Chai on Life – Details, episodes & analysis

Hi everyone! Welcome back to another episode of The Chai on Life Podcast — but not just any episode, the one year anniversary episode!

I am so proud of how far we've come and how far I've come personally on this journey to building Chai on Life. I have learned so much from so many absolutely incredible women and it has all changed my life for the better.

In this episode, I reflect on some of the behind-the-scenes things that have been going on for me throughout the past year as well as go through some of my favorite moments from the last 42 episodes. I share what has stuck with me, what I'm still doing, how I have changed from the teachings and more.

A special thank you to all of you who have listened, supported and been there along the way. The chizuk means everything. Another special thank you to all the amazing guests because it's your wisdom that is helping us all become more Chai on Life!

Also, enter the giveaway! To do so, all you have to do is write a review for the podcast and send me a screenshot of it and then I will choose someone randomly from that to win a $150 Amazon gift card. If you've already rated and reviewed, that counts too and can be used to enter! My email is alex@chaionlifemag.com or you can DM me on Instagram @chaionlifemag.

Here, the episodes mentioned in the podcast for easy access to go back and listen!

1. Rivkah Fox on All Things Dating
2. Frum Minimalism: Meet the Woman Who Decluttered Her Entire Home For Good
3. Debbie Greenblatt: Secrets to Building a More Connected Marriage
4. Chana Deutsch: How to Articulate Your Needs, Wants and Desires to Create More Love in Your Marriage
5. Miriam Goldberg: A Deep Dive Into the Mystical World of Mikvah
6. Leora Blumenthal: Simplify Your To-Do List and Feel Like a Queen
7. Hilla Aboody: Strengthening Ourselves Through the Three Weeks, Nine Days and Tisha B'Av
8. Danielle Renov of Peas Love N Carrots: Building Bitachon, Choosing Happiness and Sharing Her Life with Others
9. Faigy Blumstein: Is Cheshvan the Month of Moshiach? Gaining More Clarity
10. Rivka Segal: Transform Your Tehillim Experience

As always, if there is a guest you want to see or a topic you want covered, you can always reach out. Thanks so much for listening, see you next week!

Hi everyone, welcome back to another episode of The Chai on Life Podcast. I’m Alex Segal, and today I am speaking with Raquel Kirszenbaum, a well-known teacher in Israel and now author of the book, “Stop hurting, Start Healing.”

The book is based on her personal journey which has been really fraught with hardship in many ways. The goal is to show that those difficulties do not define her. In her book, she details the emunah that she had to draw on to overcome those challenges and hard relationships. She hopes in her vulnerability, she can help others feel seen, heard and understood; to accept, forgive, let go and strive for greatness.

She is a baal teshuva herself. She was born in Venezuela and moved to Panama when she was six. After high school, she went to Israel and that started to change her life.

In our conversation, she speaks more about that backstory — she then got married and after struggling for many years had children but things unfortunately didn’t turn out in her marriage as hoped.

She doesn’t go into the details of everything that happened as a way to respect her kids and still respect her ex-husband which is astounding, and which of course, I completely respect. For context in the episode, she was in a very difficult marriage yet stayed in it believing it would get better when all of a sudden, something occurred and he left the home. So overnight essentially, she was divorced and became a single mother.

Of course, this is heavy stuff. This episode gets REAL, it gets really deep. She really takes us there into all of her emotions, the trauma of going through a divorce that happened so suddenly. The pain and challenge of being fully alone as a single mother with little to no family help around her. Helping her kids through their own traumas as they cope with losing their father from their lives at the same time as she lost her husband.

She speaks about how others can also help in a real way that is dignified and respectful which I think is such an important topic to discuss. Everyone has challenges in life, and some are objectively harder than others. It’s an important reminder to look around, remember who needs help, even if it’s just something super small and how something so little can make a huge difference in someone else’s world.

While our interview is heavy, I really came out of it feeling inspired. Raquel is such a beacon of strength. She has fought for her relationship with Hashem and continues to regularly. She does not let her challenges define her, rather she is using them to propel her to an even higher level of greatness.

