Dreaming of Moshiach

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Time is Racing Very Fast Pace

Some people sharpen their minds by playing chess. Oren Zarif exercises his brain by riding motorcycles through the back streets of Tel Aviv wearing a triple blindfold. "There's no better way to sharpen your instincts and control your wisdom," says Israel's hottest telepathic sensation. While most people would be dead before they got to the end of the block, Oren says this is one of his favorite games. "I enter a deep meditative state, sort of a subconscious trance, and then I am able to isolate and clarify my thoughts, seeing clearly what's happening outside my own body."[+/-] show/hide text

His mind games, however, recently got him into trouble with the police. Zarif, who claims he can accomplish almost anything using the power of his thoughts, was summoned to police headquarters last month for creating havoc with the traffic lights at a busy Ra'anana intersection. According to Zarif, he approached the intersection and, with powerful concentration and simultaneous hand movements, managed to mix up the traffic lights. The police, who didn't see the humor in causing a traffic tie-up involving dozens of motorists, sent Zarif a summons to traffic court, admitted regional traffic coordinator Captain Yisrael Jibili, baffled by the incident. He said the police discovered Zarif after a citizen who recognized him filed a complaint.

Zarif, 25, has been blessed, it seems, with supernatural powers which enable him, through mental concentration, to bend metal, read an unseen text, start and stop clocks, turn on a lightbulb, and even change the controls of busy traffic lights, to mention just a few of his stunts. Yet he is most proud of his life's devotion - harnessing his powers for curing people from hopeless diseases and disabilities.

In his Bnei Brak clinic, Zarif proudly pulls out a file with dozens of testimonials from cured patients, praising his lifesaving abilities. Rachel Shuker of Ramat Gan claims that Zarif cured her of a cancerous growth through what he calls "psychokinesis" - using his mental energy to draw the patient into a subconscious state where the patient can then be instilled with the tools to fight that which plagues his body. Shuker said that after several sessions in Zarif's Bnei Brak clinic, a CAT scan revealed that the malignant tumor had disappeared.

While Oren was still in the womb, his mother said she knew there was something special - or strange - about the baby she was carrying. Every time she would have periodic contractions during her ninth month, a light would blow out or a bulb would shatter. Once, during a memorial service in the presence of others, all 14 bulbs on a hanging chandelier shattered and the pictures on the walls began to shake.

"When I was still a young boy and didn't know how to control these phenomena, all sorts of strange things would happen," Zarif told Country Yossi Magazine. "If I wanted something, my parents were forced to comply with my wishes, even against their own better judgment. I remember one day I was shopping with my parents and I spotted a ball I wanted them to buy me. They refused; I had enough balls at home. But as I began to cry, the wheels of the shopping cart somehow locked and they couldn't budge it, until they gave in and bought me what I wanted.

"Once in elementary school I was punished and had to stay 15 minutes after class. The teacher, who always said she was afraid to look me in the eye because I would often answer her questions before she asked them, had just stacked 40 chairs on the tables and cleaned up the classroom. I was indignant and began to cry. Suddenly all 40 chairs came crashing down to the floor. My teacher reported later that she never had such a fright.

"Today I know how to control this power, except occasionally when I'm angry, like that little incident with the newspaper." Oren was referring to a strange case currently pending in small claims court, in which he apparently erased a computer program from a magazine when the editor refused to cancel payment for an ad that Zarif had ordered and was printed with a mistake. "It's true that I threatened to erase the text on his computer, but I didn't mean it seriously. Probably when I uttered the threat and waved my hands in the direction of his computer, my power of concentration at that moment was so strong that the program was wiped out."

When Oren was just a boy of 10, he began to be "discovered." He, like his one-time idol Uri Geller, was able to bend silverware with a stare ("my mother would always give me plastic, because if I got angry during the meal I would inadvertently bend the silverware out of shape") and had perfected other telepathic tricks. He had already made several television appearances and agents were vying for exclusivity over his talent, with promises of international exposure and lots of money to match. It was at this point that Oren learned the source of his power, which was to change the direction of his life. His great grandfather, Rav Pinchas Hachohen, zt"l, one of the great mekubalim of Bukhara at the turn of the century, began to communicate with him.

