Hi everyone, welcome back to The Chai on Life Podcast! I’m so happy to be back after a postpartum hiatus. Baruch Hashem I am so grateful for the little miracle baby that I now have in my life and so grateful to have had the quality time with him and now so grateful to be able to focus back on the podcast a bit more. Gd willing, I will be doing a full episode on the birth story and some reflections from that, so if that’s interesting to you stay tuned. But now, I’ve been busy working on some interviews with really incredible people and I am so excited to share them.

Today’s episode is with Shoshana Judelman. I got connected to Shoshana through Midreshet Rachel — she is a teacher there now and has always been passionate about teaching Torah and Jewish History. She holds a Bachelor’s in History and a Master’s in Jewish History. She made aliyah with her husband and six children to Efrat in 2013. In addition to teaching at MRC, Shoshana teaches Chassidus for the Shirat David Community in Efrat as well as for BeOr Panecha in Elazar. She is a guide in Poland with JRoots and co-leads inspirational trips to Ukraine and around Eretz Yisroel. Shoshana has also been a guide at Yad Vashem since 2014.

In this episode, she is sharing so much about her connection to the world of Chassidus, what we can learn from it and how we can connect to Chanukah more deeply through its teachings. She speaks about:
-How she got into Chassidus and became a baal teshuva

-What the difference is between Chassidus and other perspectives on Torah

-How we can interpret the world through the lens of our human soul and Gdly soul which was a really interesting and helpful teaching

-What it really means that just a little bit of light can dispel a lot of darkness (with a really great mashal included in that)

-How to cope when it feels like the darkness is getting darker, whether in your own personal world or in the world at large

-How you can personally connect through the lighting of the Chanukah candles and practically a great tip if you have a busy household and it’s hard to focus when your family is lighting together

-Her own personal struggle at the moment and how she’s dealing with it and becoming closer with Hashem in the process. This was so beautiful I was really getting emotional 

…and so so much more!

To daven for Shoshana, her full name is Shoshana Yonah bat Aidel

Learn more from Shoshana here.