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July 20, 2007
Becoming a true ba'al teshuvah
The Orthodox Jewish lifestyle attracts a growing number of young
British Columbians.
FREEMAN PORITZ
What inspires young people raised with a secular Jewish background
to delve seriously into orthodoxy? What encourages a growing number
of them to search for salvation through piety?
There are no definite answers to these questions. But there are
now many Jewish youth deeply exploring their religion, expanding
their knowledge of the Torah and seeking to fulfil a greater number
of mitzvot, or Torah-obligated commandments, in their daily lives.
Dani Rozen, Jared Sanders and Slavic Teplitsky are three young men
who were raised with secular Jewish identities in Richmond. In the
past five years, all three of them have become Orthodox Jews, with
the goal of living their lives by the rules of the Torah.
Rozen attended the Conservative Richmond Jewish Day School until
Grade 8. He then attended public school in Steveston. "I was
always into Judaism," he said in a recent interview, "but
I wasn't involved with anything. On High Holidays, we went to Beth
Tikvah, once in a while we kept Pesach, and I fasted on Yom Kippur."
Later, at the University of British Columbia, Rozen joined several
Jewish organizations on campus, including Hillel and the Jewish
fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi. In the summer of 2003, he travelled
to Israel with Birthright, and met a fellow trip participant from
Toronto who was becoming more observant. "I learned a lot from
him," said Rozen.
On his return, Rozen travelled to Montreal and was shocked to see
a Jewish community flourishing outside of Israel. "There were
90 shuls and 86 of them were Orthodox!" he exclaimed. The following
year, he decided to move to Montreal, in order to study at McGill
University. Now in Israel, studying for a year at Darche Noam Yeshivah
in Jerusalem, he plans to attend medical school.
By his final year at McGill, Rozen had become a mentor for the younger
Jewish students on campus who were finding it difficult to maintain
an observant lifestyle in the carefree, pleasure-driven secular
surroundings. "Everything can be spiritual if you enjoy it
in the appropriate context," he said. His advice? "Take
observance slowly, and realize why you're doing it. It can be overwhelming
if you move too fast."
Sanders, like Rozen, attended Richmond Jewish Day School before
transferring to the public school system when he was 10. "I
grew up in the Conservative stream of Judaism," he said. "There
were less religious and more social reasons for going to shul."
Sanders, who described his Judaism as "Orthodox-ish,"
recalled how he began delving more deeply into Judaism. "A
friend got me to attend Latte and Learning [a weekly Torah lesson
with former National Conference of Synagogue Youth regional director
Rabbi Avi Berman, which focused on Jewish ethics and morals]. Rabbi
Berman was very open and an amazing mentor," Sanders said.
In the summer of 2005, Sanders spent three weeks in Israel on the
NCSY Jerusalem Journey trip. "You feel special [in Israel],"
he said. Following the trip, Sanders transferred to King David for
his Grade 12 year, in order to have more Jewish content in his life.
After his high school graduation, Sanders decided to attend Yeshivah
University in New York. In his second semester there, he started
to keep Shabbat and kashrut. He is now in his second year, with
an undeclared major. "My family is very supportive of me,"
he added.
In a telephone interview, Berman – now working for the Orthodox
Union in Israel – spoke about how his classes made Judaism
attractive to teens. "I sat down with a bunch of kids [including
Sanders] who wanted to learn some Jewish values. They want[ed] to
learn about who they are," he said. "How about we do it
in a cool environment? Why should we do it inside a synagogue? People
are intimidated to come to a synagogue. Why should we do it in a
place that is automatically identified as a Jewish place? Let's
do it in Starbucks! Starbucks is a cool place. There are lattes,
fun, great music. And it's really a fun place to sit down.
"What I felt was extremely important," he continued, "was
giving the Jewish kids a sense of pride in being Jewish. Sitting
down and identifying yourself as a Jew in a public [place] like
Starbucks really added [a] tremendous amount of Jewish pride to
these kids."
Like Rozen and Sanders, Teplitsky grew up in Richmond. He attended
Vancouver Hebrew Academy – an Orthodox Jewish day school –
until Grade 3, when his interest in Judaism subsided. He bounced
around the public school system until Grade 12, when he and some
of his good Jewish friends decided to transfer from Magee Secondary
School to King David High School. There, his passion for Judaism
was rekindled.
He now keeps Shabbat and kashrut and lives the lifestyle of an Orthodox
Jew. "I decided to go back [to synagogue] my senior year,"
he said. "One of my friends just kind of tricked me into it.
They told me there was a party and it was actually Simchat Torah
and they brought me to the synagogue," he recalled. It was
the first time he had been to shul for a long time. "I wasn't
religious in Grade 12. I had actually just decided that I was going
to be religious. So I cut out pork. I cut out milk and meat at the
same time. But I didn't keep Shabbat and didn't keep actual kosher.
When I went on my flight to Israel, there were no more kosher meals,
so I ate a non-kosher meal on my flight and then, as soon as I got
off the plane, I decided, 'from now on, I'm just going to be kosher
and keep Shabbat.' So that's when I decided officially," he
said.
"I spent from about late August 2005, or early September, until
right before Pesach 2006 [in Israel], studying at a yeshivah in
Ramat Bet Shemesh. I decided that if I was to become religious,
I needed to learn all the religious laws, so I just sat there learning
pretty much from morning to night," Teplitsky said.
For those interested in becoming more observant, he said, "Be
around Jews and be around good influences. I don't think it [observance]
is something you can do overnight. Take your time. And don't go
to rabbis who are going to give you straight answers, like, 'this
is right because I said so,' or, 'because it says in the Torah that
this is right.' Go to someone who can explain [it] to you, because
a lot of the laws do make sense."
Freeman Poritz is a Vancouver freelance writer.
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