I officially left my tenured position in Hebrew linguistics at one Israeli university the day before yesterday and started a new business as a Jewish life coach for speakers of Japanese yesterday though I still have to register this new business in the tax authority here.
I spent the last two years on sabbatical taking three coach training courses and many other courses, the most significant of which for me was Torat Hanefesh or Jewish psychology based on the teachings of Hasidism.
With the end of this two-year sabbatical the longest chapter in my professional life also came to an end. I worked about 30 years in academia since I started teaching in the university when I was in the second year as a PhD student in Hebrew linguistics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
One significant life event I experienced before I started this last sabbatical of mine made me realize that time had come to leave this comfort zone and follow my new bliss - Jewish life coaching. The Jewish part of my business is the incorporation of some teachings of Chabad Hasidism, which I started learning formally at Torat Hanefesh about two years ago and have come to embrace, though not fully yet.
My last day in academia the day before yesterday was just another normal weekday. But before I retired at night, I expressed my gratitude to everyone and everyting I encountered during this long period, without whom and which I'm not what I am now. If I'm to choose one word that best describes my present feeling, it's serenity.
Now I'm deeply convinced that no life experience is wasted and challenges we experience in life are here to serve us for our spiritual growth.