The Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen Podcast

In this shiur, Rav Dov Ber Cohen reframes teshuva not as a word of burden or guilt, but as a warm and healing return to one's truest self. Drawing on Shabbat Shuvah and Parshas Ha'azinu, he teaches that the neshama's natural state is love, joy, and awe, and that teshuva is simply the act of remembering where we come from. Rabbi Dov Ber weaves together the inner meaning of Shabbat, the practice of presence, and the silence that underlies all of creation. He shows how menucha is not rest from exhaustion but a return to the stillness that was here before creation began. The yetzer hara, he explains, arrives precisely when we are on the verge of something holy, which is itself a reason for encouragement rather than despair. This shiur is a call to stop running, look up, and recognize that you are never truly disconnected from Hashem. Living in Tune with Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen Mindfulness, Torah wisdom, and inner work for a calmer, more aligned life. Courses & Resources - Living in Tune - 8-Week Foundational Mindfulness Course https://www.rabbidovber.org Join the WhatsApp Community https://bit.ly/4qtfv3p Contact: livingintune.team@gmail.com

In this shiur, Rav Dov Ber Cohen reframes Yom Kippur not as a day of dread but as the happiest day of the year — a day when Hashem floods the world with love and invites us to wipe the slate completely clean. Drawing on the image of the neshama as a light bulb covered by layers of paint, he explains how aveiros do not damage the soul but obscure its light, and how teshuva restores what was always there. Rabbi Dov Ber teaches that teshuva has two stages: first the ratzon, the genuine desire for the relationship, and then the action that proves it. He challenges the tendency to either collapse into shame or coast on divine love, calling instead for a middle path of joyful, motivated self-examination. Practical guidance for the Aseret Yemei Teshuva is offered with warmth and honesty, including how to face the yetzer hara when it arrives to weaken our preparation. Living in Tune with Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen Mindfulness, Torah wisdom, and inner work for a calmer, more aligned life. Courses & Resources - Living in Tune - 8-Week Foundational Mindfulness Course https://www.rabbidovber.org Join the WhatsApp Community https://bit.ly/4qtfv3p Contact: livingintune.team@gmail.com

In this rich pre-Rosh Hashanah shiur, Rav Dov Ber Cohen explores two fundamental archetypes of avodas Hashem — the way of Leah and the way of Rachel. Leah embodies the grounded, joyful servant who shows up regardless of feeling; Rachel burns for inner experience, light, and understanding. Neither is complete without the other, and Rav Dov Ber weaves them together into a vision of what it means to be both an eved and a ben before Hashem. The shiur moves through two madreigos: accepting ol malchut shamayim with full commitment, and the higher bitul of dissolving into Hashem's light entirely. Along the way, Rabbi Dov Ber addresses the yetzer hara with warmth and wisdom — not as an enemy to fight, but as a signal of where you are spiritually and an opportunity to go higher. He closes with a meditation on zachrenu lechaim and what it truly means to be alive: not achievement, not self-improvement for its own sake, but becoming a vessel for kavod Hashem in every moment and with every gift you carry. Living in Tune with Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen Mindfulness, Torah wisdom, and inner work for a calmer, more aligned life. Courses & Resources - Living in Tune - 8-Week Foundational Mindfulness Course https://www.rabbidovber.org Join the WhatsApp Community https://bit.ly/4qtfv3p Contact: livingintune.team@gmail.com

In this shiur, Rav Dov Ber Cohen explores the rare and elevated meeting point of Rosh Hashanah and Shabbat. Drawing from the Netivot Shalom and the Yerushalmi, he unpacks why zichron teruah, the Torah's language of remembering the shofar, points specifically to this day. When Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbat, the shofar is not blown, yet the inner work of crowning the King continues at a deeper level. Memory, kavana, and davening become the vessel. Rabbi Dov Ber teaches that Rosh Hashanah carries yirah, and Shabbat carries ahavah, and that on this day alone both wings are present together. There is no din on Shabbat, no judgment, only the possibility of a relationship fully alive with awe and love at once. The mitzvah becomes the yearning itself, and the yearning becomes a form of closeness that the action alone cannot reach. Living in Tune with Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen Mindfulness, Torah wisdom, and inner work for a calmer, more aligned life. Courses & Resources - Living in Tune - 8-Week Foundational Mindfulness Course https://www.rabbidovber.org Join the WhatsApp Community https://bit.ly/4qtfv3p Contact: livingintune.team@gmail.com

