Help Me Build the Foundation for the Rest of My Life
If you had asked me a year ago what my future looked like, I would have given you a very different answer.
The plan was simple: stay in Florida, work for my father, and begin building my career. It was a great opportunity. By working with my father, I could skip years of climbing the ladder and start building financial stability right away. I believed that by doing so, I could eventually use those resources to make a real difference in my community and help bring more achdut to Am Yisrael.
Then something began to change.
The more I thought about my future, the more I felt that something was missing. I couldn’t shake the feeling that before I spent my life trying to build a career or influence others, I needed to first build myself.
At the same time, my family wasn’t encouraging this new path. My father wanted me to join him in the business. My mother worried that spending a year in yeshiva would completely change me. For months, I went back and forth. Every conversation seemed to pull me in a different direction. My mind told me one thing, but my heart kept returning to another.
My parents are not able to help.
I kept asking myself a simple question: What is really real?
The answer I kept coming back to was Hashem and His Torah.
I realized that I was trying to skip an essential step. I wanted to help create unity in the Jewish people, but how could I help unite others if I hadn’t yet found that sense of wholeness within myself? I wanted to build a meaningful future, but I hadn’t yet built the spiritual foundation that future should rest upon.
For me, that’s what this year in Israel is.
It’s not a year away from life. It’s a year preparing for it.
It’s a chance to immerse myself in Torah, strengthen my relationship with Hashem, develop real learning skills, and surround myself with people who are striving for growth. It’s an opportunity to build lifelong friendships, learn from incredible rabbeim, and become the person I hope to be for the rest of my life.
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that emunah means doing everything you can to move closer to Hashem and trusting Him with the outcome. I still dream of making a positive impact on my community and, b’ezrat Hashem, helping bring greater achdut to the world. Those dreams haven’t changed. What has changed is my understanding of how to reach them.
I now believe that before Hashem asks me to build anything in the world, He is asking me to build myself.
This year will influence every part of my future—where I live, how I learn Torah, the home I hope to build one day, and the person I become. I don’t see this as delaying my future. I see it as laying the foundation that everything else will stand on.
I’m incredibly grateful to have the opportunity to learn in Israel, but I can’t do it alone. I’m asking for your help in making this year possible. Every donation, whether large or small. Ma’aser or tax deductibles. allows me to dedicate myself fully to learning, growing, and making the most of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
For tax deductibles don’t make the donation here rather contact Yehuda or the yeshiva so you can receive your detectable.
Thank you for believing in me and for becoming a part of this journey. I hope, with Hashem’s help, to make this year one that not only changes my life but enables me to give back to others for many years to come
