DY:Yes, I'm a bona fide Southern Jew. I was born in Charleston, SC and then my family moved to Nashville, TN, where there are about 5,000 Jews. I lived there all the way through the end of high school, at which point I decided that I needed more of a Jewish education, so I pursued my B.A. at Yeshiva University.

JB: I understand you are a BT, originally coming from a Reform background.What and who inspired you to seek out Orthodox Judaism?

DY:When I was 16 and a member of my Temple Youth group, I went to an inter-youth group "lock-in" at the JCC for Chanukah. There, I met a couple of people who were there through NCSY. That was my first-ever real exposure to orthodox Jews. We talked all through the night about everything that teenagers talk about, including all of the questions that I'd always been thinking about orthodox Jews but that I had never had anyone to ask. My initial impression was that the explanations they had were so much deeper than any of the explanations from my reform rabbis until then. Although I was very impressed and fascinated and wanted to learn more about it, I didn't want to "convert to orthodoxy," as I put it. It did pique my interest and so when I went to other classes to learn more, I became even more and more fascinated with how deep everything in Torah is. That's aspect of it is really what got me into it.

DY:I am not Chasid, in the colloquial sense of the word. I live, dress, and keep the minhagim of your average Nusach Ashkenaz Yeshivisheh Balabos. The only variation on that theme is the fact that I wear colored shirts. In another sense, though, I do strive to be a Chassid. Really, being a Chassid is not about belonging to a certain Chassidic group or dressing in a certain way. As Rabbi Tal Zwecker wrote in these posts, Chassidus is about a method of refining one's self and growing closer to the Creator of the world, according to the teachings of the students of the Baal Shem Tov. IY"H, I hope to grow so that I could be considered a "real chassid."

JB:What turned you on to the J Blogosphere?

DY:I've been blogging since December 2006. I'm a baby blogger!

JB:What part of Chassidus do you dislike if any?

DY:I can't say that there's anything I dislike about Chassidus per se. However, the same cannot be said about the various Chassidic communities. They have their own issues, just like other segments of the Jewish community have theirs. However, I've never been a big "chassid" of criticizing other Jewish groups. If I'm going to criticize any part of the Jewish community, it should be my own.

DY:I'd have to say that right now, my favorite sefer is Meor Einayim. It's by the first Rebbe from Chernobyl, Reb Menachem Nachum of Chernobyl. He was a student of both the Baal Shem Tov and the Magid of Mezrich, so it's one of the original expressions of Toras HaBaal Shem Tov. Besides it's "earliness," I like it because I like the feeling of being blown off my feet every time some new layer of reality is revealed to me. The Meor Einayim does that for me more than other seforim, like I wrote about in this post . I'm just a glutton for that feeling of being taken down the rabbit hole into aspects of reality that I was not aware of.

JB:What was the most difficult thing to take on as a religious orthodox Jew?

DY:For me, one of the hardest things at the beginning was giving up theater. I was a big thespian in high school and I was very into broadway plays and music. It was one thing to give up acting due to issues of Shabbos and "shomer negiah," but it was even more difficult to get out of the music due to "kol isha," since it was a significant interest of mine. However, knowing and feeling that what I was getting was far greater than what I was giving up, I was able to do it.

DY:I would say not to take yourself too seriously. When your parents or other family asks you why you're doing something, and its seems like it's a hostile question, then just give a silly answer and don't talk about the substance. Like Rabbi Orlofsky said one time, if someone coldly asks you why you're wearing a black hat, don't give some philosophical sounding answer. Say it's because you want to look like Robert Deniro. Also, I'd say it's important to chill out and not try to make your parents religious. They'll likely not be convinced in most cases by the person whose diapers they used to change. If anything is likely to bring them around eventually, it'll be seeing that you have become a better person with better midos than you were before. So focus more on your own midos bein adam l'chaveiro and on kibud av va'eim as your preferred method of kiruv with your parents.