Rivka Greenberg grew up in the great city of Chicago, Illinois and then learned in the even greater city of Yerushalaim Ir Hakodesh for a year and a half in Michlalah and MMY. Although she is not studying bio or psych, she is currently a student in Stern College for Women! In her spare time, she packs and unpacks suitcases, as she is usually on her way in or out of an NCSY shabbaton.
This summer, Rivka has the privilege to learn with four special NCSYers in her homeroom: Ayelet Glassberg, Moriah Rosenthal, Madeline Hartranft, and Molly Horwitz. A fun fact about this homeroom is that all of their first and last initials can be found in the same five letters (A, G, M, R, and H). Homeroom focuses on the book Living Inspired by Rabbi Akiva Tatz, and in chabura, they learn about carrying that inspiration through daily life by learning spiritual depths behind our mundane routines.
The girls in Rivka’s chabura are on a mission to change the world, and if they were Michlelet madrichot this is what they would teach:
Ayelet Glassberg: I would want to teach about davening because nowadays most people just say the words in davening without understanding the meaning.
I would want to teach the meaning of the words we are saying and give an understanding so it’s not just us saying random things.
Moriah Rosenthal: If I created a Michlelet chabura I would choose its topic to be about being proud to be a Jew.
In my Chabura with Rivka Greenberg (KULULULULUUU), we read a letter by the Baal Shem Tov and he explains why he served HaShem through Torah and Mitzvahs.
He explains that as important as it is to serve HaShem, it is just as important to do it with pride.
Serving HaShem without pride will not be long lasting. Pride in being Jewish is what keeps Judaism alive forever. It is what makes being Jewish possible, even in a secular place like a public school.
Molly Horwitz: As a Michlelet advisor I would teach proofs of Judaism in my chabura. I believe that Jewish youths are often expected to blindly prescribe to the Jewish faith. They are not given a strong and diverse collection of proofs of the Torah or G-d because they have followed Judaism long enough that it is assumed that they already have emunah. Furthermore, families and the school system are more focused on teaching details of the Jewish faith rather than giving youths a firm core of belief. These same teenagers do not question Judaism out loud because they fear that they will sound ungrateful or uneducated. If young Jews are given proofs of the Torah then they will have a logically based understanding of Judaism that they can fall back on in times when they question their faith.
Madeline Hartranft: I would do a chabura on the different branches of Orthodox Judaism. For example, one day we would explore modern orthodox, another day yeshivish, another day chasidish, and so on. We would explore what is unique about their approach to Judaism and what positive things we can take from them. We have this idea of loving every Jew like we love ourselves but it’s so hard to do that when other Jews seem so different. If we learned about what we have in common and what lessons we can learn from other Jews we would be closer to loving every Jew.