Rabbi Mark Borovitz - The Holy Thief: A Con Mans Journey from Darkness to Light

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[A] spine-tingling spiritual awakening.

Washington Post

You will want to read this fascinating book by Americas most extraordinary rabbi.

Rabbi Harold Kushner

Extraordinary.... This unusual story... is essentially the singular tale of a man who successfully fought his demons and found a place for himself radically different from the depravity that he so long embraced. Both the book and the life it describes well are truly inspirational.

New Jersey Jewish News

Borovitz is a storyteller at heart.... Heart-wrenching but hilarious, raw but refreshing, this everyman tale reminds us that even nice Jewish boys can go bad, but they can also be redeemed.

Publishers Weekly

Borovitz and Eisenstock have written an inspiring tale of one mans struggle with morality and redemption.

Jerusalem Post

The Holy Thief is a courageous, inspirational testimony to the durability of the human spirit and its amazing capacity for change.

Virginian Pilot

A thoroughly unique blend of soulful insight mixed with a dose of street-smart profanity.... With remarkable insight, Borovitz reveals what he calls the sins of his past with the fast-paced punch of a crime novel.

The Jewish Advocate

An engaging story of redemption.

Library Journal

[Borovitz] is a living model that change is possible.... The Holy Thief is told with candor and insight... inspiring reading.

Jewish Week

RABBI MARK BOROVITZ is the spiritual leader of Congregation Beit TShuvah in Los Angeles.

ALAN EISENSTOCK is the author of Ten on Sunday: The Secret Life of Men, Sports Talk: A Journey Inside the World of Sports, and Inside the Meat Grinder. In a career spanning twenty-five years, he has written movies, plays, magazine articles, and television shows. He lives in California.

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A hardcover edition of this book was published in 2004 by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

THE HOLY THIEF . Copyright 2004 by Rabbi Mark Borovitz and Alan Eisenstock. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Cover photograph Richard T. Nowitz/CORBIS

First Harper paperback published 2005.

The Library of Congress has catalogued the hardcover edition as follows:

Borovitz, Mark.

The holy thief : a con mans journey from darkness to light / by Mark Borovitz & Alan Eisenstock1st ed.

p. cm.

ISBN 0-06-056379-6

1. Borovitz, Mark, 1951 2. RabbisCaliforniaLos AngelesBiography. 3. ThievesCaliforniaLos AngelesBiography. I. Eisenstock, Alan. II. Title.

BM755.B623A3 2004

296'.092dc22

[B]

2004044905

Digital Edition OCTOBER 2019 ISBN: 978-0-06-295916-4

Version 06262019

Print ISBN-13: 978-0-06-056380-6 (pbk.)

Print ISBN-10: 0-06-056380-X (pbk.)

This book is dedicated to my wife/soul mate, Harriet, my daughter, Heather, and all of the people who have traveled the path of TShuvah/change with me.

M.B .

For the blessings in my house, Bobbie, Jonah, Kiva, and Z.

A.E .

I met this rabbi.

Picture the rabbi from central casting. Long white beard. Long black robe. Hunched over. Myopic. Soft-spoken. Inaccessible.

Thats not him. Sixteen years ago Rabbi Mark Borovitz was in a prison cell. He was a mobster, gangster, con man, gambler, thief, and drunk. Then, trapped in a ten-by-ten-foot cage, he found his soul.

Before I met Rabbi Mark, Id heard about people who were seeing him regularly. I was fascinated by this concept. Theres an expression: Everybody needs a rabbi. I had never been aware of anyone taking the expression literally. I wanted to find out more.

Rabbi Mark and I spoke on the phone and arranged to meet for coffee. We spent two hours that day talking. He was charismatic and forthcoming and I was intrigued. We started meeting once a week. I spent hours with him at Beit TShuvah, The House of Return. This is no ordinary synagogue. It is a combination house of worship and halfway house. Currently a hundred residents live there full-time, all battling addictions to drugs or alcohol. Many are people on the edge; some are dangerous to themselves and others. Rabbi Mark turns his back on none of them. Then, along with two hundred other worshippers, I attended services Friday night and on the High Holy Days. Rabbi Mark prowls the stage like a Jewish Van Morrison, shouting, singing, and wailing into his handheld microphone. These services rock.

I interviewed people Rabbi Mark counsels, and I sat in on their sessions. He meets everyoneall ages, backgrounds, lifestyles, and professions. You can be an adolescent or a senior citizen, a studio head or a crackhead. No one is more important and no one is less important. These are people seeking to control their addictions and learning to take control of their lives. Some are trying to pull themselves out of the black hole of despair; others are seeking merely to live life on a higher plane; some are looking for a lifeline; others are at the end of their ropes. He sees Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, agnostics, and atheists.

In other words, us. Rabbi Mark sees all of us.

This is his story.

Alan Eisenstock

This book is my TShuvah. It is my Return.

For thirty years I lived a life of illusion. I was a magician of sorts. I specialized in cheap tricks, quick hits, and sleight of hand, especially when it came to writing checks. I got my audiences attention, then lured them into wanting to hand me their trust. I got them to believe in small miracles, if just for a moment, which was all I needed. And then I struck.

I know I cannot give everything back to everyone I have harmed. Even if I could, I know it would never be enough because I have stolen a part of peoples souls. I know also that I cannot undo what I have done. I stand humbly here before you, any of you who have been my victims, and offer you a piece of my soul to take as your own.