Rabbi Baruch Efrati, a member of the Committee for the Development of Eitam, the rabbi of the Zayit Raanan synagogue in Efrat, and head of the Shvut Yisrael yeshivah, spoke of the power of Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai and of the importance of action.

A short while after getting married, the couple became religious. Tayeb says he severed all ties and moved to the Jerusalem-vicinity town of Beit Zayit. "I didn’t have a choice," he says, referring to leaving his old life behind. "Society influences the ...