In this shiur, Rav Dov Ber Cohen walks through five essential avodot for the days of Elul leading into Rosh Hashanah. Rather than approaching the season with anxiety or self-criticism, he frames it as a time of extraordinary divine openness — a moment to grow with vitality, not pressure. Rabbi Dov Ber draws from Rav Tzvi Meir Silberberg and Rav Ovadia Yosef to show that Rosh Hashanah is a day of simcha, not dread. He explores kavana in tefillah, the real meaning of cheshbon hanefesh, and how teshuva is not only a reckoning with the past but a conscious, forward-facing commitment to becoming who we want to be. Woven throughout is a reminder that emunah and bitachon are the antidote to anger, fear, and stagnation — and that Hashem, our Avinu Malkeinu, cannot stop thinking about us. The only question is whether we are open to receiving what He is already pouring down. Living in Tune with Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen Mindfulness, Torah wisdom, and inner work for a calmer, more aligned life. Courses & Resources - Living in Tune - 8-Week Foundational Mindfulness Course https://www.rabbidovber.org Join the WhatsApp Community https://bit.ly/4qtfv3p Contact: livingintune.team@gmail.com

In this shiur delivered in the week of Rosh Hashanah, Rav Dov Ber Cohen explores the deeper meaning of Yom Teruah — not merely as a day when shofar is blown, but as a day whose very essence is shofar. Drawing on the Netivos Shalom and a profound mashal from the Baal Shem Tov, he teaches that the mechitzos between us and Hashem are not true barriers. They are woven from Hashem's own light, and the one who yearns hard enough discovers they were never truly separated. Rabbi Dov Ber calls us to approach Rosh Hashanah not with philosophical analysis or accumulated heaviness, but with the cry of a child reaching for an Abba. The shofar blast is not a performance — it is a shattering of small consciousness into something vast. Leave your mind at the door. Scream. Dance. Yield. The treasure is one dig away, and the gates at Ne'ilah are not closing you out — they are locking you in. Living in Tune with Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen Mindfulness, Torah wisdom, and inner work for a calmer, more aligned life. Courses & Resources - Living in Tune - 8-Week Foundational Mindfulness Course https://www.rabbidovber.org Join the WhatsApp Community https://bit.ly/4qtfv3p Contact: livingintune.team@gmail.com

In this shiur, Rav Dov Ber Cohen teaches that speech is the fourth pillar of authentic Jewish spirituality, and perhaps the most overlooked. As the bridge between our inner world and outer reality, how we speak, to ourselves, to others, and to Hashem, shapes who we are becoming. Rabbi Dov Ber unpacks the word lehitpallel as a reflexive act: tefillah is not petitioning Hashem for things but evaluating yourself, connecting to your soul, and envisioning a greater you. He walks through the four dimensions of tefillah, shevach, bakashah, hodayah, and sichah, and makes the case that sichah, simple, spontaneous conversation with Hashem, may be the most powerful of all. From brachos as spiritual microdosing throughout the day, to the practice of saying "Hashem, I know You're here" fifty times daily, this shiur offers a living, breathing vision of what it means to make speech holy. Living in Tune with Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen Mindfulness, Torah wisdom, and inner work for a calmer, more aligned life. Courses & Resources - Living in Tune - 8-Week Foundational Mindfulness Course https://www.rabbidovber.org Join the WhatsApp Community https://bit.ly/4qtfv3p Contact: livingintune.team@gmail.com

In this shiur, Rav Dov Ber Cohen explores the depth of Shabbat candle lighting as one of the most spiritually charged moments of the week. Drawing from the Arizal, the Zohar, and the inner dimensions of Kabbalah, Rabbi Dov Ber reveals that the woman who lights is not simply performing a ritual, but actively drawing the Shechina, shalom, and kedusha into the home. The shiur traces why fire and light hold a singular place in Torah thought: unlike any other physical substance, fire can be shared without diminishment, expands beyond its source, and never grows old. These qualities make it the closest analogy in creation to Hashem's own infinite light. Rav Dov Ber also teaches that the neshama itself is called a ner, and that lighting candles with kavana is an act of illuminating one's inner divine light, of choosing emunah over anxiety, and of stepping fully into presence at the close of the week. Living in Tune with Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen Mindfulness, Torah wisdom, and inner work for a calmer, more aligned life. Courses & Resources - Living in Tune - 8-Week Foundational Mindfulness Course https://www.rabbidovber.org Join the WhatsApp Community https://bit.ly/4qtfv3p Contact: livingintune.team@gmail.com

