Stories Of Hope With Tzipora Grodko

Rachel spent years believing that meeting the right person would feel like a movie, complete with instant certainty and butterflies. But after decades of dating, she realized that butterflies were never what made someone right for her. When she finally met Asher at 47, what she felt instead was comfort, respect, emotional intelligence and a connection that continued to grow.
In this episode, Rachel and Asher open up about heartbreak, loneliness, second chances and the very different journeys that eventually brought them together. Their story explores what real love actually feels like, why it may not arrive the way you imagined and how something far deeper can grow when you stop looking for the movie moment.
This week's episode is brought to you in part by:
 
► PZ Deals
 
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Maya and Avi Cohen open up about a side of infertility that almost never gets talked about in the jewish community.. Shortly after Maya was diagnosed with MRKH, she tried to end things with Avi rather than hold him back from having a family of his own. Avi refused to walk away, standing by her through years of uncertainty about what their future would even look like.

Maya and Avi share what it took to get to where they are now, from the shame Maya carried for years to the surrogate who became like family, and the community that showed up for them in ways they never expected. It's an honest, moving conversation about faith, marriage, and refusing to give up hope.

This week's episode is brought to you in part by:

► PZ Deals

Download The PZ Deals app and never pay full price again.

https://app.pz.deals/install/soh

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► Colel Chabad Pushka App

The easiest way to give Tzedaka.

https://pushkapp.cc/soh

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► Western Wall Prayers

Submit your name, and the names of your loved ones, to be prayed for at the Kotel.

https://www.westernwallprayers.org?a_aid=689ea0c620351

DJ couple Eli and Aviva Vogel share the winding, faith-tested road that led them from a bus ride to seminary interviews to nearly six years of marriage. Aviva grew up in a tight-knit Lakewood family as the only girl among brothers, always hoping for a best friend and partner in a spouse. Eli grew up in Philadelphia, drifted away from religious observance, and found his way back through a chance encounter with a pamphlet on personal prayer and a life-changing stint learning in a yeshiva in Tzfat, funded by a stranger's generosity. They first crossed paths on that bus to seminary interviews, reconnected after Eli returned to Israel, and built a serious relationship through long, honest conversations about their values and their future together.
But getting to the chuppah wasn't simple. Aviva's family pushed back hard against the match, a well-meaning rabbi warned her family away from Eli, and Eli was even advised at one point to date other girls just to prove he could move on. The couple held on through a 40-day prayer cycle, multiple rabbinical blessings, and the sudden passing of the rabbi who had first supported them, before a piece of decisive advice from Rav Shalom Kamenetsky pushed them to marry right away. Their story is a real look at what it costs, and what it's worth, to fight for a relationship the people around you don't yet understand.
This week's episode is brought to you in part by:
► PZ Deals
Download The PZ Deals app and never pay full price again.
https://app.pz.deals/install/soh
_________________
► Colel Chabad Pushka App
The easiest way to give Tzedaka.
https://pushkapp.cc/soh
_________________
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► Western Wall Prayers
Submit your name, and the names of your loved ones, to be prayed for at the Kotel.
https://www.westernwallprayers.org?a_aid=689ea0c620351

Hila and Nadav Fluss met through Shagririm Balev, a friends-set-up-friends dating initiative that has quietly produced hundreds of engagements in just a few years, and their story shows exactly why the model works. Hila grew up between Israel and South Korea chasing music, theater, and a life she wasn't ready to trade in for marriage, while Nadav spent nearly eight years dating without finding anything serious, always chasing the "Disney moment" instead of the right person. Raised across Israel, the Philippines, Holland, South Africa, and the U.S. as the son of a diplomat, Nadav eventually realized that the spark he kept waiting for wasn't the point, and that real relationships are built through communication and effort rather than instant magic.
Together, Hila and Nadav open up about the self-work that got them there: Nadav's realization that he needed to stop leaving the moment things got emotionally difficult, and Hila's decision to evaluate partners rationally before letting herself get swept up in excitement. They talk candidly about the fear of commitment so many daters carry, the value of having a trusted ambassador in your corner instead of facing an overwhelming sea of options alone, and what it actually took to go from "he seems like a good guy" to building a life together with a baby now on the way. Anyone who feels stuck in a pattern of dating without direction, or who wonders whether waiting for a feeling is holding them back from a real relationship, will find a lot to sit with in this conversation.

This week's episode is brought to you in part by:
► PZ Deals
Download The PZ Deals app and never pay full price again.
https://app.pz.deals/install/soh
_________________
► Colel Chabad Pushka App
The easiest way to give Tzedaka.
https://pushkapp.cc/soh
_________________
► Shagririm Balev
A friends-set-up-friends dating initiative already responsible for hundreds of engagements, matching singles through trusted ambassadors instead of overwhelming apps.
https://ecp.ou.org/shagririm-balev-usa/
_________________
► Shefa Living
Mountain View by Shefa Living is a new, master-planned Torah-centered community in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, built on halacha, achdus, and authentic Yiddishkeit. 350 acres, with a shul, mikvah, yeshiva, and eruv on-site.
https://go.jcn.io/slsoh
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► Tu B'Av Together
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Maya Rockowitz was 24 and two semesters into a master's program in social work, when she lost her father suddenly and without warning, on a Shabbos that she now recognizes was filled with signs she couldn't have understood in the moment. In this raw and deeply personal conversation, Maya opens up about that Shabbos, about being the one who found him, and about the year and a half since, navigating grief while trying to build a life, date, and eventually get married without the person she calls her rock.
Maya and her host talk candidly about what it actually means to grieve while dating, the pressure to put on a brave face, and why suppressing pain only pushes people further from the person they love. Maya shares the small rituals that keep her connected to her father, the friends who showed up and the ones who didn't, and the hard-won belief that grief isn't something you move on from, it's something you learn to move with. Anyone who has experienced loss, is single and struggling to navigate life without someone they need, or simply wants to understand how to better support a grieving friend will find something here worth holding onto.

This episode was brought to you in part by:
► PZ Deals
Download The PZ Deals app and never pay full price again.
https://app.pz.deals/install/soh
_________________
► Colel Chabad Pushka App
The easiest way to give Tzedaka.
https://pushkapp.cc/soh
_________________
► Shefa Living
Mountain View by Shefa Living is a new, master-planned Torah-centered community in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, built on halacha, achdus, and authentic Yiddishkeit. 350 acres, with a shul, mikvah, yeshiva, and eruv on-site.
https://go.jcn.io/slsoh