A group of African Christians listen attentively to the sounds of the harp. The player, a Jewish rabbi with a white beard, recites verses from the Psalms to them. The final chord is played, after which silence falls over the hall. They line up in a long line to receive his blessing, each in turn kneeling and kissing his hand. Some even bow to the floor, stretching their limbs.
This is the story of the late Rabbi David Moshe Lewis, a musical genius, phenomenal painter, and Jerusalemite Kabbalist, to whom Gentiles from all over the world flocked to wonder about the essence of Judaism and receive his blessing.
Rabbi Lewis grew up in Peoria, Illinois, to an assimilated Jewish family that immigrated to the United States from Europe in the period before World War II. His talent for painting was evident from an early age, but his parents directed him to study music and playing the trumpet.
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At the age of 15, David was accepted into the Philharmonic in his city and began playing in various concerts. A local newspaper, which was exposed to the unusual phenomenon, reported on his acceptance into the orchestra. He continued this trend in his academic studies, where he began to study theoretical music at a high level.
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David's turbulent soul led him to ponder the meaning of life, and he began to delve into the worlds of mysticism and spirituality, despite being raised as an atheist. During that period of the 1960s, a ferment of rebelliousness and exploration began among the younger generation in the United States, leading to the 'hippie' phenomenon, which David happily joined.
He found himself with long hair and sloppy clothing, with a few items packed in his suitcase, along with his musical instrument, hitchhiking from state to state in the US, working as a musician in odd jobs.
At this stage in his life, he became acquainted with the Indian Zen sect and slowly began to think and wonder about the existence of prophecy and various spiritual powers. At one of the stations, he reincarnated into a Dominican Christian monastery, where his musical talent was recognized and he was appointed as a music lecturer for the church members.
His life is starting to change.
The return to Judaism
The monastery leaders, who liked David, began trying to convince him to convert to Christianity and become a priest, but he refused. For the first time in his life, he remembered his Jewish origins. A Christian nun, who tried to continue the work of persuasion, gave him an ancient book of Kabbalah written by a forced Jewess from the Inquisition. Inside the book, he came across a painting depicting Ezekiel's chariot, and his insides turned over.
He felt that he had finally encountered something truly spiritual and absolute. In one moment he was overwhelmed with a strong feeling of disgust for the Christian monastery, and without telling anyone, he gathered his belongings and left.
He continues his search for her in Los Angeles. While wandering the streets, he encounters a Jew wearing a long black garment. He sees the turbans dangling from his clothes and immediately the memories of the descriptions he heard about "the Jews of old" flood back into his mind. He strikes up a conversation with that Jew, a local Chabad emissary, and slowly begins to approach Judaism.
He eventually joined a group of Jewish artists who were devout, who traveled to study at a Chabad yeshiva in New York. There he met the Lubavitcher Rebbe, who put the final seal on his Judaism.
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Top directors and artists in the US requested his compositions and musical services, but he refused them. Only Torah study was his top priority at that time. Later, in 1938, he chose to immigrate to the Holy Land, and here he established his home with his wife, Pnina.
From time to time, he would fly to various countries in Africa and Europe, searching for communities and weak Jews, whom he would strengthen and encourage.
His love for the secrets behind the letters of the sacred language led him to study cursive writing, in which he saw the embodiment of painting and Kabbalah, which were already an integral part of his life.
Light to the Gentiles
One day they asked the Foreign Ministry to bring him a group of Christians who loved Israel, so that he could speak to them. The group left him shivering and very excited, and since then it has become a regular procedure. Groups of Gentiles would gather around him, and he would play the harp or blow the trumpet and recite verses of the Psalms.
""The Da Vinci of the Jews," they called him, after encountering his marvelous works in the fields of music and painting.
In 2006, the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, came to Israel for the first time. Rabbi Lewis was asked to play for him at the welcoming ceremony. He was very moved by this because in his youth he had learned a lot of the wisdom. Upon hearing his playing, the Dalai Lama was very moved.
When Rabbi Lewis approached him to ask for his blessing, the Dalai Lama replied: "No, you bless me" - and bowed his head to him. After blessing him, the Dalai Lama removed his scarf and placed it around the Rabbi's neck, and he in turn placed his small tallit on it.
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For years, Rabbi Lewis pondered the teachings of Kabbalah and Hasidism, and in his paintings he incorporated various Kabbalistic elements, in the form of letters and numbers.
He held a regular Kabbalah class at his home, attended by professors and prominent figures. For long hours, he could dive into the wondrous worlds of numbers, letters, and angels, captivating the audience with his presence.
One of many moving stories occurred when he was giving a speech to an important delegation from Germany. After he finished his speech, a priest in the audience stood up and said: "In my name and on behalf of the audience here, I would like to ask you to forgive us for the crimes of the German people in the Holocaust.".
Rabbi Lewis became stern and replied: "Who am I to forgive you? Your duty is to acknowledge your crime and pass its memory on from generation to generation lest, God forbid, it be forgotten.".
Upon hearing this, the entire group began to cry.
After a few months, he received an email from the group leader, asking him to come to Israel and visit him urgently. He boarded a plane and arrived with his wife and son at the rabbi's house, saying that he had an affinity for the Jewish people: "My great-grandmother was Jewish," he said.
So, the rabbi said to him, "You are a Jew too!" That Jew returned home, left his studies as a priest, and converted his family. He wanted to come to Israel so that the rabbi could see him after he returned to his Judaism, but then the coronavirus pandemic broke out.
When he was again able to immigrate to Israel, Rabbi David Lewis had already passed away on the 3rd of Av, 5771, at the age of 72, after contracting a serious illness.
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