From Addiction to Connection: Tzvi Haber’s Story

In this raw and courageous conversation, Rabbi Mendy Bistritzky sits down with Tzvi Haber to explore a journey that spans loss, addiction, faith, and radical honesty. Tzvi opens up about losing his father at age one, growing up feeling different and labeled, and how manipulation and control became early coping mechanisms. What began as experimentation with substances in Israel quickly escalated into a severe opioid and heroin addiction—hidden beneath a façade of religious observance and outward functionality.Through heartbreak, near-misses, and the painful unraveling of his marriage and identity, Tzvi shares how truth became the turning point. A single moment of choosing honesty over instinctive lying set in motion a transformation that reshaped his relationship with himself, with his wife, and with Hashem. Together, Rabbi Mendy and Tzvi reflect on struggle as a catalyst for growth, the difference between fear-based Judaism and connection-based faith, and how every fall can become the beginning of light—if we’re willing to face it.