Emunah Unfiltered

Rabbi Rosenthal and Rebecca Shore

Emunah Unfiltered is an ongoing conversation about what it actually looks like to live with Hashem — not the version you were taught, but the one we're all still discovering. Hosted by Rabbi Da-vid Rosenthal and Rebecca Shore, we bring ancient emunah into honest dialogue with the modern world, drawing on the wisdom of Chazal, our own personal journeys, and present-day practices. Whether you're a lifelong observant Jew looking to go deeper, or someone searching for a more alive and personal relationship with Hashem — join us for Emunah Unfiltered

Listen in PodNod RSS feed Show website

12 episodes
Updated July 26

Episodes12

Newest first

July 26 · 47 min
12. Words Upon Your Heart: Moving Torah from the Mind to the Soul
What if the biggest barrier between you and a vibrant relationship with Hashem isn’t a lack of knowledge, but a closed heart? In this candid conversation, we unpack why the brain loves shortcuts, how trauma keeps us guarded, and why ancient Torah sources insist that true wisdom only ignites through slow, deliberate contemplation. Tune in for an honest discussion on vulnerability, the power of hisbonenos, and why learning what you love is the ultimate key to spiritual growth.
June 14 · 45 min
11. Can You Really Trust Hashem If You Don't Trust Yourself?
What does trusting yourself have to do with your relationship with Hashem? In this episode, Da-vid and Rebecca dig into self-trust as the missing piece of Emunah - the ability to access your own emotions, opinions, and needs as the foundation for any real relationship, including the one with the Almighty. They explore how losing touch with your inner voice can leave you outsourcing every decision, from what to eat for dinner to how to raise your kids. They map out what it actually looks like to build the "gravity" of self-trust - and why self-compassion might be the piece that ties it all together.
May 31 · 39 min
10. What Does Hashem Want from Me?
You're driving along and something goes sideways — you miss the bus, spill coffee, burn yourself on the stove, or your passport expires the night before a big trip. Is Hashem trying to tell you something? And if so, what? And how do you know you're not just hearing what you want to hear? In this episode, Rabbi Rosenthal and Rebecca Shore get into one of the most practically loaded questions in Jewish life: how do we actually read the divine messages embedded in daily experience — without going OCD, without spiritual bypassing, and without pressing the one button we're desperately hoping Hashem doesn't notice? They explore the difference between a message and an excuse, the Ashkenazi-Sephardi divide on kapara, why your strongest reaction points to your biggest blind spot, and what a young man who believed he was the Messiah — because pasta got on his shirt — can teach us about not over-reading the signs. Raw, real, and genuinely funny.
May 17 · 50 min
9. The Torah: Why We Believe, What Shakes Us, and How We Hold Both
In advance of Shavuot which is coming this Thursday night, here is an episode on Emunah and Torah. There are parts of the Torah that blow your mind. And parts that make you wince. This episode doesn't hide from either one. Rabbi Rosenthal and Rebecca Shore lay out what genuinely strengthens their emunah - prophecy, history, the shocking subtlety of Torah law - and then go straight into the hard stuff: slavery, violence, women, sexuality. No easy answers. Just two people who love Hashem and love Torah, holding the tension out loud. Because that, it turns out, is exactly what emunah looks like.
May 14 · 38 min
8. Part 2 - Why You Can't Get Close to Hashem (And What's in the Way)
Continuing the conversation from last week, this week we delve into anger's role in blocking our connection to Hashem, as well as the community culture that sometimes feels prohibitive in connecting to Hashem.
May 10 · 38 min
7. Part 1 - Why You Can't Get Close to Hashem (And What's in the Way)
You know the feeling. You're saying the words, you're going through the motions, but the connection isn't there. Da-vid and Rebecca dig into why - from fight-or-flight patterns that keep us locked in autopilot, to the emotional numbness we learned as kids, to the prayer that's said correctly but shared with no one. Honest, practical, and unexpectedly moving.
May 3 · 46 min
6. The Gift of Falling Apart
In this episode, Da-vid and Rebecca crack open the frum community's culture of silence around failure - the optics obsession, the shidduch stakes, the fear that brokenness is contagious - and make the Torah case for why hiding our struggles may do far more damage than sharing them. In this raw, honest conversation, Da-vid and Rebecca share what it has actually felt like to fall apart - and why failure, met with courage instead of shame, can become the doorway to becoming the person you were always meant to be.