In this shiur on Nitzavim-Vayelech, Rav Dov Ber Cohen opens with the essential balance the parsha itself encodes: knowing when to stand firm and when to move, when to push with hishtadlut and when to surrender with bitachon. From there, the teaching expands into something far deeper. Rabbi Dov Ber draws on the Zohar's reading of Atem nitzavim to frame Rosh Hashanah not as a day of judgment from above, but as a moment of choosing. Uvacharta bachayim, choose life, is placed in our hands. The books of life and death are not written by Hashem alone. They are written by whether we choose kindness over jealousy, presence over numbness, and connection over sleepwalking through our days. The shofar, the mezuzah, the bracha, the Modeh Ani, all of it is a call to wake up. And Rosh Hashanah, he teaches, is not about whether you succeeded this year. It is about whether you still want the right things. That desire alone is already beautiful. Living in Tune with Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen Mindfulness, Torah wisdom, and inner work for a calmer, more aligned life. Courses & Resources - Living in Tune - 8-Week Foundational Mindfulness Course https://www.rabbidovber.org Join the WhatsApp Community https://bit.ly/4qtfv3p Contact: livingintune.team@gmail.com

In this shiur, Rav Dov Ber Cohen opens a remarkable sefer, Sichot Hischazkus by the Chasidic Rebbe Tzvi Mayer Silberberg, as a guide for what avodah in Elul actually looks like in practice. He names three honest obstacles that prevent even sincere people from taking hold of these holy months: too many competing voices, the spiritual distance of our generation, and the fact that every neshama is its own universe, inspired by different things. Rather than adding pressure, Rabbi Dov Ber invites a different orientation entirely. Hashem has opened something in Elul, a real siyata di-shmaya, and the one thing that blocks us from receiving it is our own heaviness. The avodah begins with a growth mindset, not perfectionism, and with tefillah as authentic communication with Hashem. Even a few honest words, said from the heart, open the relationship. Living in Tune with Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen Mindfulness, Torah wisdom, and inner work for a calmer, more aligned life. Courses & Resources - Living in Tune - 8-Week Foundational Mindfulness Course https://www.rabbidovber.org Join the WhatsApp Community https://bit.ly/4qtfv3p Contact: livingintune.team@gmail.com

In this rich and wide-ranging shiur, Rav Dov Ber Cohen unpacks what teshuva really means at its core: not a checklist of external changes, but a genuine return to healthy relationship — with yourself, with others, and with Hashem. He draws a sharp distinction between New Year's resolutions and the inner transformation that Torah asks of us. Rabbi Dov Ber explores the two stages of teshuva — the ratzon, the deep inner want, and the action that proves the want is real. He teaches that your neshama is always already experiencing ahava, yira, simcha, and devekut; teshuva is the work of bringing your conscious life into alignment with what your soul already knows. He also offers practical guidance on the yetzer hara, inner child work, lashon hara, and how to use bad habits as triggers for connection with Hashem — meeting yourself with honesty rather than performance. Living in Tune with Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen Mindfulness, Torah wisdom, and inner work for a calmer, more aligned life. Courses & Resources - Living in Tune - 8-Week Foundational Mindfulness Course https://www.rabbidovber.org Join the WhatsApp Community https://bit.ly/4qtfv3p Contact: livingintune.team@gmail.com

In this shiur, Rav Dov Ber Cohen dismantles the heaviness that so many of us carry into the season of teshuva. He challenges the common mistake of measuring the teshuva gap against a perfect tzaddik rather than against who we genuinely could be. Real teshuva, he teaches, is not New Year's resolution-making, not Whac-A-Mole with bad habits, and not self-punishment dressed up as sincerity. Rabbi Dov Ber draws a clear line between external avodah and the deeper work of returning to God consciousness. Charata, vidui, and improved middot are means, not the destination. The destination is a neshama that feels alive, present, and in loving relationship with Hashem. Teshuva, at its root, is as simple as a child calling home and saying: Dad, I want to come back. This shiur is for anyone who has made Elul heavier than it needs to be, and who is ready to return not through strain, but through sincerity and presence. Living in Tune with Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen Mindfulness, Torah wisdom, and inner work for a calmer, more aligned life. Courses & Resources - Living in Tune - 8-Week Foundational Mindfulness Course https://www.rabbidovber.org Join the WhatsApp Community https://bit.ly/4qtfv3p Contact: livingintune.team@gmail.com

