UBM

Sent to Work by the Rebbe – Pt 3 – “The Offer”

Note: This is part of a series! Click HERE to start at the beginning or HERE to read the last installment…

The next week of my life was a complete whirlwind. My last days as a single woman, my family flying into Brooklyn for the wedding, finally seeing my Chosson for 5 seconds before I was veiled, finally seeing him again as my husband this time, dancing for hours upon hours, and the most insane week of Sheva Brachos you’ve ever heard of. All stories for another time…

But this story is about the Rebbe “sending” me to work, and so suffice it to say that I was very anxious during Sheva Brachos to hear back from my interview at UBM. And eventually I did. They wanted me to come in for a second interview (always a good sign), and we set a date for a few days after our arrival in Morristown.… Read the rest

path

Sent to Work by the Rebbe – Pt 2 – “The Interview”

Note: This is part of a series! Click HERE to start at the beginning…

Flash forward one week to Shabbos in Crown Heights. Our last Shabbos together before the wedding. We were down to the last 24 hours that we could see each other before being separated the week before the ceremony. It was towards the end of Shabbos and after a nice lunch at the Dubovs that went until Shabbos ended, I was waiting around for my Chosson to return from evening services so we could make Havdala (the end-of-Shabbat service) and spend one last evening together before we couldn’t see each other anymore. I spent my spare moments at the Dubov house the same way I always did… perusing the massive bookshelves. I came across a book of Letters written by the Lubavitcher Rebbe about having faith. “I could use a boost in Bitachon,” I thought to myself with my joblessness and crazy bride problems on the back of my mind.… Read the rest

Beshalach

Stone-cutters and Springboards

BeshalachI think I’m pretty lucky. Thank G-d. I have an amazing husband, an awesome job with a great boss, a nice apartment in the heart of the Chabad world, a supportive family, caring friends… Yet despite all of this, I sometimes get a little voice in the back of my head. A voice that tells me, “things would be even better if…”

“Is engineering REALLY what I’m supposed to be doing with my life?”
“I wish I could learn like I did in Seminary… I miss that.”
“I would be so much happier if I had more time/money/inspiration in my life.”
“It would be so much nicer to just write/speak/travel for a living.”

I recently read a story in one of Dr. Abraham Twerski’s books. It’s a bedtime story, so it takes a little bit of imagination, but it has a great lesson. This is my own little rendition:

Once upon a time, there was a man.

… Read the rest

unemployment

Sent to Work by the Rebbe – Pt 1 – “Yud Shevat Shenanigans”

It was three weeks before our wedding and I was starting to freak out. We had already decided that we were going to live in Morristown, NJ so that he could attend the Kollel (Judaic studies program for newly married men) there at the Rabbinical College of America… which essentially left the ball of making ends meet completely in my court.

I had been working the last few months at Chabad.org and I loved every day. It’s an amazing organization on a mission that I identified with passionately, especially since I “grew up” (spiritually speaking) by getting lost in link-to-link wormholes of inspiring articles on the site for sometimes hours at a time. But the downsides of working in any not-for-profit educational organization on a tight budget are always the same… money is always short and staff positions are always needed but rarely fundable. So unfortunately, as much as I would have loved to stay involved and gone full-time in my position, it wasn’t an option.… Read the rest

בראשית

Hitting the Restore Button

This Sunday I sat down at my computer to write about new beginnings. It’s Shabbos Bereishis this week after all, where we start the Torah anew. And one of my birthday/new years resolutions was to start writing again (which I’m running late on). Unfortunately, the cosmic forces that be (i.e. G-d) had other plans with how I would spend my sliver of free time that evening…

You see, it all started a few weeks ago when a dear friend of mine asked me to help her make a website. Despite the abundance of free time I have (facetiously speaking), I agreed, since it was for a good cause. It’s a website that encourages girls (almost all of them religious from birth) to learn in honor of Reb Sholom Mordechai haLevi ben Rivkah, aka Sholom Rubashkin. The hope is that all of the good deeds and positive resolutions and words of Torah will go to his merit in the heavenly courts so that the earthly ones will be forced to lighten his sentence and make it fair.… Read the rest