Shebrew in the City
Shebrew in the City is a podcast exploring all things Jewish. Combining interviews and informational episodes, join Nicole Kelly as she discusses her journey with motherhood, spirituality, and everything from Hanukkah to the Holocaust. Giving a voice to modern Jews and spreading love and joy, whether you're Jewish, Jew-ish, or not anything resembling Jewish at all, there's something here for everyone.
Shebrew in the City
"Don't Dream It, Be It" - An Interview with Rabbi-Cantor Judy Greenfeld
Rabbi-Cantor Judy Greenfeld's spiritual journey began with tragedy when her father was murdered when she was just sixteen years old. This devastating event caused her to question everything about Judaism and God, leading her away from her conservative Jewish upbringing in Cleveland, Ohio. "I think when we have trauma in our lives, it shifts us into seeing the world in a different way," she reflects.
Her path of healing took her through various spiritual traditions – Buddhism, new age philosophies, psychology – before ultimately returning to Judaism with fresh eyes and an expanded perspective. What makes her story so compelling is how she's woven these seemingly disparate threads into a coherent tapestry that honors traditional Jewish wisdom while embracing more expansive spiritual concepts like dreamwork, feminine energy, and embodied prayer practices.
The most fascinating aspects of Rabbi-Cantor Judy's approach emerge in her discussion of dreams and Jewish mysticism. She explains how ancient Jewish texts recognized dreams as containing "one-sixtieth of prophecy" and how our souls travel during sleep – concepts that parallel Native American dream traditions she studied extensively. Her books connecting Jewish prayer with spiritual practices have helped countless seekers find meaning within Judaism that they couldn't access through conventional teaching methods.
As both rabbi and cantor, she's witnessed tremendous evolution within Judaism – especially regarding women's roles. From a time when women couldn't have bat mitzvahs on Saturdays to today's landscape where female clergy are increasingly common, she celebrates how Judaism continues to adapt while maintaining its core essence. Now leading a Texas congregation healing from a traumatic hostage situation, she brings her unique combination of traditional knowledge and spiritual innovation to a community in need of both stability and renewal.
Whether you're struggling with faith after trauma, curious about the intersection of different spiritual traditions, or seeking a more meaningful connection to Jewish practice, Rabbi-Cantor Judy offers wisdom that transcends religious boundaries while remaining deeply rooted in Jewish tradition. Subscribe now to hear her powerful insights on healing, spirituality, and finding authentic connection in challenging times.
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Looking for tips and tricks on a new city. Top Dog Tours is the best place to check out walking tours. We are in Boston, Philadelphia, Toronto and New York City. Visit us on topdogtours. com to book your tour today and check us out on social media for offers, discounts and pictures. Hello, I'm Nicole Kelly and this is Shebrew in the City, and tonight I am having a conversation with Rabbi- Cantor Judy Greenfeld, which I'm excited because I've never talked to you at all. So I'm excited to learn so much about you and your story. How are you tonight?
Judy Greenfeld:I am doing wonderful. How are you doing tonight?
Nicole Kelly:I'm doing good. Like I said, I've had a busy day but I feel like I still have a lot of energy, so that's great for an interview. So I always start off by asking about my guest's background, where they're from, how they were raised, how religious kind of all the regular stuff. So spiel me with that.
Judy Greenfeld:Okay, so I grew up in Cleveland, ohio Yay, cleveland and I lived there for 18 years, went to college and went to school in Arizona and then met my husband there my ex-husband there and moved to Los Angeles where I lived for 40 years and now I'm in Texas for eight months.
Nicole Kelly:Oh my goodness, what part of LA.
Judy Greenfeld:First Encino, a lot of different places, Studio City, Encino and now Westwood.
Nicole Kelly:My parents. I'm originally from Northridge. So my parents live like five minutes from CSUN, Okay so you know where Heschel is.
Judy Greenfeld:Yes, oh yeah, that's right, I went to TRZ so.
Nicole Kelly:Jewish geography was all like there's like five of us. That's really funny.
Judy Greenfeld:Anyway, I grew up very conservative. I grew up in a conservative household. Shabbat on Friday nights went to Hebrew school after school from age first grade to boy sixth grade and then went to Hebrew high school after school two to three days a week and so I could read Hebrew and that's really what they focused on back then and we were taught by mostly by Israelis and old ladies.
Nicole Kelly:I had an old Israeli lady, though looking back she might not have been that old Right, she might have been in her like early 50s, but she's very ancient at the time.
Judy Greenfeld:And I. I didn't find a lot of spirituality in conservative Judaism. In fact I found that it was rather on the hypocritical side. I felt that there was a lot of dogma, patriarchy that I wasn't thrilled with, so I was a little turned off to it, especially when I was 16, my father was murdered and at that point I, you know, went out of respect to him. He was an avid Zionist, he was on the national, he was the vice president of the national conference of Zionism, of Zionists, and but there was always such a pride to be Jewish.
Judy Greenfeld:I absolutely knew who I was as a Jew, but I never went to Hebrew school. I didn't really go to services on Shabbat and especially after you're 13, you don't really go. So my Judaism was really when I went to summer camp. My Judaism was connected to the people I knew from my Hebrew school. And at age 16, when something like that happens, it causes you to question everything. And for me, because it didn't say anything comforting for me at that time I'm the youngest of five I had no idea in my mind. Why would God let something happen to a nice Jewish man and a nice family that lived in the suburbs and celebrated Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and Passover and all of those things. What could I have done? What was happening? So in many ways, I think I was angry at God and at Judaism for many years, and so what I did was I was still a spiritual person and I was seeking and I looked everywhere and I listened to my Christian friends and I went to Buddhism and I went seeking and I looked everywhere and I went to, I listened to my Christian friends and I went to Buddhism and I went to listen to, um, people who were more of the new age group I mean, this is going to age me, but Ram Dass and, uh, stephen Halpern, and I felt like psychology was an answer as well, um, to dealing to dealing with trauma and all of those things, and they all helped me. They all helped me.
Judy Greenfeld:But there came a day when I was and I, you know, I had a Jewish wedding. There was no question about all those things. But I remember I was pregnant with my daughter and I must have been in a yoga class and I heard the teacher say find your Christ consciousness now. And I'd heard that so many times and I just kind of let that wash over me, but this was the first time where I thought to myself I don't have a Christ consciousness. You know, in, in, in what I, you know, I know today that a Christ consciousness is a higher consciousness. It doesn't mean Jesus Christ. However, at that time, I thought, you know, I'm going to go back to my original religion, which is Judaism, and let me find out what I don't believe, and let me find out what are the things that have turned me off of my own, of finding my own identity and embracing my own identity.
