Ask The Rabbi!!

[smokin5]

Whoops on the "non-secular" slip! Thanks for the correction.
Maybe I should have written dis-non-secular?

OK, let's get this back on track:

I presume from some of your comments that you were not religious for a good chunk of your life, & then experienced a spiritual awakening.
What caused you to embrace Judaism with such fervor?
Where & when did you pursue your rabbinical studies?

[Emjaysmash]

Originally Posted by smokin5

Whoops on the "non-secular" slip! Thanks for the correction.
Maybe I should have written dis-non-secular?

OK, let's get this back on track:

I presume from some of your comments that you were not religious for a good chunk of your life, & then experienced a spiritual awakening.
What caused you to embrace Judaism with such fervor?
Where & when did you pursue your rabbinical studies?

Good questions!

[TomHagen]

Originally Posted by smokin5

Whoops on the "non-secular" slip! Thanks for the correction.
Maybe I should have written dis-non-secular?

OK, let's get this back on track:

I presume from some of your comments that you were not religious for a good chunk of your life, & then experienced a spiritual awakening.
What caused you to embrace Judaism with such fervor?
Where & when did you pursue your rabbinical studies?

I would really need an ice-cold bottle of vodka and an 'A' vitola cigar to go into all the details...

But, since you asked, I'll give some background info.

I grew up in a very secular/Reform household. Temple 2-3 times a year, no Kosher, No Shabbos, Nary a Mezuzah etc., didn't know what those things really were, but I grew up in a very warm, thinking, open-minded, moral, caring home. So I had that foundation. As I got older, I guess you could say I became a full-fledged 'hippie', although my environs were the LI suburbs, and eventually I left for college in Ann Arbor, I was kinda able to let my 'freak-flag-fly' and I was totally out there. I worked in the music industry throughout college. Lived a pretty psycedelic existance. I also studied different Cultural Literature extensively in college - Native American, Chinese, Latin American, Tibetan and of course Jewish literature - much of it mystical. I also studied religions and ethnobotany, in addition to my coursework in English Lit and Anthropology. This might be another foundation I built upon. During and after college I was always seeking, exploring, traveling etc. From Native American reservations to the Hawai'in rainforest etc., I was into the supernatural through au naturale. Eventually, I started having more of an awareness of my Jewish identity, meeting random, very diverse Jewish people, still reading etc. and came to the conclusion I needed to check out Judaism and see if I could find a more 'real' 'true' and 'vital' Jewish spirituality then the one I was raised with. After all I was a Jew, so I definitely owed it to myself to try to reconnect to that, in the midst of all of my other explorations. If it was to suit me, satisfy my spritual, intellectual cravings, and be a practical, vital way of life, great, if not, on to the next thing (which was going to be getting a horse and riding the length of S. America starting in Durango, Mexico ). Alas, I met a whole diverse group of Jewish people from all walks of life at the national Rainbow Gathering in Montana. After I returned from Hawai'i by way of SanFran, I took a stripped and refurbed giant school bus, with wood-burning stove, electrice generator, oven and range top, couches, beds, foutons etc. with 21 friends out from Eugene, OR to the Continental Divide in Montana. There was a "Jerusalem Kitchen", the whole Rainbow is made up of different "kitchens"/camps (Jazz Kitchen, the Texas Kitchen , the blahblahblah kitchen etc... 30,000 people total) where you could find delicious food and every type of Jew you ever could imagine. I was pretty blissed-out and decided to stay in touch with some of the people I had met, learned from, gotten books, did the Shabbos thang, put on Tefillin and thought about going to Israel. Alas it didn;t come to fruition. I had moved back east to NY for family reasons, and two days before I was supposed to leave for Israel, the intifada broke out, and my parents asked me to at least postpone my trip (also, I did not have the understanding then of solidarity with the people living in Israel). So I did. I felt stuck back east, and began exploring different synogogues, you name the Jewish sect, I have been by their temple, or hung out with, learned from them. I met this pretty famous actor in Manhattan, who asked me about my funky hippie, Jewish look, turned out to be interested in his own Jewish background and he gave me his West Village apt. for as long as I wanted. I said great, moved in and began learning Torah part time in Hadar Hatorah yeshivah - the FIRST Yeshiva EVER for Jewish men who are as yet unobservant, with little or no Jewish knowledge. It was started by the Lubavitcher Rebbe in 1962. Why I decided to go there? No, not only because Bob Dylan would go there for a spell often, but after all my searching, I felt (and feel) that Chabad-Lubavitch Chassidus is the deepest, most spirtual and simultaneously real and practical for of Judaism on the face of the earth. I found that they follow Jewish Law 110% without compromise, follow and ACTUALLY LEARN OPENLY, in depth, Jewish mysticism also without compromise (aka Kabbalah (- not Hollywood style)) and do not isolate themselves from the world, but rather constantly engage the world (Jew and Non-Jew) and try to make it a better place. We are accepting of all Jews no matter their level of observance - non-judgemental. After learing in Hadar Hatorah for 2 years, I went to the central Lubavitch yeshiva at 770, world lubavtich hq and began learning for Rabbinical ordination, 2 years later I married my wonderful wife, learned for 1 year more in Kollel (yeshiva for married men) and then went to start a Chabad house on a college campus and taught Judaic studies as a professor there as well. We have 3 kids, B"H. phew...