Career Change and the Second Tshuva

When I was in my early teens, I dreamed of becoming a polyglot, but I never imagined I would become a professional linguist. After I completed my doctorate in Hebrew linguistics, I dreamed of becoming a tenured lecturer in Hebrew linguistics (and never a language teacher) at an Israeli university, but I never imagined I would leave my tenure in Hebrew linguistics at an Israeli university.

It was three years ago that I made a final decision to make this career change and become a self-employed Jewish life coach. I never imagined I would take an interest, and a strong and growing interest in Hasidism in general and Chabad Hasidism in particular, on which my new practice of Jewish life coaching is based.

It was three months before this final decision that I started to undergo what seemed the second tshuva to me in retrospect now. I started to experience "the dark night of the soul". Descent was the necessity for ascent.

Since then I also started to lose an interest in what had occupied me not only professionally but also personally for about 30 years - languages and linguistics. When I stumbled upon the websites of a few linguistic associations in Israel rather recently, I myself was surprised to realize that none of the lectures in their respective conference programs interested me, nor did I even ask myself what is the use of such studies though I don't delegitimize them.

Three years since I was exposed to Chabad Hasidism I think I understand now why languages and linguistics don't interest me any more. For another somewhat different but essentially the same reason I also lost my interest in the academic study of Judaism.

I don't know where this second tshuva of mine will lead me eventually. I'm quite sure that most of those who only know Tsvi 1.0 don't understand what fascinates Tsvi 2.0 so much in Hasidism in general and Chabad Hasidism in particular. I still have a burning desire to share what I see now with those friends of mine who only know Tsvi 1.0. But paradoxically, such a burning desire shows that Tsvi 2.0 still has a long way to go in his second tshuva until he fully internalizes - and behaves accordingly - that everyone is exactly where they are supposed to be now.

"Honorary Doctorate" for Absent-Mindedness

Perhaps I'm already entitled to receive an "honorary doctorate" for my absent-mindedness.

My joy of finally receiving the second dose of coronavirus vaccine yesterday didn't last too long as I realized soon that I had lost on my way there the following two important personal belongings: my credit card (for the third time) and my Israeli ID card (for the first time). I already have a "glorious" past record of losing the following: my credit card (twice) abroad and the key of my apartment (three times).

Yesterday I was left penniless after the second vaccination and realized that the bank wouldn't reopen until Sunday morning. I discovered soon for the first time the way to withdraw cash from an ATM with a smartphone without using a credit card or bothering a bank teller. I wonder if such a service is available in other countries.

This has enabled me to withdraw enough cash to buy foods for Sabbath. But I'll have to do without a credit card until it's reissued in seven business days, that is, in about ten days. I don't know if I'll be able to have my ID card reissued soon because of the present special situation.

The common denominator for all these unpleasant and inconvenient incidents is my absent-mindedness - I was so preoccupied each time with some immediate worry about being late for something important, etc. that I was too mindless to notice that my waist bag was wide open and something fell out of it. Every time this happened, I upgraded my waist bag, but apparently this hasn't helped me a lot. I need to upgrade my mind as a more fundamental solution to this problem thought I still don't know how.