Nicole Kelly:It's so interesting that you're saying this because I was that training that I did this afternoon. It was a Lower East Side tour and the guide is not Jewish, so I was explaining a lot of different things to him and I said something about how I didn't really know a lot about other religions until I was older. And I think it's important, because you can't really decide what you believe or don't believe if you're not exposed to other religions. And I think a lot of people they grow up for like well, this is just what it is, and they're so unfamiliar with other belief systems and I can't really say what I believe and affirm that unless I know what other people believe. And I love that you bring that up, Because I think a lot of people just go through life like well, this is what it is, and they don't really, you know, experiment a little bit.
Judy Greenfeld:Well, I can't express how important I think it is to listen to what other religions, how other religions practice and and, as a result, I've done a lot of traveling and I am involved in a lot of healing work and, as a result, it's taken me to places that I never thought I would go like to Egypt and to Bali and to Peru, where I've met very spiritual people and they're the way they express their spirituality is not that different from Judaism, and that's what I kept finding is that we were all talking about the same thing and growing up okay, I'm a child of the 60s and growing up as a conservative Jew there was a sense of, well, you don't date non-Jews and you don't mix, and there isn't the embracing adversity, even though I went to high school and I went to and I lived out in the suburbs where there are very few Jews, and so now there's a lot of Jews, but at that time there weren't, and so most of my friends to this day, my closest friends aren't Jewish, they're Methodist and they are Lutheran and you know they're from all different backgrounds.
Judy Greenfeld:So I got to have wonderful conversations and find out how similar we are and how different we are, and two of my best friends are children of Protestant ministers.
Judy Greenfeld:Two of my best friends are children of Protestant ministers and we had like a whole discussion at Passover about all sorts of things. So I love, I love that that's something that you have as well, that part of our world that is. So there's so much intermarriage and the children are products of a great deal of intermarriage, because they were looking for their identity, which is really a product of both of their parents, and my job was to show them where we come together, that we all share the same Ten Commandments, the same original books. Our fathers were Abraham, all of Arab world, jewish world. We shared the same father. I mean, there are just so many similarities and growing up at that time it was don't look at anyone, don't even go to anyone else's synagogue, let alone, you know, ask go into a church or go into a Buddhist temple or any of those things. There was like this great fear, and I think some of it was because it was post-World War II and all of that you know brought to the table.
Nicole Kelly:Well, the mid-20th century was like the height of conservative Judaism and I feel like when I have discussions with my husband about what I think Judaism is, he's like, is that Judaism or conservative Judaism or just the synagogue you grew up in? Because things that I think are normal. I'm like, well, maybe this was just that specific synagogue and I, you know, I was having a conversation with one of our rabbis on Friday about the, you know, reform Judaism just sold a building. So we were talking about reform Judaism and conservative Judaism and she's like I grew up conservative and there's a reason I decided to become a reform rabbi, because there were a lot of issues that I saw and just the way things that were changing in the world.
Judy Greenfeld:Well, I love that she explained that to you. And also I think that reform Judaism was given a bad rap because a lot of the Hebrew was taken out and it's been adopted back in and same, with traditions and wearing tallit, if you and if, and kippah I mean if you wore a kippah, which is a head covering for those of you who don't know, in a conservative synagogue they would throw you out as a woman. They would go. Well, who does she think she is? You wore a doily on your head. Yeah, there were these different things. And reformed.
Nicole Kelly:I still see women go up on the bima not covering and I'm like, oh, I can't like my mother. I like see the whole thing, like I think back to like the fights we had about bat mitzvah, attire um with the. I see some of these girls go up and I'm like, oh, it's like the early 90s like yeah, I mean, there's been so much change.
Judy Greenfeld:We're sitting at such an interesting time in our world right now, and you and I especially, as just our generations, because we've lived seeing how um liturgy has changed and how feminism has affected Judaism in a good way and how there's so many more women rabbis than there ever were and how it's acceptable. And I worked with Lori Geller, who was probably the second rabbi, reform rabbi and she had so many stories to tell me about how difficult it was for her. I mean, we had those pioneering women changed the world for us debbie friedman, all of them. They really changed the world for us and we were just coming right up on their. You know, on their. You know, yeah, following them. And we now it's like nothing, you know, yeah, following them. And we now it's like nothing. You know, in my congregation it's like nothing to sit with the rabbi. I mean, I never even talked to my rabbi, I say the same thing.
Nicole Kelly:I like I hug my clergy members Like we lost a baby last year and the first thing my husband said was do you need me to call Ben? And then we sent him an email and he's like is so amazing, and I love that you're talking about specifically women. There's a professor who ended up leaving the rabbinate to become like a PhD and she teaches like Holocaust and Jewish studies. Now, um, she was a rabbi, um, and this would have been God, probably the early eighties, and she's like.
Nicole Kelly:My first time on the Bema I wore open toed shoes and half the congregation decided I was persona non grata because I wore open toeded shoes. It's crazy how much things have changed. And like my synagogue last at the end of March, because it was a little earlier than Passover had an all-women Seder where there was like a woman, there was like a female-led group and they focused on the matriarchs of Passover and like I cried at one point. It was so lovely, but that's not something that would have existed when I grew up, especially within the conservative movement. It was all men. My mom was convinced, because I later became a singer, that I wanted to be a cantor, but maybe if I had seen a woman as a religious leader, my life might have gone a different way, and I love that my daughter grows up seeing that and thinks it's normal Right right.
Judy Greenfeld:What synagogue are you at? We're at Rodef Shalom, I just think. No. I know some of the clergy that are obviously in California because I lived there for so long, and I think that the fact that we have torn down that fourth wall and made ourselves accessible is what's keeping Judaism alive and together is what's keeping Judaism alive and together. I also felt that I don't know if you know this, but growing up in the conservative movement, women were not allowed to have bat mitzvah on Saturday.
Nicole Kelly:And so we had it on Friday nights where you don't take the Torah out usually. Yeah, I was the first woman in my family to have a bat mitzvah and I didn't think I realized that until I met my husband and I was like, oh, because my mom, we'll get into this when we talk about trauma. Um, my mom did not go to Hebrew school because of things that happened with her family, so she never had even that, but she had cousins who did. They did the candle blessing on Friday. So I I guess I never realized that because by the early 90s they were allowing that to happen. So when I had my bat mitzvah in 1999, like I actually read from the Torah and everything and I guess I didn't realize at the time what a big deal that was Right Historical.
Judy Greenfeld:Yes, of course, of course, and you'll get to tell your daughter that someday.
Nicole Kelly:Yes, and your son. Hopefully it'll be.
