My interest in Jewish spirituality began in the spring of 1974 when I met Zalman Schacter who appeared as a Shabbat scholar-in-residence at Temple Emanuel in Providence, RI. His warmth, his charisma and his innovative approach to Judaism immediately charmed me. A year later, I met Zalman again at a Ruach retreat in the Berkshires where he introduced me to Dovid Din, a genuine twentieth century Jewish mystic who I eventually adopted as my rebbe and spiritual mentor. 
In as much as we lived nearly two hundred miles from one another, I studied Kabbalah with Dovid, for a number of years, via phone conversations, audiotapes and frequent trips to Brooklyn.  Around that period, my family and I belonged to an orthodox congregation where I received a thorough grounding in Jewish tradition along with years of Talmudic learning. I tell many stories about my association with orthodoxy, including a particular one that recaps my 1984 visit with Zalman in Jerusalem. 
In 1986, I was certified as a Polarity therapist (an energy healer) by the Polarity Wellness Center in Boston, and two years later the American Polarity Therapy Association endorsed me as an RPP, a Registered Polarity Practitioner. My involvement with Polarity grew out of the recognition that the principles of energy healing were perfectly in accord with the teachings of Kabbalah. 

About that time, I also began to teach classes in Jewish mysticism in the Providence area. My teaching experience includes adult education classes at several synagogues in the area, at Brown University Hillel, at a community learning center and at a local learning havurah.
For the last six years I have been submitting bimonthly articles on Jewish spirituality and healing to the Rhode Island Jewish Herald and other Jewish publications.