In this week’s episode, I explore the Torah’s first deep conversation about jealousy, fragmentation, and what happens when the challenge is no longer outside us but within our own family. The jealousy between brothers, the wounds inherited from their mothers, and what it means that Yaakov loses his prophecy for twenty-two years.

We look closely at how Yehuda’s choice to go down as part of his search to change the new reality ultimately becomes the beginning of his own transformation, and how Tamar meets him with a braid of modesty, intuition, courage, and wisdom that opens the portal of malchus. Her actions don’t just save her life; they create the seed of Moshiach.

I also share a teaching on vows, the inner promises we make in fear or pain that quietly bind our lives, and how this Parsha invites us to release them. And we end with the Rebbe’s lens: learning to search for the redeeming intention inside the messiest parts of our stories, the way Hashem does.

Lea

Subscribe to the More to the Story Podcast: www.youtube.com/@MTTSPodcast
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Listen to the More to the Story Podcast:
Apple Podcasts | https://shorturl.at/JtdA9
Spotify | https://shorturl.at/DF2Ro

In this episode, I walk with Yakov as he leaves Charan after twenty years of inner work in Lavan’s home. Everything he lived through becomes the preparation he needs to face Esav, not only the brother he once fled, but the part of himself he has not yet made room for. We look at Yakov’s threefold approach to danger, the crossing of the Yabok River, and why he refuses to leave behind even the small jugs. We sit with his long night of wrestling, the wound he carries from it, the name he receives, and how identity takes shape in the moments between what was and what is coming next.

In the second half, I turn to Dina. Her story is one of the hardest in the Torah, and I approach it with care and honesty. We explore her character, the strength she carries from Leah, what it means that she goes out to see the daughters of the land, and everything that follows. We face the harm done to her, the response of the city, and the choices her brothers make. The parsha asks us to stay with questions of dignity, vulnerability, and safety without turning away.

Dina’s rupture teaches us what it is to carry every part of our story toward healing, even the ones we would prefer not to hold.

Lea

Subscribe to the More to the Story Podcast: www.youtube.com/@MTTSPodcast
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Listen to the More to the Story Podcast:
Apple Podcasts | https://shorturl.at/JtdA9
Spotify | https://shorturl.at/DF2Ro

In this week’s episode, we follow Yaakov as he leaves the holiness of his parents’ home and enters the world of Lavan, a place of concealment, deception, and spiritual challenge. I explore Yaakov’s preparation, his years of learning, the dream at Har HaMoriah, and the spiritual descent that becomes the foundation of the Jewish future.

I focus on Leah, the sister whose tears, prayers, and hidden world reshape her destiny and ours. We look at how our sages describe her as “destined” for Esav, and how through relentless tefillah she becomes the mother of most of the tribes. I also explore the quiet courage of sisterhood between Rachel and Leah: the signs under the chuppah, the willingness to spare a sister humiliation, and later, Leah’s willingness to give up another tribe that Rachel could merit a child. Together, they open the portal through which the Jewish people are born.

Leah teaches us that pain doesn’t disqualify us from greatness; it can become the very place we meet Hashem. Her journey, from tears to gratitude, from “hated” to the mother of Yehuda and Mashiach, offers a map for anyone longing to believe that their story can still be rewritten.

Lea

Subscribe to the More to the Story Podcast: www.youtube.com/@MTTSPodcast
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Listen to the More to the Story Podcast:
Apple Podcasts | https://shorturl.at/JtdA9
Spotify | https://shorturl.at/DF2Ro