Profiles

Aharon Yosef Skoglund

Dreadlocks to Kabbala: 

video  aired live 3.9.04

A short bio...

I was born in Evanston, Illinois in 1979 and grew up in Lansdale, PA (near Philadelphia). My mother was more or less an atheist coming from a secular German Jewish family and my father was a reformed pacifist Christian going Jewish.  My father "converted" and they joined a Reform Jewish congregation when I was three years old.  I went through the temple supplementary religious educational system in addition to attending public school.  I had a bar mitzvah, continued with "academy" and "confirmation" and eventually took night classes in high school for a certificate to teach in Reform religious schools.  I played lots of sports (esp. b-ball), partied hard and had lots of friends.  In junior high and high school I started getting into music and reading more books on my own.  I was searching for meaning in life, trying to define my place in the world.  I played guitar, wrote poetry and songs, sang in a few bands and learned how to rhyme (or rap as they say).  After 10th grade I went to Israel on a teen tour for a summer and had several meaningful spiritual experiences in the desert, at the Wall etc.  During that summer I started to grow my long hair into dread locks.  Shortly thereafter I also became a vegetarian. 

During high school I became quite an outspoken little political radical emcee\musician and started learning Tai Chi from a Chinese master with a little school a few towns away.  I read lots of books on Buddhism, Tao, New Age, History, political thought etc. The whole time I knew there was wisdom to be found in Judaism, and I looked for it, but I never found much beyond the basics. Shema Yisrael! G-d is ONE!  We are all ONE!  SHALOM SHALOM!  You know what I mean...  The texts and teachers were hidden, or so I thought.  I told my mother that one day I would find authentic teachers and study the Cabbala. She gave me her warm encouraging smile and bought me some books on the subject.

In high school I also got very involved in the Reform Jewish Youth Group movement in my temple and statewide.  That was the first time a made exclusively Jewish friends and engaged in prayer services in a way that felt really meaningful. At this point, I was very committed to an idea of Tikkun Olam, healing the world!!  I was set on figuring out how to fix this world and bring about the realization of the sort of spiritual vision I had been developing.  I developed my own sort of new-age rebel rocking Jew Boy identity and I carried that with me to college.    

Right after high school I went to Hampshire College in Amherst Massachusetts.  I took my mission with me and set on a multi-disciplinary course of study in music, history, political & spiritual philosophy etc.  I made a hip-hop crew with some friends and started playing live shows occasionally. Throughout all this I was continually searching on my own for more Jewish spirituality.  I would try to honor the concept of Shabbat in my own ways.  I would use Jewish themes in my various meditation practices.  Having been invited by an acquaintance of my older sister, I made my way with a friend to the Chabad House of Amherst during the winter of my second year in school.  It was a nice vibe and an obviously sacred place.  I saw books lining the walls and I knew I had to start coming around and borrowing books and asking the Rabbi questions.  It wasn’t long before I was struggling with the inner realization that I wanted to take on some of the religious practices I was learning about and that I wanted to study more in depth in original texts, etc. 

I received a scholarship to attend a yeshiva-crash course in Judaism summer program.  The program also offered a stipend, so that I wouldn’t have to work the whole summer like I usually did.  I bought more books and spent a month in preparation for the program because I knew that this summer I would decide if I was going to seriously take on the mitzvoth.  After a few weeks learning with some of the most brilliant thinkers of our generation (I’m serious) and spending time each night studying on my own, all the pieces started fitting together.  G-d, Torah, Mitzvoth, the Jewish people, Human consciousness, the dynamic unity of the nature…  All the contradictions I had once perceived between Judaism and my own inner truth were being resolved right before my eyes.  It was intense.  That summer I took on the mitzvahs of Shabbos, Kashrus, Tefillin and prayer.  I wanted to stay in yeshiva but one of the Rabbi’s helped me see that I would do better to finish college and get involved with Jewish Life where I was.  I knew that once I finished school I would go to Yeshiva.  Those two years were amazing and difficult.  Finally I graduated and made my way to Yeshiva Tiferes Menachem.  How I got there is a story in and of itself…  My time there was invaluable and totally inspiring.  They say that your time in Yeshiva is like fuel for your entire life.  I can honestly say that I feel my one and a half years at Tiferes gave me access to an infinitely rich wellspring of inspiration.

email  Aharon Yosef via the Yeshiva

at alumni@visityeshiva.com