Judy Greenfeld:Your nieces and nephews, because that is a big deal and I will. What, hopefully, your nieces and nephews, because that is a big deal and I will, and what I do. One of the rituals I do is I have the kids bring their whole family right before their bar bat mitzvah grandparents and extended family and I say I want to go around the table and I want you, kids, because we are at such an interesting time in history and because our grandparents and great-grandparents live longer, you're going to see in our lifetime, in my lifetime, how Judaism has changed in the last 80 years, I guess I mean, or 90 years. We are on the cusp of complete change. Judaism never looked like this anywhere, and so your great, your grandmother or your great grandmother never had a bat mitzvah because it wasn't something girls did. And so when you know you get to have a bat mitzvah, it's a big deal because you're setting a new standard for your children and upcoming generations and this is making history and we need to emphasize that because it's a big deal and it's a beautiful big deal because it's not women or men, it's this place in between. We need each other. We really do. There's a beautiful complementing of the feminine and the masculine, and I think Judaism is really at least in the reform movement, I can say, and in the circles that I've been in we've really been able to embrace it and have respect for that.
Judy Greenfeld:I don't think the same thing for the Orthodox circles. I do respect them greatly, but I don't respect how they treat a woman rabbi and I also don't respect how sometimes when you say you're a reform rabbi, it doesn't mean anything To them. It's as if you were trained, I don't know, like online. I went through 10 years of seminary because I became a cantor first and then I became a rabbi because it was something that I felt would make me more authentic and real and I wanted to be a role model for our kids, for people like you, nicole, who maybe would have been a cantor because you didn't see those yeah, you didn't see women cantors. They have, and for me, women cantors came into my life much later and I really went back to school at age 40, you know, and so, um, it's whenever you could be like Rabbi Akiva. Whenever it's time you still can do it and you can do it as a second career, because we're going to live longer.
Nicole Kelly:I'm going through a career transition right now. I have like a whole I'm. I started a master's program in January and I'm turning 40 next year and I'm like, well, I guess this is just what we're doing and I'm very passionate about what I'm going to be working in. But it's nothing I saw myself doing and I try to tell people like you don't know where your life is going to take you, and I feel like I look back. I was I. You know I still keep my toe in theater and I look back on that and part of my heart will always be there. But I'm really passionate about what I'm doing and the people I'm working with.
Nicole Kelly:So I want to jump back to when you were 16 and talk about what happened to your father, if you're comfortable talking about it. I want to know a little more about it. And you said it changed your viewpoint on life and Judaism, and does this continue to affect the way you look at things today in?
Judy Greenfeld:Judaism, and does this continue to affect the way you look at things today? Yeah, I think that that is. You know that. I think when we have trauma in our lives, it shifts us into seeing the world in a different way. You don't cruise through life anymore. You start to ask those big questions very early on.
Judy Greenfeld:So my father and mother they literally was were going to see a Broadway show, you know, or a show downtown, and they were held up by three, uh, juvenile delinquents and, and one and the one had a shotgun. It went off. That was it. Now my mother was in her forties, so you know, that was bizarre to me when I was her age, when I turned her age, and I thought, oh my gosh, your whole life changed. You were just starting to go back to school, you know, kind of women's liberate days and five children I'm the youngest of five and she really never imagined herself as a woman taking care of herself or being self-reliant, any of that. And she ended up finishing school and she ended up becoming a grief counselor. So she taught me something really important without saying it, which is a Jewish concept of you turn your greatest traumas, I guess, or your greatest lessons, into your strengths. You know where you've been hit the hardest. When that becomes your strength, you have something to teach. And it's not about a PhD. It's about being able to really overcome something terrible in your life and turn it into your strength. And I saw her do that and I was right, in line with what she did.
Judy Greenfeld:Now, um, you asked me what that was like and I felt different than everybody else. I have to say that I, um, I didn't think people would really understood how I felt. You know and that's something that happens when anybody goes through trauma you feel so alone, even though I had brothers and sisters. No one wants to want to talk about it, and it was really like, you know, move on. Well, we have learned through time. You don't. You can't just move on.
Judy Greenfeld:And, of course, I went through a lot of therapy and all kinds of healing modalities to free myself of that trauma. And I do want to say that later on in my life, after being married for 30 years, I got a divorce and it traumatized me and all that trauma came back. It was, you know, I felt like my whole world had shattered. It did Everything that I built up in the Jewish community, everything that I knew my children, although they were grown up. It just shatters your entire social life, all the Jewish organizations I was in.
Judy Greenfeld:I felt so much shame and I felt like I didn't belong anymore and I really wondered well, are people going to even want a rabbi who's? Or a cantor rabbi who's been divorced? Are people going to respect me anymore? All of that came, you know, racing forward and I think that the greatest thing was that I remember one of my teachers said to me just keep coming to finish up your rabbinic degree, it's going to make you an even better rabbi. And he was right because it healed me. There is so much in Judaism that is so healing. We certainly have foremothers and we certainly have biblical patriarchs that went through traumas and taught us and really have left messages for us to pick up on as to how we handle these dark times. And we are people of resilience. And when people have come to me and said, well, what do you think of trauma? I said I'm from a tribe of trauma through, you know, through and through. So, yeah, they just keep going and that's what you have to do, even you know, despite how you feel.
Nicole Kelly:Did your mother also kind of start to distance herself from judaism? Because I know my mom had a sister that died when she was a child and my mom was five years old and her parents, who were pseudo-orthodox at that time, kind of just washed their hands all of that. They said, if god's gonna take my child, I don't believe this anymore. And I know that's kind of a people kind of go one of two ways usually and like it's that, or they just dive deep into religion. Is that something the rest of your family did as well? That they kind of were just like I don't understand why God would take this person who was a great person.
Judy Greenfeld:It's so funny that you ask that, because the first thing we kept kosher growing up, the first thing we kept kosher growing up in a home, the first thing we did my mother did when my, after my father died was like throughout all the kashrut, it was let's bring in the shrimp. You know, not even that I wanted to anyone wanted to eat that but bring in the cheeseburgers or whatever it is. Yeah, um, yeah. There was a very deep rejection of from all of my family members. In fact, you know me, coming back into Judaism was really shocking, and if you would have told me that I was going to do this for a living, I never would have believed you, because I too had a theater background. I too have a dancer background. I did all of that Never in my life. If you had told me this, I would have said you're absolutely crazy. So I think that what you're saying is really interesting, and this is what we also learned and I remember one of my rabbi teachers saying this to me too, when we talked about the feeling. Even when somebody gets a disease, we talked about the feeling. Even when somebody gets a disease, right, the feeling is God. What did I do? Why are you punishing me? And there's two things that happened.
