic country, Michael Oren believes—but he concedes that it is a flawed heroic country.
In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Lizzy Savetsky, who went from a career in singing and fashion to being a Jewish activist and influencer, about her work advocating for Israel online.
In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Aliza and Ephraim Bulow, a married couple whose religious paths diverged over the course of their shared life.
In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Talia Khan—a Jewish MIT graduate student and Israel activist—and her father, an Afghan Muslim immigrant, about their close father-daughter relationship despite their ideological disagreements.
In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Marika Feuerstein about the life of her grandfather, Aaron Feuerstein.
In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Rabbi Menachem Penner—dean of RIETS at Yeshiva University—and his son Gedalia—a musician, cantor-in-training, and member of the LGBTQ community—about their experience in reconciling their family’s religious tradition with Gedalia’s sexual orientation.
In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Eitan Hersh, a professor of political science at Tufts University, about teaching students of radically different political and religious views how to speak to one another.
In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Rabbi Josh Grajower – rabbi and educator – about the loss of his wife, as well as the loss that Tisha B’Av represents for the Jewish People.
Perhaps the most fundamental question any religious believer can ask is: “Does God exist?” It’s time we find good answers.
In today’s world, Rabbi Sacks’ message feels more urgent than ever: that God continues to believe in humanity.
The 18Forty guide to making meaning on Shabbos, part II
In the age of social media, every experience needs a narrative arc. Judaism offers a different way to make meaning.
Joy and meaning can be found not only despite the brokenness, but even because of the brokenness.
The 18Forty guide to making meaning on Shabbos, part I
My family made aliyah over a decade ago. Navigating our lives as American immigrants in Israel is a day-to-day balance.
In the midst of crises of faith, Rabbi Sacks’ course of thought profoundly impacted so many, especially in the area of science…
A personal return to the poems that taught me how to imagine America
I consider the Rebbe to be my personal teacher, and I find this teaching particularly relevant for us now.
Rav Froman was a complicated character in Israel and in his own home city of Tekoa, as people from both the right…
Children don’t come with guarantees. Washing machines come with guarantees.
Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir wears the mantle of Kahane in Israel. Many Orthodox Jews welcomed him with open arms.
Children cannot truly avoid the consequences of estrangement. Their parents’ shadow will always follow.
A 94-year-old Holocaust survivor, a lone soldier, and more. Here are seven olim sharing their stories of aliyah.
To talk about the history of Jewish mysticism is in many ways to talk about the history of the mystical community.
Between early prayer books, kabbalistic additions, and the printing press, the siddur we have today is filled with prayers from across history.
If You’re Reading These Words is a book in which all the heroes have died, yet it overflows with life.
As America grows lonelier, Rav Soloveitchik’s vision of the self offers a challenge to Emersonian self-reliance.
From Freud through today, our desire to heal asks us to consider why we care so badly—and maybe if it’s hindering the…
Yes, the Israeli army needs Jews to draft, but more than that, Jews need to experience what it means to serve.
Their motivations are not ideological extremism but a basic survival instinct to protect their families from the past’s failed paradigms.
From Avraham’s mission to Rivka’s generosity, Parshat Chayei Sarah outlines a relationship rooted in values, agency, and mutual respect.
In Acharei Mot-Kedoshim, we learn that holiness requires moving beyond the letter of the law to its spirit.
In this episode, Liel Leibovitz reflects on falling in love with the Talmud precisely because it is so difficult—and on how its…
In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we speak with Shais Taub, the rabbi behind the organization SoulWords, about shame, selfhood, and…
In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we speak with Diana Fersko, senior rabbi of the Village Temple Reform synagogue, about denominations…
In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Rav Judah Mischel, executive director of Camp HASC and author of the…
In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, David Bashevkin answers questions from Diana Fersko, senior rabbi of the Village Temple Reform synagogue,…
In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Rabbi Dr. Ari Lamm, co-founder and president of SoulShop Studios, about doing…
In a disenchanted world, we can turn to mysticism to find enchantment, to remember that there is something more under the surface…
In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, recorded live at Stern College, we speak with Rabbi Moshe Benovitz, director of NCSY Kollel,…
We talk to Tania Friedlander about how her husband’s Parkinson’s diagnosis challenged her expectations and taught her to become capable of more.
In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Rabbi YY Jacobson, one of the foremost online teachers of Torah, about…
Love is one of the great vulnerabilities of our time. Can we handle it?
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