Each person has his own story, his own point of view of his time and place in the story of history. I feel very blessed and honored to bear witness to the unfolding story of Torah going out to the Nations in our time. I have learned so much from the people I have encountered, from the teachers I have met, and the ah ha moments of insights during the hours of sharing Torah learning with these precious souls.
In 1990, I attended the first Bnai Noah conference in Fort Worth, Texas. I had no idea what this was, or who these people were. My (then) husband was the bodyguard for Rabbi Meir Kahane, who was the first to accept the invitation to speak at this event, organized by Vendyl Jones. Other rabbis were also in attendance, some coming from Israel, for this was the first official recognition of the status of Bnai Noah by the rabbis of Israel in the world.
In the foyer of the convention center, Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach was saying what an amazing occasion this was, what potential for… No one seemed to really be sure where this was going to go. But the potential was enormous. When Rabbi Kahane spoke, he talked about the prophecy of Ezekiel 36. The ingathering of the People of Israel was for one purpose—the sanctification of God’s Name in the world. And this was the true purpose of this new movement among the nations.
After my family moved to Israel later that year, Vendyl’s dig crew came to Israel. There were numerous digs, and this gave me opportunity to meet and get to know some of these “Noahides,” as they came to be known. They came from various backgrounds and had various expectations based on those backgrounds. Overall, they wanted to learn Torah from Israel’s rabbis. They recognized there was something true there that they had not found in their previous religious experiences. It is very hard to admit: “We have inherited lies from our fathers”[1]…and “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you!”[2] It flies in the face of everything preached from Christian pulpits for centuries! Yet these brave souls were doing just that!”
Later one of the rabbis who became a regular teacher of the Noahides told me: “You know what we are doing here is very dangerous. We have already failed twice—the first with the Christians and second with the Muslims. And each time, they turned on the Jews.” I answered that the world is a different place now since the spread of Torah throughout the world over the last two thousand years. (This is a whole discussion that I will address more fully below.)
In 2001 and 2002 I made two trips to India and Southeast Asia. This was the first time I had seen real, hardcore, bow down to the idol, idolatry. Yet this was where so many Israeli young people flocked on their trips after their stint in the Israeli army. I talked with several of these “kids,” who talked about having tremendously moving spiritual experiences and then saying to themselves: “Hey, I need to go home and learn Torah.” Some of these experiences I heard about were so profound that I later asked a rabbi in the Old City of Jerusalem about their significance to us. He answered that they are highly significant, because they are “technologies we have lost, and we have to gather these sparks back.” I thought about the sons of Abraham and Keturah that he sent “East with gifts.”[3] These wisdoms of Abraham were the beginnings of the religions of the East that then sunk into the klipot.[4] I thought about these sons of Keturah another time when a young Hindu man told me he was searching for “the one who will bring back the Ancient Knowledge.” At the headwaters of the Ganges, a thought resonated within me of transcending religion of Man to go straight into God.
After the High Holidays in 2003, I moved from Israel back to the States. The next year I found myself on Vendyl’s doorstep, where I met a whole new group of Noahides. I became involved with his Torah teaching efforts over the next years, with his live online classes, his conferences, and his newsletters. One of the platforms in which we participated was with Virtual Yeshiva. I quickly realized that this type of online class could literally reach the entire world. Noahide communities were popping up everywhere. In 2006 I helped launch the Torah classroom for Noahide Nations. Through it all, I met many amazing rabbis and teachers whose vision of Redemption made them realize the obligation to be “a light to the Nations.”[5] I remembered the thought of transcending religion of Man and realized that this “Noahide movement” was the opportunity for this to happen, that, indeed, this was its true purpose!
Among the incredible teachers on the Noahide Nations platform was Rabbi Joel David Bakst, who had been recommended by one of his students in Colorado Springs. His classes about Adam and Gan Eden were from the teachings of the Leshem, a modern-day (early twentieth century) student of the Vilna Gaon. Later I would have the great privilege of working with Rabbi Bakst as editor and publisher of his book that had been in process since the 1980s. This material was published as two volumes of The Secret Doctrine of the Gaon of Vilna and then later, other works in Beyond Kabbalah – The Teachings That Cannot Be Taught.[6] These subjects have been studied by a niche of students in Israel for decades, with growing popularity in recent years. Yet the idea that they would be taught to a non-Jewish audience was rather new. Rabbi Bakst, however, saw the importance of it as he realized the significance of these people in the unfolding days of Redemption.
The term “ger toshav” had been bandied around for years, but the time finally came when there was a serious examination of what exactly that was. Rabbi David Katz taught a class on Noahide Nations virtual classroom that he called the “Torah of Shem.” This series of classes was the most revolutionary Torah insight since the beginning of the Noahide movement. This whole idea was not new. NO! It was the most ancient of all Torah teachings. But it had been completely oral, so discovering sources had been a tremendous challenge that Rabbi Katz met admirably. Working with him, Rabbi Chaim Clorfene wrote The World of the Ger,[7] which he came to present to the Noahide world at a gathering of people at a historic hotel located in the Fort Worth Stock Yards area. This book was dedicated to the memory of Vendyl Jones, “the man who started it all.” As a matter of fact, Vendyl had called Rabbi Clorfene his teacher, commending his book The Path of Righteous Gentile,[8] which came out in the 1980s at the behest of the Lubavitch Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson.
It has been said that the end is embedded in the beginning. This is how I have looked at the prophecies concerning Redemption—as they bring the world around full circle to the Creation state of the world. Everything is redeemed and lifted back to its intended place. The human soul, those fractured sparks of Adam’s own Soul, regains awareness of Divine purpose. This is the quest, as each of us makes his own journey back to God.
[1] Jeremiah 16:19.
[2] Zechariah 8:23.
[3] Genesis 25:6.
[4] Shells or husks of impurity.
[5] Isaiah 42:6.
[6] All Rabbi Bakst’s books were published by City of Luz Publications and are available at Amazon.com.
[7] The World of the Ger by Chaim Clorfene was republished as paperback and is available, with other books he authored, at Amazon.com.
[8] The Path of the Righteous Gentile by Chaim Clorfene was republished and is available on Amazon.com.
Healing Well of Miriam 
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