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Judaism Unbound

Institute for the Next Jewish Future

Listen in as Lex Rofeberg and Rena Yehuda Newman analyze pressing issues for 21st century American Judaism. Mixing their own analysis with interviews of leading thinkers, practitioners, and even "regular Jews," Lex and Rena Yehuda look to push past the bounds of what it means to be Jewish in the 21st century.

You can support Judaism Unbound at www.JudaismUnbound.com/donate.

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  • 45 episodes
  • Avg 35 min
  • English

Episodes 45

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  • Friday · 56 min

    Episode 560: Sigd 2026

    Chag Sigd Sameach! (Happy Sigd -- a Jewish holiday taking place this year on November 8th through 9th). Sigd (ስግድ or סגד) is a festival taking place 7 weeks after Yom Kippur, historically marked by Beta Israel Jews (Jews from Ethiopia). They have encouraged Jews worldwide to take on this observance, and we are excited to join a growing movement of communities heeding that call. In this conversation, Lex and Rena Yehuda explore the festival of Sigd, and how it might be able to transform our coll

  • Wednesday · 27 min

    Everyday Mystics V: The Formula

    As a boy growing up in secular Israel, Shahar becomes convinced that there must be a formula for a meaningful life and that Judaism might hold the answer. His search for certainty leads him deep into Orthodox Jewish practice, until unexpected encounters begin to unravel everything he thought he knew. Years later, living in San Francisco, far from the religious world he once embraced, Shahar finds himself drawn toward something he thought he'd left behind. A story about belief, doubt, and the sur

  • October 30 · 1 hr 4 min

    Episode 559: Jewish Debate, Jewish Anti-Debate - Stephanie Lepp

    In Episode 557, Lex and Rena Yehuda explored the question "Does Judaism need halacha" (sometimes translated "Jewish law," and also sometimes translated "a Jewish path/way-of-walking in the world), using a format called the "anti-debate." Today, Stephanie Lepp -- the person who inspired that conversation by launching the anti-debate as a project -- joins them to look back on that conversation...and also ask big questions about Jewish debate throughout history. Head to JudaismUnbound.com/classes

  • October 28 · 30 min

    Everyday Mystics IV: Face to Face

    How much of who we are is shaped by the people who came before us, and how much do we get to choose? For Marika, that question has followed her from childhood conversations with her father and grandfather to unexpected encounters in her own adult life. Along the way, she discovers that Jewish identity has many faces, and that the people we love can become mirrors in which we see ourselves anew. A story about family, belonging, and the freedom to become someone our ancestors might never have imag

  • October 23 · 30 min

    Episode 558: Shabbat Unbound V - Shema/V'ahavta

     Welcome to Shabbat Unbound, the world's longest Friday night Sabbath service, stretching over eight episodes. Instead of rushing through all the Friday night Shabbat prayers in one sitting, like we might in a classical synagogue environment, we're taking our time diving deep into one prayer each episode through song study and sacred conversation. It's the most original and traditional way to engage in the transition into Shabbat, taking each prayer as its own world with its own Torah to teach u

  • October 21 · 24 min

    Everyday Mystics III: It Would Have Been Enough

    What happens when the lessons that carried you through life suddenly aren't enough? For Todd an unexpected crisis sets him on a journey where he begins to discover new ways of understanding love, loss, and the sacred. In the third episode of Everyday Mystics, a story of grief, gratitude, and mysterious encounter invites us to wonder whether the people we love are ever really as far away as they seem.

  • October 16 · 1 hr 9 min

    Episode 557: The Great Jewish Anti-Debate - Halacha (Lex and Rena Yehuda)

    Does Judaism need Halacha?** Lex and Rena Yehuda have some overlapping thoughts about that question, but also want to explore the ways that they disagree with one another. This question is one that Jews across many geographic contexts and denominational affiliations (or lack thereof) have debated for centuries -- and we think that it's a conversation worth continuing! In this conversation, your two Judaism Unbound co-hosts take on a format called the "anti-debate," as implemented by Stephanie L

  • October 14 · 25 min

    Everyday Mystics II: The Real Thing

    What if our deepest longing for love is also a longing for God? From a childhood encounter with the mysterious to an unexpected romance, Ayalon discovers that the search for human connection and the search for the Divine may not be two different journeys after all. In the second episode of Everyday Mystics, a story of loss, yearning, and second chances asks what it means to stop settling for something less than “The Real Thing.”

  • October 9 · 55 min

    Episode 556: Sadeh Farm - Talia Chain

    Sadeh Farm is a Jewish farm and environmental community centre, located just southeast of London, England. Because why wouldn't there be a Jewish farm just southeast of London?? Talia Chain, founder of Sadeh Farm, joins Lex Rofeberg and Rena Yehuda Newman for a conversation about Sadeh's work -- and about Jewish farming as a broader global phenomenon, dating all the way back to the Torah. Head to JudaismUnbound.com/classes to check out our up upcoming courses in the UnYeshiva! Jewish ritual obj

  • October 7 · 35 min

    Everyday Mystics I: The Flood

    Some floods destroy. Others carry us somewhere we never expected to go. In the first episode of Everyday Mystics, Play’s journey through grief, addiction, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, and queer identity asks what it means to keep building an ark when the waters rise and whether the very thing that threatens to overwhelm us might also become a flood of love.

