Interview for Jornal Mitsvá, Brazil, edited by Gilson Rodrigues Arruda

From a Global point of view, what are reasons why many people have started studying Kabbalah in recent years? Is the purpose for the individual to improve himself or is there a global mission to make a better world physically or spiritually?

The global spread of science has undermined traditional systems of belief while providing no answers to the real question every person must face – What is the purpose of our lives? People who really want to know the truth have been discovering that the Kabbalah is the key to the inner soul of the world’s oldest living religious tradition, the Torah, which is the ultimate root of our civilization. The Kabbalah teaches the way to bring the world to perfection. The only way to improve the wider world is for each one of us to take responsibility now to work to improve ourselves.

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“Mashiah will conquer the entire world without firing a single bullet” (R. Nachman of Breslov, Siach Sarfey Kodesh 1-67).

“Hillel used to say: Be of the students of Aaron; love peace and pursue peace, love the creations and draw them close to the Torah” (Avot 1:12). Continue reading →

The Talmud relates that the wise men of Athens asked Rabbi Yehoshua ben Hananya: “Where is the center of the universe?” He raised his finger, and said, “Here!”. They asked: “Who could prove it?” He replied: “Bring ropes and measure it” (Bechorot 8b).

R. Yehoshua did not have the arrogance of the many who instinctively consider themselves as the center-point of the universe, for whom time began the day they were born and will end with their death… and “après moi, le deluge” (“after I’m gone, let there be a flood, for all I care”). Rather, R. Yehoshua gestured to a point outside of himself, yet directly before him.

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King Solomon is said to have been the wisest man that ever lived. Yet critics of the Bible gleefully point to a seemingly glaring error which apparently indicates that he did not know the true value of π (Pi), which as every schoolchild knows is 3.14.. Continue reading →

I write you these words on 10 Tevet (5 Jan. ’12), the “fast of the tenth [month]” (Zechariah 8:19) commemorating Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar’s laying siege to Jerusalem, which led to the destruction of Solomon’s Temple (Ezekiel 24:1-2). Continue reading →

I was in my mid 20′s when back in 1974 I began my slow trek home to my Torah roots. I thought I was alone in no longer feeling satisfied by any of the “truths” and “realities” on which I had been nurtured in the home, at school, in university or through all the philosophy and literature I had ever read. Truth was on offer on all sides of the ideological supermarket. But the only book that watered my thirsty soul was the Bible. Continue reading →

Everyone talks about God, but when we use that word, are we all talking about the same thing?

The Noahides aspire to unite all humanity in acceptance of the Seven Universal Laws, of which the first – not to commit blasphemy – includes acknowledging the presence of God, fearing God, praying to God, sanctifying the name of God…

Do Christians, Moslems, Hindus, Buddhists and members of other faiths agree with that? Will agnostics and atheists be able to agree? Do they all understand the same thing when the word God is used? Continue reading →