JNet Hits Ireland – Lost and Found

Cork, Ireland — Kabbala has always been an idea that intrigued me but I had no idea how to set about learning it until in my sixties I found Chabad – or rather, Chabad found me, in a remote corner of a country that few people know very much about. But I have to go back a bit to explain.

A few years ago when my husband and I reached retirement age we decided to move out of London, where we had lived all our lives. We sold our house in the suburbs and to our friends’ astonishment moved to a small rural town in the Irish Republic. So we left an area of London where there was a very large Jewish community, synagogues to suit every shade of orthodoxy, and shops to supply every Jewish appetite from matzos to gefilte fish; and we moved to a Catholic country and a farming area where there are only two other Jewish people, both of whom have “married out”.

Although in London our friends were almost all Jewish, neither my husband nor I are observant. We both came from families who belonged to the United Synagogue, but for different reasons we broke away. So for the first three years or so in our new life the only Jewish things we felt we missed were fresh-baked challas and rye bread! We are a five-hour journey from the capital city Dublin, where there are some five or six hundred Jewish people. My father was born in Dublin and was part of a large, happy family there and that is the reason I chose to make my new home in the Emerald Isle.

Ireland is a very beautiful country of about four million people, and the Irish are renowned for their kindness and charm. The pace of life where we live is slow, although it is beginning to speed up; very few of the streets have names and as yet there are no zip codes. When you present a cheque you are trusted and you don’t usually need to show a bank card to back it up. I joined an art class and a writing group and we both joined the bridge club and took lessons for the first time.

There was a lot to keep us busy, particularly as we were renting a house and needed to find a place of our own to buy, which we eventually did. We have a lovely modern house just outside the town, surrounded by fields in which horses graze, but few people here know anything about Judaism.

As a child and teenager I had a religious nature and was always looking for something in the synagogue service that I could not find. The rabbi’s sermons left me feeling disappointed and hungry for something more sustaining. I had Hebrew lessons for a while at the age of 12 but they did not help. So in my twenties I investigated Buddhism briefly and then other esoteric schools of thought which seemed more likely to meet my spiritual needs. I have been seeking all my life for the right path.

I was still looking for the important “something else” when, wonder of wonders, I received a telephone call from a young Chabad rabbi, who I later found out was part of a program called “Merkos Shluchus,” arranged by Rabbi Kotlarsky at Lubavitch World Headquarters. He told me that he and a colleague from New York were on an annual tour of Ireland, North and South, to visit all the Jews in the country, the first purpose being to make contact but also to provide any articles needed such as mezzuzas or Chanuka menoras. Each year a different pair comes and with incredible detective-like skills, they seek out people even in the most out-of-the-way spots and find their way through narrow country lanes to visit them, if a visit is wanted.

I first invited them to our house about four years ago and welcomed the chance to connect with Jewish thinking and culture for an hour or two. I also learned that the Chabad-Lubavitch headquarters in New York sends help to all us Jews who live outside the Dublin area at Passover, Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. Young, enthusiastic and incredibly good-humoured rabbis come over to assist or conduct the services (bringing with them and preparing kosher food for all) at the synagogue in Cork, Ireland’s second city. Cork once had a Jewish population of about 400 but now there is only one family remaining.

It was during last year’s Merkos Shluchus visit to our house that I finally found the means to study Kabbala. I learned about JNet (The Jewish Learning Network) an organization that matches people together as “learning partners” to study Judaism. I was given a form to fill in, stating my details and what areas of the religion I wished to study. Not long after, I was astonished to be put in touch with the wife of a rabbi in, of all places, South America. This wonderfully motivating woman was originally from New York. Thanks to Skype technology (where telephone calls are free via computers) we were able to have a weekly hour’s lesson on the psychological meaning of the week’s Torah portion. Thereafter I acquired another learning partner, this time a young woman living outside London, also a rabbi’s wife. It is she who has undertaken to instruct me in the mystical aspects of Kabbala and our lessons have proved how knowledgeable and enthusiastic she is about the history of Chasidut and the underlying meanings of the biblical texts.

JNet, for me at this time in my life, seems to be helping with answers to my questions. Everyone I have encountered in Chabad has been remarkably warm and accepting and joyful. I am not promising to become observant , but on a recent trip to Israel I did buy two mezzuzas…

What’s New

Have Phone Will Study

Hundreds of Jewish men and women are already taking advantage of The Jewish Learning Network’s Torah study by phone service. JNet provides the opportunity to study Torah from home, work, school, wherever and whenever – free of charge. Applicants choose when they are available and what they would like to study and JNet matches them with an educated and friendly volunteer. JNet volunteers can teach a variety of topics, including Jewish traditions, Prayer, Jewish Law and Ethics, Mysticism and Kabbalah, running a Jewish home, raising Jewish children, relationships, or just general questions. JNet is geared for Jews of all levels of learning. No prior Torah knowledge or Hebrew skills are required. To start, sign up at www.jnet.org or call 718-467-4400, e-mail info@jnet.org JNet is a division of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch and is made possible through a grant from The Rohr Foundation.