Beyond Religious and Secular: A New Jewish Spirituality, with Rabbi Kenny Brander (280)

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Since October 7th, something unexpected has been unfolding among young Jews in Israel and, in different ways, across the diaspora.

It does not look like the teshuva movements we have seen before. It is not a mass rush toward full mitzvah observance. It is not simply people becoming more religious in the way our communities usually define that word.

Instead, we are seeing a deeper, more complicated spiritual shift.

Young soldiers with tattoos and piercings are asking rabbis how to recite a blessing after surviving battle. Secular officers are making brachot when fallen soldiers are brought home. Crowds sing "Ani Ma'amin" after Hatikvah, and no one is shocked that faith has entered the public square.

Some young people are wearing tzitzit even if they are not shomer Shabbat. Others are joining public Kabbalat Shabbat davening, even if they head to the mall immediately afterwards.

What ties all of this together is not nationalism alone, and not ritual alone. It is a felt encounter with God.

Rabbi Kenny Brander of Ohr Torah Stone described standing at Har Herzl during funerals and feeling that it had become Har Sinai. He spoke about soldiers in Rafiah, Lebanon, and Syria who experienced what they believed to be divine presence, and how that pushed them toward meaning rather than away from it.

At the same time, this awakening is bottom up, not top down. It is being shaped by young people themselves, not imposed by institutions. And that raises big questions.

Is this moment temporary, born of trauma, or the beginning of a lasting transformation? Can Judaism endure with deep belief but partial practice? And how should religious communities respond without judging, shaming, or trying to control what is emerging?

There is another layer as well. While many less observant Jews are moving closer to God, some observant Jews struggle to speak about God directly. We talk Torah, we talk halacha, we talk values, but God himself can feel strangely muted in our discourse.

So are we witnessing a new chapter in Jewish faith, one that blurs old categories of religious and secular? And are we ready to listen to it?

To explore all of this, I spoke with Rabbi Brander, who has spent these two years visiting soldiers, students, and communities across Israel.

We discussed miracles in war, the power of sacrifice, the meaning of mitzvot as expressions of love, and how we might create new vessels for an ancient tradition. It's an important and essential conversation you won't want to miss.

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