April 19 · 53 min
5. Stop Trying to Kill Your Yetzer Hara
Most of us were taught that the yetzer hara is the enemy - something to crush, starve out, and defeat. But what if that framing is exactly why so many of us feel stuck in the same cycles, the same shame spirals, the same exhausting inner war? In this episode, we're flipping the whole paradigm. Not because the work gets easier - but because fighting yourself has never actually worked.
April 14 · 40 min
4. Let Go of the Rope
What if trusting Hashem isn't about holding tighter to the rope — but letting go entirely? In this episode, David and Rebecca get honest about what fear actually does to us, why control is an illusion, and what it looks like to really fall into G-d's hands. You can't think your way out of fear — you can only step your way through it. From a parent's worst nightmare to a two-word tool that melts resistance on the spot, this is a conversation about the kind of trust that costs something. Plus: is there anything that could ever shake your belief in Hashem? They actually answer that question. Honest, grounded, no easy outs.
April 14 · 40 min
3. Where Do You Meet G-d? Presence, Emotion, and the Body as a Spiritual Instrument
You don't need a grand spiritual experience to connect to Hashem. You need a Tuesday morning and the courage to actually feel it. This week, Da-vid and Rebecca get into the real mechanics of presence — meditation practices, breath work, the art of hugging the cactus — and ask the harder question: what do you do when G-d feels totally absent? A conversation for anyone who's ever wanted a deeper connection and wasn't sure where to start.
April 14 · 47 min
2. What is a healthy version of Yiras Hashem?
What if the version of Judaism you grew up with — the one built on fear, conditions, and checking boxes — was just the first draft? In this episode, Rabbi Rosenthal and Rebecca Shore get honest about the relationships with Hashem they were taught versus the ones they actually live. They dig into the metaphors we use for G-d — Father, King, Master — and ask which ones actually open us up rather than shut us down. The conversation moves from unconditional love (and the parenting moment that cracked one of them open) to the hard question nobody wants to answer: if Hashem loves us no matter what, what do reward and punishment even mean? From there, things get real. They explore why so many people do mitzvot on autopilot, why the Jewish tradition of "it's all in the head" might be leaving us spiritually starving, and how getting into your body might be the missing piece of your avodah. Plus: a theory on why the Jewish people as a whole have collectively dissociated — and what it might mean to finally come home. Thought-provoking, warm, and refreshingly unfiltered. This is the conversation you didn't know you needed.
April 14 · 40 min
1. Who we are & the path to Emunah
What does it actually look like when the path you were so sure about starts to fall apart — and something truer emerges from the rubble? In this debut episode, Rabbi Rosenthal and Rebecca Shore introduce themselves the only honest way: not with credentials, but with earthquakes. A divorce. Panic attacks. Children who went down a different path than their own. Years of operating on autopilot in survival mode. And the slow, sometimes painful discovery that the version of Yiddishkeit they were handed wasn't the whole picture. They wrestle with the pressure to "save the world" and the quiet wisdom of a small act of kindness that changed everything for Moshe. They ask what it might mean to finally stop running from yourself and step into who you actually are. This isn't a polished theology lecture. It's two people who've been through it, talking honestly about what they found on the other side. If you've ever felt like your spiritual life should be more than what it is — this one's for you.

Emunah Unfiltered

12. Words Upon Your Heart: Moving Torah from the Mind to the Soul

11. Can You Really Trust Hashem If You Don't Trust Yourself?

10. What Does Hashem Want from Me?

9. The Torah: Why We Believe, What Shakes Us, and How We Hold Both

8. Part 2 - Why You Can't Get Close to Hashem (And What's in the Way)

7. Part 1 - Why You Can't Get Close to Hashem (And What's in the Way)

6. The Gift of Falling Apart

5. Stop Trying to Kill Your Yetzer Hara

4. Let Go of the Rope

3. Where Do You Meet G-d? Presence, Emotion, and the Body as a Spiritual Instrument

2. What is a healthy version of Yiras Hashem?

1. Who we are & the path to Emunah