Reclaiming Sacred Texts - Looks Like Work, Season 3, Ep 4
Some doors slam shut so early, you don’t even know you’re locked out.
Other times, you’re pushed through them—and find your way back through the window.
In this powerful conversation with Talmud scholar and activist Chaya Gilboa, we talk about what it means to reclaim tradition. Not as a rebellion, but as a birthright.
Chaya grew up ultra-Orthodox in Jerusalem, in a world where women didn’t study sacred texts. She’s now a teacher, a mother, and a woman who can name exactly what lit up in her body when she did start learning Talmud—and what went silent for years before that.
This episode is about embodiment and intellect, spirit and systems, grief and grit.
It’s about making the sacred personal, and the personal sacred.
We talk about:
Studying Talmud as an act of radical, embodied defiance
The exile from your own body that strict modesty norms can create
What it feels like to be in sync — spiritually, intellectually, emotionally
Why reclaiming spiritual traditions is both an individual and collective act
How to create meaning from texts written with no place for you in mind
The tension of being a spiritual leader, a working parent, and a full human
Chaya drops a question that might just mess with your sense of forward momentum (in the best way):
👉 “What am I chasing after, and what am I running from?”
In a time where burnout is often mistaken for purpose, and numbness for peace, this conversation is a reminder to check your pulse—on your work, your joy, your connection to something larger.
You don’t have to become a rabbi (unless you want to).
But if you’ve ever felt alienated from a system that shaped you, and longed to wrestle meaning back into your own hands—this one’s for you.
In a time where burnout is often mistaken for purpose, and numbness for peace, this conversation is a reminder to check your pulse
Resources & Mentions:
Explore Chaya’s work: chayagilboa.com
Follow Chaya on Instagram: @chayagilboa
Catch up on previous seasons of Looks Like Work wherever you get your podcasts: Spotify | Apple | Podbean
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