The Bus to Jerusalem: For Love Is as Strong as Death

By Shelly Rybak-Pearson

The Bus to Jerusalem is a mystical love fantasy, combining fact and fiction following the Kabbalistic concept of the "Twin Souls." It is based on a true incident and carries a universal message of hope.

In an attempt to explain the strange events surrounding a woman's death, the story traces her life and that of her husbands in mystical terms. In the process it follows the couple's path from their meeting in pre-World War II Europe through Latin America to the United States.

It combines historical events with classic Jewish mystical concepts which at the end of the story reveal the couple's spiritual relationship and determine the events surrounding the wife's death.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 13, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503531215

Shelly Rybak-Pearson

Shelly Rybak-Pearson, Ed.M. '75 Harvard University, is founder and director of the International Foundation for the Arts, Inc. (I FA), an organization engaged in the promotion of international understanding through the exchange of cultural and educational activities. A Costa Rican native of Lithuanian Jewish descent, Pearson spearheaded a campaign to install a monument in Lithuania’s capital city, Vilnius, to commemorate the genocide of 96.4% of the nation’s Jewish population during the Holocaust.

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Copyright © 2015 by Shelly Rybak-Pearson.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

Newspaper articles on pages 73 and 74 are Used with Permission of The Islander News/Samar Publishing

Rev. date: 03/04/2015

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgments and Thanks

The Inspiration

Epilogue

Gornisht Mit Gornisht

Unofficial Translation

Shelly%20Rybak%20Pearson%207.jpeg

In memory of my beloved parents Morris & Luba Rybak.

To my wonderful and caring husband John Simpson Pearson.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND THANKS

Betse Gori, of the King Library of the Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach, Florida for her friendship and editorial assistance and to her colleagues Phil O’Connell and Amanda Kiernan for always being there when I needed them.

Rabbi Michael Resnick of Temple Emanuel; Tony Alpert, president; Hazzan David Feuer; and staff members Melanie Goldsobel and Eduardo Mendieta.

Rabbi Moshe Scheiner of the Palm Beach Synagogue and Maxine Kaufman, Executive Director, Palm Beach, Florida.

John Yearwood, World Editor of the Miami Herald.

Dean Lloyd Mims, Dean of Music and Fine Arts at Palm Beach Atlantic University, West Palm Beach, Florida.

Attorney Lenny Berkowitz.

Jonathan Brent, Executive Director of the YIVO, Institute for Jewish Research, New York City.

My special thanks and appreciation to my friend and mentor of many years, Bruce Slovin, Chairman Emeritus of the Center for Jewish History and YIVO, for his generous and unending support and encouragement.

Genaro Ambrosino for his years of assistance and friendship.

Dovid Katz, Litvak, friend and scholar, Vilnius, Lithuania.

Dr. Efraim Zuroff, Director of the Israel office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Jerusalem.

THE INSPIRATION

The Bus to Jerusalem is a mystical love fantasy, combining fact and fiction following the Kabbalistic concept of the Twin Souls. It is based on a true incident and carries a universal message of hope.

In an attempt to explain the strange events surrounding a woman’s death, the story traces her life and that of her husband’s in mystical terms. In the process it follows the couple’s path from their meeting in pre-World War II Europe through Latin America to the United States.

It combines historical events with classic Jewish mystical concepts which at the end of the story reveal the couple’s spiritual relationship and determine the events surrounding the wife’s death.

My father, Morris (Moshe Yitzhak, as he was known in Senji), arrived into this world at the dawn of the twentieth century, on the seventeenth day of September, which in that year fell on the lunar month of Tishri, on the first day of Rosh Hashanah. The blowing of the ram’s horn signaled the Jewish New Year and welcomed his soul to the Bet world.

When Elijah the Prophet, the guardian of the newborn, heard the child’s birth voice sing out, a celestial echo resounded, With such an angelic voice, he must have been created out of Adam’s throat.

The townspeople of Senji rejoiced that on Rosh Hashanah a baby boy was born. In the small wooden synagogue, they prayed—on one side, men in shawls and beards, and on the other, women with covered heads. They thanked the Lord that Sarah, the baby’s mother, had borne the last of twelve children at her advanced age. They read the chapter in the Bible recounting the birth of Isaac to Sarah. They recited the Psalms. They prayed with such deep fervor that their energy rose like the wings of eagles to a height that inspired the angels to lift the celestial curtain.

Through the windows of the synagogue, it appeared that snow was falling outside. But how could this be? Snow had never been seen in Senji on Rosh Hashanah.

Turning to the congregation the rabbi said, "Today a miracle has occurred. The Almighty is showering the earth with the letters of the aleph-bet. Let us go and witness his greatness."

The congregation hurried outside. They looked up. They could not believe what they saw. Like manna, all the letters of the aleph-bet were falling from heaven to wish the infant a happy birthday, to celebrate the 5,660th anniversary of the birth of the universe, and to announce the important names and events of the forthcoming era to bear witness to the fact that nothing past or future is hidden from the Almighty.

Rav Shmuel, the rabbi of Senji, was short and pudgy with bright blue eyes and reddish hair. His glossy gabardine reached almost to his ankles, and his fur hat sat atop his ears.

His manner of speech betrayed his Polish birth. He had come to Lithuania as a young student to study at the Slobodka Yeshiva, where he fell in love twice—once with Lurian Kabbalah and next with the daughter of the richest Jew in Senji. He imparted the teachings of the Kabbalah to his congregation to the dismay of some of the elders who, as traditional Lithuanian Mitnagdim, regarded this as true Polish eccentricity.

To their further discomfiture, Rav Shmuel firmly believed that in a former life he had been a student