Rav Pinchas, whose spiritual feats appear in several books, was said to have had a weekly chavrusa with Eliyahu Hanavi every Motzaei Shabbat, after he immersed in a mikveh and donned burial shrouds. He was once arrested for teaching Torah and thrown into a prison tower, where he somehow fell out the stories-high window. But instead of falling to his death, he landed on his own feet with barely a scratch. When the Emir of Bukhara heard this, he had the Rav summoned immediately for he wanted to see who this holy man was. Yet as Rav Pinchas approached the palace, it is said that Eliyahu Hanavi hovered over his head. The emanation was so intense that the Emir wouldn't let him near the palace for fear it would go up in flames from the intensity of the spiritual light. Another story is told that one day Rav Pinchas saw a funeral procession passing by. He asked the pallbearers why they were taking this woman to burial. He insisted that she was not dead. What she needed, he said, was a transfusion and she would be revived. So they brought her to a hospital, did as the Rav instructed, and she woke up.

For four consecutive nights, Rav Pinchas appeared to Oren in a dream, in order to extract an oath from the young star that he would only use his talents for helping others and not for selfish, personal gain. If he chose the first path, his power would intensify; if he chose the second, he would be cursed. For four days Oren ignored the warning. He was about to sign a contract with an agent who would sponsor him abroad. On the fourth day, Oren says he received a call from a desperate gentleman in Tiberias with cancer. Could Oren please make time to see him? Oren ignored the request. He, an 11-year-old career-conscious budding superstar had better things to do with his time. That night, Rav Pinchas appeared again, and commanded Oren to help the man. Oren finally agreed, and after two sessions, a follow-up CAT-scan indicated the cancer had disappeared.

That was more than a decade ago. Since then, Oren hasn't rejected offers for television and nightclub appearances - he seems to thrive on publicity and media attention, but in the midst of it all he has studied anatomy and physiology, and today he spends most of his time juggling his schedule between his Bnei Brak and Jerusalem clinics.

"My mind works in a way that can't be described," Oren explains. "When people see me on TV they think it's a camera trick. But just ask my wife. Sometimes at work I sit down and start thinking about her and concentrate on what's happening at home. Just recently I saw that she sat down absorbed in a book and forgot she had put a pot of milk on the stove to boil. I called her up. 'Lili, the milk is boiling over.' 'Thanks, Oren, you always know just when to call.' "

Wouldn't a woman be afraid to marry someone who knew everything about her, where there is no room for any private space, even in the heart and mind?

"I had met some of the most sought-after women in the country, but the relationship always ended the same way. 'Oren,' they would say, 'I can't live with you. I have no private corner with you.' My wife is special, unusual. She is a woman of great integrity and very open. She loves me and decided to take me as I am."

One of his favorite stunts which delight audiences is his ability to read the nine-digit numbers off people's identity cards while the cards are buried deep in the target's wallet or pocket. He once surprised a police officer who pulled him over for a license check and asked for his Te'udat Zehut (ID card). Oren concentrated, and instead of giving over his own number, gave the officer's number instead. The officer was taken aback. "What's this?!" he exclaimed, and then looked closely at Zarif. "Hey, I know you! You're that fellow who did those tricks on the TV program!"

"Can you read my Te'udat Zehut?" I question, half assuming he'll think of some reason why the atmosphere isn't appropriate or that his powers aren't in top form. Instead, he asks me to take my wallet out of my purse and place it on the table in front of him. He closes his eyes, and, trance-like, begins to write, one digit after another. Amazing. He got all nine digits correct. I'm a believer.

