Keepin' it Real

Four years of college, many an internship, party-throwing, and legitimate work experience has only partially prepared me for the realest job: Shabbos preparation. This past week was an in-Shabbos…what this means is that we stay at our school and make our own meals and festivities. Sounds simple, but it’s actually quite (and by quite I mean extraordinarily) complicated. Three meals, thirty hungry women with high standards and sophisticated palettes, and a very broad prohibition from doing any work at all once the holiday begins = a very big challenge. As you all know me…overly ambitious Jenna…I volunteered myself for the slaughter, to manage the cooking of the Shabbos food. Of course meted with serious trials such an oven whose temperature doesn’t adjust and getting locked out of the kitchen 5 minutes before candle lighting with all the food inside, I am glad to report that it was mission success: we gorged ourselves on food, we heard some deep words of Torah, and sang songs until our voices were reported missing.

I figure you guys would like some more information about my program since until now I’ve been providing little more than flowery anecdotes. So here’s the 411. The program that I chose to attend is wonderful and I wouldn’t want to be in any other learning institute. Besides knowing this to be true in my heart, it is reconfirmed every week when tons of women from other programs come to Mayanot to attend the open-to-the-public lecture on Chassidut. The learning I do is a perfect balance between in-depth textual studies (the Torah, Mishna, Gemara, etc), Halacha (the dry law), and Chassidus (the inner-essence of Judaism). The teachers are also incredibly intellectual and assessable. What I like most about the learning is that they don’t just sit us down and tell us the rules about Judaism, they teach the meanings and arguments for and against each law, mitzvoth, practice and tradition. We have the room to fight, delve, and understand versus taking it at face-value. Apparently this is quite revolutionary for a women’s yeshiva, but I personally couldn’t have it any other way.

However the icing on the cake at Mayanot is the women I am learning with. This program was created for the Baal Teshuva, the Jew who chooses a more observant life style later in life versus growing up that way. The key word here is “Chooses”. The self-realized, educated, empowered woman thing completely defines the vibes of this institution. There is no coercion, no pressure, no conformity. These women are so deeply spiritual and aware of their beings; their purpose; their life’s meaning, it is utterly inspiring. I sleep so little because the learning never ends, even out of the classroom we are up talking until the break of dawn discussing personal transformation, G-d’s omnipotence and manifestations, life, trials, how we ended up here, and what the final redemption looks like…is the messiah an actual being or is it a state of revelation that the whole world experience at once?

It’s also important to note how real these women are. They are from this world versus growing up in a sheltered traditionally orthodox household (of course there is something to be said for those who have, it’s also an admirable path) but the point is, these women infuse a whole new dimension into Torah learning since they relate it to the world at large. Only in a Baal Teshuva program do things like this come up: The other day in my Talmud class I was learning with my Chavrusa (learning partner) about a concept called Hova. Suddenly she stops and looks at me, “Didn’t JayZ sing a song about that?” or when we are singing a traditional song and one of the women yells out “REMIX” and starts breaking it down with a beatbox while the others proceed to get low. Or like when we are talking about Kabbala and some deeply mystical concepts and someone nudges me saying “Wow, I can’t believe we are talking about this and we aren’t on mushrooms”. There isn’t a need to forget who we are or where we came from. It isn’t about cutting off the circulation to parts of us we’d like to forget or disown, or trying to fit into some mold, or go down a specific route. These woman are not trying to change their beings, rather, they are using Judaism to reveal their true essence. Through Chassidus and teaching of the Tanya, we are learning practical tools to interact with ourselves and each other, gaining the clarity to discern G-dliness in this world (which lo and behold, can be found everywhere). This weeks Torah portion was about Abraham leaving his past world, his previous notions, his land and following G-d. It is called Lech Lecha which is translated to mean “Go into yourself” and that is what Mayanot is all about.

This is the first year of the Mayanot Woman’s Programs existence, and I have to tip my hat to them because of their incredible achievement. In theory Mayanot sounded too good to be true, how they transformed the idea into actuality is amazing: it’s a completely open learning environment striving for both intellectual and spiritual pursuits in Judaism. I am so proud to have witnessed it come to life, to have helped pioneer it.

BTW, since this is my blog it is my perogative to insert my political agenda and I know this is a contentious topic especially in the Jewish community, but there’s no surprise at where I hold on the matter…Congratulations on the election! I am so proud to be an American. Go Obama. Yes we can.