"Charging the Heart" with Rabbi Joey Wolf

In this premiere episode of Every Day Courage, hosts David Millstone and Stephan Dweck welcome their very first guest: Rabbi Joey Wolf. With humor, depth, and vulnerability, they explore the many forms courage can take—from choosing a spiritual path in a skeptical era to confronting personal failings in everyday life. Rabbi Wolf reflects on what it means to “charge the heart,” the Hebrew origin of the word for courage, and how truth, tradition, and internal voice guide our most daring actions.

In this episode, we discuss:

• ​How Rabbi Joey Wolf became a rabbi during a time of declining institutional religion and how that required personal and spiritual courage.
• ​The Hebrew phrase Imutz lev—“charging the heart”—as a guiding principle of courage.
• ​Joey discusses his internal struggle with shame and societal expectations, including a revealing story about participating in a teenaged “rumble.”
• ​Stephan and David reflect on inherited trauma, family legacy, and listening to the longer, quieter truths we carry from generations past.
• ​They talk about cultivating courage as a habit, influenced by the Jewish ethical tradition of Musar—daily character-building through mindful practice.
• ​Joey opens up about failures of courage in mundane moments, like a tense library confrontation, and the wisdom found in knowing when to walk away.
• ​Joey also shares his creative journey post-retirement, including writing (and rewriting) a novel that explores ancestry, memory, and the promise of global connection.
• ​The hosts wrap with a rose and thorns round on recent moments of courage and fear—including David’s hesitance to wear a Star of David in public and Stephan’s professional silences.

Guest:

JOEY WOLF Grew up in Boston, Graduated Brandeis 1973, Masters of Hebrew Letters and Ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary (New York) in 1979. Was the rabbi of Havurah Shalom in Portland from 1987-2017, built it from a tiny progressive community into several hundred households - active in honest spirituality, social justice, audacious Jewish inquiry about the world. Since then, lots of writing and a couple of personal learning projects, including a deep-dive into Yiddish!

Social media: Substack - Joseph Wolf

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Stephan Dweck's Wikipedia

About the Producer: Michelle Simone Miller is an actress producer of Every Day Courage and host of the top-ranked podcast Mentors on the Mic, where she interviews entertainment industry professionals about how they got their start and built lasting careers.

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