“Don’t worry if a project that you’ve set your heart on doesn’t work out, because HaKadosh Baruch Hu will send you your projects”
Around five years ago, I had the idea of writing a book about the great women of Klal Yisrael in today’s generation. My friend, Rabbi Yehuda Freilich, who’d spent time doing kiruv with Israelis in Chicago, mentioned Rabbanit Nava Ben Moshe, who’d reached out to thousands of women through the mitzvah of challah. He thought her work was worthy of a book on its own. It took time, but this is the book about Rabbanit Ben Moshe and her stories.
My style of writing involves extensive interviewing of my subject. I record all our conversations and then replay them as I write. Usually, one of the hardest decisions is whether to present the narrative in first person or third person. In this case, Rabbanit Ben Moshe is so humble and tzanuah that there was no question. She wanted herself kept out of the book, even as she wanted to share the stories about the power of the mitzvah. I don’t think I ever had such a challenge — to write a book about someone without making it “about them.”
Shabbos, of course, is me’ein Olam Haba, a taste of the Next World, so that first delicious bite of challah is the first taste of heaven.
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