The Neshamah Project

How does a life of holiness transform us, and what do we mourn when someone we love dies? In this episode of The Neshamah Project, Rabbi Ben Newman explores the Or HaChayim’s mystical reading of Sarah’s death in Genesis 23:2. Through the names Kiryat Arba and Hebron, the commentary connects the body’s four elements with the power of sacred action and devekut—attachment to the Divine—to transform our embodied lives. The teaching then turns to the struggles through which we grow in holiness and the different dimensions of Abraham’s grief: the pain of losing Sarah and the loss of the goodness and presence she brought into the world. Together, these reflections open a conversation about spiritual practice, mortality, and the enduring influence of a person’s life.

Three teachings from the Degel Machaneh Ephraim on Vayera offer practical ways to bring Jewish mysticism into daily life. Rabbi Ben Newman explores the healing power of presence, the sacred roots of love and awe, and the practice of working skillfully with our emotions. Reflections on Hasidic wisdom and mindfulness, with a question to carry into your day: “Am I working with this middah, or is this middah working me?”

This week on The Neshamah Project, Rabbi Ben Newman explores the Noam Elimelekh’s reading of Lech Lecha as three journeys of spiritual transformation: working with desire, refining habitual reactions, and loosening our attachment to inherited status and identity. Through an egalitarian translation and contemporary reflection, the episode traces a path toward yirah (awe), ahavah (love), and tiferet (beauty and harmony), asking how spiritual practice becomes visible in the way we listen, respond, and treat one another.

What can a sukkah teach us about meeting difficult emotions? This week, Rabbi Ben Newman shares a simple practice: let the story rest, enter the feeling, and notice what unfolds. Alongside an interpretive reading of Kohelet (Ecclesiastes), we explore Sukkot, Buddhist insights into impermanence, and the possibility of meeting our changing lives with curiosity and openness.

In this episode of The Neshamah Project, Rabbi Ben Newman revives Riffing with the Rabbi with longtime friend Marcia Salter, joined along the way by Rabbi Shoshana Leis, for a wide-ranging conversation about what it means to truly listen—to one another, to uncertainty, and to the “still, small voice.” Together they explore truth and perspective, conflict and communication, Hillel and Shammai, Elijah, Kabbalah, and the difficult discernment between compassion, boundaries, and action. It’s an unscripted spiritual riff on how deeper listening might help us hear what is emerging between us—and within us.