Oren says his mind jumps between the physical world and the world of the spirit, and that is the secret of his healing abilities and his ability to influence a person's destiny. Sometimes, he says, a person's mazal is locked. "But I can access the key to unlock it." He tells of an older girl who came to him because she wanted to get married but it just wasn't going for her. "I made a spiritual connection, and received a transmission and on such a date and time, she should be in front of a particular synagogue in Haifa. She followed instructions, and soon after her arrival, a young man came up to her asking for directions. She explained that she wasn't a local, and when he asked what she was doing there, she told him her story. Well, he said, I don't know who you're supposed to meet, but you seem really nice..." Two months later they were married and Oren proudly attended the wedding.

"My family has prestigious lineage, but so far I've been the only one able to harness Grandfather's legacy of spiritual power. He connects me to the higher worlds. I can know everything about a person, about their Olam Haba, about their past lives, and why they are destined to suffer. I have a special communication with the angel Chulio - Yechiel - who transmits this information to me. People who have lost hope, terminal patients, stroke victims, people whose mazal has been closed, can stand on their own feet again with my help, where conventional medicine hasn't succeeded.

"I don't deal with energy. I'm not a kinesiologist. What I do, as the patient lies on the bed, is close my eyes and connect. What was the reason he fell ill? How can I help him? With some people I see that they don't have the merit to be healed, but with others I receive information on how to help him heal himself. I influence his subconscious, delving into the hidden places of his own strength, as per the instructions of my spiritual transmission. I bring the person to a level of subconscious hypnosis. [Oren is quick to mention that he doesn't practice conventional hypnosis for which a special license is needed.] He feels his body become weightless and he can sometimes rise off the bed several inches in the air."

Television viewers were treated to such a scene, and although most viewers would probably attribute such a thing to a trick of the camera, Oren reminds us that we know such powers of meditation exist in the Far East, where spiritual masters are known to practice levitation after reaching a certain level of meditation.

"Look at this watch, and you'll see what happens when I put my spiritual power into my patients. I can manipulate my patients just like I do this watch," Oren demonstrates. Pretty interesting. He's making the second-hand stop and start just by concentrating with his eyes. "Now," he says to me, "take your own watch in your hand. What time is it? 11:30? Okay, now hold the watch in your hand and close your fist." I am more than a little nervous. If he can make the hands of my wristwatch go haywire, who knows what will happen to my kishkes? Oren closes his eyes, begins to breathe rapidly, makes some magic-looking hand gestures, and ... "Okay," he smiles, "what time does your watch say now?" I don't believe it. My watch now reads 5:30. He made the hands spin six hours ahead.

"Now, if you want, I can read your mind. I can tell you some deep dark secret that will shock you, something your husband doesn't even know about," Oren offered by way of further proving his point. I passed on that. My watch is one thing. My brain is another.

Seems like it's dangerous to be in his presence. Who knows what he can see? "I am a healer. I will never hurt anyone," says Oren, seeming somewhat hurt himself at the very suggestion of such intrusiveness. "I don't walk down the streets reading people's thoughts or looking into their personal lives. I'm a cultured, respectable person, not a peeping Tom."

Do his hands somehow shoot out electromagnetic impulses that can make forks bend and watches spin out of control? "Nothing like that," he says. "I just use my mind."

Oren reiterates that he doesn't deal with witchcraft or any spiritual power whose source is antithetical to Torah and purity. "I am in touch with many mekubalim. I only harness the powers of Kedusha that the holy rabbis permit."

If all this sounds too weird to be true, Oren has some high-ranking rabbinical fans, including Rav Meir Mazouz, Rosh Yeshivat Kiseh Rachamim, who wrote in a generous thank-you letter after several sessions with Zarif, "Hashem has blessed you with supernatural abilities in order to bring healing to the world. I recommend that anyone who is suffering pay you a visit. Without a doubt your powers are heaven-sent."

