Liat BerkoWho is Yemima?
Yemima Avital’s(1929–1999) z”l - A wonderful educator, a psychologist , and spiritual force that teaches a unique spiritual approach combining psychology and kabbalah.
Yemima z”l, was born in 1929 in Casablanca, a descendant of a family of Kabbalist from Morocco, immigrated to Israel at the age of 20 and lived in Be'er Sheva. In the 1980s, Yemima Avital, a contemporary Moroccan Israeli healer and a female Hasidic Rebbe, developed a method for emotional and spiritual growth which is rooted deep in Jewish Kabbalistic traditions.
At some point she began to help people through a kind of healing. At first, she met people privately and then began to teach a group of students the method given to her, so she said, from ‘‘above’’. Her loyal following of students came to her for help in dealing with life’s challenges. Her enormous personal charisma was a huge draw, as was her eclectic method of teaching, according to her students’ reports.
In 1977 she founded the Ma’ayan Institute in Tel Aviv where she taught her ‘‘Cognitive Thinking’’ method, now known as the ‘‘Yemima Method.’’ She moved to Herzliya, where the Ma’ayan Institute still operates today. Over her years of teaching she distanced herself more and more from her audience: first, she used to sit with her students; then, she covered her face with a scarf while teaching; and finally moved to sit half a floor above the listeners. She said that she ‘‘sees’’ too much about her disciples, and therefore takes distance in order to be able to communicate with them.
Over all those years of teaching she devoted two days a week to healing and prayers for sick people who needed her help. They came to visit her, and she traveled to hospitals, standing in prayer near the patient’s bed. A few years before her death at seventy, she started to prepare for the day after. She qualified some chosen disciples, watched them while teaching, and ordained them as teachers. She asked her followers to establish new centers for studying her method. After having made these preparations, she passed away in 1999. The centers were opened; the students started to teach; the bizarre group became well known, with more groups forming all over Israel. There is no accurate measurement of the scope of this phenomenon, though it was estimated in 2011 that around ten thousand people are involved in studying and practicing ‘‘The Yemima Method’’ in Israel.