Judy Greenfeld:One of my colleagues said you know, god doesn't do that. God doesn't come into our lives in that way. Do that. God doesn't come into our lives in that way. God is not out to punish you even though, by the way, I grew up with a punishing God but God doesn't give you an ailment and God does not strike you down or punish you for whatever you're going through or your family. God is the good that you can find in it. God is the strength that you find. God is you being able to cope. And that really struck me because I began to believe in a God that wanted me to get up the next day and use this as something that was going to strengthen me and that was helping me cope. And I, to this day, truly believe that.
Judy Greenfeld:The other thing is and I think I don't know if it was Harold Kushner in his book you know why bad things happen to good people, but he also, I think he said something that well, first of all, trauma happens to all people, and the truth is and most and most of the time, I'll get the question well, if there's a God, then how did the Holocaust happen? That's always the first question you get. Yes, that's where everyone goes Right, and I think that's what Harold Kushner did respond to, and if I'm wrong that it was him. Forgive me, but the discussion about that was God was in the resilience, god was in the desire to live, god was in the stubbornness from many of those survivors who said God was in the stubbornness from many of those survivors who said if I died and if I allowed myself to die, it was.
Judy Greenfeld:It meant that Hitler achieved his goal and I was not going, and it meant that evil reigned on earth and I, as long as I was alive, I knew there was good on earth. And that's a very high level of thinking. I mean that was incredible that there was this altruistic idea. I mean even in Frankl's book Man's Search for Meaning right, that's the book he came out with.
Judy Greenfeld:He was saying that he lived for other people. He lived in order to tell his story. He lived for other people. He lived in order to tell his story, and that affected me greatly and I think that that affects many Jewish people and I think it gives them a lot of hope that they make a difference, that their experience and what they do means something, and we're all looking for meaning in our lives like that.
Nicole Kelly:I want to jump into something you mentioned earlier about finding your way back into Judaism and then deciding to become a member of the clergy. So you, as you mentioned, you're both a rabbi and a cantor. Yes, I want to know what the decision behind all that was kind of what the deciding? Because I think when you make a career change, there's like an aha moment that you have, because I know what my aha moment was and I feel like I tell it all the time. But what was the aha moment for you? What made you decide that you wanted to do both and what was that process like? Because it's a very strenuous process, I know that.
Judy Greenfeld:Yeah, I think that I had met friends of mine who were clergy and I started to go back to synagogue and found people who were close to my age or women and men who I just thought were really great people. I loved hanging out with them, I loved things that they had to say and I saw them as modern Jews. And I saw them as modern Jews that my thought of a rabbi or cantor with a beard and one of those hats and that wasn't what was happening anymore and that they could have a life. And these friends of mine did go out to the movies and they were normal people.
Judy Greenfeld:Yes, they exist and when I would go to workshops, I saw who they were and they were wonderful people and I think that I began to think well, and my aha moment is what do you want to leave on this planet? What really is my sole purpose? And I was at the time doing a lot of dream work almost for 30 years with a teacher, connie Kaplan, with my co-author, tamar Frankel, and this dreaming was not the dreaming that you find in Jungian therapy. This was more Native American, based, where there are circles of women who come together and they give parts of their dream to this circle and they begin to see how it's like a puzzle, how they are dreaming in reality of work. I took very seriously traditions. I took very seriously when I would see ceremony and I saw how incredible that was and how powerful even just a dream circle was, and so, as a dream circle, I feel like I don't know very much.
Nicole Kelly:I know a lot about, like Judeo Christian religions, but a part of me is my husband's, and my psychiatrist always tell me to meditate and I feel like my brain does not work. My brain does not work with that Um and I won't hear but he, but I feel like I don't know as much about Eastern or native American ritual and ceremonies.
Judy Greenfeld:I'm happy to tell you about it and I've, and my books that I've written are connecting a lot of that to Judaism. I mean, then I wrote those books 20, with Tamar Frankel almost 25 years ago, so they were very cutting edge at the time. But when you ask me what is a dream circle? And in the second book that Tamar and I wrote, it was called Entering the Temple of Dreams, and at that time I never realized that our patriarchs always saw God in the dream. And if you think about it, okay, right, but we don't think of it that way because we just say, oh, and Joseph was a dreamer, but it doesn't occur to us that the same dreams that we have at night may have power. So when Ramar and I explored this and wanted to talk about Jewish dreaming, we studied Talmud and we looked at all these sources and because the men were really connected to writing Talmud, their interpretation was very stilted. They didn't. Some of it was stilted, I should say they were worried about nocturnal emissions and those kinds of things.
Judy Greenfeld:However, the most brilliant rabbis, who were spiritual and were connected Kabbalistically, talked about the fact that dreaming is a 60th. Now, a 60th is a measurement in kashrut. That's just enough to count, but it doesn't really count. So if something is a 60th of non-kosher it still counts, but if you don't kashrut, you can kind of get by with it. You should kashrut, but you could get by with it. One 60th is just like just enough to count. So there's all of these measurements that are in the Talmud about 1 60th and 1 60th of dreaming is prophecy and 1 60th of dreaming.
Nicole Kelly:It's fast and make me cry, because I'm going to tell you a story. My family makes fun of me because I have very vivid dreams, very vivid that I remember. Like I will remember a dream I had years ago and then I dream about friends that have passed away a lot. And the night I got engaged I had a dream that my grandmother, who was gone, we were in like some hospital situation and she was trying to touch me and these people were holding her back and she couldn't talk. So I always felt like she was trying to come through and I have never had dreamed about her before or since and I all I have a lot of I know like that's why I've been crying, because I dreams are very much a part of my life and I, like my sister's, like I never remember my dreams. I'm like you're crazy because I have such vivid dreams that I remember years later. So I am obsessed with this concept now, ok, I love this.
Judy Greenfeld:You'll love Connie Kaplan's books on dreaming. Ok, that's number two. You'll love my book Entering the Temple of Dreams, because I'll have to check that out. Yeah, things that you feel, but so if so, dreaming there are.
Judy Greenfeld:there's the bedtime shema that we say at night, and the last prayer says that you step into the. It's called the hamapio and you step into the pupil of your eye is what it says, and the belief is that at night your soul unties itself and travels in like a grid of the dream realm, which is very ethereal, that can have maybe people from your past, people who are not embodied, and think about it. When the morning comes, the very first prayer you say is Thank you, god for returning my soul to this physical body. And so there's confirmation which is in my books, and our books are really well, well notated. You can find anything where we got the material and it's very, very Talmud based. And what's so interesting is we don't we've never, I never, but many people don't see, never saw it that way or don't see it that way. Mainstream Judaism doesn't teach it that way, and you find it more in Kabbalah and mysticism.
Nicole Kelly:Native Americans have something similar?