Follow Raquel on Instagram.

Email Raquel at raqueldidio@gmail.com.

Get her book, "Stop Hurting, Start Healing."

Hi everyone! Welcome back to another episode of The Chai on Life Podcast. I’m Alex Segal and today, I am speaking with Mrs. Rivka Segal, a leader in adult Jewish education who has taught Torah to women and girls of all ages for more than thirty years. 

Before making Aliyah from Baltimore, MD, she taught in Bais Yaakov High School and Maalot Baltimore and was the director of the Women’s Institute of Torah. After moving to Israel in 2005, she founded the L’Ayla Women’s Initiative in Jerusalem. She is a sought-after speaker, known for her creativity and ability to excite and engage audiences of all ages. For the past fifteen years, she has made Tehillim come alive for thousands of people. She is currently in the process of completing a five-volume series entitled Living Tehillim. To date, three volumes have been published and let me tell you they are so good and will change the way you see and understand the Tehillim that you’re saying or even inspire you to start saying them.

I interviewed Rivka nearly four years ago for the Chai on Life website and the article we did together continues to be the top performing article today. I think it’s because people are searching for more connection in their prayers. They want to connect, they want to daven, they want to fee, to bring Redemption into this world and they’re looking for more answers.

In the episode, we speak about how Rivka got into Tehillim and how it became a new purpose and passion in life, why Dovid HaMelech was the one who wrote Tehillim and what we can all learn from his greatness, how to connect in your native language to the words of Tehillim, the special connection between Tehillim and Chanukah and really so much more.

To find out more about the “Living Tehillim” initiative or to register for her online zoom series, visit her website at www.livingtehillim.com. 

Learn more from Rivka in our previous interview.

Hi everyone! Welcome back to another episode of The Chai on Life Podcast. I’m Alex Segal and today, I am speaking with Orit Esther Riter, an Emuna Energizer (I love that), a Renowned Inspirational Speaker, Author and the Practicing Founder of the First Haskamah-Approved Torah-Centric Energy Therapy Program.

After being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis 19 years ago, ​emuna was the answer to Orit Esther’s healing, growth, and building of a solid foundation with Hashem. So much so, she redirected her culinary chef career to a more meaningful path of spreading ​emuna. Orit Esther believes that every soul is beautiful and holds positive energy and light that deserves to shine​ and therefore single-handedly began an emuna ​movement worldwide​ devoted to helping others heal from trauma and pain. Her teachings are based on the work of the Holy Ba’al Shem tov and focus on practical strategies to restore emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual health​.

In this episode, we go deep into Orit Esther’s story — staring way before her diagnosis, and how she persevered through all of the challenges along the way. We learn how she found Hashem in different ways at different points along the journey, and how relationship grew and matured as she did.

The ups and downs are vast, yet the way she cultivated emuna and real healing in it is the most inspiring. It’s impossible to hear this story and not feel inspired to work on your emuna and really grip it with all that you have.

In a time now, in Kislev, and in the world when we’re experiencing darkness, Orit Esther’s story will bring you back to the light. Her story will invigorate you and remind you why we’re doing all of this, what the grounding force is when you live a life with Hashem, and how and why to consistently get back to it.

I’m so honored to have powerful woman on the podcast and so excited for you to hear her message. So now, let’s get into my conversation with Orit Esther.

Gain more from Orit Esther below:

oremunaenergy.com

Get her books on Amazon:

Turn Around 180 Degrees in 180 Days

Turn Around Your Emotions

Turn Around Your Life with the Ba’al Shem Tov

Hi guys! Welcome to COL's first solo episode. Today, I thought it could be fun to talk about the backstory behind Chai on Life, why I wanted to start it, what it all means to me and some lessons I've learned along the journey. With everything that I'm doing and all the people I've been speaking to I wanted to give context about the mission and the focus of it all.

This is definitely straying from the traditional structure but it's fun to mix things up and G-d willing we will be back with an amazing new guest next week!

Thanks so much for listening.

If there is someone you want to see on The Chai on Life Podcast (or you just think would make a great guest!) email me at alex@chaionlifemag.com or send me a DM on Instagram @chaionlifemag.

