The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com
Milei’s visit to the Western Wall was one of the first things he did when he arrived in the Holy Land, bringing the leader to tears.
Argentinian President Javier Milei’s February visit to Israel was part of his spiritual journey with Judaism and a quest for moral and cultural change in Argentina, Rabbi Shimon Axel Wahnish shared with The Jerusalem Post in an exclusive interview.
Wahnish, now Milei’s rabbi and his presumed nominee to be Argentina’s next ambassador to Israel, said that he first met the leader on January 28, 2022, when he knew of Milei “as a popular economist and professor.”
Milei had seen the 1956 Charlton Heston movie The Ten Commandments as a child, said Wahnish, and that he was inspired by Moses as a leader of men. The interest in the spiritual continued into adulthood, and the topic of God was brought up when the two men met.
The Rabbi’s meeting with the future president was only supposed to last for 15 minutes. The two began to speak about heavenly matters, and 15 minutes stretched into a two-hour discussion.
There was a television in the Jewish community center with a live feed of the Western Wall. Wahnish said that he asked Milei if he had ever been there. When Milei said that he had not visited the Jewish holy site, they made a promise to each other that Milei said came from a place higher than himself – a promise that the two would visit the Western Wall together. It was a promise, that “was always remembered…From then on he started saying he had a rabbi and a spiritual guide.”
The future president started coming to Shabbat meals, “like family,” began reading the weekly Torah portion, and was a very clever and fast learner. He would ask questions about the Torah passages, engaging the rabbi in text conversations for an hour at a time. It wasn’t preaching, said Wahnish, they would arrive at “the answer to a question together through conversation.”
He summed up his conversations with Milei in a quote from the Talmudic sage Rabbi Hanina, who said “Much have I learned from my rabbis, even more have I learned from my colleagues, but from my students I have learned more than from anyone else.”
What Milei saw in Judaism was the constant search for truth and spirituality, a never-ending journey of growth. Wahnish said that was why during the Passover seder, the ceremony begins with The Four Questions, and is light on direct answers…
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