With the offers he's had, Oren Zarif says he could be a very wealthy man today. Two years ago, with the support of Rav Yehuda Yosefi whom Oren considers as his Rav, he tore up a $3 million contract which he had originally signed, because of Shabbat desecration. Two years ago, that was his biggest test of faith. Today, such challenges no longer tempt him. "I'm a man of principle," he says. "I would sell out Shabbat? Money comes and money goes, and today I realize that the accounting we'll all one day have to give in front of Hashem has no price tag. I'm not anyone's property and no contract owns me. These big black limos the fancy managers try to tempt me with don't impress me. In the end we'll all travel to the same place in a big black hearse. A national soccer club recently asked me to work for them, to train their players how to score more goals and perhaps to sabotage the other team. I even received a death threat from some crazy guy who insisted I tell him the winning Lotto numbers. Believe me, if I could do that I would have done it myself. I choose my work carefully. Now I'm working for a precious metals company. They take me up in a helicopter along the African coast and I tell them where to dig. I make enough money in such ways and I'm still able to sit in my clinic here and help people. I've established that as my life's mission."

Oren says that his spiritual transmissions have enabled him to glimpse into the future, and occasionally he receives "messages" about events that are soon to happen. Oren recounts one story that still sends chills up his spine. He had started out on a day-trip with two friends, when suddenly he felt dizzy and his head began to throb. He closed his eyes and saw his great-grandfather, Rav Pinchas, who told Oren to get out of the car immediately and tell his friends not to continue on their trip. "There is a strong decree on them today," warned the tzadik. "Make them turn back."

"I never question my great-grandfather," Oren continues. "I tried to get my friends to turn around, I pleaded with them not to continue. 'Oren,' they said, 'Stop your mishugas. If you want you can get out and take a cab home. We're continuing.' I went straight home, and less than an hour later I received the horrible news. My friends were just off the entrance ramp to the Tel Aviv highway when they stopped to help a stranded motorist. Suddenly a Mac truck overloaded with chickens came barreling down the highway and ran the two of them down. One friend was killed instantly. The other lived but is still in awful shape."

Oren says he is privy to much information about the future, but the Heavenly Court has forbidden him to reveal any secrets. One thing he did divulge is that, just as so many of us feel, time is indeed racing at a faster pace than ever. "Time as we know it is coming to an end," says Oren, sounding much like a doomsday prophet. "Why, I ask in my transmissions, and am told that as the Redemption approaches time will begin to disintegrate. Grandfather is constantly telling me, 'Oren, tell the people to wake up! In Noach's generation they didn't heed the signs and they all drowned in the Mabul. Oy! What will happen to those who don't wake up? Oren, tell as many people as you can to put on Tefillin, to keep Shabbat, people don't understand what is about to happen. Praised be the man who knows how to change his ways and cling to Hashem. That is the only way he'll save himself and his family.' In Egypt, only 20% of the Jews were redeemed, those who went on the side of the winner, Hashem's side. The same thing will happen soon. It will be devastating for whoever isn't on that side."

The good news is that we all might live long enough to see the End. Oren says he is currently working on a development which is sure to cause a worldwide uproar. He claims he has figured out a way of isolating and manipulating the aging gene, to enable people to live quality lives for at least 200 years.

"This is everyone's fantasy, and I already have success. I have been working with a woman who was 95 when I met her five years ago. Now at 100, her physical condition has so improved that I predict she'll live to be 200. She walks better, she has begun exercising, the quality of her functioning is on a totally different level. Many have heard about this and I've been hounded to release her for interviews, but I'm not ready for that yet."

How is it possible that Oren Zarif has done what the greatest scientific minds throughout the generations have tried and failed? "No scientist can do what I can," says Oren easily. "The greatest professor can't get a patient to float 10 inches off his bed, can't boil water by touching the cup, can't spin the hands of a clock, can't bend spoons and can't read other people's ID cards. My powers are special. Why is it so surprising that I've added anti-aging to my repertoire?"

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והיה השם למלך על כל הארץ, ביום ההוא יהיה השם אחד - ושמו אחד ישתבח שמו לעד לנצח נצחים בכל העולמות Blessed is His name for eternity in all worlds אין עוד מלבדו