In interviews, Mayim Bialik usually addresses the topic of her religion with humor and charm, not only when she is asked to explain it, but when she adds faith-imbued comments now and again, or relates a certain aspect of her life or her career to her Jewish observance. in 2012, shortly after she was announced as nominee for a Tony Award for her role as Amy Fowler in “The Big Bang Theory,” Bialik injured her hand in a serious car accident, and, apparently laughed it off to the paramedics. “I’m doing OK,” she told Vanity Fair, “What I said to the firefighters and the paramedics on the way to the hospital was, ‘God doesn’t give you more than you can handle.’ But it’s been a crazy couple of weeks–between the Emmys which was a high, followed by a devastating, tragic accident that could have ended up much worse.” When asked what kind of dress she was going to wear to the Emmys, she steered the topic away from mere vanities, and discussed the challenge of finding an outfit that suited her religious values. “We’re working on a dress. Publicly, I’m a very modest dresser, by Hollywood’s standards. I write for Kveller.com, which is an irreverent Jewish parenting site, but I do write a lot about the industry. I did a series last year about the search for a hot and holy dress … It is a huge challenge not to wear strapless and not to wear short and not to do lots of cleavage. So we have some interest from designers to do custom stuff.”
Mayim Bialik brings the disparate elements of her life and diverse fan base together in one place with her website GrokNation. In addition to keeping her parenting blog on Kveller, she reaches out to other kinds of fans, such as, according to her website: “a teenage fan of Big Bang Theory, a 60 year old religious Jewish man who has heard that I’m a proud Jew, a Christian stay-at-home mom from the Midwest who appreciates me for being a modest mom, as well as fans of comic books, nerdy retro rock bands, science and people ‘who want to know how to change the world one small action at a time.’” The site is divided into different categories, including women, parenting, faith, Hollywood and news. “I believe there is a meaningful way to approach every issue — whether it be acting, science, parenting, faith–whatever it is, there is a way to ‘grok’ it, to look at every issue and the underlying importance and meaning in it.”
On the site, she debunks myths about people of faith and their relation to science. Bialik, a neuroscientist, quotes her rabbi from the UCLA Hillel, “The Torah (Old Testament a.k.a The Bible) is not a science book.” She says that most Orthodox Jews she encounters do not believe that “the Torah is describing start to finish the scientific process of how the world came to be or how the world functions as a scientific entity. Period.” She adds that “everything is Divine” and the fact that she admires the marvels of how the world works by expressing appreciation to a Creator is not “hurting anyone,” does not mean that she is “crazy” or “out of touch with reality.” On the contrary, her understanding of science enhances her religious faith through appreciation of how the world was constructed.
Some have noted that Mayim Bialik sometimes comes off as a bit defensive, and she often complains about criticism directed against her, which is sometimes open, and other times, feels heavily anticipated. Her preemptive PR for her views on faith may take the defensive line of “I’m not crazy for believing this,” or “I’m religious and still live a ‘normal’ life.” However, the challenges of having her every private situation turned into a playground for public criticism and speculation and sometimes ridicule, from her visit to Israel to attachment parenting and her divorce, might explain the tendency in her blogs and social media updates to adopt an “I know what you’re thinking, and let me tell you,” tone. No doubt, readers of her blog who are incorporating more spirituality and religious practice into their lives get pointers from Mayim Bialik on what to answer puzzled family members and friends.
