Episode 33: Neighbor: Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg on Collapse, Entanglement, Spiral Time & Minneapolis 2026
In episode #33 I talk with Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg about two terms that have been central to her lately: “collapse” and “entanglement.” We read from and discuss Anna Tsing’s The Mushroom at the End of the World, a book that helps think through these themes. Rabbi Jessica talks about what it’s been like on the ground in Minneapolis this winter, how confronting state violence and authoritarianism in real-time by caring for her neighbors has been both terrifying and profound in how it’s changed her sense of what “entanglement” really means. We discuss how accepting that we are in a time of collapse (of institutions, structures, and climate) might paradoxically help us get out of bed in the morning, rather than paralyzing us with fear. I bring up my obsession with “Longtermism” (not a fan), and Rabbi Jessica shares her thinking around “spiral time” in the context of the Jewish calendar, insisting that we can think long term while “holding the collective liberation of all people on the planet right now in our minds and hearts.” We end by talking about what both personal and collective grief can teach us, awakening us to the now.
Texts and people discussed:
Ross Gay, Inciting Joy: Essays
poupeh missaghi, “When Bombs Fall: Saying Yes to Life”
Susan Raffo with Kelly Hayes, “‘Minneapolis Community Defense Is ‘Riding on the Learning Edge of a Whirlwind’” (Interview)
Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg, For Times Such as These: A Radical’s Guide to the Jewish Year
Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg, “Spiral Time in Collapse: Dvar for Erev Rosh Hashana 5786”
Émile P Torres, “Against Longermism” (Note: I mistakenly credited this essay to Sam Dresser. Dresser edited it, but It was authored by Torres in 2021.)
Anna Tsing, The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins
Music by Ben Roberts : Benjamin.Roberts447@gmail.com
Comments and ideas to Juliealicecarr@gmail.com
Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg
Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg is a teacher, writer, organizer and calendar-maker based on Dakota land in South Minneapolis. She became a rabbi in order to learn diverse and nuanced histories, tell stories, and create spaces, ritual, and organizing that helps transform our relationships to past, present and future. She is co-author, alongside Rabbi Ariana Katz, of For Times Such As These: A Radical’s Guide to the Jewish Year, authored an Introduction to Trauma, Healing and Resilience for Rabbis, Jewish Educators and Organizers. She is a founding collective member of Signal Fire Radical Jewish Artist Cooperative, a member of the Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinical Council, a ritual leader and organizing collective member of World to Come - Twin Cities
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