What Pain Teaches Us: Jewish Lessons on Healing

Thursday, Feb 27, 2025
12:00pm - 12:45pm PT

What does it take to truly heal? When a routine medical procedure took an unexpected turn, Rabbi Ilana Grinblat was plunged into a two-year journey of pain, resilience, and discovery. In her moving memoir, she shares the profound spiritual lessons she uncovered during her recovery and offers a path toward liberating ourselves—and others—from the constraints that hold us back. Join Rabbi Grinblat in conversation with AJU’s Rabbi Candice Levy as they explore the intersections of faith, healing, and the power of transformation.

Ilana Berenbaum Grinblat was ordained by the Ziegler School of American Jewish University and is the rabbi of Ahavat Torah in Los Angeles and Temple Har Shalom in Idyllwild, California. She is the author of The Viral Spread of Hope: Finding Inspiration in Tough Times, Castles and Catch: Spiritual Lessons our Children Teach Us, and Blessings and Baby Steps: The Spiritual Path of Parenthood. 

Rabbi Dr. Candice Levy has a BA in Political Science and Sociology from Yeshiva University, and a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures from UCLA. She received rabbinic ordination from the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the American Jewish University in 2023. Her scholarly work has focused on the afterlife and how it relates to theodicy and rabbinic authority. Rabbi Levy has taught at UCLA, the Louchheim School for Judaic Studies at USC, Hebrew Union College and the Milken Community School. Her involvement with a variety of Jewish communities – Sephardic, Askenaz, Orthodox, Conservative and Reform – has allowed her to recognize their differences, learning to appreciate what can be learned from each, while striving to maintain their commonalities in service of God and Torah. She is a parent to two boys, a lover of donuts and sneakers… and donuts.