February 13, 2026

Living with Purpose Today So You're Remembered Tomorrow: The Sacred Art of Legacy Building

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Living with Purpose Today So You're Remembered Tomorrow: The

Sacred Art of Legacy Building

Overview

In a world that often feels overwhelming and chaotic, Rabbi Daniel Cohen reminds us that our greatest power lies not in changing the entire world, but in transforming one moment, one encounter, one life at a time. This deeply inspiring conversation explores the sacred ingredients for living with intentional purpose and creating a legacy that matters - starting today, not someday. Through powerful stories of doormen who pray, strangers who say "get up," and the profound difference between being "great" and being "grateful," Rabbi Cohen illuminates the path to

authentic leadership and meaningful impact.

Living with Purpose Today So You're Remembered Tomorrow: The Sacred Art of Legacy Building

Guest: Rabbi Daniel Cohen, Spiritual Leader of Congregation Agudath Shalom

Host: Julie Riga

About This Episode

Julie sits down with Rabbi Daniel Cohen, nationally sought-after speaker and author dedicated to helping people design their lives around meaning, purpose, and legacy. Through his book What Will They Say About You When You're Gone? and his Legacy Academy, Rabbi Cohen inspires audiences to become their best selves.

Fun Fact: His favorite food is his wife's chocolate chip cookies - fitting, since his first word was "cookie."

The Three Sacred Ingredients for Success

1. Making Every Encounter Matter The power of small gestures. Elevator moments and hospital hallways as sacred opportunities. How a doorman's prayer changed a cancer patient's journey. The story of "Get up, get up" that created fifty years of legacy.

2. Creating Space to Hear the Soul Moving away the layers to discover what's within us. Seizing meditative moments: walking without your phone, writing, praying, silence. The Sabbath principle: turning off the outside world to turn on the inner world. Aligning your body with your soul.

3. Living with Intention - Daily, Not Someday The unpolished diamond: God gives us a new one every day to polish and radiate light. The three ultimate questions: Did I live? Did I love? Did I matter? Making time count rather than letting time pass.

Memorable Quotes

"God's not asking us to change the world, but to change the world of one person every day."

"When you wake up in the morning, God believes the world needs you. And when you live with that awareness, no encounter is random."

"The moment you add on those three letters - 'ful' - you become filled with a whole new way of living, because you're not just great, you're grateful."

"Every day we get an unpolished diamond, and God asks us: how much of that light did you radiate?"

Key Insights

The Hospital Doorman: A cancer patient at Sloan Kettering said the most memorable person wasn't a doctor or nurse, but the doorman who said: "I'll pray for you and I hope I'll never see you again." The doorman understood he stood at the threshold where people leave with anxiety.

The "Get Up" Legacy: A Holocaust survivor shared that after liberation, he was too weak to stand. A friend said simply: "Get up, get up." Fifty years later, he told hundreds including his wife, children, and students: "Everything I have, I owe to my friend who said those words. Without him, I would not be here today."