Elevate Your Entire Shavuot Experience with Esteemed Educator and Speaker Nalini Ibragimov [REPLAY]
Chai on LifeShow Notes
This episode originally aired on June 3, 2024 but is just as relevant today. Enjoy and wishing everyone a beautiful Shavuos! Today we have a really exciting episode to gear up for Shavuot with Esteemed Educator, Speaker and Kallah Teacher Nalini Ibragimov. If you know Nalini, you already know how special she is. I had the privilege of meeting her nearly 12 years ago now when she co-founded a group called Souled, which was a weekly class for young professional women who had been on Israel trips or other programs and wanted to continue their learning while working in New York City. She is a role model to maybe thousands of women at this point through her work on college campuses, as a kallah teacher, someone who prepares brides for their upcoming wedding, Souled and other Jewish organizations. Here’s some more formal info for those who aren’t familiar with Nailni and her work: Nalini Ibragimov attended Barnard College and Moreshet Institute and studied Jewish history in Touro’s master’s program. She lived in Israel for four years where she taught in various institutions. For the following five years, she and her husband worked at Brooklyn College for JLIC, a joint program of the OU and Hillel, where she taught and ran various programs for Jewish students on campus. Nalini taught in Ateres Naava seminary in Brooklyn for 15 years until moving to Long Island a few years ago. Additionally, Nalini has taught hundreds of kallot and is a speaker for My Gift of Mikvah. She is also part of the educational staff of Core. Today, Nalini is the director of the Olami Women's House, which provides a living space for young professional women who seek to live in a nurturing, Torah immersive environment. If you want to apply to live there, click here! If you're a young professional woman, you can also hear Nalini speak Wednesday nights at Safra Synagogue on the Upper East Side at 7:30 p.m. Nalini resides in Woodmere, New York with her husband and takes great pride in her six children and the families they are building.
Now, let’s talk about our episode. In our conversation we speak about: -Nalini’s Jewish journey and how she got to where she is today -How she manages and balances all of the work she does with being a wife and a mother of six children -How she decides what professional responsibilities to take on -What Shavuot really means and the perspective we can have going into it -How we can manage the heaviness all around us right now and channel that pain we’re still feeling into the holiday and use it to create even more connection with Hashem -What a miracle actually looks like and how we can see more of them in our daily lives, right now -How we can use the time we have left before Shavuot to prepare for the holiday — and why the process and the preparation are key -How to connect on Shavuot when you’re home with little kids and not going to learn all night -How the holiday of Shavuot is like a wedding and a beautiful lesson that we can all infuse into our marriages and our relationship to all of klal Yisrael
…and SO MUCH MORE
If you have any questions for Nalini, you can reach out to her at [email protected].
If there's someone you want to see on The Chai on Life Podcast or a topic you want featured, send me an email at [email protected] or a DM on Instagram at @chaionlifemag.
Thanks so much, see you next week!
More from Chai on Life
Today, I’m speaking with Relationship Expert, Chana Levitan.
Hi everyone! Welcome back to another episode of The Chai on Life Podcast. I'm Alex Segal and today, I'm speaking with Keshet Starr, CEO of Shalom Task Force.
This episode originally aired on 9/16/24 but is just as relevant today. Enjoy this replay as we get ready for Yom Kippur. -- Today, I am speaking with Yaffa Moskowitz, the Director of Education at Midreshet Rachel V’Chaya, a seminary in Jerusalem. Here’s a little more about Yaffa: She is a native member the Far Rockaway community and was active in that community and the Five Towns for many years. Yaffa, her husband Danny, and seven children made aliya in the summer of 2013 and now live in Mitzpe Yericho. Yaffa served as teacher and Director of Ateres Seminary for women on the Queens College Campus for 13 years and she was also involved in the Neshei Shor Yoshuv community where she gave chaburas for married women. I met Yaffa when I was a student exactly seven years ago at Midreshet Rachel and have continued to learn from her and with her since. She has such a wealth of knowledge and this conversation really turned into the perfect thing to listen to right in the middle of Elul preparing for the chagim. During this time at Midreshet Rachel, the students learn from the sefer, Tomer Devorah, which teaches us about Hashem’s 13 Attributes of Mercy. As we learn about Hashem and understand who He is more, so to speak, we learn how we can emulate Him more in our own lives, and we used that text as the jumping off point for our conversation. As we spoke, we explored: -What a “sin” actually is in Judaism (it may not be what you think) and how we can always get back on track -How to separate ourselves from the sin and retain our confidence and closeness to G-d through the process -How we can get to the core of what emunah really is on the most basic level and use these foundational concepts to connect to Hashem more deeply -The restraint Hashem has with us every day and how we can apply that concept to our own lives and actions -How to work on letting go of control -Why we should speak to ourselves with more compassion from a Torah perspective -When fear is appropriate in Judaism and what kind of fear that actually is talking about -How we can continue to grow and elevate ourselves year after year …and SO MUCH MORE!
Today, I’m speaking with Hadassah Eventsur. Hadassah is an occupational therapist, educator, transformational coach, Mishpacha Magazine contributor, speaker, and the founder and CEO of MindfullyYou, an educational and support platform dedicated to helping neurodivergent individuals better understand their brains and build lives that work with—not against—them. In her program, she helps women who feel overwhelmed by daily chores and responsibilities, those who are struggling time management and organization and others who simply want more peace, structure and confidence in their daily lives.
Today, I’m speaking with Torah educator, Goldie Sion. Goldie was born in Caracas, Venezuela, and raised in Hollywood, Florida. She has worked with organizations in the past that include Olami Manhattan, Aish Aspire, Jam Israel and now works for Olami Souled. She is passionate about teaching Torah, giving shiurim, and inspiring others through creativity and connection with her Instagram: @goldiesjournal.