The Sistine Secrets: Michelangelo's Forbidden Messages in the Heart of the Vatican

3 years ago I had the great honor of completing a book which was published by Harpers and now is in 26 other countries translated into 16 other languages around the world because it's a breakthrough book that makes some amazing statements about the Vatican the cistin chapel Michelangelo and the Fresco that appear on the ceiling of the 16 Chapel that are visited by more than 4 million people a year the book is called the 16 Secrets Michelangelo's forbidden messages in the heart of the Vatican uh when I did some TV appearances based on the book on 2020 they did one hour show one at the first question they asked me was what's a nice Jewish boy a rabbi doing in a place like this where would I come to be writing a book about the cistin chapel and Michelangelo's Frisco and in order to explain what I did and the remarkable conclusions I need to give you some background I've been involved in a project to secure back from the Vatican many Jewish objects that they have in their possession and for this project I met with Pope John Paul II several times one of those meetings we had a representative group of rabbis 150 rabbis from around the world coming to speak to the pope and before the meeting they took a tour of the cinee chapel giving them the tour was I think the only Jewish and Orthodox Jewish dosent in the chapel who has dedicated his life to studying Michelangelo and to understanding the Jewish influence on Michelangelo and the secrets within the frescos I was busy with bureaucracy the rabbis took the tour they came back they were absolutely Spellbound because the person who gave them the tour Man by the name of Roy doliner who as I said devoted his life to a study of Michelangelo showed them things that none of the Christian guides will ever point out things that have specific relevance to the Jews show them that Michelangelo Incorporated Hebrew letters in certain places in the frescos with messages Pro to them that Mel Ang ELO hated the pope at the time because of his exclusionary ideas Michelangelo is a Visionary who believed in neoplatonic ideology that said there was one World and Michelangelo hated the concept of the church at the time that persecuted the Jews Michelangelo made his feelings known in frescos that have not really been translated or explained in the way in which Michelangelo intended and there is a great story there in order for Michelangelo to do what he did he had to have had a knowledge of Jewish sources and that too is part of the story Michelangelo was adopted when he was 13 years old by Lorenzo de medich the wealthiest man in the world at the time Lorenzo hired tutors for his own children and those tutors taught Michelangelo one of those tutors was Pico Del mirandela a man a Christian a Catholic who owned the largest library of cabala in the world at the time a man who was enamored of Jewish thought and of Jewish commentary on the Torah on the Bible and a man who taught all this to Lorenzo de michi's children as well as to Michelangelo there are some aspects of the frescos that don't make sense unless you know the mangelo was aware of tamic texts and midashim for example on the Fresco where he shows the sin of eating the Apple now in Western literature and Western Art everybody always called the fruit of the TR of knowledge that they were forbidden to eat by God an apple actually that was a much later interpretation in fact there is a Jewish cabalistic interpretation that explained it wasn't an apple Cree at all based on a cabalistic concept of TI which means whenever people sin God incorporates into that thing through which they sin something which would allow them to do chuva to repent when they sin and they knew they were naked the Torah tells us that they covered themselves with fig leaves where' they get the Fig leaves from and so cabala tells us the tree was a fig tree what's fascinating is if you look very carefully the tree that Michelangelo painted unlike anybody else in the western world was a fig tree and Michelangelo could only have known that from the study of cabala which he got from Pico de mirandela well there were so many fascinating things that the rabo who took the tour learned that they came back and they told me we've just had the most incredible experience they shared with me what they had learned and they told me that I must meet this Roy Dolan uh Roy had said to them when they indicated to him that he must write this up as a book that he's not a writer and so they said that Rabbi B on the tour is an author of many published Works make the story short we got together and together we created this book when people ask me Rabbi BL what is the basis of your knowledge of Michelangelo and the Fresco uh how are you an Art Expert I explain and it's important for you to know that this was really not my field of study Roy Dolan came up with all the ideas but in order to indicate that this jobes with Jewish sources cabala midash tud that's my area of expertise and I did the writing the end result was something that the Vatican is not too happy with because we reinterpret something that is in their domain in a way different from what they see in it when people ask and this is important for me to State at the outset what gives you the right how do you know that what you are saying is correct uh do Scholars agree with you I simply tell them that and Rico brusini who was the official art historian of Rome the man designated to give the tour of the 16 Chapel to every American president who has gone to view it and Rico brusini read the manuscript and it took his breath away and he said the following and I quote just as the work of Michelangelo in the cine Chapel changed forever the world of art so will this book change forever the to view and