In this shiur, Rav Dov Ber Cohen teaches teshuva as the third of five paths toward genuine spiritual vitality. Far from a season of self-punishment, he presents teshuva as a joyful return, an act of cleaning the soul rather than condemning it. Using the image of a thousand-watt light bulb dimmed by layers of paint, he shows how aveiros do not damage the neshama but cover it, and how teshuva removes what has been layered over our true light. Rabbi Dov Ber draws a careful distinction between guilt, shame, and charatah, the kind of remorse that motivates growth rather than collapse. He teaches that one sincere moment of acknowledgment, ownership, and genuine pain is enough to begin the cleansing. The yetzer hara's greatest trick, he warns, is convincing us that we are what we have done. Teshuva insists otherwise: you are too good for this, not too broken to change. Living in Tune with Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen Mindfulness, Torah wisdom, and inner work for a calmer, more aligned life. Courses & Resources - Living in Tune - 8-Week Foundational Mindfulness Course https://www.rabbidovber.org Join the WhatsApp Community https://bit.ly/4qtfv3p Contact: livingintune.team@gmail.com

Shabbat Shalom! Good Shabbas! Rav Dov Ber Cohen explores what it means to truly live well. He invites us to stop mulling over what is hard and begin wallowing in what is good — not by denying pain, but by understanding that challenge carries three gifts: resilience, chesed, and emunah. Pain does not define us. How we respond does. Rav Dov Ber then draws us into the rhythm of Shabbat as a lens for the whole week — a reminder to ask what we are really hustling for, and whether our neshama has its own spreadsheet. He speaks about teshuva as a car wash for the soul, light and sweet rather than heavy. And he closes with the story of the Baal Shem Tov's chassid who traveled far to see Eliyahu HaNavi, only to discover that it is far greater to be Eliyahu than to see him. We can choose, right now, to be that presence for someone else. Living in Tune with Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen Mindfulness, Torah wisdom, and inner work for a calmer, more aligned life. Courses & Resources - Living in Tune - 8-Week Foundational Mindfulness Course https://www.rabbidovber.org Join the WhatsApp Community https://bit.ly/4qtfv3p Contact: livingintune.team@gmail.com

In this shiur, Rav Dov Ber Cohen teaches that Elul is not a season of dread but an invitation to come home. Drawing on the image of Hashem as a loving parent who keeps a book of your most tender moments, he reframes Rosh Hashanah as a renewal of relationship rather than a day of reckoning. Yom Ha-Zikaron is not about sins being tallied but about remembering who you truly are: a radiant neshama, temporarily housed in a body, here to bring consciousness into the world. Rabbi Dov Ber walks through the arc from Elul through Yom Kippur to Sukkot as engagement, mikvah, and wedding. He speaks honestly about the yetzer hara, the trap of self-criticism, and the difference between intellectual emunah and a lived, experiential knowing of Hashem. The avodah of Elul, he says, begins simply: understand the real metzius, remove what is not serving you, and start each morning by winning the first small battle. Living in Tune with Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen Mindfulness, Torah wisdom, and inner work for a calmer, more aligned life. Courses & Resources - Living in Tune - 8-Week Foundational Mindfulness Course https://www.rabbidovber.org Join the WhatsApp Community https://bit.ly/4qtfv3p Contact: livingintune.team@gmail.com

In this shiur, Rav Dov Ber Cohen opens the month of Elul as a season of awakening rather than dread. Drawing on the teaching that the Shulchan Aruch is, at its heart, a book of reminders to breathe, he shows how every mezuza, bracha, and act of tzniut is an invitation to return to presence, to remember that we are neshamot inside a world sustained by Hashem's ongoing awareness. Rabbi Dov Ber explores Rosh Hashanah not as a day of heaviness but as the birthday of finite consciousness, the moment when Hashem gave human beings a piece of Himself and made authentic relationship possible. The avodah of the day is not viduy or fear, but showing up with ahava v'yira, with the joy of a child who wants the King to be King. The shiur closes with a grounded call to prepare with both head and heart, to understand what these days hold, and to meet them with the excitement they deserve. Living in Tune with Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen Mindfulness, Torah wisdom, and inner work for a calmer, more aligned life. Courses & Resources - Living in Tune - 8-Week Foundational Mindfulness Course https://www.rabbidovber.org Join the WhatsApp Community https://bit.ly/4qtfv3p Contact: livingintune.team@gmail.com