  • October 2 · 37 min

    Episode 555: Everyday Mystics

    In this episode, Lex Rofeberg and Miriam Terlinchamp introduce Everyday Mystics, a new podcast launching on this feed on October 7th, which tells the real stories of people who have had that turning. Small, ordinary moments that cracked open into something larger. Their stories of transformation weave Jewish wisdom bringing forward an old/ new way of understanding mystical experience and the everyday. These are stories of when the ordinary becomes sacred, the familiar becomes mysterious, and Jud

  • September 25 · 31 min

    Episode 554: Shabbat Unbound IV - Lecha Dodi

     Welcome to Shabbat Unbound, the world's longest Friday night Sabbath service, stretching over eight episodes. Instead of rushing through all the Friday night Shabbat prayers in one sitting, like we might in a classical synagogue environment, we're taking our time diving deep into one prayer each episode through song study and sacred conversation. It's the most original and traditional way to engage in the transition into Shabbat, taking each prayer as its own world with its own Torah to teach u

  • September 18 · 59 min

    Episode 553: Yom Kippur 2026 - Brad Lander

    Yom Kippur is here! For the past few years, Yom Kippur has been the single most popular day — all year — for folks to listen to the Judaism Unbound podcast. So to those of you incorporating our podcast into your observance of this holiday, wishing you a beautiful and unbound Yom Kippur. In this episode, Brad Lander -- a candidate for Congress in New York's 10th district -- joins Lex Rofeberg and Rena Yehuda Newman for a conversation about observing Yom Kippur in 2026. Together they explore topic

  • September 16 · 1 min

    Everyday Mystics Trailer

    When Moses turned and saw the bush that burned but was not consumed, it wasn't a once-in-a-lifetime miracle, it was a map. Maybe the bush had always been burning. It just took someone willing to turn, to notice, to say this is sacred ground. Everyday Mystics tells the real stories of people who have had that turning. Small, ordinary moments that cracked open into something larger. Their stories of transformation weave Jewish wisdom bringing forward an old/ new way of understanding mystical expe

  • September 11 · 53 min

    Episode 552: Asherah - Shaul Magid, Lila Rimalovski

    ASHERAH is a new journal of Jewish liturgy — past, present, and future. Its name comes from an ancient goddess, related to a tree of the same name, and its first issue kicks off with a provocative quotation from Abraham Joshua Heschel: "Prayer is meaningless unless it is subversive." Shaul Magid, Asherah's founder, and Lila Rimalovski, one of its co-editors, join Lex Rofeberg and Miriam Terlinchamp for a conversation about weaving tradition and subversion seamlessly together, in artistic and lin

  • September 4 · 23 min

    Episode 551: Elul 2026 IV - Nitzavim (Standing at Sinai) - Lex and Wendie

    Elul is the 12th and final month of the Jewish calendar year. Elul Unbound is a Judaism Unbound initiative all about making Elul meaningful, through creative digital modalities. In this conversation, Lex Rofeberg and Wendie Bernstein Lash ask what the Torah portion Nitzavim (from Deuteronomy, meaning "standing") can teach us about what it means to gather en masse -- with other Jews on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, or as a broader community beyond just Jews. This Elul episode is the fourth and fi

  • September 2 · 39 min

    Shabbat Dinner Party IV: The Palace in Time

    “Bringing people in to Shabbat, it's just an opportunity, and it's a really beautiful thing. Why wouldn't I wanna share that with the people that I care about?” - Jefrrey Yoskowitz, Co-Host, Meet Me At the Deli, and cofounder of Gefilteria.

  • August 28 · 24 min

    Episode 550: Elul 2026 III - God? - Lex and Wendie

    Elul is the 12th and final month of the Jewish calendar year. Elul Unbound is a Judaism Unbound initiative all about making Elul meaningful, through creative digital modalities. In this conversation, Lex Rofeberg and Wendie Bernstein Lash explore questions of who/what God is, and how Elul might be a perfect time to explore questions around divinity. This Elul episode is the third in a series of four that are being released as part of Elul Unbound 2026. -------------------------------------- Look

  • August 26 · 40 min

    Shabbat Dinner Party III: No Bad Jews

    “There will come a point in your life where you're confronted with your Judaism and you sort of have to do something about it, and whether it's like the world making you confront it or like maybe it's your own investigatory thing with your family lineage, trying to understand like where you came from, what's going on.” - Hana Mendel

Showing 1–20 of 45 episodes