Watch Rabba Yaffa Epstein’s JDOV talk about her experience being the “outsider” in the Orthodox world and how and why she broke her way into the conversation.
“In this talk, I examine the concept of feeling like an impostor. The impostor syndrome is a term coined in the 1970’s which describes a feeling of inadequacy despite being qualified for a particular task. It is something that plagues many people, and if we look through Jewish history, we’ll see that many of our greatest leaders, and role models themselves felt like they were outsiders who somehow didn’t belong. And no one more then Moses, who questions God directly about his own inadequacy. What is so fascinating though, is that God responds by saying that it was God’s decision to choose Moses, and Moses should not question that. In fact, the message is – each and everyone of us has a unique gift to bring to this world, and it is specifically our outsider and imposter status, that makes us uniquely us, and must be brought to bear on Jewish tradition.”
Yaffa serves as the Director of the Wexner Heritage Program. She received Rabbinic Ordination from Yeshivat Maharat and holds a Law Degree from Bar-Ilan University. She has studied at the Pardes Kollel, the Advanced Talmud Institute at Matan and the Talmud Department of Hebrew University.
