Wherever Life Leads: My Jewish Journey

Written by: Spencer Tate, current Mayanot men’s program student Judaism. What does it mean? Life. What is it all about? Learning. How is it all possible? These are just some of the questions I have been pondering in recent years, and just some of the questions Mayanot has helped me begin to answer! I was born in Boca Raton, Florida into a large Jewish community. Despite this, Judaism was never at the forefront of my upbringing. For me, Judaism was like clothes that you wear every day. It was there but I didn’t pay much attention to the value it had. Although my grandparents were Orthodox, for most of their life, my parents did not continue all of the traditions that they were brought up with. Instead, my parents valued other things and my father, who is a longtime marathon runner, introduced me to athletics from a young age. Long before I knew it, I became an elite cross country and track runner in which everything I did was centered around running, somewhat like