Testimonials

Testimonials

Dear Mr. Bakst,

I am writing to thank you for a wonderful web site. I am a 53 year old homemaker who recently discovered your teachings. I must admit I strain to understand what I’m reading, however, what I do comprehend is so wonderful!  Your “City of Luz" site brings so much joy and light into my life. I have read Torah and Tanakh at least 5x’s in my life and now am able to understand what I've been missing all these years. I suppose it would help if I spoke Hebrew, but since I do not your writings are so very meaningful to me. Though I was born of a Jewish mother I was not raised in a religious home I have always wanted to understand the ways of G-d, and your teachings help me with that. My quest began at 21 years of age and now here I am engrossed in your writing. I look forward to reading everyday again. I want to thank you for your devotion and hard work!

Shalom and May Hashem continue to bless you!

M. K.

I started reading and studying your new book [The Secret Doctrine of the Gaon of Vilna]. Not only is difficult to stop reading it, but honestly I experience the same feeling of awe that comes from reading the works by the Ramchal [R’ Moshe Chayim Luzzato].

D. Z.

Dear Joel,

No need to reply—this is just a thank you for your site—(from the "near Antarctic" South Pacific). I have found so much wonderful material in your writings.

Thank you,

Peter

I really enjoyed Vol. I and I am reading it again in preparation for Vol. II.
Kol HaKavod for your controversial but important work.

M.J., MD

Hi Rabbi,
I have been reading the text and following the Secret Doctrine class for the past few weeks. I'm really enjoying it. The whole thing seems to click with me. I have started to include the techniques from class into my daily meditation. The tubular model you described yesterday is great. Using it, I can see how to visualize the inversion of the screen back into the pineal projector.

Many thanks. S. P.

“From a rabbi in Israel”.

After taking in various pieces of Beyond Kabbalah, which was at a leisure pace, I decided to go to the end to see how you would bring out "Shtok".  It is possibly the epitome of a Torah Sh'B'AlPeh [The Oral Torah] as you well know.  I'd never believed that someone could really explain it on paper... not really.  Seriously, it's impossible to do what you did.  And most people will never appreciate that fact unless they could go to the sources one by one,  see how you lined up the pieces, fit them together, and made sense of an unthinkable, inexplicable higher reality.

I don't say it with levity that it is brilliant beyond anything I've ever read in English.

Shalom from the mountains and springs of Tongariro, New Zealand! I was just wondering when your new books will be out? I await their availability with some excitement.  I want you to know how grateful I am for the material you have made freely accessible online, it really has been and is a great comfort and challenge to digest and implement the information. The thrill of recognizing truths framed and articulated so well makes my distance far from any real Jewish learning center a lot more tolerable.

Yasher Koach Rabbi Bakst!

This is quite a ride you provide, for those who can latch on somewhere and hang in/on – anything I can say to you, you have probably heard before from fellow travelers who have preceded me! How grateful we are to the tzaddikim/revelators who have sent their light ahead through the ages – and for the ones like yourself who are here with us now who are guiding the journey, so we too can grab on – thank you for making the language approachable and accessible ( it is hard work but it is accessible - even for our quantum physicist in our group - he finally thinks you “may” know what you are talking about) – You said a prayer in your last communication – and indeed I iterate – you draw us into the most awesome – Chochmah/ Binah and Da’at – Todah. Shabbat Shalom, JY

Hi, Rabbi Yoel,

Don’t know much about you, however you seem to speak my language. Like you, I’m a man living in many worlds. On the one hand I am living in an ultra-orthodox environment practicing the letter of the law. On the other hand my soul travels to all corners of the universe in search of discovering the divine. Over time I have encountered many people from other faiths and belief systems, as well as knowledge from many disciplines and sources. Many of them secular, although all of them meaningful. For the longest time now the "psychedelic experience" has been luring me as a vehicle which can resolve many of my paradoxes and conundrums I reside in. It also promises, if experienced responsibly with proper set and setting, to be a vehicle for great self-improvement.

But I am a lonely man of faith. I love Chassidic thought and live with its philosophy. However being entrenched deep in the most traditional of Chasidic communities, doesn't afford me many options for opportunity. I’ve just watched the spirit molecule documentary and saw you speaking on it. I figured, "Hey, let me drop this holy Jew an email.  Maybe, just maybe, he can help me out...".  So I googled your name, came into to the City of Luz. I like the way you’ve traveled the esoteric world over, how you conceptualize things) and how you seem to manage to bridge many worlds.

So here I am waiting. Teach me a thing or two. Take me to some other worldly experience.

S., New York

R' Yoel,

I want to tell you that I have read your book (second volume) over and over (I am in the middle of the third time around), and it is just wonderfully deep, brilliant, and inspiring.

Wishing you כל טוב,
A., Jerusalem