Judy Greenfeld:yes, and what the Native Americans believe is that also, their soul travels at night and it heals and it does, it's, it does work, you know, and that sometimes there are different kinds of dreaming and it's all connected to the moon. Now, judaism, as jews, were people of the moon. That's what we are governed by, because our calendar is a moon calendar versus the roman calendar a sun calendar. So every month, basically, you're going to have different kinds of dreaming and there's 12 types of dreaming.
Judy Greenfeld:Some dreams are more prophetic, some have your ancestors in them, but everybody's dreaming has a different language. That's why it's not Jungian, that's why you can't look it up language, that's why it's not Jungian, that's why you can't look it up and that's why you talk about it in a circle, because you can't really um interpret your own dreams. So, uh, women, native American women, would come together and they would share their dream and they would start and they would also pass a stone around and create this, this vortex of energy where they were really bringing in other consciousness. You know of what they were meant to know. Number one and when I say prophecy too, it doesn't mean that if you dream you're dying, or that someone dies, that they're going to die.
Nicole Kelly:That's very rare my great grandmother was like that though she literally she would have a dream. My mom was like. She was like a witch. She'd have a dream the last Friday of every month and it would always come true, and she knew that my mom's sister was going to die.
Judy Greenfeld:Well, she knew Some people are gifted with certain things. Maybe that wasn't such a gift and I do believe that there are look, I know, many Jewish psychics. They're just sensitive and they're very, very attuned. And I am not psychic, but I do want to say, and I'll tell you my experience with dreaming, and I'm not unlike your sister, I could not remember a dream at all and where you have to write down your dream in the morning, so that number one, you don't lose it during the day and so you can share it in dream circle. I could never remember my dreams and I never thought I was a dreaming woman. And when I went to my teacher, connie, I said I want you to help me stop dreaming, because my dreams are scaring me. You know they're either about someone chasing me, or you know those typical dreams that you would have that would just like make you go, or I would wake up in the dream and I have those two.
Nicole Kelly:It's like night terrors. And children before adults Like I will. Literally this doesn't happen as much anymore. I would wake up screaming.
Judy Greenfeld:Right, and what she taught me. She laughed and she said you're a dreaming woman. And I said no, but she said, okay, tell me what your dream was. So I had this dream that I was in the bathroom and all these spiders were coming out of the toilet and I was like like what kind of? Why would I have a dream like that?
Judy Greenfeld:And she, she said, judy, what are spiders? They're when they're the feminine, and they can create a web out of nowhere. You, you've seen the webs that they create. They're weavers of the web. And that's what a dreaming woman is. She weaves reality. And she said that. And so she said that is kind of like your spider medicine is your strength as a woman and as somebody who's able to weave these different parts of these different educations together. And the other thing is, if you have a bathroom dream, the bathroom is the one place think about it where we are all connected. We're all connected through plumbing and that's the weave underground. So it's it. And that I'd never heard anything like that. And and I was like, oh, okay. So over the years, oh, I tried everything to remember and write down my dreams, and I do have a lot of journals. There's much more to it than that. However, in that work, we also began to do soul contract readings, and your soul contract is based on your astrological chart, because it's like a cookie cutter in time and space.
Judy Greenfeld:Boom, there's energy in that, and right now, actually, I'm teaching a class on Judaism, monthly Judaism, that Judaism, every month, has energy, every holiday has energy, but every month of the Jewish calendar year is filled with energy. That is documented. It is. You have an astrology sign that's connected to it. There's Gematria connected to it, there are Hebrew letters connected to it, there are holidays connected to it. There are Torah portions connected to it. There's a winter, spring, summer, fall energy to all of this and it's ancient, but it's very relevant and it's so much a part of my how I live my life. Um, you know, I created something like this years ago and this is how I teach.
Judy Greenfeld:Judaism is oops, I'll turn it around the other way was the cyclical nature of the Jewish calendar which was grounded. In two weeks we're going to have the Torah portion and more. Our holidays were set, time was set for the Jewish people and around agriculture and around nature and the natural steady rhythm of nature that we're asked to go back to. So we're not so anxious and you know. So, you know, I'm talking about four different things at once.
Nicole Kelly:Yeah, we've got a whole lot of yeah, just great.
Judy Greenfeld:I want to talk to you about even meditation. You know there are meditations in a service let's just say a Jewish service and there's talking, or if there's silence, at the Kedusha, people don't know what to do with themselves. And there are so many ways of learning how to meditate. There's so many kinds of meditation. I always liked someone guiding me through meditation, but there is breath work. You're a singer, you're connected to vibration.
Judy Greenfeld:I worked with sound bowls during the time of COVID because I wanted to bring my vibration up, so to speak, and if you sing, your vibration is higher. That's why we sing the Torah right when we sing in trope, shabbat, shiril, adonai, all of it, the song of the sea. It was on a shot level, simple level. Yes, it was song, but on a higher level, it was sound waves that changed the world. And so these are the beautiful levels of studying Judaism that my mind was already open to, from meditation, kundalini yoga, you know, and all the breath work connected to that. I did somatic dancing. I still do things where I am connecting my body and what my body's going through to prayer, to singing, and what my body's going through to prayer, to singing, to all of this because it has an effect on my physicality. You know your body's made out of water. It's affected, yes, right. And you know that as a mom and as a singer, you can only sing as you, you know, because it floats along your Um, when was that?
Nicole Kelly:So you're doing a, a dream circle.
Judy Greenfeld:Yes, and I began to ask the bigger questions, like what my sole purpose is, what is my life purpose? What does my soul yearn for? And then there's the Jewish piece that went what do I want to leave here after me? And this was after I had my children and I realized that I wanted to bring all the things that I love together, and that happened with my books. Working with Tamar Frankel helped me to understand that. I had a mind that you know, and I could teach about something because I was a physical trainer and I was a dancer, and so I knew things about the physical body that made sense to me through my training in those fields, and I help people heal their bodies.
Judy Greenfeld:So after those it really the aha moment was a combination of the dream work of writing two books with Tamar Frankel and going into the Jewish world and seeing that people were really tough on me because they asked me well, what are your credentials and how do you come to know this, all this stuff? And I, you know I was young at the time and that shocked me and I explained what my credentials were, but in the Jewish world that didn't mean anything. So when I, what I decided is that I wanted a voice out in the world because I had something to teach that no one else was teaching and there was no cantorial school in California. And I again was friends with cantors and I went to some of the cantors assembly conferences and there were enough people in there who wanted to be ordained, who couldn't leave their families, move to New York, go to Cincinnati. We came together and we formed the Academy of Jewish Religion, which it took a couple of years, but it came together and became a viable school, an accredited school, and I went, I went and I finally had the money to do it. I didn't before.
