“The King’s Way is the only way for me, the king’s harp is my song. The King’s Way is my dream, is my mystery, the king’s harp, my only love.” (words: Shaikeh Feikov)
When Galit Burg’s mother fell ill with a mortal illness, it was clear to her that now is the time to strengthen herself spirituality, and there was no place for excuses. That’s when she made the decision to cover her head, to dress modestly and start taking the “King’s Way” in life. But since her family does not observe Torah and commandments, the situation was unbearable. “And rightly so,” she says today. “The drastic changes from the lifestyle that we were used to, caused immense dissonance between me and my husband and children, and broke the natural equilibrium of the house. “When my mother died, I mourned the seven days and felt lost. I was on the verge of a crisis and felt that I was slowly losing my joy. Out of helplessness and sorrow, I searched for all the excuses in the world to get out of religion, but I tried to do it without looking ridiculous to my close circle of friends.
Finally, I chose the most despicable way that I could. I convinced myself that the truth is a lie, to legitimize my actions,” says Burg, a gifted singer who has conquered stages and hearts. When she was 21, she sang the song ‘The King’s Way’ with the child solo Gili Natanel. This was the song that represented Israel in the 1989 Eurovision, and came in 12th. Burg (46), a mother of two and an emcee at special women’s evening affairs, has since then come a long way and attained considerable achievements. Did they give her happiness? To some extent yes, but not many know that in addition to the happiness, she experienced quite a few bumps and heartache. One of the more significant incidents that typify the ups and downs she went through was a serious car accident she had last year from which she was saved by a miracle. The vehicle she was driving was completely totaled, but she, her daughter and an assistant who was with her on his trip walked away from it unharmed.
Of course, in the wake of this miracle, she gained many insights, but none of them led her to a fundamental and immediate change in her lifestyle. “All along, despite rebelling against Him and acting contrary to His commandments, G-d never left me,” she recalls now, eyes moist with emotion. “My mother’s sudden passing, the accident and my livelihood which came to a dead end — all this led me to a personal reckoning of my life, and I started to get stronger spiritually. I undertook to cover my hair and at the same time performed the commandment of taking a piece from the dough in the women’s evening affairs that I ran.” “The Creator made my children distant themselves from me, so I would feel what He feels when I left Him,” she says. When the wall of her marriage also began to crack, Burg began to search for more creative ways to help herself. At this point, she realized she had to act fast to save her marriage, before it would be too late. So she agreed with her husband’s proposal to leave the country for the US, to open a new page. “I agreed because I hoped that we would do better there economically, and we would somehow mend our marriage relationship. “I didn’t immediately realize that I had made a mistake. The days passed, and I wasn’t able to find work in my profession, and fell into depression. I did not understand why I had to go through this. I felt terrible.”
Burg quickly discovered that her dream to conquer the Big Apple wouldn’t meet her inner needs, or give her satisfaction. Acclimatization to a new country was difficult, their income was meager compared to their expenses (paying for a Jewish education abroad can cost thousands of dollars per month) and a sense of alienation and dislocation overwhelmed her. The situation also had a cogent effect on the state of her marriage. Their ship gradually began to swallow water, and sink into the depths of misunderstanding and apathy. Finally the two reached the point when they decided to divorce. And just then, when it seemed that nothing worse could happen, her two children, who were then teenagers, also began to keep their distance from her. “Of course I knew why it was happening to me. G-d made my children distant to me, so I would feel how He felt when I left Him. When I chose to live like a freethinker, without reflecting on my life and without clarifying what He wanted from me. “One night I lay in bed and prayed out loud. I asked G-d to take me away. I felt that there was no more meaning to my existence and the people who were supposed to be the closest to me wanted nothing to do with me. I was despondent and all I wanted was to die. I clearly remember asking for my end.”
The next morning she woke up with intense pain in the lower abdomen, and was rushed straight to the hospital. “I lied on the bed in the emergency department, writhing in pain, waiting for the results of the tests I had taken,” she recalls. She underwent four days of anguish and excruciating pain, during which time the doctors, who initially thought it was an acute infection, did not stop bothering her with invasive procedures.
“If I had stayed in Israel — I would not have become religious”
Finally they had the diagnosis: the doctors claimed it was a kidney stone. Burg felt the great stone weighing on her heart would now be lifted. “I immediately got G-d’s message to me. I asked for my end (kilayon), but He instead struck my kidney (k’laya), as if to say, ‘Here, feel what a “little” death is like. But understand what I’m trying to get across to you. Understand that I love you and am waiting for you to return to Me. I do not want your death. There is a reason why you are alive in the world. You have a role, a destiny that you have yet to find out. Even your name hints to that. Will it be galit or gilit? If you discovered (gilit) your destiny, so much the better. You understood the messages that were sent to you and acted correctly. But if you didn’t discover them, then you will go into exile (galit) from your land, your birthplace, and your father’s house …’” She returned home, lit candles for the souls of the righteous and started praying and crying: “Father, I want to return to you, but do not know how. Help me. I still have so much to give, so much to achieve in my life. I’m made out of flesh and can not break the stone inside of me, but You … You can do anything. You can move asteroids. Please help me. Get me out of this mess, and help me to return home to you. Home, to You. Home to Israel.”
Two complete years passed from the moment Burg had returned to completely secular life, to the moment that she decided to make her way back to the King’s Way. She returned to Israel and started all over again. This time: no half-measures and no excuses. She is raising her children with devotion and love, and she is waiting for the moment when G-d will decide to send her a spouse for Chapter Two. After everything she underwent in the previous chapter, she says: “I believe that my true prince will arrive at the right time for both of us, and I am praying that this time it will be an everlasting relationship, with a strong and solid foundations of good communication, mutual love and appreciation.”
What was the trigger that brought you back to Israel?
“There were some signs along the way,” she says with a smile full of faith, “but the main one was the words of the doctor who found the stone in the kidney. ‘We found a stone the size of an eraser,’ he told me. I immediately realized that G-d was speaking to me and asking me to erase the sins. I felt that there was nowhere to escape to this time, and I also do not want to run away anymore. I wanted to forgive and be forgiven. I had to fall into the depths and from there, when I had nobody else to turn to — to start climbing back. If I had stayed in Israel, I would not have come back to Judaism.”