In this shiur, Rav Dov Ber Cohen teaches that mitzvot are not cultural rituals or burdensome obligations — they are spiritual power points, direct portals into the reality of Hashem. Building on an earlier session about perishus and the body ego, he now turns to the second key of kedusha: pumping up the volume of the neshama. Rabbi Dov Ber explains that every mitzvah has five layers — action, speech, learning, kavana, and simcha — and that each one draws down immense spiritual light when done with presence and joy. Tefillin becomes a life-support system for the soul. Tzitzit becomes a living declaration of values. A mezuzah becomes a portal of divine awareness. The more you understand what you are doing, the more you receive. He closes with a tender story about a child's cup of mud — a reminder that Hashem does not need the black boxes. He wants the relationship. Living in Tune with Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen Mindfulness, Torah wisdom, and inner work for a calmer, more aligned life. Courses & Resources - Living in Tune - 8-Week Foundational Mindfulness Course https://www.rabbidovber.org Join the WhatsApp Community https://bit.ly/4qtfv3p Contact: livingintune.team@gmail.com

In this shiur on preparing for Shabbat, Rav Dov Ber Cohen explores the deeper meaning of Malbushei Shabbat, the special clothes worn for Shabbat. Drawing from the Arizal, Rabbeinu Chaim Vital, and Kabbalistic teaching, Rabbi Dov Ber reveals how physical clothing mirrors the levushim of the neshama: thought, speech, and action. He introduces the concept of or makif, the surrounding spiritual light that expands on Shabbat, and explains how Shabbat garments serve as an outer expression of this heightened inner reality. The neshama yeseira, the additional soul received on Shabbat, calls for a corresponding elevation in how we present ourselves to the world. This teaching is an invitation to stop misidentifying with the external and to use clothing, presence, and Shabbat itself as a path toward recognizing who we truly are: radiant neshamot yearning to return to Gan Eden. Living in Tune with Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen Mindfulness, Torah wisdom, and inner work for a calmer, more aligned life. Courses & Resources - Living in Tune - 8-Week Foundational Mindfulness Course https://www.rabbidovber.org Join the WhatsApp Community https://bit.ly/4qtfv3p Contact: livingintune.team@gmail.com

In this Elul shiur, Rav Dov Ber Cohen explores the courage it takes to begin again — not once, but year after year, with the same list, the same struggles, and the same invitation to grow. Drawing from the teachings of Beyam Darkecha, he reframes the Jewish calendar not as a cycle of repetition that wears us down, but as a series of deepening encounters where every mitzvah, every tefillah, and every act of chazara refines the neshama in ways we may not immediately feel. Rabbi Dov Ber speaks honestly about the weight of carrying our issues alongside our avodah, the difference between neurotic urgency and genuine emunah, and what it looks like to be a Sim Shalomdike Yid — someone who brings full presence to the moment that remains, rather than collapsing under the one that was lost. This shiur is a grounded, warm invitation into Elul as a place of self-compassion, honest effort, and renewed bitachon. Living in Tune with Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen Mindfulness, Torah wisdom, and inner work for a calmer, more aligned life. Courses & Resources - Living in Tune - 8-Week Foundational Mindfulness Course https://www.rabbidovber.org Join the WhatsApp Community https://bit.ly/4qtfv3p Contact: livingintune.team@gmail.com

In this shiur, Rav Dov Ber Cohen maps out the inner architecture of a human being — neshama, ruach, and body — and asks the essential question: who is actually in charge? He teaches that the body is not the self but the vehicle, and that the voice of the neshama grows quieter the more we feed the animalistic drive of the yetzer hara through craving, honor-seeking, and distraction. Rabbi Dov Ber introduces prishut — self-control — as the foundational practice of spiritual identity. Through small, daily acts of restraint in food, speech, technology, and physical comfort, we train the inner muscle that matters most: the ability to choose the soul's voice over the body's noise. Every moment of prishut is a declaration that you are not your cravings, not your ego, and not your reflection in the mirror. This is avodah that begins in the ordinary and reaches toward true kedusha. Living in Tune with Rabbi Dov Ber Cohen Mindfulness, Torah wisdom, and inner work for a calmer, more aligned life. Courses & Resources - Living in Tune - 8-Week Foundational Mindfulness Course https://www.rabbidovber.org Join the WhatsApp Community https://bit.ly/4qtfv3p Contact: livingintune.team@gmail.com