OurTimeToLearn Russian 20 min

it's overwhelming sometimes in life like you have to take you know a leap of faith and uh do what you feels right do do what feels right to do and uh the ISA that I went to was the best decision that I made in my life that has helped me grow as a person spiritually emotionally and uh you know and I'm just the happiest I've ever been in my life I'm from too Ohio I went to GW in Washington DC and I studied Middle East studies and international Affairs um and I am going to solve the Arab isra complect short-term goal I was born in the Republic of Georgia but came to the United States with my family when I was eight I went to school in Washington DC for a college and then uh to Egypt and then to Israel uh where I studied in Yeshiva and then back in the States where I then worked in venture capital and now I'm in New York City running a business Network as was was born in New York City I came to Israel for the first time a year and a half ago and I've been here more or less ever since just traveling for work sometimes I'm a concert pianist a vocal coach for opera singers a performance coach for actors and a dialect coach I remember very rarely having any sort of interaction with other Jewish people in in any sort of Jewish way I mean they existed and I existed and that was the end of it um my life was completely devoted to my academic and especially my professional Pursuits as a classical musician as a Pianist I was on a Birthright trip five six years ago I'm walking in the shook in Tel Aviv and one of my favorite songs comes on by Pink Floyd and it's coming out of this this guy's little booth where he's selling candy and all his stuff this old man at the counter is singing this ping Floyd song so I go over to him and I start singing to it all you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be so I I go over to this old guy and we're singing together and I'm just like this is my country I went to grad school as at Georgetown and I was doing my MERS in international relations and uh thankfully I got an internship at the state department and from an internship um thank God I helped turn that into a job I grew up subscribing to the typical as I see it the typical American Jewish narrative it was very much such a cultural thing we know we're Jews and that's the extent of it I first came to Israel when I was 15 years old I lived on a kibutz for a half a year on a high school abroad program eventually I came back after high school for a year then I had to go to college but I needed to come back and learn more about being Jewish cuz it was just an incredible experience you know I felt Jewish I knew I was Jewish I just I don't know what that meant but I knew that's what I was that's what our family was I I knew the ideas but it wasn't wasn't brought down and integrated into who I was I wasn't living these ideas you come to Israel and you're in this this like environment of people who are just all about growing and learning and and living the best life and just being good people just being good people you become a better person they bring you up I didn't know anything about Judaism growing up I didn't know anything about my culture my my religion and what better place to learn about it than Israel anyway I met a lot of people who had grown up religious and they were all like living alternative Lifestyles and I thought I'd want to live in alternative lifestyle cuz these guys are cool so I came back to college and I I immediately started studying Asian philosophy I was doing Buddhism and Daoism for a while um I lived in La up until I was 17 years old and then I went to a university I majored in civil engineering I then went to graduate school and studied construction management and then decided to study in seminary for about a year I went to all non Jewish schools I went to a Christian School I was one one of the Apostles in Jesus Christ star spiritually like I was very very distant from Judaism I wasn't turned on by Judaism at all in fact I was more into uh like alternative religions like yoga Buddhism meditation I was I was I would do like you know weekly Retreats of yoga and I still love the alternative esoteric uh things of life and I really had no idea that Judaism had any of that kind of uh side to it and I asked myself if I'm so openminded about everything else uh I was very leftwing I was very openminded about everything I was like if I'm so openminded about everything maybe I should be at least a little bit openminded about my own uh my own background my own Roots my own religion um grew up connected to a conservative synagogue not because we believed in conserv JM per se but but only because we weren't Orthodox um I'm from London originally this is my house my Pilates and yoga studio and I teach the Pilates and I have yoga teachers coming in and they run classes I feel like I have a fantastic network of people and I enjoy life I enjoy dayto day it's very colorful it's very exciting it's very alive I could never imagine just going back to England and just being one of the masses I started learning a little bit in college uh but then uh went to Israel uh and I trip uh a few days what was it 10 days I believe where as part of the trip we visited yiva and um interestingly enough the rabbi sat me down he says you know would you be open to coming here and summarily I said no I just spent those was really towards the end of my college I spent four years learning theory the last thing I want to do is study more Theory and so I said thanks but no thanks and he was very respectful of that he said no I appreciate that answer and that was the end of it but I was so impressed by