Michlelet Mevaseret Yerushalayim

Special Message from Rabbi Haber

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Michlelet Mevaseret Yerushalayim
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Jerusalem 93513
Israel

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From North America:
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Dear Talmidot,

A few minutes ago, I spoke to the girls in MMY's Bet Midrash and shared with them a dvar Torah about Sefirat HaOmer.   I spoke about the fact that we count upwards from 1 to 49 and not down, from 49 to 1.  I used this as a metaphor for the idea that in order to achieve a personal Kabbalat HaTorah, it is important for a person to always be moving up, and never down.  I also spoke about dreams, and about the unique power of Torah to help a person accomplish things far beyond his own expectations.

 

I used this dvar Torah as an opportunity to share with them some news that I want to now share with you as well: after much thought and deliberation, I will be leaving MMY at the end of this year.


This decision has not come easily to me - after all, as you know, MMY has been a central focus of my life for the past 18 years, beginning almost a year before the first talmidot entered our first Bet Midrash in Kiryat Moshe.   For me, as one of those who saw the need for a program like MMY several years before that, it has been the realization of a dream of the type I spoke about tonight.  
 
And what we have achieved in reality actually goes far beyond what we dreamed. To date, we have educated over 1,300 young women.   Over the course of their time here, I have seen them grow, mature, develop...and they have gone on to do all sorts of amazing things wherever they have gone after that.  Many hundreds of them are married (which means hundreds of families impacted by the Torah that they learned here), they are active in communities all over the world (including around 200 that have made aliya here to Israel), many are teachers or other leaders in their communities, and the impact goes on beyond that as well.   
 
I am extremely proud and gratified by what we've accomplished, and I feel privileged and thank Hashem for enabling me to have had a part in that.   And as this dream slowly developed into the incredible reality that it currently is, I have also been growing, maturing and developing myself as well.   MMY has been the impetus for many, many important steps in my own personal lifelong Sefirat HaOmer.  

 

At this point, however, the time has come for me to move on to other dreams that I have, and other things I want to accomplish and to contribute to Am Yisrael.   I'm confident that, under the continued leadership of Rabbi Katz, Rabbi Lerner, Mrs. Isaacson, Mrs. Katz and the entire faculty, MMY will continue to soar to even greater heights.  

 

As for us, as you know we always say that "there is no such thing as a former student".   There's also no such thing as a former teacher, and on that level I am "leaving" MMY now only in the sense that all of you did at one point or another over the past 16 years - moving on to other things on a day to day basis, but still very much a part of the MMY family.

 

B'vracha,

Rabbi Haber