above all to understand the work of Michelangelo that's some great uh Applause for the ideas and therefore is important for me to have told you at the outset in order for you to appreciate that this is a work of true scholarship and is shaking up the world of art even as it reinterprets Michelangelo in ways that are extremely significant for Jews and for Judaism so let's begin by explaining to you that the sis Chapel ceiling was painted by Michelangelo at the request and better put at the order of Pope Julius II Pope Julius II said to Michelangelo I want you to do the ceiling and I want it in honor of Jesus and the Virgin Mary Michelangelo refused because he said I'm not a painter Michelangelo always signed his work Michelangelo the sculptor he had done very little painting but the pope said you're going to do it and you didn't say no to the pope however Michelangelo had a trick up his sleeve and this is what is utterly fascinating Michelangelo was forced to do this it was a work that would take him four and a half years it was a work that grained him physically he was up on a scaffold that he invented 62 feet up in the air but he didn't want to do what the pope told him to do he did not really want to do this in honor of Jesus and the Virgin Mary so he said to the Pope I will finish this task but on one condition I don't want to be disturbed and bothered while I'm doing it please don't give me advice as I'm continuing the work you can see it when it's finished and because of Michelangelo's Prestige the pope went along with this part and Michelangelo finished the job and when it was done and the unveiling took place lo and behold the pope discovered there was not a single and there is not a single Christian figure in the work of Michelangelo on the ceiling of the 16 Chapel there's no Jesus there's no Mary 95% of the figures represented that Michelangelo painted are figures from the Jewish Torah what they call the Old Testament which is a term that obviously we do not like implying that there is a new but 95% from our Torah and 5% Pagan nothing nothing from that which Pope Julius II instructed and commanded Michelangelo to do if you wonder as people have how come he didn't get his head handed to him when the work was shown because it was not what his Patron had ordered him to do the first way to answer that is by having a look at what greeted the pope as he entered the 16 Chapel the doorway today is different than it was then in the 1500s when it was completed in 1512 when the pope came in the first thing over the entrance was a fresco clearly identified as Zakaria the prophet Zakaria if you take a look at his face you're not going to be aware of this but I'm going to tell you that what Michelangelo did as a brilliant move was to paint the face of Julius II as the face of the Prophet Zakaria so that when the pope would enter and surely would say what is this I commissioned you to do Jesus and the Virgin Mary Michelangelo's response would have been to the egomaniac that was Julius II well I thought that it'll be far more representative and far more appropriate to do you who is the Jesus of our time s but Michelangelo didn't really intend to flatter Zakaria first let's explain why he picked Zakaria of all prophets as the first one to greet visitors and to greet the pope and then let's discover the secret message that Michelangelo embedded into the Fresco Zakaria is known for one outstanding view that he promulgated and that he persisted in emphasizing we read zakara as the ha Tor for khaka because he has the vision of the manora and that's the appropriate story for and ha Torah for shabas khaka the manora has branches representing different aspects of wisdom and all the branches es Bend towards the center and that vision is a vision not of exclusion which was the message of the church at the time nobody knows the truth except for them and everybody else is damn to go to hell but rather neoplatonic thought of inclusion there are many different ways to come to the Lord all different branches lead to the Center Zakaria is the one whose words we quote at the conclusion of every single service whenever we pray we finish with the line at the end of alenu v in that day the ultimate day the Lord will be one and his name will be one one God for the whole world not some of the world cast off forever into Dante's Inferno into the hell for non-believers eventually all the world will be joined together as children of the one God that was a daring message one other thing Zakaria is the prophet who predicted that they will come from the north because of the sins of the priesthood of the Jewish people and they will destroy Jerusalem and perhaps in a deeper sense he were saying the sins of the priesthood a priesthood such as the one that was illustrated by Pope Julius II who had syphilis who had mistresses who loved gold who was someone who typified a non-spiritual lifestyle Michelangelo was saying watch out they will come and destroy this Temple because of the impoverished state of spiritual leadership the most powerful thing of all though is to take a look at the hidden message in this Fresco right in back of Pope Julius there are two cartoonish figures Michelangelo did that a lot Michelangelo used them to make statements little Angelic figures right behind the prophet Zakaria Who as a already told you based on his Visage is really Pope Julius II and one has his hand over the shoulder of the other and this can't be seen 16 and 1/2 ft away on the floor all the way up to the top but M lanel must have had quite a chuckle when he did this today with telescopic lenses we can see this clearly and this can be blown up was blown up and we can see what the angel uh is is doing when he is putting his hand around his friend his fingers are in a very fascinating position now I