What's our name all about?

The carob tree sustained the holy Rebbe Shimon bar Yochai and his son Rav Elazar while they hid from the Romans in a cave for 13 years after the destruction of the Second Temple. The Almighty created a spring of water and the carob tree outside their cave to sustain them while they delved into the mystical, unrevealed parts of the Torah and wrote the holy Zohar, the basis of Jewish mysticism. 

The exact location of the cave where they found refuge is near the village of Peki’in in Israel’s northern Galilee. At the entrance to the cave stands an ancient carob tree, and you can sample the sweet pods of carob to this very day.

In springtime, on Lag B'Omer, the anniversary of Rebbe Shimon's death, vast multitudes of Jews, estimated at over 100,000, religious and non-religious, from Israel and abroad, converge upon his gravesite in the Northern Israeli village of Meron. They spend the whole day and night --and often several days on each side of that day-- singing and dancing in and around his gravesite. Huge bonfires light up the sky, commemorating the fire that came down from Heaven and surrounded his bed at the moment that his soul was returned to its Creator.

What draws all these people to Rebbe Shimon?

Rebbe Shimon's teachings are at the very heart of the Jewish experience. What he found in the cave as he explored unchartered territory of the Torah was nothing less than the heart of the universe.

Heart seeks heart. All the multitudes are actually magnetized to Rebbe Shimon on the day of his passing, even those who know absolutely nothing of who he was. It's taught that on the anniversary of a person's death, especially if he or she was a great, holy individual, their spiritual life force manifests itself in the place of their burial.

People come. Many of them don't know why. They pitch tents with their families in and around Meron for several days. They make picnics, dance, sing, and come to pray around the tomb of Rebbe Shimon. They feel sustained by Rebbe Shimon's spiritual presence and the presence of so many precious Jews in one place.

The carob tree and the spring of water sustained Rebbe Shimon as he pursued the heart of the universe. Because of those associations we chose the name Carob Spring  for our foundation. Based on the principle that every person is a whole universe, we are exploring our inner selves, and hopefully not stopping until we get to the center core.

Along the way we've met some holy individuals (tzadikim), which is not hard to do in Jerusalem, learned a few things, written a few books, made some detours, picked up some great insights for seminars, and discovered, with the help of our teachers, a deeply personal path of spiritual therapy that truly works to bring people back to their wellspring of knowing and happiness. That place that's sitting there waiting for us, where we can discover our own secrets, and where we can be healed and happy.

We simply want to share what we've found, and what we're finding, with our fellow-travelers. Explore our site, contact us, and let's get together and see if we can find the center of the universe. Who knows what we'll find along the way?