Rabbi Tirzah Firestone, PhD: Harnessing Ancestral Pain into Power

Sounds True: Insights at the Edge

Tami Simon

Religion, Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 4 February 2025

⏱️ 70 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Our understanding of the severe scope of trauma in our world has greatly expanded in recent years. This includes intergenerational trauma, something that all of us likely carry within. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon speaks with Rabbi Tirzah Firestone about her book Wounds into Wisdom and our collective task to acknowledge, face, and work to heal our invisible wounds and break the cycle of intergenerational trauma.

Tami and Tirzah discuss: the concept of “image deposits” and “task deposits”; dreams containing real-life experiences of our ancestors, and how they are far more common than we might think; the shift from impotence to agency; harnessing our pain as a fuel for growth; how the human nervous system holds on to unresolved trauma despite the debilitating consequences; hypervigilance and the dangers of overactive stress hormones; overcoming self-blame, shame, unworthiness, and isolation; unlearning inherited beliefs that impair our well-being; choosing compassion instead of “othering”; the roots of anti-Semitism; kabbalah, the mystical branch of Judaism; disidentifying from victimhood; the power of being witnessed; why healing intergenerational trauma is a gift to both our ancestors and our descendants; self-regulation and coming back home to ourselves in nurturing ways; a guided practice for finding inner safety amid stressors; alchemizing pain into wisdom (instead of passing it on); and more.

Note: This episode originally aired on Sounds True One, where these special episodes of Insights at the Edge are available to watch live on video and with exclusive access to Q&As with our guests. Learn more at join.soundstrue.com.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, friends. My name's Tammy Simon and I'm the founder of Sounds True, and I want to welcome you to the Sounds True podcast, Insights at the Edge.
0:10.9	I also want to take a moment to introduce you to Sounds True's new membership community and digital platform.
0:17.8	It's called Sounds True One. Sounds True One features original, premium, transformational
0:24.7	docu series, community events, classes to start your day and relax in the evening, special
0:32.6	weekly live shows, including a video version of Insights at the Edge with an after-show community
0:40.8	question-and-answer session with featured guests. I hope you'll come join us, explore,
0:47.5	come have fun with us, and connect with others. You can learn more at join.soundstrue.com.
0:54.5	I also want to take a moment and introduce you to the Sounds True Foundation, our nonprofit, that creates equitable access to transformational tools and teachings.
1:07.4	You can learn more at SoundsTrueFoundation.org.
1:11.1	And in advance, thank you for your support.
1:15.9	In this episode of Insights at the Edge, my guest is Rabbi Tears of Firestone.
1:22.8	She specializes in the healing of ancestral trauma and specifically Jewish ancestral trauma.
1:32.3	And this is a topic that is a very close to my heart interest, something I've really
1:40.7	personally been delving into inherited family patterns and specifically
1:47.2	inherited family patterns from the Jewish experience in my own family lineage. And I feel so
1:56.8	fortunate to have the chance to dialogue here with Rabbi Tears of Firestone. She's an author,
2:04.8	O'Yungian psychotherapist, and a leader in the international Jewish renewal movement.
2:11.5	With sounds true, Rabbi Tears of Firestone has created an audio series. It's called
2:17.0	The Woman's Cabala,
2:19.4	Ecstatic Jewish Practices for Women. She's the author of several books, including The Receiving,
2:28.1	reclaiming Jewish Women's Wisdom, and most recently, a book called Wounds Into Wisdom, Healing Intergenerational Jewish
2:39.4	Drama.
	...

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