A7NEWS: Feature: From Hollywood To The Holyland - Tzvi Fishman's Odyssey

Feature: From Hollywood To the Holyland - Tzvi Fishman's Odyssey
by Baruch Gordon

One of the revelations found in the Zohar is the doctrine of reincarnation. From his days as a Hollywood screenwriter, to the recent publication of his new book, "Secret of the Brit – Torah, Kabbalah, and Sex," author Tzvi Fishman has gone through several reincarnations in this lifetime alone, and also some incredible miracles. We spoke with him in his Jerusalem apartment, where he took time from writing his blog, "Hollywood to the Holy Land."


Tzvi in Hollywood Days

Behind him are bookshelves crammed with volumes on Torah. In the middle is a glossy, black-and-white photo of Fishman in his Hollywood days, looking like a sexy Tom Cruse, a far cry from the full-bearded baal t’shuva [returnee to religious observance] sitting before me. Fishman says he keeps it there to remind him that no matter how far he may sometimes fall in his service of G-d, he is still light-years ahead of the tinsel town role he was playing in Hollywood.

IsraelNN
Your new work, "Secret of the Brit – Torah, Kabbalah, and Sex," is a striking deviation from your other books, where the principle, recurring theme is the importance of living in the Land of Israel. For instance, the hero of "The Discman" comes to Israel. Also, your reincarnation of the famous Tevye the Milkman makes Aliyah and builds a new life for his family in Palestine. The king in your "Kuzari For Young Readers" journeys off to live in the Land of Israel; and certainly Eretz Yisrael is a main focus of the books you co-wrote with Rabbi David Samson about the teachings of Rabbi Kook. How does your recent study of sex in the Zohar fit in with this?

Fishman
"Secret of the Brit" isn’t a deviation at all. It is a natural continuation of the other books. I learned the hard way that it isn’t enough to live in the Land of Israel. We have to live here in a holy fashion. The foundation of the Brit, or Covenant, between G-d and Avraham is that the Jewish People guard their sexual lives in purity, as it says, "And G-d said to Avraham, therefore thou shall safeguard my Brit, thou and thy seed after thee in their generations."
This principle of Shmirat HaBrit is stressed in the holy Zohar over and over again. Rabbi Kook himself writes that the detailed safeguarding of the holiness of our sexual lives must be the foundation of our rebirth and resettlement of the Land of Israel. He also writes that the study of the Zohar is one of the keys to Redemption. In my humble opinion, this is because the Zohar highlights the great importance of Shmirat HaBrit.

IsraelNN
I always assumed that Shmirat HaBrit (guarding the laws of proper sexual behavior) was something particular to young people.

Fishman
The Zohar repeatedly emphasizes the importance of Shmirat HaBrit to married couples as well. The sanctity of the marital act has a direct influence on all of the spiritual worlds, either opening or closing the channel of blessing, called the "Yesod," for both the individual and the Jewish People as a whole. Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, and all of the other masters of Kabbalah, assert that the majority of tragedies and hardships that we suffer stem from sexual transgression. In addition, the Zohar warns that the sanctity of the marital union has a direct influence on both the physical and spiritual wellbeing of our children. Let’s face it, with the pressures of modern living, and with the bombardment of pornography on the Internet, television, and the movies, and with the outbreak of immodest dress on our streets, it is easy to fall into sexual laxity. According to the secrets of Torah, the price we pay is dear. The Arizal explains that the "oneg"-pleasure that one feels from a sexual transgression, turns into "nega"-plague by a rearrangement of the Hebrew letters. For example, one small lapse, let’s say lustfully rushing to have marital relations during the day, can lead to a child that will be hyperactive all of his life.

IsraelNN
I would like to follow up on this subject a little later. But first, I thought we would do a little detective work to try and figure out how you came to write a book about Jewish sexuality. When your book, "The Discman," was published, you gave an interview in Arutz 7’s Hebrew newspaper, "Besheva." You mentioned that your bar-mitzvah was held in a church. How did that happen?

Fishman
When I was growing up, my family belonged to a Reform Jewish synagogue in New England. We went to shul on Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur, lit Hanukah candles, had a Christmas tree to be like the neighbors, ate matzah on the first Seder night and candy eggs on Easter. I remember the reform rabbi telling us in Hebrew School that the splitting of the Red Sea occurred, not through any miracle by G-d, but because a severe draught had caused the sea to dry up, and a freak, sudden rainstorm brought a flood that luckily drowned the Egyptians after the Jews had crossed on dry land. His explanation sounded so ludicrous to me, I didn’t want to even bother with having a bar-mitzvah. But my parents insisted. Since, the congregation had outgrown our old shul, and the new one was still under construction, my bar-mitzvah ceremony was held in a Unitarian church. To me, it is a perfect symbol for being a Jew in America, where you are totally immersed in a foreign, gentile culture. Growing up Jewish in America is like growing up in a church.

IsraelNN
The tape is recording, so don’t wait for my questions. I know you have told your baal t’shuva story dozens of times to high-school students all over the country, so don’t wait for my leads.

Fishman
After that, I went to a very prestigious private school in Massachusetts. Out of the 800 students, there were only a handful of Jews. We had to pray on Sundays in the basement of the campus church. Upstairs in this gigantic, impressive cathedral, the rest of the students and the faculty were gathered in prayer, and we were stuck out of sight in the basement, like we belonged to some low-rate religion. That’s how I related to Judaism also. I didn’t want to have anything to do with it.

IsraelNN
The world is reading your every word.

Fishman
Most of my graduating class was accepted into universities like Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and Princeton. I decided to go to NYU Film School where I spent four years in the dark, watching thousands of movies. The year after I graduated, I wrote a screenplay that became a Hollywood movie, called "Law and Disorder," starring Caroll O’Conner and Ernest Borgnine. I also sold a novel to a top New York publisher. I was sure that I was on my way to attain my dream of becoming "The Great American Novelist." Watch out Norman Mailer and Philip Roth! Here comes Fishman!

IsraelNN
I am sure you have lots of entertaining stories from this period, but how about telling us a few things that affected your Jewish worldview?


Travolta or Fishman?

Fishman
Ever since my bar mitzvah, I abandoned G-d and Judaism completely. As you can see from my old publicity photo, I was trying to look as American and gentile as John Travolta. But there were indeed some weird events, as if G-d were trying to remind me who I really was, even in my darkest moments. For instance, the summer before my novel hit the bookstores, I decided to make a literary pilgrimage to Europe, in the footsteps of the famous American writers, Henry Miller, Thomas Wolfe, and Ernest Hemingway before me. I crossed the Atlantic by ocean liner and disembarked at the French port of Cherbourg. Remember, in those days I looked like that picture, clean shaven, with the long hair of a hippie, and without this giant beard. A Mercedez drove by as I was hiking with my backpack toward the city, and the driver yelled out, "Heil Hitler!" They were the first words I heard in Europe. It was freaky.

Click here to read the continuation of this interview on our website. http://trailer.web-view.net/Links/0X75A30CEFED190F2E7FB0070DFDDED522B8A32000F55BF92D2A4F598793FFEC098AD1E184AF2DDA849DB8D4E9EAAFA1B852A186AD553C40F9CA7CC5A36F3EAB7A.htm