With my Yiddishkeit.
But aren't we all? Shouldn’t we all?

I was recently featured as a guest in an upcoming podcast interview and asked if I thought Judaism was meant to be hard or easy.

My answer: We choose our hard.

Elul is when that question lands the loudest (if we're listening). We start noticing the gap between who we are and who we want to be. Sometimes it feels like too much, sometimes not enough. But this is the month where I have found myself asking, what hard am I choosing?

I don’t want a Judaism, or a life, that was just handed to me like a pre-wrapped gift. I want one I've earned; one I've fought for. Because when it’s too easy, we don’t value it. And when it’s too hard, we resent it. But if I get to choose, then I’ll always choose the kind of challenge that comes with love. Because when you value something deeply, you want to be in relationship with it. You want to work for it. To savor it. To appreciate it.

That also often means committing to a nonlinear path. And Elul, despite being laser focused, is also nonlinear, it spirals.

We circle back, we revisit, we wrestle. And we will be judged.

By G-d. 

And also, by people who think they speak with His voice.

Choosing a life; creating one; being willing to challenge the status quo means discomfort. The discomfort of change, and the discomfort our choices bring up for people who resent the idea that being alive mean that change and choice are the most important part of what make us so gloriously human.

Which brings me to this week’s Vessel episode.

I got to sit down with Pessy Schwartz of Reclaim Womanhood, and we went straight for the shadows.

She opened with a big one: Menstruation.

Just saying the word makes people freeze, but Pessy owns it like the embodied woman she is. Her work is about reclaiming the cyclical nature of our lives, the seasons, the tides, the changes we shove into shadow.

Watch our conversation here:

I never thought I'd put the words Elul and menstruation into the same sentence, but aren't they both about the willingness to face the cycle, to embrace the turn of the wheel, instead of pretending life is a straight line?

If we can’t embrace the seasons, we stagnate.

Here’s another thing about Pessy and me: we’re cousins who come from a line of women who are strong, a little out of the box, a little ahead of their time. We both must have inherited the same stubborn, soulful streak from our grandmothers - that pull toward honesty, even when it made people uncomfortable.

And maybe that’s also why I admire her work so much. Because shadows disappear when you bring them into the light. When you witness them without shame. Pessy does that. And she does it in community. Which is the only way any of us make it through, by being witnessed and supported in celebration.

Personally, growing up in the public eye has meant a lifetime of people watching me, forming opinions about what they don’t understand. On one hand, it's incredible that the choices I've made have helped me make a difference in peoples' lives. On the other, carrying people's projections are heavy, especially when I'm struggling to get it right.

But this is where the blessing of an embodied Elul arises again, it gives us permission to struggle out loud. To admit we’re human. To fall and return, fall and return, fall and return.

This episode was a joy. You’ll laugh, you’ll squirm, you’ll rethink things you didn’t even know needed thinking about. And you’ll probably want to jump into Pessy’s world when you’re done. She’s got something beautiful* coming in the next few weeks, and trust me, you’ll want in.

Don't have access to YouTube? Listen here on Spotify and Apple

In Shadow and Soul,

Elul is called a month of compassion, but it’s not comfort. It’s courage. Courage to face what’s in shadow, to ask harder questions, and to keep returning anyway. That’s why this episode feels so perfectly timed.

Pessy's Embodied course is coming back really soon - Learn the Fertility Awareness Method (FAM) as a grounded, embodied practice for conception, contraception, and deep cycle wisdom. 

Lifetime membership. Ongoing support.    Don't miss the private waitlist sale happening the last week of September.  Join waitlist here: www.reclaimwomanhood.com/embodied

And speaking of timing - you're going to want to mark your calendars for Vessel's pre-sale happening September 14-16. It's where you'll have the opportunity to take advantage of the early registration discount and receive an awesome bonus gift (and free Heartwork journal) upon joining.