Judy Greenfeld:In my forties my ex-husband, all of a sudden was making enough money and he said go to school, go become a cantor. You love this, you believe in it and you're creating your Judaism as a spirituality that is really fulfilling to you. So go be a cantor, cause I sang first. So I went back to school and I thought that was it, you know, and I was working at Temple Emanuel in Beverly Hills and there wasn't enough room for two cantors that were myself and another cantor that was there, and so when I left that job I was really sad and again here's my epiphany was really sad. And again here's my epiphany start your own. So I started my own minion and people came and I made a promise to God. I said as long as you bring 10, I'm there.
Judy Greenfeld:That spiraled into having a high holidays and then I realized if I didn't have temple membership, no one was there after high holidays and you know I'd have to build that back up again. So I, and then 10 women came to me and said I want to study Torah with you. So I studied in my home and tens kept showing up me and 200 later over 15 years, the Nachshon Minyan thrived on people who did not fit into the mold of the conservative Judaism you and I talk about even the reformed Judaism. I wanted to create a space where people could belong. They could be divorced, they could be intermarried, they could be divorced, they could be intermarried. And then their children started coming and I never wanted to teach children. And again the mama came where God said you know, this is, this is 10 more. And every time 10 showed up.
Judy Greenfeld:I was there and it was the most beautiful experience of my life hundreds of children, bar and bat mitzvah, high holidays, with all of them singing all the way through. Just incredible stories of people feeling rejected by Judaism, coming back because their children made them come back. So many Bar Mitzvah kids. It just was really. You know, I worked with a great a woman, a great executive director. It was creative, we were on the cutting edge and after COVID even though we survived and all of that, I then got the message I was done.
Judy Greenfeld:However, I want to go back really quick About seven years in to being to not shown. I brought rabbis and cantors and different rabbis and nobody liked them. I never had the confidence that I could become a rabbi and didn't have many women models and I realized that people would say, well, where's the rabbi? And I decided to go back because I wanted my people to feel that they got the real thing. And so I went back to my school and I said is there a possibility that I can go back? I know I've taken a lot of the courses already that rabbis take, because cantors and rabbis take a lot of the same courses, and they said, absolutely, take, because cantors and rabbis take a lot of the same courses and they said absolutely. In fact, we're having our first year where we are ordaining people to be rabbis and cantors. It's because they could see it. We could see it in the future that the future of synagogues is.
Judy Greenfeld:They couldn't afford both and they were expensive right, and so they were hiring one or the other usually a rabbi, who could sing, sort of, and so that's what happened is I joined. I told them I'm going to have to do this slowly because I have a family and I have a congregation. They were fine with it. In 2015, I handed in my dissertation and graduated, so I was in seminary for about 10 years and I loved it.
Nicole Kelly:I love going to school. I feel like I'm already like I'm going to get my PhD, I plan to finish to get my PhD and I'm like, and then I'll get a second master's in psychology and I'm really interested in intergenerational trauma. So it was like I'll specifically be a therapist catering to three G's and I'm like I'm creating these.
Judy Greenfeld:Yeah, I've.
Nicole Kelly:I'm like I'm going to be in school till I'm 90 years old, so I totally understand. It's so funny You're talking about not affording clergy, because this is part of the conversation I was having about Union for Reform, judaism selling the building. They have low like student count and we were talking about how back in the day, rabbis and can they used to give them houses and that's not something that happens anymore, Could you imagine getting like a job as a rabbi and then like use your house and that was something that was common amongst all religions?
Nicole Kelly:Like my friend, my friend Matt, his father father was a minister and they lived in a house that was given to them by the church. That doesn't exist anymore.
Judy Greenfeld:That was right next door probably.
Nicole Kelly:Yeah, exactly it was. You know it was the parish house. They don't do that anymore. I feel like I don't know if it's declining membership or people are just not paying as much, or whatever it is is it's.
Judy Greenfeld:You know, you have to run a single like a business at some point and it gets expensive for some people and it's very difficult, like you were saying a very different um body of people who are donating and who are validating synagogues and clergy because clergy are expendable and the clergy that you may have had growing up, they were treated in a very different way too. And I remember the clergy that you may have had growing up, they were treated in a very different way too, and I remember the day that they were just that clergy was coming to our workshops and things, just saying I was just discarded like an old man, old cloth or whatever. There was a lot of covet and respect and care that was taken towards the clergy that does not even exist at all anymore.
Nicole Kelly:Yeah, a lot of. Especially I noticed reform rabbis. There's a lot of jumping around, maybe because they're trying to like, they're trying to to get better or in higher positions, but there's a lot of jumping around, I've noticed, which I think would be really stressful.
Judy Greenfeld:Yeah, I mean, I, I wanted a home. The congregation that I'm with now I didn't think I was going to go with another congregation, and there's my aha moment is the man who I am my partner. He's a canter. He was in Los Angeles and he was offered a temporary job in Fort Worth, texas. They loved him, they hired him on the spot, basically, and I came out here to teach at his synagogue, the class I'm talking to you about the monthly energy, and on top of that, I was teaching my books there, all the different prayers, the traditional Jewish prayers connected to spirituality and and Kabbalah and movement, cause I created movement to these, these prayers, and I just this is so weird.
Judy Greenfeld:I was in the Jewish community, we were doing a Yom HaShoah and this man saw me and he said we've been looking for a rabbi for you know, the last five years. Um, would you maybe be interested? Um, we don't like anyone that we've had. And I was literally hired last June. You know, it was just like boom and I moved here in July and started in August. So, and I'm here in Fort Worth, texas, in Colleyville, and talk about trauma. Nicole, this is interesting for you. I don't know what happened in Colleyville, but they had a hostage incident in 2022. And they there were four congregants, and there were four congregants five congregants who were held and the rabbi were held up by a terrorist and it was a horrible, horrible situation and they suffered because of. You know how the whole thing panned out is that it was during COVID. It was a time where their rabbi was transitioning out and this happened and it drove people away and they're just having a renaissance now.
Nicole Kelly:This is at your synagogue that this happened. I remember this and the rabbi kind of like talked him down and I remember because anything bad happens in the Jewish community I feel like it's just inundated. I know my husband's always like what are you watching on social media? That I'm getting these videos and I'm like, well, the same things I'm always watching, but of all places to be asked to work somebody who had experienced trauma, gun violence, those kinds of things that you're talking about.
Nicole Kelly:What was that transition like moving to Texas? I feel like, as someone who spent so much time in California, that must have been a huge culture shock. I'm still in it.
