Episodios

  • Neshamah Project Episode 107: The Architecture of Illumination

    Neshamah Project Episode 107: The Architecture of Illumination
    Feb 27 2026
    In this episode we will dive into two comments from the Degel on Parshat Tetzaveh. The Degel reads tetzaveh not only as “command,” but as tzavta — connection — teaching that the purpose of creation itself is conscious relationship: from the world, to Israel, to the tzaddik, to the Divine. He then turns to the image of “pure olive oil, crushed for illumination.” Olive oil represents wisdom. When we speak with awareness, we can elevate the hidden sparks within even painful or constricted experiences. What feels crushed in life can become a source of light. The goal is to raise a ner tamid, a continual lamp — symbolizing both the Shekhinah and the human soul — transforming inner darkness into steady illumination through wisdom and connection.
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    17 m
  • The Neshamah Project-Epsiode 106: Taking the Infinite Home

    The Neshamah Project-Epsiode 106: Taking the Infinite Home
    Feb 19 2026
    In this episode of The Neshamah Project, Rabbi Ben Newman explores the deeper meaning of “Vayikchu li terumah” — not as giving something to God, but as taking the Divine into our own lives. Drawing on Hasidic and kabbalistic teachings, we look at how Torah, sacred language, and sustained practice can shape us over time, like the forty-day formation of both the human body and the revelation at Sinai. What might it mean to build an inner sanctuary where the Shekhinah can truly dwell?
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    19 m
  • Neshamah Project Epsiode 105: The Hidden Ledger

    Neshamah Project Epsiode 105: The Hidden Ledger
    Feb 11 2026
    A mystical reading of Mishpatim that reframes justice as part of a longer soul-arc. Drawing on the Degel Machaneh Ephraim and the Zohar, this episode explores how moments that feel unfair may be part of a deeper reckoning, not punishment but completion. For modern seekers, it becomes an invitation to loosen certainty, release resentment, and see conflict as a doorway to spiritual maturity.
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    10 m
  • Neshamah Project Episode 104: Redemption Is Singular, Power That Lifts

    Neshamah Project Episode 104: Redemption Is Singular, Power That Lifts
    Feb 4 2026
    his episode of The Neshamah Project explores a Hasidic teaching that insists liberation happens one person at a time, each according to their own inner awareness and capacity. We reflect on Moses as a figure of parental love—one who carries others forward and, like The Giving Tree, gives so deeply that he does not enter the land himself. Alongside this, we consider a vision of power rooted not in harm or domination, but in chesed: elevation, presence, and freedom you can actually taste.
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    17 m
  • Neshamah Project: Tu Bishvat Special | The Great Chain

    Neshamah Project: Tu Bishvat Special | The Great Chain
    Feb 2 2026
    For Tu Bishvat, I recorded a special episode of The Neshamah Project Podcast that moves from soil to soul. A spoken-word meditation on the four layers of being: doing, feeling, thinking, and simply being. From dirty hands and daily obligations to emotion, insight, and the quiet fire underneath it all. No climbing, no escaping, no bypassing. Just roots, trunk, branches, and breath. One chain. One tree. One life, fully inhabited.
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    10 m
  • Neshamah Project Podcast Epsiode 103: The Long Way Around

    Neshamah Project Podcast Epsiode 103: The Long Way Around
    Jan 30 2026
    In this episode of The Neshamah Project, we explore a piercing teaching from the Noam Elimelekh on the Exodus that reframes Pharaoh as the inner force of resistance to change. Drawing on Hasidic psychology, the text examines why stopping harmful behavior isn’t the same as true freedom, and why partial transformation often collapses under pressure. This episode speaks directly to anyone who has experienced relapse, burnout, or the unsettling sense that they’ve “left Egypt” but haven’t yet arrived anywhere stable.
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    12 m
  • Neshamah Project Episode 102: Does a Golem Count?

    Neshamah Project Episode 102: Does a Golem Count?
    Jan 22 2026
    A dream-text from R. Tzadok HaKohen of Lublin wrestles with a haunting question: what does it mean to count as a person in sacred community? Moving through golems, speech, da’at, obligation, and minyan, this reflection probes the line between intelligence and responsibility, creation and covenant. Read through the lived time of Parashat Bo, it opens a startlingly modern conversation about personhood, moral agency, and who truly belongs in holy space.
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    27 m
  • Neshamah Project Podcast Episode 101: The Power That Heals or Harms

    Neshamah Project Podcast Episode 101: The Power That Heals or Harms
    Jan 16 2026
    This week we explore two Hasidic teachings on Parashat Va’era that ask how spiritual power becomes healing rather than harmful. Drawing on the Degel Machaneh Ephraim and the Maor VaShemesh, the episode examines the Torah’s pairing of firmness and compassion, judgment and mercy, showing how the same force can destroy or heal depending on how it is held. Together, these texts offer a bracing vision of spiritual maturity rooted in integration rather than extremes.
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    19 m