How Suffering Transforms Us with Rabbi Steve Leder

Rabbi Steve Leder joins us to talk about grief, suffering, and transformation. He shares with us why he wrote the best-selling book More Beautiful than Before: How Suffering Transforms Us and shared that it included an apology for all the people he had counseled in the past. He had an awakening after a life threatening car accident that left him in chronic pain, with depression, and an Opioid addiction. Through that experience he learned that much of what he'd endeavored to help people with he didn't truly understand. This show is a great reminder as to why our suffering is transformative and can lead to a deeper and richer life experience. We also discussed that the very act of suffering is not a call to martyr yourself. None of us actually wants to suffer. If we can avoid it we certainly work hard at trying, but leaning into it can transform your life.

Twice-named by Newsweek Magazine as one of the ten most influential rabbis in America, Steve Leder is the Senior Rabbi of Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles, serving over 2,400 families at three campuses. He is the author of such critically acclaimed books as, The Extraordinary Nature of Ordinary Things, an Amazon #1 Best Seller, and More Money Than God: Living a Rich Life Without Losing Your Soul. Described as “a gift” by Forbes, Rabbi Leder’s newest book More Beautiful Than Before; How Suffering Transforms Us, became the #6 Best Seller on Amazon in its first week and has received critical acclaim and remarkable media attention. Leder has been a guest on CBS This Morning, ABC, NPR, PBS, and FOX as well as two appearances on ABC’s Politically Incorrect, NPR, The CBS Early Show, Dennis Miller, The Tavis Smiley Show, Cavuto and Friends, Scarborough Country, Fox Family and Friends and ABC Overnight.

Rick Warren, # 1 New York Times Best Selling Author of The Purpose Driven Life describes Leder’s new book as, “A treasure box of time-tested wisdom; It is clear, compassionate, and compelling.”

Pulitzer Prize-Winning Playwright Wendy Wasserstein said, “Rabbi Leder is a modern wise man; learned, kind, funny and non-judgmental; he finds the true fabric of our spiritual lives.” Rabbi Leder has been featured in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Beliefnet, TIME Magazine, Town and Country and his commentaries in the Los Angeles Jewish Journal were read weekly by over 50,000 people.

The winner of numerous awards, and the subject of the feature film “Restoring Your Tomorrow,” Steve is the recipient of the Kovler Award for his work in interdenominational and cross-cultural dialogue and a contributor to Charles Barkley’s book, Who’s Afraid of a Large Black Man? In it, Rabbi Leder discussed the connections between economics, religion and racism. He is a fellow in the British American Project and was speaker at the prestigious Aspen Ideas Festival, a global gathering of thought leaders from many disciplines who share ideas and issues that both shape our lives and challenge our times. Rabbi Leder is a graduate of Northwestern University; studied at Trinity College Oxford; and was ordained at Hebrew Union College. He lives with his family in Los Angeles.

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