Drawing upon his journey from Dharamshala to Kiryat Sefer, popular educator Rabbi Yitzchak Fanger has a message about life’s meaning that speaks to a new generation of searchers
Forbidding white peaks frame dense green forests that give way to a bustling town in the Himalayan foothills. The narrow streets of Dharamshala throng with close-cropped monks in maroon robes. Curious backpackers turn prayer wheels and take in the religious imagery. They’re drawn to this ancient pilgrimage place in northern India by its most famous resident, the Dalai Lama.
Arriving one day in the early 1990’s is a familiar type: A young secular Israeli, on a rite-of-passage journey to the Far East, eager to relax after the close confines of a tank and the stress of life in a small country. Scarred by a close friend’s death in combat, Yitzchak Fanger has also come to search for enlightenment. The Herzliya surfer and psychology major becomes a Buddhist monk.
But midway through a six-month vow of silence, a series of encounters exposes this secular Israeli to a visceral connection to a Jewish identity that he’s never known. Shaken to the core, he exchanges the Ganges for Kiryat Sefer, his ashram for the beis medrash.
Today Rabbi Yitzchak Fanger is almost a household name — his face gracing ads for outreach seminars that pop up in mailboxes all over the country. His unique blend of psychology, self-awareness, and Torah — plus a showman’s sense of delivery — have given him massive reach across digital media, radio, and as a lecturer.
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