the level of students um that were taking a break from whatever it is that they were doing to go to Yeshiva to learn about their Heritage to learn about you know in depth what the bible really States uh about you know tanak and all those sort of Jewish um books and texts that we hear about but we don't really know basically I ended up really enjoying the learning and I think that for a lot of people they might get scared oh am I I going to become religious oh am I going to spend so much time there we're we always have the choice to leave you know you always have the choice to be you know what I'm here I tried it and I don't like it and I'm going back but I think at least having the opportunity to try it is is amazing yeah I think learning it's it's the core of our being I mean we have to grow we have to continue to learn so I think we should we can focus on ourselves and in terms of understanding where we came from and who we are at the same time how we relate to you know the greater world you know I really wanted to to be intellectually honest with myself and give myself a a year of studying in Israel of learning about Judaism and studying where I came from and figuring out where I want to be and how I want to move forward in my life it's been a wonderful experience I've been here for 9 months so far and it's been one of the best experiences of my entire life I've grown so much as a person I've learned so much um my Hebrew has improved d a lot not only because I'm in Israel but also because I'm reading in Hebrew and translating from uh the original texts and it's actually really comforting because you grow up um kind of learning all these things by hearsay and then to spend the time actually learning looking at the original sources has really been a great source of inspiration to me it's been uh it's been a wonderful experience when I started learning new Shiva like I was like this stuff is incredible like it's it's very very spiritual it really applies to me I connected with it in so many levels and it it taught me so much about who I am and about about God and about everything about everything all these people were taking a break to really go and figure that out and really take a some time off to really set their value straight and really understand what they want to get out of life what kind of family they want to build and I saw that seriousness and I saw that uh Focus that each and every one of those students had at the Yeshiva and it stopped me for a moment I said wait a second and there's something different about this place uh there's a certain focus and a certain uh appreciation for life that you don't necessarily get in a typical College setting so I then sort of started researching the place a little bit more I talked to some of the rabbis and really I was impressed all around and I thought you know you know the old adage of if not now when I figured now would be a good time to really check it out to uh see if it's something that I want to be a part of in terms of The Learning Experience uh and so went and really was a wonderful experience I'm a very visual learner so my brain works like a puzzle things kind of fit into place and if um something doesn't make sense like you kind of like try to stick it in there like like jam it in as best as you can like you play with those big puzzles you can't figure out where the pieces go so I when I first came to Israel I felt like I was missing like half the puzzle like I had like the Border but the entire Center was missing um and then when I started slowly slowly learning like things started to become clear I saw a bigger picture and I saw things going on that I never knew again in terms of the uniqueness of this community you have this feeling that at any given time there will be someone there to help you with whatever it is you need whether it's an idea whether it's a question whether it's something physical my parents they they didn't want me to go like listen it would be like if you want to learn this go ahead but they knew if I went it would I would stay this is what they said they said if you come for 3 months you're going to come for a year and you'll never come back which is not true but that's what they that's that was their faar I'm going to do things that are different from the way my family does them they're worried that they're going to lose their baby they're going to lose their uh you know their son or their daughter their brother their uncle whatever it is they're going to lose them I'm learning I'm working on myself I'm growing here why would I cut that short why would I I could be a a half complete person and I go home and be a very nice guy and have a nice little Jewish life or I can go home after 2 years and be a complete person and at least complete enough to to go on my own making the decision to take some time to do this and really invest the same reasoning was what brought me to Europe after grad school because I was playing all this music that was composed in France and composed in Italy and composed in Austria and Germany and you can't really delve into those topics without being there so I went and spent time I was seeing the same buildings that they saw and were Inspire Byers so that's my reasoning for having made the decision to take a little time and learn up here sometimes it's hard being in Shiva and not working especially when I have a bunch of friends who are doing pretty externally impressive things one of my close friends is in dental school I have two friends in med school it's hard like on the esteem to like think like I'm not working I have to learn but like first of all it's like okay people go at different Paces