About

About Beith David

An initiative to bring to light a key insight for our generation: reviving the wisdom of Jerusalem and recalling the profound meaning of Israel.

« If I forget thee, O Jerusalem... »

Psalm 137:5

Returning to the land now calls for the return of a message.

Beith David is an initiative born in Jerusalem to bring back to the center some of the great questions of our generation: the vocation of Israel, justice, the unity of the people, and the place of a collective wisdom capable of illuminating its national life and speaking to the nations.

Our approach is rooted in the study of Torah sources, the wisdom of Jerusalem, and the legacy of the Great Sanhedrin.

But a question that engages the future of all Israel cannot belong to one man, a political party, a religious movement, or a particular current.

Beith David does not claim to bring a ready-made answer alone. Our role is to bring these questions back into the light, open the sources, foster their study and debate, and help create the conditions for a truly collective wisdom to emerge.

Not to impose an answer.
But to create the conditions to seek it together.

Discover the vision Support Beith David

From vision to action

What Beith David undertakes

Awaken

Give rise to a shared aspiration in the heart of the people of Israel.

Unite

Nurture a shared will across Israel’s different perspectives.

III

Prepare

Allow this aspiration to mature through reflection, dialogue and the drawing together of hearts.

Build

Undertake, together with the sages, the concrete work towards re-establishing the Great Sanhedrin of Jerusalem.

“It is not study that is the essential thing, but action.”

Pirkei Avot 1:17

Discover our work ↓

Identity

Who leads Beith David?

Beith David is led from Jerusalem by David (Raphaël), a Franco-Israeli, married and father of four. Living in Israel since 2014, his journey has confronted him with the fractures, tensions, and challenges of Israeli society.

From a very young age, he was deeply influenced by the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe on the Geulah and the collective responsibility of Israel, notably the call of 28 Nissan, in which the Rebbe explained that he had done everything in his power to bring the Geulah and urged everyone to take their part in the spiritual revival of Israel.

Over the years, this search was nourished by study, meetings with rabbanim, and life in Israel, around one question: how can the Torah once again concretely illuminate the collective direction of Israel?

This search accompanied him for years, from Paris to Jerusalem, via Aix-les-Bains and New York, throughout his meetings with many rabbanim, until a meeting that would deeply mark the rest of his journey: the one with Shmouel.

Founding Origin

The inner origin: Shmouel

At the inner origin of Beith David lies the meeting with Shmouel, a 6-year-old child with a severe cerebral motor disability, unable to speak, see, or have any autonomy. Yet, in a "miraculous" way, he began to write on a keyboard. His first messages were about his mission here below for the Geulah, about Israel, the Torah, and Malkhut Israel.

A few years earlier, Shmouel had announced to his mother that a Frenchman, then in Israel, would come to his room before Tishrei 5773. It was only during this meeting, he said, that he would be able to leave the establishment and begin his work...

David, who knew neither Shmouel nor his story, arrived from Israel a few days before and found himself, for an entirely different apparent reason, in his room on 15 Av 5772 (August 3, 2012). A meeting experienced as stemming fully from Hashgacha Pratit, Divine Providence.

This year was the year Shmouel left the Maison d'Accueil Spécialisée (MAS) Phoenix in Clichy, where he had lived since birth and from which he had never left. Following this meeting, David spent nearly a year by his side.

Then began several months of extraordinary exchanges and writings, in the secret of their meetings. It was a particularly intense period, experienced as an exceptional spiritual elevation, during which Shmouel transmitted numerous messages about the Geulah.

Then came what he had himself announced a few years earlier to his mother: "I am going to globalize" (start communicating with people all over the world). It was then that his messages began to be disseminated publicly, from Paris to Israel and elsewhere in the world.

What had started in the secret of a room took on a completely different dimension.

These messages deeply moved his entourage, several rabbanim, and thousands of families in France and Israel.

It was also during this period that several phone exchanges took place and blessings were exchanged between Shmouel and Rav Yitzchak Guinsburgh.

At the end of this year of immersion with Shmouel, David dedicated nearly an additional year to internalizing and deepening the scope of this life-altering experience, and especially to seeking how to transmit the essence of it in a way that is understandable and useful to the greatest number of people.

David then sent a letter to Rav Yitzchak Guinsburgh explaining this experience, accompanied by the document "Malkhut Israel", proposing a vision of an Israel restored in truth, justice, and its spiritual vocation.

It was only later that he truly discovered the extent of the Rav's teachings and the deep convergences between the vision developed in "Malkhut Israel" and themes that Rav Yitzchak Guinsburgh had been teaching for many years.

"This story, that of Shmouel, is told on a dedicated page. It is shared with humility, as a founding memory at the origin of a responsibility embraced."

Read the founding testimony

An encouragement received

Encouraged by Rav Yitzchak Guinsburgh

Among the meetings that marked the path toward Beith David, the one with Rav Yitzchak Guinsburgh holds a special place.

