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Behind the Bima

The Mentalist Who Broke the Rabbis: Shlomo Levinger

Behind the Bima

Rabbi Efrem Goldberg

Josh Broide, Efrem Goldberg, Rabbi, Judaism, Philip Moskowitz, Education, Jewish, Bima, Self-improvement, Religion & Spirituality

4.8579 Ratings

🗓️ 12 May 2026

⏱️ 73 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Mentalist Shlomo Levinger goes Behind the Bima to reveal what mentalism really is, how performance matters more than secrets, and what it means to build a career in a field built on illusion while staying true to Torah values.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

From Bocoratsohn, Florida, this is Behind the Bima. On this episode, the rabbis are joined by mentalist Shlomo Levenger, a performer whose work challenges how we understand perception, influence, and what we think about the human mind.

0:12.7

Shlomo shares how he built a career from a teenage hobby, explains why he avoids the persona many in his fields rely on, and discusses what it means for him as an observant Jew

0:21.2

to navigate a profession built on influence and illusion, including opportunities he's chosen

0:25.9

to walk away from. All this and more, Behind the Bima. This season of Behind the Bima is

0:31.5

sponsored by Julie Charleston and Darrell Benjamin in honor of their grandparents, Morton and

0:35.7

Malvina Charleston, and their children, Ruby and Maccabi Benjamin. Welcome back behind the Bima. We got a great episode, Shlomo Levenger. Oh my goodness, gracious. That one blew my mind. It did blow your mind. Actually, that was the most shocked I've been on it. We were here. We saw your mind blown in real time. Yeah. I'm still trying to figure it out.

0:54.8

I'll tell you what I admire.

0:55.8

I don't want to spoil the episode.

0:56.8

But I love that he, it's not magic. I'm not reading your mind. I have certain skills because I've practiced for a long time. And so it looks incredibly impressive. Yeah. And it is incredibly impressive. Yeah. Especially if you've never seen it before. Have you never seen it before?

1:08.7

First time you see it, it's like...

1:09.9

We recorded the episode,

1:11.1

and then that night was our shul dinner.

1:12.9

And he performed at the shul dinner.

1:14.0

Did a fantastic job. We've never seen it before. If you've never seen it before, first time you see it, it's like, no. We recorded the episode, and then that night was our shul dinner.

1:12.9

And he performed at the shul dinner.

1:14.0

He did a fantastic job, big crowd, rowdy crowd. He did a great job. Herald. Miserized, mesmerized people. Yeah. You know what the best part was afterwards. I think you left at that point,

1:24.2

but I stuck around for dessert.

1:26.2

I was there.

1:27.0

You went to the breakway, Mara, outside.

1:29.9

I dove in at the announced Shu Marev inside. You got to have rabbis represented at all, Marvianan. But anyways, I was outside at the late dessert, and he was doing these card tricks, which were so good. He had, he like started off. It was like me,

1:45.3

aria, and one other person. And then before little by little, it grew. And by the end, there were like 20 people standing around all just mesmerized by what it is. It's fun. You got to love people who love what they do. Yeah. It's not a chore. He's not like, no, leave me alone. I don't want to do another one.

2:00.2

He's like, I live for this. I love it.

...

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