yamila silberman was born in 1984 in Buenos Aires. She grew up in a Jewish family and at the age of 21 she decided to live according to the principles of Orthodoxy. The experience of that transition is recounted in Very orthodox? A Jewish path to a happier lifea book that he published in 2021.
—What comes after that and what has changed since you published that book?
—The truth is that it was a door, it was a door to be able to open from our experience what is spiritual growth and commitment and coherence between what is happening inside me with what I think and what I do. We were able to expand all that was affecting our decisions to the world and with this we also gave others the opportunity to begin to look at themselves and think about how to grow and have a life with a more conscious meaning.
—You started this path at the age of 21, what happened to the 21-year-old Yamila now? Are you going to tell this too?
—God willing, we are going to release a new, unpublished chapter, where past and present intersect at the same point to be able to connect from meaning.
—Now I ask Yamila this question today: from the age of 21 to the age you are now, what do you see in yourself that has changed? How do you see yourself today in perspective?
—Larger, but also, more responsible with my decisions, more at peace with my past, having been able to internally resolve those faults that I perceived throughout my life and being able to value all the yeses and everything that did exist and even being able to thank you for those faults because they are also the ones that make me who I am.
—How much did religion influence on that path in what you are today?
—It was the turning point, it was finding meaning in all that was to validate who I am; It was the understanding that everything is as it has to be and that there is no such thing as sometimes “this should not have happened”. Because it would be contrary to faith to think that something went wrong, what happened? Did God hide, close his eyes and make a mistake? So since I believe in a truly almighty God who is in everything that exists and even within each one of us, where he is linked with each one of us and with existence from abundant love, there is nothing that can be bad. in essence and everything was as it had to be; even if it caused me pain, that pain also leads me to who I am.
—We are talking about the book that is there, you can find it from BajaLibros.com Very orthodox?, which Yamila wrote. But not only did you write the book, but you also have an Instagram account with a lot of followers, lots of young girls follow you. What do you think they are looking for in what you say, in the message you give?
—Being able to live a life with meaning, living a life with meaning is possible with a conscious sense because the sense always has it, what happens is that sometimes we forget. I was just talking to a girl and I told her: you think that you don’t choose, that the world decides for you, but in reality we are choosing all the time. What I invite you to is that, to be able to consciously choose the place where you are
—What would you say to a girl who approaches you and who is at the same point that you were at 21 years old and does not know what to do, and is in doubt and is on the same path?
—First I embrace what is, we cannot grow from lack, we grow from abundance, from love from acceptance. So first I accept myself with all that I am, from what I like the most to what I like the most, and invite yourself to see yourself as God sees you every day and every minute when you choose to create it for life from there from the beginning. abundance and it is love for sure that the answer is found within.
—Precisely in the interview we did in the previous edition of the Book Fair I asked you what were the keys to be able to grow or to understand, without belonging to the Jewish community, enough to continue on this path of growth, and you told me one that was to love your neighbor as yourself. How do you love your neighbor in a century where resentment reigns, where disparity, the rift separates us?
—I think that if we could understand that the other is not an other but is even an extension of me, that when I look in the mirror the same creator creates you that creates me, that we are part of the same generational body where each one occupies its place and we all need each other from love, with acceptance and love we can go much further. I still think there is a very large background; If you don’t know how to love yourself, it’s very difficult for you to truly love healthily, so it’s like that double job outwards, but also inwards.
—How would you define this path of lessons and how would you define the book?
—I think I would define it with 12 phrases, one is “be encouraged to be you.” Because God chooses you as you are and in fact, he waits for you to be you.
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