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Profile:
Aaron Liebman, Yeshivat Hamivtar Orot Lev
An Imaginary Gamble Recently friends of mine from Efrat who were driving into Jerusalem for a wedding saw me waiting for the bus and stopped to give me a lift into town. The couple, who are a bit older than my own grandparents, began to discuss whether it would be good to be twenty-five years old again. They concluded that they were content with their accomplishments and, of course, their grandchildren, and that they would not want to return to the uncertainties of being twenty-something- the additional vigor and spunk of youth could not tempt them. With regard to my own (more recent) past, I wondered whether I would be similarly reluctant to become a less experienced me and try again. There have, of course, been periods of more rapid or less rapid personal growth, but did I relate sympathetically to the whole of my experiences and to the course of events that make up the past several years? I think so. Seven years ago, I had not mastered the aleph-bet and now I am listening to university-level lectures in Hebrew and near the completion of four years of Rabbinic study. But I did not arrive at this point or at this conclusion straightaway. Seven years ago, I graduated from a public high school in Mayfield Heights (a suburb of Cleveland) and headed to New York to study at Yeshiva University. I had read about a program there geared for those who wanted to become literate Jews, and, for a number of reasons, I considered myself someone like that. It seemed an ideal plan to pursue an undergraduate degree (at that time I was thinking pre-law or psychology) and learn how to study Jewish texts and form my own opinions about Judaism. I spent a year studying in that program before deciding that it was not rigorous enough and seeking an alternative. Good advice from Rabbis that I respected at Yeshiva University prompted me to spend my sophomore year of college at Yeshivat Hamivtar. (This was so long ago that the Yeshiva was still located in the center of Efrat: no fancy Beit Medrash, no classy caravans, no landscaped walks, no scenic hillside views- but we, in the simplicity of our hearts, liked it.) That first year at Yeshivat Hamivtar was a turning point. I had found Rabbi Ebners shuir and an institution where they said they taught the skills needed to study Talmud and they did. There were individuals at the Yeshiva who could serve as role-models for someone interested in becoming a thinking religious Jew. (In other words, Rabbis who didn’t say stupid things.) I achieved basic literacy and a measure of religious maturity that year. The following year, I returned to Yeshiva University now able to study, though not without difficulty, in the mainstream yeshiva program and complete my degree (in English Literature). My undergraduate experience was solid and positive. I developed a close friendship with a professor of Bible and Philosophy there, Rabbi Shalom Carmy, to whom Rabbi Ebner had given me a sealed letter of introduction as I prepared to leave Hamivtar. (I don’t know what the letter said, but five years have past and Rabbi Carmy and I continue to get along well.) After completing my undergraduate degree, I began the Rabbinics program at Yeshiva University and spent two years in that program before deciding, once again, that I needed to seek an alternative. At a memorable lunch with Rabbi Brovender, the possibility of returning to Yeshivat Hamivtar and becoming a Rabbi in Israel became real. I did not require much convincing. Yeshiva University is a kind of cafeteria of contemporary orthodoxy: nearly all the various groupings can be found there. It has a wealth of resources to offer to the self-sufficient student who understands how to be selective and direct his own religious education. Unfortunately, I was not then able to do that. I saved my religious/intellectual life by returning to Yeshivat Hamivtar. That was a year and a half ago. My progress since then has exceeded my expectations. I have even had surprising successes such as being accepted as a research fellow at a think-tank in Jerusalem dedicated to generating ideas for the Jewish nation. In another year and a half, I will be able to enter the Jewish world as a teacher and, potentially, as a leader. The course of my religious development has been a bit convoluted, has involved a series of considerations, reconsiderations and even relocations, but the intuition of the kindly couple who drove me into Jerusalem seems correct: experiences and accomplishments make for unreasonably high stakes even in an imaginary gamble. Missed a Profile? See Previous Profiles Return to Ohr Torah Stone Home Page
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