Judy Greenfeld:I I did a program for the daughters of Abraham. It's an. It's an incredible group of women, like 50 women from every type of Christianity Muslim group, um that have come together, that are daughters of Abraham and they want to find their commonalities. And there is such a diverse group of Christianity. I didn't even know they all existed and there's a real desire to you know, have interfaith dialogues, interfaith experiences. Just on Sunday we showed the movie October 8th, which just came out, to the Methodist church across the street. First, I was thrilled. They were interested. There were about 50 people, 80 people that showed up, half their congregation, half ours, and they just didn't know and that they trusted our community to bring something that was about democracy in america and bigger than judaism. Also, they didn't know so there's so much going on.
Nicole Kelly:Here is what I'm trying to say good because I feel like I hear things about tex. I'm like, oh Texas. The interfaith dialogue is so important because a lot of the kids I work with at the museum have never met a Jewish person before and, being in the New York metropolitan area, you can ask how is that possible. They lived in really insular communities and I'm the first Jewish person they've ever met. There's a lot of research. I was fighting with somebody today on Instagram about this because they were like where is this study? And I said, well, it's new. It's literally brand new. It's not even been published yet about how Holocaust education does not prevent antisemitism. You need to humanize Jewish people, you need to introduce Jewish culture and values and say this is literally what you do and a lot of what you believe in, and I love that you're making that happen in a place like Texas where it can. There's so much divisive stuff happening there.
Judy Greenfeld:Well, also, it's so interesting again, and I had this epiphany just over Yom HaZikaron and Yom Ha'atzma'ut. Really, I mean I love Theodor Herzl. I was just blown away. That Theodor Herzl Museum in Israel just woke me up and I just thought to myself the least likely Jew who did this work. He was a journalist, he was not interested, he was not a religious Jew. He's the last one interested. He was not a religious Jew, he's the last one. I mean, that's how we are in this day and age People who really they get grabbed by the neck. I'm one of those people, you know, and I wanted my congregation to love Theodor Herzl as much as I did and I've researched so many things about him. But here's the thing that struck me First of all, the word Zionism, I know for many Christians is very scary because they've been convinced that it's become a dirty word, it's become an ism.
Judy Greenfeld:And I will say don't even use the word Zionism, just mean the belief that we, that the Jewish people, should have a homeland, because that word I can see is a trigger, that the Jewish people should have a homeland, because that word I can see as a trigger. But I realized that I grew up and maybe you did too believing that Israel was the antidote to the Holocaust. I really believe that, that if Israel exists, the Holocaust would never happen. Yeah Right, I believe that with all my heart and soul. And when I taught about Israel, I would never happen. Yeah Right, I believe that with all my heart and soul. And when I taught about Israel, I would teach that.
Judy Greenfeld:And now, and this was the first time I said this, I said you know, that was Herzl's dream and he died at 44. 40 years later, israel becomes a state. We all think that. And now it isn't the truth, because anti-Semitism is worse than ever and it's become anti-Zionism. And that was the first time I was a little scared. I thought, wow, when the Jewish people are strong, the world wants to kill them.
Nicole Kelly:That's what Dara Horn says. Is that people love dead Jews? Is that the Jews?
Judy Greenfeld:who are?
Nicole Kelly:dead? Yes, they're not. And, Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sachs, I was at a Yom HaShoah event with 3GNY and it was really interesting. It was a Seder for Yom HaShoah, it was like an order of events and it was really interesting. It was like an order of events and there was a.
Judy Greenfeld:It was really interesting they had a an excerpt of a speech that he gave about how in the medieval times they hated us because of our religion and then in the late 19th century became a race, and now it is a hatred of the fact that we have Israel. That's become the new anti-Semitism. And did you see his little? The cartoon thing that he has of anti-Semitism is anti-Judaism or anti-Semitism is anti-Zionism. No, I haven't seen that. Look on his website. It's amazing. But anyway, go ahead.
Nicole Kelly:It's crazy, and I've a lot of people I think think well, no, I'm not, I'm not anti-Semitic, I'm just anti-Israel, and it's the only country I think I'm not. I'm not anti-Semitic, I'm just anti-Israel, and it's the only country I think. But it's the only country you think shouldn't exist. And they've kind of become wrapped up in this literal terrorist rhetoric. And I'm several blocks from Columbia, so I feel like I'm in the middle of this and these kids are walking around and they just want to shake them and say please, you know, wait till your frontal lobe is developed to make these choices that you're making.
Nicole Kelly:And it's a very scary time. It's very scary and I think the only good thing that has come from that is people are embracing their Judaism in a way that I don't think I've ever seen before. People are learning. I think people are converting. I think you know my guest that I talked to last week. She was in the middle of her conversion when October 7th happened and she said her. She thought the rabbi who was helping her with her conversion thought she was going to leave.
Judy Greenfeld:Well, one of the men who was who wanted to convert in my congregation, uh, who went through the hostage experience. The rabbi said to him I bet you're not going to want to convert anymore. He said, even more so. And I've converted many. And there's at least five right now that have come to me over the last year in Colleyville in Texas that want to convert. And I said and the first thing I say to them is are you sure, do you know what's going on with anti-Semitism? And they said, even more so it's in my soul. It's time now even more so.
Nicole Kelly:It's in my soul. It's time now. I think that's the only good things come out of this is we've shown we can rally together. And what's beautiful is, Jews of every background are experiencing the same thing and they are saying the same things and I feel it's much more of a like we're talking about there's separation of everything. I think it's much more of a tribe and community feel than it ever has been before, because we've done this before a couple times and we know how it can end and we're going to make sure that that never literally never again, never happens again. And I love that the converts are coming on.
Nicole Kelly:If you're interested in converting and listening, please call Rabbi Cantor Judy. So I want to touch on a couple things. I want to talk a little bit about what your advice would be to Jews who are interested in exploring other non-Jewish aspects of their spirituality, because that's obviously something that you've done. But let's say, you come from a Jewish background, you grew up Jewish, but you're interested in exploring things like Buddhism or things like meditation or Native American spirituality. Is there a place where that can live together? What is your advice to that?
Judy Greenfeld:Yeah, and I remember feeling, is this sacrilegious? And is studying soul contracts? And is this conflicted information? The truth is, the reason why a lot of jews love buddhism is because there's no deity, there's no deity that you are giving yourself to. So buddhism is fine. It's his beautiful philosophy, I think it especially about life and death, and Judaism shares a lot of it. So, you know, don't it will teach you meditation, and it's a different kind of meditation that you'll find, maybe in your um, in your Jewish services. Um, because we, you know the Jewish services, don't have a lot of silence, at least the ones that I've gone to.
Nicole Kelly:We're afraid of silence.
