Lesley first heard the whisper of the Divine calling her to rabbinical school when she was 25. It spoke in her own voice, when she mused aloud, “I’m not sure I’d be a very good rebbitsin, but I’d be a great rabbi.” The words were so surprising it would take her another 25 years to answer them.
Prior to rabbinical school, Lesley worked as a newspaper reporter and writer, a massage therapist and a conversational English teacher in Madrid. Deep listening was, and is, the foundation of all of her work.
Lesley believes deeply in prayer and in community.
She insists that doubt need not be a barrier to prayer. “To Whom It May Concern” is a fine way to address the Divine. “Help” and “Thank You” are holy words. It is her experience that God often speaks through others.
Lesley learned the mitzvah of Hachnasat Orchim (“welcoming guests”) from her parents at an early age, and that there is always room for one more. As an adult, she found true belonging at 12-step recovery meetings in church basements.
As a rabbi, Lesley seeks to connect individuals to Jewish texts, practices and traditions; the Divine; and each other. She believes in radical hospitality and obligation (with a soft “o.”) That everyone wants to be invited, but more than that, everyone wants to be needed. And the secret to creating and sustaining community is giving everyone a job and a phone list.
Lesley is grateful for tearful breakthroughs in Talmud class and hevrutah — learning partners — who truly sharpened her mind. She offers thanks to all of her teachers, both inside and outside of the classroom, but most especially to Rabbi Alan Lew (z”l); Rabbi Brant Rosen; her cousin Diane Polasky (z”l), who stoked the fires of her religious curiosity; and Paul Muller Ortega, Ph.D., who tended and directed those fires.
“Does God need our prayers? No, we do.”
— Rabbi Rami Shapiro
וקנה לך חבר כיצד? מלמד שיקנה האדם חבר לעצמו שיאכל עמו, וישתה עמו, ויקרא עמו, וישנה עמו, ויישן עמו, ויגלה לו כל סתריו סתר תורה וסתר דרך ארץ
“And acquire for yourself a friend. How so? This teaches that a person should acquire a friend who will eat with them, and drink with them, and study Scripture and Mishnah with them, and go to sleep with them, and reveal to them all their secrets, both secrets of the Torah and secrets of the ways of the world.”
— Avot d’Rabbi Natan
