Sara's path took her from India and Vedanta to Israel and Judaism. Her spiritual search first led me to India in 1968. There she studied with a guru who was both a mystic and an acclaimed Sanskrit scholar. A year later, she returned to the U.S. and finished her degree in psychology from Brandeis University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa, Magna cum laude. She spent the next fifteen years living in America’s oldest ashram, where she both practiced and taught Vedanta philosophy and meditation.

In 1985, Sara made a dramatic change of spiritual path. She moved to Jerusalem, began studying Torah, and became a highly committed observant Jew. In 1987, she married Leib Yaacov Rigler, a musician, composer, and arranger. At the age of forty, she gave birth to her first child, and at the age of forty-six, to her second child. She has lived inside the walled Old City of Jerusalem for thirty-two years.

Sara is a highly acclaimed international lecturer on the subject of Jewish spirituality and practical tools for spiritual growth. She has spoken in Israel, England, Canada, South Africa, France, Switzerland, Panama, Chile, Mexico, and over 35 American cities. Sara has published six books: Holy Woman (translated into French and Hebrew); Lights from Jerusalem;Battle Plans: How to Fight the Yetzer Hara (translated into French); God Winked: Tales and Lessons from My Spiritual Adventures (translated into Hebrew); Heaven Prints; and Emunah with Love and Chicken Soup: The Story of Henny Machlis, the Brooklyn-born Girl who became a Jerusalem Legend.

Sara is one of the most popular authors on www.aish.com, the world’s largest Judaism website. She is a columnist for Ami Magazine, published weekly from New York. Her writing has appeared in Chicken Soup for the Jewish Soul, Small Miracles of Love and Friendship, Jewish Action, The Jerusalem Post, Binah Magazine, Mishpacha, and other anthologies and publications.

To learn more about Sara Yocheved Rigler, visit her website, www.sararigler.com