My takeaway: Ordinary people have extraordinary stories
TObe honest, I didn’t expect to write about this particular Shabbos. I was invited for Shabbos by the community of Young Israel of East Brunswick (YIEB), led by Rabbi Yehoshua Hess, and I felt privileged to speak there — but not every community visit becomes an article. Most of the stories I’ve shared over the past months have focused on what I call “October 8th Jews” — those whose Jewish spark was ignited in the wake of recent events.
YIEB is a long-established, relatively small, Modern Orthodox community. In my mind, I initially categorized it as typical: suburban, middle-class, religiously committed. But I admit — I was wrong. Because it turns out that even without dramatic headlines, the Jewish People carry within them powerful, moving stories of connection, growth, and return.
On Shabbos morning, I shared my own story with the congregation. Nothing earth-shattering or spectacular: When I was 14, I spent Shabbos at a friend’s house and fell in love with the experience. That was it — I started keeping Shabbos. I joked that this was probably the most mundane teshuvah story they’d ever heard. Baruch Hashem, no ashrams, no tattoos, no time spent as a captive in Gaza. Just a regular secular teenager from Herzliya who discovered the beauty of Shabbos.
What followed was unexpected: From then until Motzaei Shabbos, members of the shul approached me, each eager to share their own “uneventful” teshuvah story, stories that, in truth, were anything but ordinary. Most of the kehillah was middle-aged, and those members who didn’t grow up religious had become frum decades ago. You see, not every baal teshuvah wears a suit and hat. Sometimes the Modern Orthodox Jews who seem so “mainstream” and chilled actually have deeply personal, even heroic, journeys behind them.
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