ELUL 20 · DAY 20 of 29 · AUGUST 31, 2026

One of the quirks of living with ADHD is that its defining traits are both liabilities and superpowers. For me, one is the ability to shift emotional states almost instantaneously.

At its worst, I move too quickly into anger or frustration—a tendency that has landed me in hot water more times than I can count. But that same emotional speed has made me unusually good at teshuva. I may go from 0 to 100 and err in the heat of the moment, but I can decelerate just as fast, recognize exactly what happened, own it with sincerity and vulnerability, seek forgiveness, and commit to change.

When I launched my show, Being Jewish with Jonah Platt, I did more than pivot from acting to advocacy. Almost overnight, I went from working alone to leading a professional team. And one certainty of becoming The Boss is that you will screw things up.

There have been moments when frustration overtook good judgement and equanimity in my interactions with colleagues. Yet immediately I’ve returned to the conversation, hat in hand—not to excuse my outburst, but to explain it, apologize for it, and promise to do better.

Humility means accepting that we will inevitably misstep. What defines us is not whether we stumble, but whether we undertake the honest work of repair. True teshuva lets our relationships be shaped not by our failures, but by what we become after them.