Whether offering Talmudic wisdom to a live congregation or modern advice to viewers of such electronic oracles as “The Today Show,” Rabbi Sherre Hirsch connects with people as easily as she dispels stereotypes. Her path toward becoming a Conservative rabbi has been nontraditional, marked by stints as a high school cheerleader, college sorority girl and star tennis player, and medical school aspirant. Yet it was the desire to broaden her understanding of her faith that eventually led Hirsch to the Jewish Theological Seminary, revealing the aspect that perhaps best defines her: a deep commitment and passion for helping people with their lives.

     Widely known as “the relationship rabbi,” her pulpit has become international in scope as her first book, We Plan, God Laughs: 10 Steps to Finding Your Divine Path When Life Is Not Turning Out Like You Wanted, comes out this April. A modern self-help guide based on the Yiddish proverb, Mann traoch, Gott lauch, the book, to be published by Doubleday, explores the spiritual issues we all face, especially why things often don’t go as we expect, a motif in Hirsch’s own life. She urges readers to realize that even the most ordinary life is extraordinary in the eyes of God, to embrace the importance of letting go and discovering “who you are divinely meant to be in this world,” and to formulate a plan that helps realize this potential.

    Raised in Southern California, Hirsch had myriad role models pointing her into any number of professions, whether business or medicine. Few, she admits, would have advised a “nice Jewish girl” to become a rabbi. After a year at Smith College, leading its tennis team to a #7 national ranking, Hirsch received a B.A. in American culture at Northwestern University. Long curious about the seminary, she devoted two years of study only to find it wasn’t “the spiritual place that I’d imagined.” A year-long detour through Asia and an immersion in eastern philosophy finally led Hirsch to re-embrace the rabbinate. She returned to earn a master’s degree from the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York and, upon graduation, became ordained as a rabbi.

    In 1998, Rabbi Hirsch joined Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, becoming the first female rabbi in its century-long history. During her eight-year tenure at Sinai Temple, the largest Conservative synagogue in the Western U.S., Hirsch was instrumental in its growth from 900 to nearly 2,000 families, introducing new and innovative programs such as “Torah in the Round” and “Friday Night Live.” She also developed the popular Jewish Women’s Spirituality Retreat for Canyon Ranch, where she now serves as a spiritual life consultant offering guidance, education and support to guests at its properties in Tucson, Arizona and Lenox, Massachusetts. In January 2008 she joined MomLogic.com, a website for thinking moms who don't have time to think, as their spirituality expert.

    Since stepping out from behind the pulpit, Hirsch has brought her expertise to television viewers nationwide. Her discussion of interfaith issues on Naomi Judd’s weekly “New Morning” show on the Hallmark Channel led to a two-year gig as Judd’s sidekick. She has also served as a spiritual expert for “The Today Show,” a relationship expert on “The Tyra Banks Show” and a guest on the PBS series “Thirty Good Minutes.” Her personable style and ability to discuss a breadth of topics has also led to guest spots on the nationally syndicated talk radio program “The Joan Hamburg Show."

    Hirsch spends her free time practicing yoga, shopping for shoes, and dancing in the living room with her husband Jeff and three young children: son Emet and daughters Eden and Alia.