About Myself
Hi! Thanks so much for stopping by. I’m Rebecca, and this is my latest work-in-progress.
My story is that I love ideas. My whole life I’ve been learning and growing. It’s a path I learned from my parents, whose slow and thoughtful path to becoming religious was a major part of my childhood in Pittsburgh, PA. We had the tremendous privilege as a family of learning together under the guidance of Rav Yisroel Miller, a true mussar personality and nephew of Rav Avigdor Miller. I loved learning so much, I ended up continuing that path, getting a BA in Bible from Stern and an MA in Medieval Jewish History from Revel. I was blessed to have the chance to learn from Rabbi Mordechai Cohen, who officially taught me parshanut, but whose clear derech for understanding sources has been tremendously helpful for everything I want to learn. However, by the time I finished my studies at Revel I was burned out. I needed something more practical that spoke to my soul. I immersed myself in Rav Dessler and have been blessed with the life changing opportunity to be in Rav Kelemen’s mussar vaad. Rav Kelemen introduced me to the sefer Ohel Rachel, which is a sefer for women about our relationship with Hashem in the context of marriage and our lives as mothers and wives. I had the pleasure of working with Mrs. Racheli Miller, who has been teaching Ohel Rachel for over 20 years. Together, Baruch Hashem, we were able to write The Simchah of Marriage. You can check it out on our website, simchahofmarriage.com, or order it from Amazon here. I now have the privilege of expanding my world further by learning from and working with Rabbi Yehoshua Gerzi on a few projects, Baruch Hashem.
That’s my intellectual path. But my greatest blessing in life is the time I’ve been able to spend with my wise and wonderful husband, Ely, building our family and raising our four amazing children. For many years we ran the Jewish Outreach Network from our home, first in Englewood and then in Bergenfield, hosting Shabbatons for upwards of 50 people once a month, giving shiurim on Shabbat and during the week, and really enjoying all the amazing and unique people we were able to host in our home. In 2015 we took a leap of faith and made aliyah. We are so happy to be here in Eretz Yisrael, but we really do miss the community we left behind. Which is why I decided to begin this project.
About the Website
This website is a work in progress. I’m not sure exactly what it will become yet, but I hope you will help me shape it. What I know so far is that I want it to be a place where I can share ideas I find meaningful. I called it Think Deep, Live Deep because that’s my aspiration in life: to learn as much as I can, and to apply it to my life in any way possible. I know from experience that the best part of learning deep ideas is sharing them with others. I miss the amazing women I used to learn with, who now live across the ocean. In these crazy Carona times, I also miss the women from my neighborhood that I can no longer easily see. I miss sharing ideas, and the clarity and insight that comes from bouncing ideas back and forth, and hearing the insights and perspectives of other people.
Until just a little bit ago, I knew absolutely nothing about creating a website, or writing a blog. This is a journey, to see what I can learn and create. It would make me so happy if you would share this journey with me. I invite you to help me by sharing your comments and insights.
Hi Rebecca,
I know your mom and dad; I’ve been in a chumash study class with your mom for years and they’ve had my husband and me over for holidays and Shabbos. We know Sam and Aaron as well. I’m a relatively recent convert (age 61; previous non-halachic conversion 31 years ago). I take a couple of classes with Rabbi Tatz, so I hear a lot about R’ Moshe Shapiro. I have also read The Intellect and the Exodus, and I thought you did such a beautiful job of summarizing these deep ideas in a user-friendly way and adding your own ways of internalizing them. (a great example of think deep, live deep!) Not only that, but you write beautifully! I would enjoy discussing these ideas more sometime, but a little overwhelmed at the moment. But I at least wanted to introduce myself and tell you that I loved your plagues project!!
Thank you so much! I’ve been so overwhelmed since Pesach I’m only getting to my comments now. I really appreciate your reaching out, and would love to have a chance to talk with you and get to know you when we’re both less overwhelmed 🙂