A good friend to help you through the dark times

After finishing her schooling at Moriah College and studying communications at the University of Technology in Sydney, Naomi Elbinger made aliyah, after which she says she “got married, had a few kids and became an entrepreneur”.

Elbinger also took on the role of activist on behalf of entrepreneurs in Israel and helped create the Temech Conference, the world’s largest event for Jewish women in business. But perhaps what changed her the most after her move to Israel was joining a Charedi community.

“I have felt very much at home in this world for almost 20 years,” Elbinger told The AJN.

Recently, Elbinger wrote a book, reflecting on faith in hard times.

While Elbinger discloses that the story was the brainchild of Rabbi Daniel Yaakov Travis, it was she who took on the challenge of writing it.

“There is so much timeless Jewish wisdom to guide us through tough times, but his experience showed that very often when life is off the rails and a person is in a pit of pain and confusion, it’s hard for us to absorb ‘advice’ and ‘wisdom’. Personal suffering is a heavy topic and Rabbi Travis didn’t want to make this even heavier for people,” she explained.

So instead, the pair created a story that was enthralling and gripping, and at the same time, contained Jewish wisdom to help the reader process painful experiences and emotions.

Elbinger has received feedback from readers all around the world, explaining that the story helped them, or their family members get through tough times, such as the death of a loved one, broken engagements, physical and emotional health issues, and even the isolation caused by COVID-19 lockdowns.

With this in mind, Elbinger admits she felt a bit of pressure. “I had writing skills and enthusiasm but was completely unprepared for what it would demand from me – emotionally and physically – to create a novel that people feel is not just a good read, but a good friend that helps them through their darkest hours,” she said.

Yedidya has been compared to the likes of Unorthodox and Shtisel, and while Elbinger understands why this is the case, she says there is a big difference.

“Yedidya, like those shows, tells the story of ultra-Orthodox characters who are confronted by struggles that reveal the flaws and foibles of their insular society. In the case of Yedidya, the main character is a shy, serious student from a challenging family background, who is abruptly kicked out of yeshivah for dealing drugs, even though he is completely innocent. With nowhere else to go, Yedidya lands in a rehab institution surrounded by recovering addicts and delinquents – where he is certainly the odd man out,” she explained.

But while characters in the television series either reject their community or get sucked into the family drama and emotional crises, Yedidya reacts differently.

“Yedidya’s journey takes him on a different path, which asks the question: If an ordinary person is sincerely trying to align themselves with a Jewish spiritual and moral view of life, what might their struggles through injustice and suffering look like? It would certainly involve a lot of grappling with the meaning of life and the quality of their own character,” she said.

“We Jews have a tradition going back thousands of years that is extremely preoccupied with the question of why bad things happen to good people. This stuff – the world that goes on inside our heads – is more intrinsically Jewish than what we’re wearing on our heads! One thing I can tell you about Yedidya’s journey – it’s nothing like what you might expect.”

For more information, visit yedidyabook.com

 

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