like some people have like need to go learn and like want to go learn and the other thing was it was these people like these people who impress me who I look up to who made me afraid to be here for longer like I knew I had to be doing this but I was like embarrassed like because I assumed that like at least some of my friends were like looking down on me they were thinking like my mom and my friends are always like what are you running from when are you going to stop running I'm not running from the the real world I you would call it I'm running to my real world professionally there's always the concern that taking some time off sets you behind uh and it kind of sets you back a little bit uh but sort of my experience and looking back on it I realized it wasn't the case um people appreciate somebody who kind of stands out for the the crowd so I was planning on staying in DC and working in the foreign policy world old then I sort of decided I wanted to come to Israel and that was an argument with my parents they wanted me to get a job and I was like well there's no time like the present to pause and sort of take time to figure myself out and figure out what's important to me and what I want in life and who I am for the last uh 2 and2 years I was going to Seminary and for a year and a half I was doing college and I also got some amazing news that I got accepted to Harvard's Master's of education program it's a masters of education and human development and psychology I think sort of the overarching goal here is just to become the best human being right two years of just focus on personal development um to really I think really the idea is to calibrate the mind and the Heart what's one year in the grand scheme of life like when you're 6E look back remember oh remember when I was 22 23 I went to Israel for the year it's it's almost too good to be true in the Yeshiva that I was at you had people coming in from Argentina Chile Africa uh Europe British Britain and all these different places and you know you have this mix of everybody and everybody's unique in their own way and but everyone is on the track of becoming a better person they all want that and you're just around really good people and it's very inspiring and I think it's an experiential thing it's it's any words that I can put on it really does limit it and we all have this common history together and you know we're a family we should try things and if it doesn't work we at least know and we move on and I think it's really an important um I think opportunity to really get to to check things out you know the truth of matter is is that I stayed longer because I thought I was getting a lot out of it and I really enjoyed the learning it was it was really such a gift to be able to spend one year that you're just learning about yourself I think it's very powerful and very important to understand what it means to learn in Israel what it means to be able to come to Israel what it means to be able to stand in Jerusalem and access things we weren't able to access for literally thousands of years for me the Yeshiva experience was positive I wouldn't say it's for everybody just because um it's a really unique experience uh it's really an intense experience uh for me it was a very positive experience but if somebody decides you know I want to do this just because of social pressure or peer pressure or because they have nothing else going on for the moment I would truly discourage them because it's an opportunity of a lifetime but you have to approach it the right way you really have to see it as an opportunity and you have to approach it in a way that enables you to really get the most out of it and then leave yiva better equipped for the world yeah it's a very unique Community very unique group of people nobody judges anyone at all people are all different religious levels we dress different ways we keep different amounts of like halot and um we all come from different backgrounds some are married some are not and yet there's this feeling of like Unity amongst people and acceptance and like I I feel like within this community no matter what I became they would still accept me part of the amazing thing about being there is just being around people who are passionate about being good and being better and honoring their authentic selves if you come here and learn it's your experience and it's only your experience and you have to remember that so you can come here and you can learn and you can still be you for me the primary reason why I wanted to be an Israel is cuz I thought this was the best environment to learn it really solidified what I knew about myself and it's almost like rediscovering everything you already knew don't be scared give it a shot come here and try it out like me personally like it was the best decision that I made in my life it's given me a lot met so many wonderful people it's been spiritually uh fulfilling and uh just been amazing some of my best friends saying that I seem happier than I've ever been I seem more myself than I've ever been I've just become a better person and and those were are all in line with the goals that I had originally we're always growing we're always moving we're always learning the reality of what learning in Israel is like is different from what one might suspect from far away there's something in the air there's something here it's it's more than just a history it's more than just a a culture like when I was in the Shook and I was singing Pink Floyd all you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be I just don't believe that anymore your life is so much more than all you touch and all you see he a