Called "the Angel" in Israel, Rav Yitzchak Guinsburgh is one of the great contemporary figures of Kabbalah and Chassidut. His work has influenced many Torah masters, thinkers, and scholars, in Israel and around the world.

A mathematician by training and author of over 150 books, he has been developing a thought of rare breadth for over fifty years, connecting the depths of Torah, Kabbalah, and Chassidut to the great questions of our time — from the human soul to society, from science to the life of Israel and the Geulah.

Among the great figures who studied under him or received his influence is Rav Shalom Arush, a major figure in the Breslov world. The Lubavitcher Rebbe personally encouraged Rav Guinsburgh to put his teachings into writing and to develop his work.

In response to the letter that had been sent to him and to the document "Malkhut Israel", Rav Yitzchak Guinsburgh conveyed the following blessing.

"May you have great success in spreading the teachings of the Torah and the news of the Geulah (Redemption) and the kingship of Israel to every Jewish soul throughout the world."

July 1, 2014 — Blessing addressed by Rav Yitzchak Guinsburgh to the founder of Beith David.

A few years later, on 5 Av 5786, David was received in a private meeting by Rav Yitzchak Guinsburgh. He presented the work pursued around Beith David and asked him to confirm that the root of Tikkun HaMedina — the repair of the State of Israel — resided in the restoration of the Great Sanhedrin of Jerusalem.

The Rav replied with simplicity.

"Yes! This will bring a country that loves its inhabitants. True wealth. True joy. And then we will move toward the Geulah."

The Rav's words are faithfully reproduced here, in their essential public passages, and grouped for clearer reading.

"It is with true justice that the repair of this world begins."
"Today, outreach is the most important thing. People must first understand what it is about."
"When we build kelim in the natural order, G-d brings the miracle inside nature."

During the meeting, the name Beith David was also mentioned.

"Beith David is a good name. We want everyone to feel they belong to the House of David."

As they said goodbye, the Rav said with enthusiasm and joy:

"Ufaratzta, ufaratzta, ufaratzta!"

Ufaratzta — וּפָרַצְתָּ — is a word from Genesis 28:14, in the blessing addressed to Jacob. It means "you shall spread out," with the idea of spreading beyond one's limits. In Chassidic language, it evokes a Torah and a light that spread ever further.

Thus, the blessing received in 2014 finds a natural continuation in this meeting: reach out, make the vision clear, and build in reality the kelim that allow us to move toward it.

Our Work

What Beith David develops today

From thought to word and action

Beith David does not wish only to transmit a vision. Its ambition is to contribute to giving it a real existence.

Think:: deepening the sources of Torah and the foundations of a collective wisdom.
Speak:: fostering dialogue between sages and the different sensitivities of Israel.
Act:: preparing the conditions for a collective work that could lead, under the responsibility of competent rabbinical authorities, to the restoration of the Great Sanhedrin of Jerusalem.

This path is an approach open to the participation of all Israel, and not an authority claimed by Beith David.

Study and Meetings in Jerusalem

Every Shabbat, a core group of participants gathers in Jerusalem around a seudah to study Torah, the teachings of Kabbalah around Malkhut Israel, and their light on the events and questions of our time.

Daily Teaching

A teaching is shared daily with a community of about 150 people, focusing on Malkhut Israel, Torah, Geulah, and the teachings studied at Beith David.

Sources and Sanhedrin

A work of clarification around the sources of Torah, Halacha, the history of Israel, and the model of the Great Sanhedrin, with faithfulness to the sources, rigor, and respect for the sages.

Outreach and Public Awakening

Texts, audios, videos, meetings, and presentations to make this reflection accessible more broadly and to share a vision of Torah capable of concretely illuminating Israel's collective life.

Long-term

Why now?

The events related to Shmouel date back more than twelve years.

Throughout this time, Beith David deliberately remained discreet. Several versions of the site existed over the years, without true public outreach. This restraint was a choice of maturation, reflection, and responsibility.

Certain words require time before being shared more broadly.

This approach was built gradually, over the long term, through study, meetings, life in Israel, and deep reflection on the spiritual, social, and moral challenges of our generation.

If this vision is now beginning to be made public more widely, it is with the conviction that our era, after so many upheavals, conflicts, challenges, and troubles, now calls for a message of wisdom capable of repairing, bringing together, illuminating, and uniting despite the fractures of the modern world.

Taking part

A shared responsibility

Beith David carries this voice with faith and responsibility. But this vision does not belong to one man alone, nor to a closed circle.

It belongs to all who love Israel, Jerusalem, the Torah, justice, and peace.

The revival of Israel also depends on the emunah, engagement, and faithfulness of each person. A message can be carried from Jerusalem; but only an awakened people can give it a living reality.

« Zion shall be redeemed with justice. »

Isaiah 1:27

Certain words cross a generation only when they find men and women ready to give them a place in their life, their study, and their faithfulness.