Refilling the Well: Reflections on the World Mizrachi Rebbetzin Yarchei Kallah Retreat

When the flyer for the World Mizrachi Rebbetzin Yarchei Kallah Retreat first appeared in my inbox, I wasn’t immediately sold.

Should I really spend time away from home? Would it be worth the travel and the logistics? More than anything, I wondered what it would actually be like. Aside from a handful of familiar faces, the participants were essentially strangers. What if it felt awkward? What if everyone else already knew each other? What if the sessions didn’t resonate with me? I seriously considered staying home.

I’m so grateful I didn’t.

Some experiences are difficult to describe because they feel almost too beautiful to be real. This retreat was one of them. For a few days, time seemed to slow down. We learned Torah, sang together, enjoyed meals prepared especially for us, shared pieces of our lives, and discovered how quickly strangers can become friends when they are brought together by a shared sense of purpose.

What surprised me most wasn’t how restorative those few days felt. It was how deeply they stayed with me after they were over.

As rabbaniot, we spend much of our lives creating space for others. We teach, mentor, listen, host, comfort, celebrate, and help carry our communities through both joyful milestones and painful moments. It is deeply meaningful work, but it often leaves little room to nurture our own spiritual and emotional well-being.

The brilliance of the World Mizrachi Rebbetzin Yarchei Kallah Retreat was that it recognized this reality. Rather than focusing primarily on training us to become better leaders, it invested in us as people. Of course, we spoke about our communities. We exchanged ideas, compared experiences, and learned from one another’s successes and challenges, but we did so without frantic schedules or endless professional development sessions. 

Instead, the retreat created something far more valuable: space. Space to learn Torah for ourselves rather than preparing to teach it. Space to daven without rushing to the next responsibility. Space to laugh, rest, reflect, and connect with women who instinctively understand both the weight and the privilege of serving their communities. Those conversations happened naturally because the retreat fostered a feeling of safety and trust among the participants. There was no need to impress one another or pretend to have all the answers. Instead, there was openness, vulnerability, and an overwhelming sense that everyone belonged.

That may be World Mizrachi’s greatest contribution to female spiritual leadership. Its investment extends far beyond a single retreat. By bringing together rabbaniot from communities throughout Israel, it is cultivating a network of women who continue to support, encourage, and inspire one another long after the suitcases are unpacked. Those relationships become a source of strength that inevitably finds its way back into our classrooms, our Shabbat tables, our conversations, and our communities.

As I reflect on the retreat and its impact, I think back to the hesitation I felt when I first saw that flyer. I could never have imagined that saying ‘yes’ to one invitation would leave me feeling so renewed, so connected, and so grateful.

The retreat may have lasted only a few days, but its impact will be measured in the countless moments that follow: in the Torah we teach, the Shabbat tables we open, the women and families we support, and the communities we are privileged to help build. By investing in rabbaniot, World Mizrachi is investing in Jewish communities across Israel. Sometimes the most powerful way to strengthen a community is to first strengthen the people who quietly devote themselves to strengthening everyone else. 

The World Mizrachi Rebbetzin Yarchei Kallah Retreat was led by Rabbanit Shani Taragin and hosted by World Mizrachi in partnership with the Mizrachi-Young Israel Shuls Network, the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA), and the OU Women’s Initiative. Held at Beit Binyamin in Tzfat, it reflected a shared commitment to supporting and strengthening Rebbetzins in their vital communal roles.

Rabbanit Tali Wohlgelernter is a kallah teacher, educator, and nonprofit leader. Together with her husband, Rabbi Tzvi Wohlgelernter, Rabbi of Tfillat Yamim in Netanya, she is deeply involved in Jewish communal life in Israel. Tali and Tzvi live with their four daughters in Givat Shmuel.