Hi everyone! Welcome back to another episode of The Chai on Life Podcast. Today we are talking all about Kislev.

I am honored to be joined by Chaya Sora Jungreis-Gertzulin, who is the daughter of Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis a”h. She is a mother, grandmother, and teaches for HINENI, the organization in Manhattan that Rebbetzin Jungreis started. She has lectured for shuls, kiruv organizations and schools in the Metropolitan area and beyond. Chaya Sora also writes a weekly parsha commentary that you can get through Hineni’s email as well as columns in various Jewish newspapers including Jewish Vues, Monsey Mevaser, Jewish Voice and London Jewish Tribune. Her writings can also be found on Torah AnyTime.

This conversation is so important because Kislev, as we all know, falls out during the darkest time of the year. The days are getting really short and the cold is settling in. Israel has been fighting a war for more than a year now and it’s truly unfathomable that so many hostages are still in captivity. Antisemitism is rising around the world in tragic ways and it’s normal to feel fear.

Chaya Sora is going to help us work through all of that. Even though it’s dark in Kislev, we all also know it’s the month of miracles. It’s when Chanukah starts and the name, Kislev, itself comes from the meaning “security” or “trust.”

We are in a time when we need miracles. We need to deepen our trust in Hashem and maybe, we all need a little bit of a boost. 

In the episode, we speak about the power we all have to leave a powerful legacy behind, how little things we do can really add up and change the lives of others, what was behind her mother’s magic when it came to connecting with other Jewish souls, the strength we can get from Kislev specifically when we are feeling low or burnt out, how to cultivate happiness from within and so so much more.

Hi everyone! Welcome back to another episode of The Chai on Life Podcast. I’m Alex Segal, and today, we are talking all about friendship.

I’ve wanted to do a podcast on friendship for awhile now and this conversation was sooo cathartic and therapeutic. A lot of what we discussed are topics that I think are on a lot of our minds yet hard to speak about openly.

Laura Marder was the perfect person to have this conversation with. She is a trained clinical social worker and the Director of the Circles Facilitators at CORE, an organization aimed at fostering meaningful relationships between Jewish women through authentic conversation and connection.

As a note, reference Shasta Nelson’s Ted Talk on friendship, coined as "Frientimacy," in the episode, so if you’re looking to watch that entire video, you can click on the link in the show notes.

Whether you’re trying to make new friends, working to nurture or deepen existing friendships, wanting more time for friendship in your life, or anything else in that realm, this episode is for you and I am so excited for you to hear it.

If you want to get in touch with Laura, you can email her at LMarder@coretorah.org.

Hi everyone, welcome back to another episode of The Chai on Life Podcast. I’m Alex Segal and today, I am speaking with Nomi of Nomi Knows Nutrition.

Cheshvan is a time when people want to put their goals into action. We reflected in Elul and Tishrei, came up with what we want our intentions to be going into this new year, and Cheshvan really is the quiet time afterward to set things into motion and make things happen.

For many, working on or maintaining good health habits is a big goal. Maybe it’s eating more whole foods, finding time to exercise, or making going to sleep earlier a priority. Maybe it’s spending less time on your phone or social media or maybe it’s even trying to be just a little bit more positive each day.

These are all things that Nomi is helping us with on today’s episode. 

Nomi is a double board-certified nutritionist and health and wellness coach, affiliated with Duke Integrative Medicine at Duke University. She holds a Master of Science in Nutrition and Functional Medicine. Her undergraduate and graduate research topics have included the psychology of long-term weight-loss maintenance and the role of nutrition in ADHD. She has a private coaching practice in Jerusalem and on Zoom, with clients from all over the world. Additionally, Nomi runs educational workshops on nutrition, healthy lifestyle essentials, and behavioral change. She is currently pursuing her doctorate in Clinical Nutrition and researching the relationship between the estrobolome and female hormone disorders. She can be reached at nomi@nomiknows.com or on Instagram @nomiknowsnutrition.

P.S. Nomi is starting a new coaching group on December 1! If you are interested, you can reach out to her directly on her website or through Instagram.

