On a Different Derech
Here's an interesting interview that starts off sounding like your typical off-the-derech story.
Girl grows up in an insular Chassidic environment, is married off at age 17 and has 3 kids by the age of 23. She then divorces her husband, leaves her community and starts working on degrees and careers.
But that's where the the typical off-the-derech story stops. Because she's a life coach and is training to become a Rabbi and talks about the Spirit and God. For real. She's training to be a Rabbi.
So how does this work? If I left so completely, so abruptly, the absolute very last thing I would want to be is a Rabbi or spiritual mentor. I would try that career right after telemarketing and commercial fishing. But she's somehow trying to find a way to integrate her old life and her new one. I am so curious about how that would work.
What do you think? Is it a bunch of crap? Is she one of these touchy-feely hokey-pokey syrupy-sweet fakers? Or is an integration possible? Can people really find their own way to Judaism and have it be incompatible with frumkeit and still feel honest and good about it? Or is it an all or nothing game?
I was just so weirded out by this article. Maybe it's me.