Introducing Va’ad haMaggidot

By Herb Levine

At CCM’s first-ever Community Graduation on June 13, you will meet four incredible women, all of them Jewish teachers and story-tellers; hence their name the Maggidot. Those who attended our tribute to Mindy Shapiro saw them perform an original story in Mindy’s honor. In alphabetical order (by first name) they are Beatriz Aguirre Hamer (Honolulu), Cathy Schechter (Austin), Helene Kates (Atlanta) and Lynnie Mirvis (Memphis). They encountered Mussar through Mindy Shapiro’s participation in a certificate program for Jewish Spiritual Educators, which was started by Rabbi Goldie Milgram. After studying a middah a month in that program for over two years, they sought a deeper experience of Mussar and asked Mindy to be their teacher. She led them through the first seven chapters of Mesillat Yesharim and then, when she began a sabbatical from CCM, asked me to take over her class. We were together for another two and a half years, until they had completed our full curriculum – a complete run-through of Mesillat Yesharim and two times round with Tomer Devorah. So their graduation represents the culmination of a six-year course of study and greatly deepened personal Mussar practice. I am delighted that this graduation will (further) introduce these talented women to the broader CCM community:


Beatriz Aguirre Haymer is a Jewish educator and ordained Maggidah. She began her Mussar journey in 2014 when she was the director of Honolulu’s School of Jewish Studies. She earned a graduate degree in Hispanic literature and language acquisition and worked for several years as an interpreter and translator. Beatriz incorporates movement and energy work with her secular and Judaic studies students and delights in telling stories in English or Spanish when teaching.
An avid weaver, she is currently working on a text that intertwines Dichos de mis Madres, her Mexican mothers’ Torah-based proverbs and Mussar middot. Beatriz lives in Honolulu, Hawaii.

“Menuchat HaNefesh encourages me to make the effort and put matters into perspective thereby preserving or reclaiming inner peace.”


Cathy Schechter is a writer and adult educator in Austin, Texas. She earned her MAJS from Hebrew College, and along with her va’ad, received ordination as a Maggidah/Omanit. Her work in her years of Mussar training is most felt through those to whom she is a is a wife, mother, Savta, sister, and daughter.

 

“My go-to middah: shtika! It’s hard to listen and hear when you’re talking! Harder still to call on other middot when surrounded by outer or inner noise!”


Helene Kates aids individuals and their families to explore and strengthen their intrinsic bond to the Torah and Mitzvot through the transformational power of story and song. She is currently working toward investiture as a Cantor and a recent grad of the Center for Contemporary Mussar.

 

 

“…in my calendar I wrote the following as a daily repeated event (thing I need to do every day). Work on Bitachon and Anavah.  G-d gave you this gift.  Trust that there will be opportunities for you to use this gift in the way that G-d intended.


Lynnie Mirvis is a storyteller, Maggid Educator, and writer in Memphis, Tennessee, who shares Jewish folktales and multi-cultural stories with people of all ages. She loves stories that create messages of empathy and tikkun and help participants connect to each other and to the ‘Divine Image in each of us.’  She is inspired to bring the magic and wonder of the oral tradition through her tellings and to find ways of seeing G!d’s Presence in the world.

 

“To keep my Nefesh semi-permeable, I call on the Middah of Tender Curiosity to ‘replace anger and re-experience the relationship’ and use the pasuk, Hodu LaHashem Ki Tov -Ki La’Olam Hasdo: Give thanks to Hashem for Hashem’s Loving-kindness is forever, as a touchstone.”