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Student visitors to Ashland explore Jewish mysticism By Melissa Martin Teenagers and young adults who are devoting their lives to studying the greatest Jewish teachers in the world will visit the Rogue Valley Monday to meet with local Jewish communities. A group of 30 high school and college-age students from Chabad School of Brooklyn, N.Y., will talk about Moses, Maimonides, Rashi and Bal Shem Tov during a free discussion at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Jackson Well Springs. "To interact with students and teachers of this caliber, someone would have to travel thousands of miles, to New York or Jerusalem or a major Jewish metropolis," said Rabbi Moshe Wilhelm of Chabad of Oregon, the Portland group sponsoring the event. "To have teachers brought to Ashland is a major event." The students are part of a growing movement called Jewish mysticism, which draws from 300-year-old Russian traditions. Jewish mysticism is about "God and his creation, deepening the individual�s walk, purpose of life, purpose of creation and how I fit into creation and how important we are," Wilhelm said. "Every person should believe that the entire world was created just for him," Wilhelm said, quoting from the Talmud. The Brooklyn students will introduce some of the Jewish mystics, including Moses, who received the Torah from God 3,000 years ago, Maimonides, who became the Egyptian Sultan�s personal physician 875 years ago, Bal Shem Tov, who lived in Russia 300 years ago, and a modern Jewish mystic leader, the Rebbe, a survivor of the Holocaust. Students of Maimonides, for example, follow dietary laws, eating certain foods in the winter and summer and getting a prescribed amount of sleep each night. Maimonides taught that people who eat and live right would never get sick. Chabad of Oregon was started 16 years ago by the late Rabbi Menachem Shmuel David Raichik from Los Angeles. His daughter, Devora, and her husband, Rabbi Wilhelm, have been Chabad of Oregon�s leaders since its beginning. There are 3,000 branches of Chabad, the world�s largest Jewish education organization. Chabad sponsors classes for children and adults, as well as events like the discussion Monday in Ashland. Wilhem hopes to reach the 300 people in Ashland�s two Jewish communities, Temple Emek Shalom and Havurah Shir Hadish. He hopes to reach the estimated 300 Jewish families not affiliated with a community. Children are welcome; the event is free. A few Chabad students have been coming to Ashland for several years, but never the entire study group, said Rabbi David Zaslow of Havurah Shir Hadash. "This year, we have a great opportunity to learn from Hasidic students about the traditions of Eastern European Jewish beliefs," Zaslow said. For more information, visit the Web site www.chabadofor.org. Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA