In 2000, my second son was born and with him came a job offer for my partner in Chile.
Our original plan was to use maternity leave and travel together for half a year; After that, the children and I were supposed to return to Israel…
But in the end, we stayed in Concepción, in southern Chile, for seven years!
At first, I thought the reason for the change in plan was the fact that it would not be easy for my partner to be on the Israel-Chile line frequently, and that the family price of such a decision might be too high.
Years later I realized it was part of a higher plan, the plan of my soul.
But the beginning was not easy…
Although the amazing nature of the area where we lived captured my heart from the first moment, inwardly I felt that the mountains isolated me from the world I know in general and the Jewish world in particular. “What am I doing here?” was a question I asked many times, given the rainy weather, culture and language that were so different from what I was used to (and loved!) In Israel.
Saturday was the day when my longing for my Hebrew roots grew, I used to take the Bible and go out to study the Weekly Torah portion (Parashat HaShavua).
I remember that one of these Saturdays I studied the parasha “Lech Lecha” (“go for you”), in which Avraham is commanded to leave his country, his homeland and his father’s house and go to the land that God will lead him. To discover a new place in order to discover something that cannot be grasped in a place and the tools familiar to him and thereby gain revelation. I remember well that something in this understanding was a Vague consolation to me, that there may be some deep reason for my personal “go” from my country, my homeland and the home of my father and mother.
Then, one day, when it was not raining and the sun was shining, the phone rang and on the other side a woman’s voice was heard: “My name is Katrina Tiza.”
It turned out that my eldest son went to the same kindergarten with Kathy’s son (that’s what everyone called her), and when the kindergarten teacher told her about the new family who had just arrived from Israel, she hurried to call and invite me for a cup of coffee.
Years of acquaintance taught me that her house was a host home for many foreigners from various countries. But the reason for the invitation, in that first call, was:
“My husband is really in love with everything related to Judaism, and when I heard that you were Israeli, I thought. . . Can you teach him Hebrew? “
And she continued: “… you are a Talmud teacher??? I can’t believe it!!”
She spoke fluent English without the slightest hint of a foreign accent, and only when she told her son something in his mother tongue (mothers of young children are often forced to stop phone calls…) was her German origins “exposed”.
The association that the German language evokes in many Jews, and especially among Israelis who are not in daily contact with other cultures, is that of Nazism, and therefore it causes hesitation. But I decided to let go of the prejudices and listen to the voice of my intuition. Something in Kathy’s soft and amiable voice made me just say that I would gladly accept her invitation.
Back then I was thirty years old. My desire to discover the meaning of life in general, and the spiritual meaning of Judaism in particular, led me to intensive studies in various places, where my main stops were: Department of Talmud and Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University; Shalom Hartman Institute; Hasidic studies with the late Rabbi Shagar; And studying the teachings of Ronit Galpo.
In addition, I have independently read books on philosophy, psychology, far east religions, New Age literature and classical literature; And I also briefly experimented with theater, singing, yoga, meditation, and alternative medicine.
However, when I arrived in Chile I was still “searching”.
When Kathy came to pick me up, I knew from the first moment that the friendship between us would be a special and meaningful bond in both of our lives. She had an extraordinary listening ability; And so, it happened that after days and weeks in which I described to her the experiences of my spiritual search, she showed me a photograph of a text and offered, with the humility and blessing that characterized her, to accompany me in reading it.
The text, which dealt with the law of mutual action, is taken from the book “In the Light of Truth – The Message of the Grail”, by Abd-Ru-Shin.
From the first reading, my amazed eyes noticed the extraordinary quality of this text. The clarity and depth from which I was amazed, aroused in me a strong desire to continue studying the entire book.
That’s how months and years of fascinating and exciting study of “The Message of the Grail,” along with Kathy “At the End of the World” have passed.
However, from the very beginning, this study required dealing with several challenges:
The first of these was the difficult and uncompromising language of the book, similar to the language of the ancient prophets; This was in stark contrast to the often soft and submissive New Age language to which New Age readers are accustomed. In my case, as a searcher for uncompromising truth, it was relatively easy for me to overcome this challenge; But I know (from acquaintances with other people who started reading the “message”) that this rigid language can be an obstacle and a shaky one for someone who does not study the book in all its scope and depth.
Strong desire, concentration and patience are three basic requirements facing anyone who wants to learn this masterpiece. It is not possible to approach the “message” from a passive stance, which seeks in reading entertainment, distraction, or a “magic recipe” for a life of happiness. In the time we live in, a period characterized by a fast and dizzying pace of life, these demands become a real challenge.
But, the biggest challenge that the “message” poses to its readers is the requirement to be a “true seeker” Abd-Ru-Shin himself writes in the introduction to his book:
I speak only to those who are seriously seeking.
And elsewhere he explains his intention:
“He who seeks seriously, and therefore honestly, after the truth, will have to, first and foremost, purify his inwardness, that is, empty himself of all that he has hitherto learned and read. He will have to put all his knowledge aside, as well as avoid the influence of other people, and then experience, intuitively, the “message” quietly, within himself, like a child facing something new….
It sounds easy, but it is, in fact, the most difficult thing a person has to do nowadays.
“And because I require a serious search as a basic condition, so that the seeker will be able to absorb the inner content of the “message of the Grail,” I demand the most difficult thing… (“Questions and Answers” 1924-1937).
And indeed, it was the hardest thing for me, because it demanded everything of me.
There was no guru in southern Chile who convinced me to give up any aspect of my life, nor was I subject to the influence of one group or another. I stood alone in front of a book that revealed to me a complete picture of the creation- consistently and without gaps, that I had no choice but to “destroy” my old knowledge, perceptions, and beliefs, so that I could be born again.
But there were more challenges…
The fact that this vast knowledge was not written by a Jew, but by a man of German descent, was no difficulty for me. The difficulty came from the fact that the book spoke of the original message of Christ.
At the time I was in Chile, I was not only Jewish and Israeli, but also a religious observant. The name Jesus aroused in me fear and repulsion, feelings that are burned into the collective memory of the Jewish people because of the persecutions, humiliations and deaths committed in his name. Not long after, however, I was able to cross this obstacle as well, because I intuitively understood the difference between Jesus of the Christian Church and Jesus of the “message”, which came not to establish another religion, but to show the way to the light for the human spirit.
We talked a lot, Kathy and I, on this subject, and I remember one day she said:
“I do not know which of the two of us – the Jewish Hagit from Israel or the Christian Katrina from Germany – finds it more difficult to discover the original message of Jesus. In my case, the Jesus of my Christian education has nothing to do with what I discovered in the “Message of the Grail.”
In the end, the biggest and most beautiful challenge of all was and remains: how to bring this great knowledge I was exposed to, to life itself.
The “message” answered all my existential questions logically and clearly and challenged me with additional answers to questions I could not even phrase.
The knowledge in it, just embraces all!
It seemed as if the author of the book could hear my deepest longing, and answer it through his own mission:
“I want to answer burning questions that have remained, so far, unanswered in the souls of human beings, and which have never left the mind of one who thinks seriously, if he sincerely seeks the truth.”
After about seven years in Chile, I felt that the receiving period had come to an end, and that now was the time to give this gift to other people. And so, in 2007, I set up the ALMA INSPIRA Center for Inspirational Knowledge and Transformation in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The various courses and activities that take place in it are bridges from this work, they were created out of my desire to help people find meaning in their lives and reach the happiness and inner peace I have reached thanks to the “message of the Grail”.
