Soccer Dad

Morris smith, again

One of the searches that continually (but slowly) brings people back here, is the search for Morris Smith.

So it is a pleasure to link to an article (thanks to my father for the heads up) about Morris Smith and his decision at the pinnacle of professional and material success to leave Fidelty and go to Israel to learn Torah:

Pondering heads of romaine lettuce for the Passover meal, it occurred to him: He hardly ever went grocery shopping. He hardly ever did a lot of things. Sure, he still "shut it off" every Friday afternoon to spend the Jewish Sabbath studying and praying, but 60-hour weeks were becoming 70, or more.

He loved analyzing businesses but had a tough time seeing his own performance analyzed once a week in The Boston Globe.

He'd had all the success anyone could ever hope for, and made more money than most people do in a lifetime. It was not a spiritual reawakening - "I was always awake," he says - but something more profound. "In 10 years, I've done it all. What else is there?" he remembers thinking.

So he went home, talked it over with his wife, Devora, and announced a stunning decision: He was leaving Fidelity and moving to Israel with Devora and their five children to live a life of Jewish study, self-fulfillment and charity.

It's interesting in that a more popular search that gets to Soccer Dad is one for Howard Jonas. who is also mentioned in this article:

Smith said he spends 30 hours a week in religious studies, starting when his alarm clock rings at 4:25 a.m. His nonprofit ventures in the U.S. and Israel include a satellite TV network dedicated to Torah study. He does some consulting on the side for his friend Howard Jonas, chairman of the telecommunications firm IDT Corp.

It's a wonderful story and well worth reading. For those who are interested, there's a picture of Morris Smith too.

Technorati Tags: Morris Smith, Jewish World.