don't know if you're aware of this in America when you want to insult someone we say you give them the finger and we utilize the middle finger in Europe to this very day what they do is to take the thumb and put it between the two fingers like this and that's called giving the Fig there's a yish expression which which is the same thing I give you the Fig well lo and behold the pope would be walking in over his head was Zakaria Zakaria the face of Julius and one Angel over the other and the back of the face of Pop Julius is giving him the Fig there couldn't be a stronger condemnation of the Pope in a very fascinating manner than that Michelangelo made another remarkable statement which appears in his Fresco that he identifies as aminadav peculiar that after all there were only a limited number of individuals that he has chosen to depict that he would choose aminadav who is hardly well known even by Jews we know him primarily because of his son Nan been Amad naan is famous because when the Jews were at the sea the Egyptians were pursuing them they didn't know what to do God said to Moses tell them just to walk they start walking until their neck the first one to walk in who proved that he had Faith was n shown and when the waters went up to his neck that's when the waters split only when we went as far as we could go did God perform the miracle of splitting of the sea this is Nan Nan Ben aminadav remarkable that he should be chosen but far more remarkable is what you see when you look at this Fresco look at Amad dev's left arm as you're looking at him it's to your right uh the paint on the 16 Chapel ceiling had begun to lose its luster it was uh refinished and they brought out the Vivid colors once again in 2000 2001 and it can be seen clearly now you will see that on the left arm of aminadav there is a yellow circle that yellow circle was something that the church commanded that Jews we based on a ruling four the Lun Council that in order to indicate their lower status Jews had to wear something that Define them as inferiors of course we are all familiar with the fact that in Nazi Germany the Jews had to wear a yellow star in Muslim countries prostitutes had to wear a yellow band yellow being the symbol of urine and again showing their low status Jews had to wear a yellow armband based on a decree of the church watch this Brilliance of mangelo aminadav was chosen because aminadav in Hebrew means Prince of my people and is the term that is used in the church to describe Jesus Jesus is aminadav and Michelangelo who was extremely upset by the anti-sm ISM of the church of his time the way in which the Jews were put down and by the fact that they were forced to wear these armbands that made them inferior said you are doing this to Jews do you know that Jesus was a Jew and if Jesus were alive today he Jesus would have to wear a yellow armband Michelangelo put the yellow on the person who was a standin for as Prince of my people for Jesus himself because very often Michelangelo wanted to express how upset he was at the fact that the church you remember at that time we're talking about the early 1500s and 1492 was when uh the Jews were kicked out of Spain when the worst horrors of the church came into play Michelangelo made the statement in another way if you will take a look at the very famous portrait of the last judgment now I just make clear that the last judgment is on the wall and not on the ceiling it was painted 20 years later when they forced Michelangelo to come back and to do more but this time they were watching him carefully and he painted that on the wall first the first one you can see he made it look like I'm sure you can all see the connection the this and that looks just like the two L when you're com in close the last judgment is a depiction of Jesus and a circle the circle of the righteous those who surround him near him forever and ever that's say those who have earned the right right to the special place in heaven because of leading a righteous life now it's very very small and again you have to know to look for it in the Fresco what we did was if you take a look at the next illustration we circled it so that you can see clearly and we enlarged it over Jesus to the right and on top there are two figures one of them is wearing a blue hat the blue hat has two points that was called the Jew hat to indicate that Jews have horns and the man is lifting up one finger one God next to him is a man with a yellow hat yellow the urine both of those are clearly Jews and they are in heaven near Jesus Dante had said hell abandoned hope or ye enter here the church had said and to this day many in the church still say if you don't believe in Jesus there is no salvation anyone who doesn't believe in Jesus Goes to Hell the only way to be redeemed to be saved is through belief in Jesus Michelangelo daringly put two Jews in the circle of the righteous that was remarkable going to the most famous of the frescos the one that is considered probably um if not the certainly next to the uh most famous uh work of art in western civilization there's the last supper There is Mona Lisa there is the creation of Adam this Fresco has couple IC ideas which we develop at length but briefly the first thing that should be noted about it is that on the right there is God stretching out his finger to create Adam and God is in this what shall we call it we don't know what it is it's uh some kind of an object with little things dangling down from it now it was not Roy Dolan and I who made this first discovery this was in 1971 that a Jewish doctor uh went into the cistin chapel looked at the Fresco and made a discovery that to this day is in almost all art uh books considered uh verified and correct he said that if you block out the colors and you take a look uh you will see anomy 101 