Hi, I'm Otto. Welcome to Ellen Sarah's Budcast.

I have to tell you, I was a little starstruck meeting this guest. No, he's iconic here. People

you say, Rabbi Stephen Leiter and people just like, ah, he's a good people rock star. He's

very beloved. And I am not Jewish, but there were so many takeaways for me. For Rabbi

Leiter, when I met Rabbi Leiter, when I went to one of his sermons and I was deciding if I wanted

to convert to be Jewish. When I watched him speak, it really transformed for me the way I saw

religion because the way he spoke didn't feel religious. It was like one person talking to

another about life. And that made me feel like I wanted to be Jewish. And that's what this episode

is not a religious episode at all. This episode really just ended up being a conversation about so much

more than even his book that he wrote, which we do get into his book. And his book is just such a

beautiful read. But you know what, let's wrap this up. People listen to the episodes. You love to

talk about the episode that people are about to listen to. I do, but I just want people to know that

we talked about the meaning of life. We talked about relationships. We talked about how it's okay

not to have it all. We talked about realism in a minute when they hear it. Yes, but I'm just

want to prepare our audience, Aaron. Some people might be like, oh, Rabbi, I don't know if that really

resonated with me. I'm not Jewish or I'm not religious or that's all I'm trying to do. I'm trying

to say this, this was truly a conversation about being a good human being, about being a human

being who feels like you don't hit the pause button. Hit the play button. Hit the play button.

That's what I'm saying. Hit the play button, everyone. This was one of my favorite conversations.

I have to say out of all of our episodes, well, you're welcome to come convert with me. I just said it.

All right. Here is the legend, Rabbi Stephen Lear.

Beginning the conversation with Rabbi Lear, who we are very excited to have here. He is the,

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