Learn more about Nomi's backstory on Inspiration for the Nation.

Hi everyone, welcome back to another episode of The Chai on Life Podcast. Today, we are talking all about Moshiach. It’s Cheshvan and on the surface, Cheshvan seems like a chill, catch-up kind of month. The chagim are over, we’re back to routine and Cheshvan gives us the time to do so. But is that all Cheshvan is for? Like pretty much all things in Judaism, how things appear on the surface are well, just the surface and there is a whole world of depth underneath.

As I was researching more about Cheshvan I learned that it is soooo Moshiach centered. If you learn from the Sefer Yetzirah or the Book of Formation, which you can read about on inner.org, you will learn that the letter of the month, sense of the month, tribe and so much more are all connected to Moshiach.

To be honest, Moshiach is something I’ve struggled with over the years becoming religious and being religious. It’s something that I am taught to want, yet also something I don’t actually know that much about.

So for awhile now, I’ve been determined to learn more and really understand more and I knew Faigy Blumstein was the perfect person to do so with.

Faigy Blumstein does not call herself a lecturer, but someone who loves to share. A passionate educator and school psychologist, she is dedicated to living a Hashem-centered life. As part of the Thank You Hashem women’s division, Faigy draws on chasidic teachings and the light of the Baal Shem Tov, to inspire others. Her heartfelt approach helps women deepen their connection to Hashem, integrating spirituality into everyday life in a meaningful and modern way.

And let me tell you this conversation gets deep. We talk about how she got into Chassidus in the first place, how it can connect you in ways you never could have imagined, what Moshiach even means, how we can all work to bring Moshiach, why Cheshvan is the time reserved for Moshiach, how Israel connects to all of this and so so much more.

We also learn about the connection between Cheshvan, Moshiach and Rochel Imeinu. Tonight, Monday night, the 11th of Cheshvan begins Rochel Imeinu’s yahrtzeit and our conversation brought such a new light to Rochel that I wasn’t aware of before. It is hashgacha pratis that the podcast is coming out right before so hopefully we can all use our connection to Rochel Imeinu to feel more strength and a new kind of vitality with our Yiddushkeit.

Learn more:

Cheshvan on Inner.org

Thank You Hashem

Listen to Faigy's Cheshvan Playlist:

Spotify

Apple

Hi everyone, welcome back to The Chai on Life Podcast! It feels really good to say that after the holiday hiatus we've had. The holidays were so nice, and I feel so blessed that I was able to take that pause to fully focus on Hashem, my family and other connections in my life and now feel even more energized coming back to the podcast and all of the conversations and guests I have lined up for this year.

Today’s episode is on somatic healing with Rena Reiser. While we recorded this before the chagim, it feels like such an important one coming back into everything. We had time and space to turn off, to disconnect from technology and the news and reconnect to the things that matter most.

More about Rena:

Rena is a Polyvagal-Informed Focusing Trainer. She trains female leaders and healers to facilitate embodied change in the lives of those around them. In other words, Rena helps them understand how their clients’ autonomic nervous systems impact their behaviors and emotions and how to use the Focusing technique to explore and shift these behaviors effectively.

Rena has more than a decade of ongoing training including Focusing, Polyvagal Theory, Non-Violent Communication, and Inner Child/Parts work that she uses in her own life and that of her clients. Together they forge a uniquely empowering approach that allows clients to shift their behaviors at their source in a compassionate and embodied way.

In this episode, she speaks about why we are so stressed and overwhelmed today, how we can get to a place of menuchas hanefesh, what menuchas hanefesh actually means, exercises we can do to achieve more calm right now, why that may be the prerequisite to other spiritual growth and so much more. She even goes through one of her modalities with me in real time so you can get an idea of how things work. It’s Cheshvan, it’s the time to put all of our spiritual growth into action and this episode is the perfect way to set the stage to get you into the best mental headspace in order to achieve your goals.

To learn more about Rena, you can visit her website at renareiser.com. Check out her own podcast called The Embodied Jewish Women and follow her on Instagram @renareiser.