Gil Student on the Journey into Orthodoxy (Rebroadcast)

The Tikvah Podcast

Tikvah

Judaism, Politics, Religion & Spirituality, News

4.6 • 620 Ratings

🗓️ 22 September 2022

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

At this time of year, the Jewish calendar compels Jews to think about the human capacity for personal change, which in the Jewish view is made possible by God. The ability for humans to undertake t’shuvah, repentance, is a subset of that capacity that rises to the fore of this week’s podcast conversation (a rebroadcast of a 2017 episode), with the rabbi, editor, and writer Gil Student.

Student’s subject is a classic essay, published in Rolling Stone in 1977, called "Next Year in Jerusalem." The piece is a travelogue by the critic Ellen Willis as she takes a trip to Israel to see inside the world of her brother Michael, who decided to leave behind his secular life in the United States, undertake Orthodox yeshiva study in Jerusalem, and eventually live as an observant Jew. In doing so, Ellen wrestles with the question of why her brother made the choice that he did, and then, as the attractions of Orthodox Judaism are revealed to her, whether she too should follow in his path. In conversation with Mosaic’s editor Jonathan Silver, Student walks listeners through the essay, explains why it’s still relevant today, and reflects on his own growth into greater Jewish observance.

Musical selections in this podcast are drawn from the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, op. 31a, composed by Paul Ben-Haim and performed by the ARC Ensemble.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is a period in the liturgical year in which the Jewish people think about the most amazing and mysterious human capacity for change.
0:18.0	I don't mean the wide-scale change promised by political campaigns or anything
0:22.4	like that. I mean the capacity for personal change that is made possible by the divine freedom
0:28.0	in whose image we are, each and every one of us, created. Judaism is named for that man, Judah,
0:34.0	whose soul was once so disordered that he sold his own brother into captivity, and then,
0:39.3	a lifetime later, summoned the courage to be willing to sacrifice himself in order for
0:45.3	another brother to go free. We are not only creatures of material force who can choose where
0:51.3	to move, like fish or dogs. We can choose our path.
0:55.8	And that capacity for moral choice is what makes us who we are.
1:00.0	That is the human ability that allows us to undergo chuvah, repentance.
1:04.1	And that is the human ability that comes to the surface in today's conversation.
1:08.3	Welcome to the Tikva podcast.
1:10.0	I'm your host, Jonathan Silver. This week,
1:12.4	a rebroadcast from a conversation I originally had some five years ago in August 2017 with the
1:20.0	rabbi, editor, writer, Gill Student. The subject of our conversation is a classic essay that was
1:26.1	published of all places in Rolling Stone in the
1:29.1	year 1977, now some 45 years ago.
1:33.2	The essay is called Next Year in Jerusalem, and it is an account of the critic Ellen
1:38.7	Willis' brother Michael, who decided to leave behind his secular life in the United States and undertake Orthodox
1:45.6	Yeshiva study in Jerusalem, eventually coming to see himself and coming to live as a Balchuvah.
1:52.5	The essay is Ellen's travelogue to see inside the curious world of her brother, the reflections
1:57.9	of a secular woman glimpsing into the attractions of Orthodox
	...

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