Ziva Moyal describes herself as a secular Israeli who practiced Taoism for 14 years.
“Religion in Israel was so orthodox that I got as far away from it as I could,” she says, “and Taoism gave me the whole philosophy without God; I didn’t have to deal with that.”
But eventually, she felt something missing, and says it was because Taoism isn’t Jewish. Moyal began to immerse herself in Jewish spirituality, and in 2005 started taking classes to study Kabbalah, the Jewish mystical teachings. Something “clicked,” and she committed herself to the Kabbalistic path.
“Being a Kabbalist is basically dedicating your life to understanding the mysteries of the universe, the why and what for,” she explains.
Moyal progressed quickly in her studies, and for the past four years, she’s been teaching Kabbalah to others through the Taos Jewish Center. She began with a Kabbalah 101 class for beginners, and was pleased that 17 people enrolled. Nowadays, she also teaches an advanced group, and says she’s amazed at how committed the students are. They’re currently studying a book that takes two years to complete.
Moyal’s teaching so far has been strictly volunteer, but her latest endeavor represents a venture into entrepreneurship, as she’s developed a website in order to offer online courses. However, Moyal says it’s really not about the money.
“I feel that the word has to go out,” she says, “because in this time of change and upheaval, the Kabbalah has explanations that have been there for thousands of years. The New Age is nice, but this comes from earlier.”
The impetus to spread the teachings prompted Moyal to move in this direction even though she had very little computer experience. “I didn’t know anything about computers,” she says. “People volunteered to help from all kinds of directions.”
Moyal says she’s excited, but that this project also brings new challenges. “You have to really be constantly in trust with the flow,” she says, adding that she doesn’t want to get lost in issues like marketing.
“I really need to continue learning so I can continue teaching,” says Moyal. “It’s easy to get distracted and fall into this new world [of the Internet], and that becomes the essence, but this is just a means, and I need to be very careful.”
Moyal will teach Kabbalah 101 at the Jewish Center again starting Oct. 20. The class runs for 10 sessions, with an 11th for questions; the online classes, which start Nov. 3, follow a similar structure, but use video recordings of her teaching, and questions can be asked by email.
Currently, four students have registered for the online class, and Moyal laughs that her website shows up on page 80 of Google searches for Kabbalah. “I know in six months it will be a totally different picture,” she says. “It will take time, but I believe it will happen.”
Moyal says that around 50 percent of her students tend to be non-Jews, and that this is because, according to Kabbalah, the world is now in a phase of preparing for a big shift. “It’s the same shift everybody’s talking about,” she says, “but this is in Jewish terms.”
She adds that many people are drawn to Kabbalah because they feel it gives them a comprehensive map for living, a “container” that holds all of reality. “It’s the biggest container I know,” she says. “It embraces before, after, middle, any time. It really forces you to expand your brain.”
Moyal encourages people to embrace whatever system works for them, but says if they feel drawn to Kabbalah, to give it a chance and come try out one class. “Because it’s not coming from the brain; it’s coming from the soul,” she says. “And the soul knows if this is for them or not.”