Judy Greenfeld:obviously Try to bring meditation in. People get a little frightened when it gets quiet. They don't know what to do. So yoga, kundalini, all of those things Wonderful, wonderful practices, not only for your physical body but your mind and your soul. When you're dealing with a soul you're not dealing with, you know. That's where we come together. That's why people love the word spirituality, because it talks about soul. We all have souls and they don't have a religion as far as other kinds. Because I love healing and I have gone through all types of healing and many of us want to heal our souls and our hearts that get broken, and there's a lot of different ways to do it.
Judy Greenfeld:So I say have your Jewish identity and search, be a searcher and a seeker, and don't just take my word for it or Nicole's word for it there. There's so much online today. Find out for yourself, look up on Safaria things that I've said that you might question. One of the reasons, by the way, nicole, the reason I went to Cantoral school and to rabbinic school, is because I wanted to know if what I was taught was true. Is it true that you can't be buried in a graveyard, in a Jewish graveyard, if you have a tattoo? And what about the women who have tattooed eyebrows and tattoos on their you know lips and their eyes? What about them? You know, and I found, and I wanted to know if, just because my, my rabbi said this, if this is what Judaism thought, and what do the Orthodox conservative reform? And are you allowed to pick and choose and are you called the pick and choose Jew? Guess what? Everyone's a pick and choose Jew. I don't care who you are, and we need to respect each other.
Nicole Kelly:Thank you for saying that, because I feel like this is my problem with a lot of people who identify as modern Orthodox. We lived in a building with a lot of them and they would get in the elevator and ask us to push the button, which I said I'm not allowed to push the button, I'm Jewish. And then they were like oh, but they were, but it was fine if someone else pushed the button. And that's very pick and choose and I feel like yeah it's also making people feel bad.
Judy Greenfeld:You know, yeah, it's also making people feel bad. You know, we're not supposed to create discomfort for somebody else because of what our beliefs are. There's a lot of hypocrisy and the truth and I wanted to know I I would ask these rabbis and cantors, what's going on in your head when you're so fast? Are you really taking in what that prayer says? And we were in a situation where they could say well, we don't need that, we just the. The exercise of it is just. You know, it's like doing calisthenics for many it was and being in rhythm with everybody else. But in today's world they, people, need to know what they're saying. You know it doesn't fly by the way with the next generation. You know it doesn't fly by the way with the next generation.
Judy Greenfeld:I was told to go and I went. Kids are not going to go because you tell them to go. They just aren't. They're too rebellious and you should hear some of the things these bar mitzvah kids say. But I embrace it because I say you know, if you don't want to be here, go, go. I, I don't. I don't want to be here, go. I don't want to be here with you. But I do happen to get the children who are serious and who want to be there. And I tell the parents, if you're making your kid do this, don't. It's not worth it, let them come back later Because if it's forced on you, there's so many stories that I heard, you know, with adults crying because they were forced to do it, they hated it, you know and that, how do you know?
Judy Greenfeld:That's the thing that that needs. You can't force anyone to do this. You have to love it. And I love, I love what I do, I love teaching Judaism from that open standpoint where people get to discover it. They have the dignity of discovering it for themselves and what feels good and that is, um, that's a gift. So you know, kind of, what you were talking about with. Well, the smart questions your husband would say well, is it what your rabbi said? Is it what the conservative? You know? You have to ask those questions.
Nicole Kelly:What are your hopes and goals for your new congregation, because you've been there less than a year? What are the things that you're hoping to accomplish.
Judy Greenfeld:I want to accomplish some stability because the congregation's been through so much, so many changes and different rabbis and all of that. And I want to. I want to bring that next generation. There's a lot of young people coming because I'm there, because they see a woman, they see something new, they see something refreshing to them and my hope is to bring to this congregation and they do love their Judaism music. They didn't have ever have a cantor before. So I want to bring them all different kinds of music and teach about the music and it's beautiful. And I want to teach. I want to give them another layer to what they already know and not have them feel intimidated. I want them to ask the questions so that they can own their Judaism and in a different way, in an even stronger way. That those are, I mean those are my goals, that those are, I mean those are my goals and I think really encouraging that next generation is a biggie.
Nicole Kelly:It's really important.
Judy Greenfeld:It's really important. I think that our future rests with them loving it. And if and if. I just felt that if the next generation is raised the way I was raised, they're not going to love it and they're not going to go Because it becomes like a chore.
Nicole Kelly:You know nobody wants to. You need to bring the joy and I feel like, especially with a lot of religious Jews, I feel like it's not a joy because it's a chore and it shouldn't be. Something like religion shouldn't be. Sometimes it can feel like a chore when it's, you know, the third day of the holidays, but in general it should not feel like that, right? So this last portion of the interview is going to be short form, like the actor's studio, so these don't require long answers. What is your favorite?
Judy Greenfeld:Yiddish word. Oh boy, my mother speaks fluent Yiddish. The first thing that came to my head was kvetch. But I don't know if that's my favorite Moishe Kapoyer is. I don't even know if I'm saying it right, but I think there's just some hysterical sounding words that I make my mother say because she has the accent of it. So for any of your listeners and you know, all of those are great, great words.
Nicole Kelly:The Yiddish world was just brilliant. What is?
Judy Greenfeld:your favorite Jewish holiday? Hmm, I really love Passover and how it goes into the Omer and how it goes into all the Yom's and Shavuot. It's a very rich time and it's very similar to the high holidays on the on the opposite end. But I I love the, the, the, the family connection to Passover, all the different versions of Passover, I love all the music and all the various ways that you can engage children and adults. And then afterwards there's spiritual work for you to do and because I love Musar, I love you know that it kind of, for me, begins with the counting of the Omer and then Shavuot.
Nicole Kelly:If you were to have a bat mitzvah today and have a big blowout party what would the theme be?
Judy Greenfeld:The theme would be all the brilliant people, teachers, that I love. I mean, there'd be a Heschel table, there'd be a Herzl table, there'd be a, you know, rabbi Sachs table. There would be, you know, a Golda table. There would be, you know just, you know, nechama Leibowitz table, aviva Zornberg table, that's you know. I would just want people to know who these brilliant minds were, who have shaped Judaism.
Nicole Kelly:What profession other than your own would you want to attempt? None.
Judy Greenfeld:That's the first time I've gotten that answer no, this is what I wanted to be, and it took a long time to get here, but this is exactly what I wanted.
Nicole Kelly:So if heaven is real and God is there to welcome you, what would you like to hear them say?
Judy Greenfeld:good job, thank you.
Nicole Kelly:I know it wasn't easy, just I would like to hear you know. Good job, it's time to rest. Thank you so much for joining me this evening. This has been amazing and I only cried like twice. I feel like I always cry with my good interviews. This is Nicole Kelly and this has been she Brewed in the City.
