Rabbi Yitz Jacobs: The Aish Baal Teshuva Who Never Left

Rabbi Yitz Jacobs went to synagogue a few times a year growing up in Long Island. He had a bar mitzvah and thought that God was a big bearded man in the sky. He didn’t know much about Judaism.

Then, right after Jacobs found out he’d been accepted to law school, he decided to go on a free trip to Israel. This meant deferring school for a year. When he told his non-Jewish dean, he was surprised at the response.

“My dean’s eyes lit up and he said, ‘You’re going to a yeshiva?’” Jacobs said. “He said his best students had yeshiva training, and he encouraged me to go. He also said not to forget to come back after the year was over.” 

With that encouragement, Jacobs went to Israel with Aish HaTorah, where he learned traditional Jewish teachings. 

“It was a whole new world of Jewish thought,” he said.

Jacobs realized that even though he wasn’t observant, he still was very inherently Jewish. 

“I started to understand I had a Jewish filter, and as I was looking through life I was collecting the Jewish ideas and discarding non-Jewish ideas,” he said. “I didn’t even know I was doing it.”

Jacobs enjoyed learning at Aish so much in that first year that he decided to defer law school a second year. And then a third. 

“I finally dropped out of law school and continued on at Aish with the idea that I would become a rabbi,” he said.

What Jacobs connected to was reconciling science and Torah, something he discovered through classes with Dr. Gerald Schroeder. 

“Religion seemed barbaric and antiquated when it came to science,” he said. “Dr. Schroeder had a whole class and several books on Judaism and science. He reconciled the two with such beauty, elegance and perfection.”

Jacobs also learned about this topic through the Discovery Seminar, one of the starter programs for students at Aish. 

“It shook my disbelief, so to speak,” he said. “It gave me permission to believe. I got the answers I needed every single time.”

Jacobs ended up staying for six years and getting ordained through Aish in 2002. Now, he works at Aish Los Angeles teaching classes, counseling, learning with people, hosting Shabbatons, going on trips to Poland and teaching the Discovery Seminar himself. He helps young Jews learn more about their religion and heritage and connect to it in an authentic and personal way. 

According to the rabbi, many young Jews gravitate towards diving deeper into Judaism these days because they are feeling lost. 

“They feel like they don’t have anything rooting them in life,” he said. “A culture and tradition can do that. Where you come from is super important. So is having a relationship with God. They can gain a positive outlook, find out that everything happens for a reason and embrace and grow from challenges they face. It’s the healthiest way to live.” 

However, it isn’t always so simple to connect. 

“There are a million roadblocks,” Jacobs said. “One is the family. It’s unfamiliar and it feels threatening, which is understandable. Also, in our culture, belief in God looks ridiculous. However, it is coming back around, even in the scientific community.”

When his job gets tough, Jacobs doesn’t want to give up. He turns to his favorite Jewish teaching from Rabbi Hillel found in Pirkei Avot to get the strength to keep going: “If I am not for me, who will be for me? And when I am for myself alone, what am I?”

”A guiding force in my life is to help people grow and invest in themselves and figure out what they truly want. Then, they can be a big giver out there in the world.”

“People really need to focus on self-work and growth before they can create relationships and make choices in their lives,” Jacobs said. “They need to invest in themselves. A guiding force in my life is to help people grow and invest in themselves and figure out what they truly want. Then, they can be a big giver out there in the world.”

Fast Takes with Yitz Jacobs

Jewish Journal: What’s your favorite Jewish food?

Yitz Jacobs: My mom’s matzah ball soup.

JJ: If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go? 

YJ: I lived in Israel for six years and it’s filled with people I love, so I would just go there.

JJ: What historical Jewish figure would you want to talk to?

YJ: Yaakov, since my last name is his name. He had such a high level of prophecy and he knew what was going on at the end of days. I would like to know if he could tell me where are we and what’s happening and what will happen next.