Visiting scholar comes to New Light

A chance encounter at Rabbi Iscah Waldman’s daughter’s bat mitzvah in Teaneck, New Jersey, turned into a five-year connection with New Light Congregation in Pittsburgh.

New Light’s Rabbi Jonathan Perlman happened to be at the Teaneck shul one Shabbat and heard Waldman davening at the bat mitzvah. Waldman’s style of leading services resonated with Perlman, so he invited her to be a visiting scholar for the High Holidays in 2020. She’s come back every year since.

As visiting scholar at New Light Congregation — a small Conservative congregation in Squirrel Hill that describes itself as “the most haimish shul in town” — Waldman will be helping lead prayers, delivering a d’var Torah and teaching throughout the High Holidays.

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“I’ve led services since I was 15,” Waldman said. “At this point, I can’t imagine fasting for Yom Kippur without leading services.”

She wasn’t always at the bimah, but she began leading mincha and shacharit services at a young age. Her father was a rabbi, so she learned the structure early on and found she had a knack for it. Since then, Waldman has worked for the University of Pennsylvania and is now director of Jewish studies in the Upper School at Golda Och Academy in Teaneck.

Coming to Pittsburgh as a visiting scholar “is very helpful for my teaching, since I’m constantly preparing new classes and I always learn something that connects from the community there,” she said. She teaches a number of electives in Teaneck, including business ethics, and is able to draw from everyday life for her coursework.

But Waldman’s true passion, in both teaching and studying, is midrash, the texts from rabbis across generations that interpret and analyze Torah stories and Jewish law.

“I have a graduate degree in midrash. Very practical!” she joked. “For me, midrash is about the psychology of the reader. I’m not looking for what’s the backstory, but instead what does it reveal to me about the writer of the midrash and how we read it. What does it tell us about the rabbis?”

One example she cites as to why she loves midrash is the teachings on the Akedah (the Binding of Isaac). “The rabbis ask ‘Why doesn’t Abraham protest? Why is he so silent during the whole procedure of God asking him to sacrifice his son?’ Not only does he not protest, he barely speaks,” Waldman said. “I think that really bothered the rabbis, so they provide a lot of different options. What could he have been thinking in his head? What was Sarah thinking in hers? When you read it, you might get angry at God, or at Abraham. But it’s all about what you bring to it from your own psychology.”

Her d’var Torah at New Light will focus on the theme of “Praying to a Passionate and Dispassionate God.” When does God intervene or express emotion, and when is God less involved?

“There are times in the text when God doesn’t display emotions but might still have pathos and not reveal it. It’s kind of like as a parent, when your kid gets hurt and cries, you don’t cry along with your kid, but you still love them,” Waldman said.

In addition, she’ll be teaching at tashlich and between mincha and ma’ariv on Yom Kippur.

In the last five years, she’s come to know Perlman, his family and New Light congregants. Though it’s one of Pittsburgh’s smaller congregations, bringing in a visiting scholar reflects New Light’s commitment to Jewish learning and spiritual growth.

“I know it’s a small congregation, but they’re really welcoming, warm and loving to each other,” she said. “Pittsburgh seems very unusual to those of us who are in bigger Jewish communities in how there’s a sense of unity. It’s really nice to see people from different denominations working together.” PJC

Emma Riva is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.