A Rabbi’s Rock Bottom: Addiction, Faith, and Rebuilding After Losing Everything

On this episode of We’re Out Of Time, host Richard Taite sits down with rabbi, entrepreneur, and recovery coach Asher Gottesman for a raw, deeply human conversation about addiction, faith, accountability, and connection.

Asher opens up about experiencing profound separation anxiety and loneliness at just five years old, growing up as the rabbi’s son, and feeling different from his peers. He shares how resentment toward faith and fear-based religion shaped his early relationship with God, eventually contributing to eating disorders, substance use, and a lifelong sense of unworthiness. Asher candidly recounts waiting two years to end his life so a life insurance policy would pay out, followed by the collapse of his multi-million-dollar business and filing for bankruptcy.

From there, the episode explores his first real experience of unconditional love, sobriety, and community through recovery, including the moment he felt truly seen and accepted for the first time. Asher explains how keeping suicide “in his back pocket” paradoxically gave him the courage to rebuild, and how accountability, faith, and human connection became central to his healing.

He reflects on Judaism as a framework for responsibility rather than fear, challenging performative spirituality and emphasizing kindness, humility, and lived amends. Asher also discusses the tension of being a “wounded healer,” balancing vulnerability with leadership, and offers compassionate advice for people in their 20s: you don’t need to do anything to be worthy of love.

The conversation closes with insights on relapse, mentoring others, why social media is not real connection, and how true healing happens in community. Asher also shares how his work through Transcend Recovery and his podcast Showing Up With Asher G centers on helping people feel seen, heard, and unconditionally valued.