Dear Jonah Platt.
Last night, I had a lot of trouble sleeping—and it’s all because of you! More on that in a moment.
First, I want to sincerely thank you for your incredible podcast, Being Jewish with Jonah Platt. I listen to many podcasts focused on Jewish life, Israel, and Torah, but yours stands out as one of the most meaningful and important. There are plenty of shows that talk about Jewish life; yours models it. You show your listeners and viewers that being a “good Jew” isn’t about meeting a single standard of observance but about living authentically and meaningfully as a Jew in today’s world. Your guests come from such varied backgrounds, and through their stories, we hear so many ways of expressing and embracing Jewish identity.
This format is powerful because it helps people—especially those who aren’t rabbis, educators, or Jewish professionals—see how Judaism can be part of their lives in ways they may not have realized before.
I especially enjoyed your 50th episode with your wife, Courtney. At one point, you asked her about her belief in God and prayer, and she shared that she believes in prayer. You, on the other hand, mentioned that you sometimes struggle with that concept. And that’s what kept me awake!
Lying in bed, I started thinking—exactly what you’d expect a rabbi to do at 3 a.m.—about this week’s Torah portion. In Genesis 32:25–31, we read the well-known story of Jacob wrestling with a mysterious man. As Jacob prepares to meet Esau after twenty years apart, he finds himself alone at night—and is suddenly confronted by someone who wrestles with him until dawn. When the struggle ends in a kind of stalemate, the stranger blesses Jacob and declares, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have wrestled with beings divine and human and have prevailed.”
The Hebrew phrase is: כִּי־שָׂרִיתָ עִם־אֱלֹהִים וְעִם־אֲנָשִׁים וַתּוּכָֽל — Ki sarita im Elohim v’im anashim vatukhal. The root שׂ־ר־ה (S-R-H) means “to persist” or “to persevere.” This teaches that our engagement with the divine is not about certainty or perfect faith—it’s about persistence. To “wrestle with God” means to stay in the struggle, to keep asking, reaching, and striving. And in that persistence, we find holiness.
So, your words about prayer struck me deeply. Perhaps prayer isn’t always about belief in a traditional sense. It can also be an act of wrestling—a way of staying in conversation with the divine even when certainty feels far away. Like Jacob, when we persist, we come away changed.
Thank you again for creating a space where Jewish ideas, questions, and struggles can be explored so openly. Your podcast is helping so many people, including rabbis like me, find new inspiration in what it means to live as part of Am Yisrael—the people who continue to wrestle and persevere before God.
With appreciation and admiration,
Rabbi Philip Goldwasser