that the thing that God and the little figures with him are in is a cross-section of the brain Michelangelo we do know this for a fact did something that the church forbad uh you weren't allowed to do the sections of the Dead Michelangelo paid off some people got some bodies in order to learn the structure of the human body of anatomy uh better and so that he could sculpt more proficiently um he knew what the brain looked like and he did this cross-section of the brain and you see the little uh what looks like scarves is actually this is the cerebellum and this is the brain that God is in in order to create Adam because the statement that Michelangelo was trying to make is something that we je say whenever we think about the beauty of the body even after such a uh seemingly uh physical thing as going to the bathroom we say who created at not man at cab says the Adam Adam one with in Sp in cabalistic thought with with wisdom what is this in contemporary terms the whole dispute and discussion about whether Man was created with intelligent design Michelangelo was saying it had to be intelligent design and God is touching Adam and giving him life through his left hand the left closer to the heart just like the Fillin and through the left hand fascinatingly enough Michelangelo was left-handed if we go to the next Frisco we see Jeremiah Jeremiah is sitting above where the pope would sit it is remarkable if you take a look at him that he's sitting there with boots there is nobody nobody else who has shoes on shoes make a dramatic statement that when they're over the head of the Pope that statement is clear especially since there was a painting previously there on the wall that had the scene of Moses at the burning bush where you will all remember that God said to Moses take off your shoes for the place where you are standing is Holy Ground and Holy Ground and shoes don't go together and here is Jeremiah with boots on what a statement the boots are on because the holiness of this place has been affected and for that reason Jeremiah is using this pose and it is a pose of great sadness and the sadness is the message of Jeremiah and what was Jeremiah's message in the Torah Jeremiah predicted the destruction Jeremiah was the prophet of Doom Jeremiah was the prophet of Exile take a look at the two figures on either side of him and you will see something remarkable the one on the right that is to say as you view it is a young woman dressed ready to travel scarf over head covered similarly the one on the left the blonde very tragic looking down very sad because they are going to be going into exile the key colors the blonde yes yellow and then the red of the one going to travel red and yellow to this day go to Rome the taxi cabs are yellow and red because that is the color scheme of the city of Rome Rome Jeremiah pensive sad because Michelangelo was saying ban this place is losing its Holiness you are losing your Resa your reason for being and therefore watch out Exile will be something that is in store for Rome and indeed that is what happened towards the end of that very Century if you take a look at the blonde one more time the blonde is looking down and there's a scroll at the bottom that's what the blonde is looking at and the scroll seems to be just some squiggles at first glance but we can blow that up and so we did and that's the next illustration that we have and there are letters there I've been told by many people who took the tour in the Vatican and the assistin chapel that the Catholic guides when they're asked what does it say their answer is nothing it's just a squiggle indicating it's a scroll but we can make it out and please look with me I put an arrow there so that you can read it with me a LF Alf that's the Hebrew letter alaf written out in our script and then there is a Hebrew letter written in Hebrew script and what is that aan alafon what does that mean alive is one and for us and for him everyone knew the concept of one God here was melang saying one God but what is I in and with his background and with his understanding of cabala and with the information he got from his teacher Pico the ion we know 70 represented to him what it represents to us the 70 nations of the world one God 70 nations of the world what an incredible insight and what a daring Insight at a time when the church was totally exclusionary and must say that today the church to a great extent no longer espouses those views but Michelangelo was certainly 500 years ahead of his time in emphasizing that should be noted that the very fact that M langela when he did the frescos did the ceiling beginning with Adam was a statement with the same concept behind it in Christian thought as a matter of fact in secular terms secular terms this is 2011 2011 from what from the birth of Jesus because all history for them before Jesus is meaningless fascinating that for us Jews we count the years from Adam because we consider Universal Man the father of all mankind the key to history and we don't say history begins only with Jesus and is only significant in terms of its Christian adherence Michelangelo on the Fresco all the paintings that he painted the center seem were from basus through Noah the beginning of the story of creation what he was doing was saying we are all Brothers we all come from one man again the neoplatonic ideal of universality the universalism of God aan we go to the next Fresco because it is a remarkable outstanding Fresco that Michelangelo painted towards the very end probably was the last thing he did saved it for the last and saved the most powerful message for the last it's the most outstanding in a way that you can perhaps even see by looking at the picture of it Michelangelo had learned to do three dimensions in two if you see this actually you cannot believe that it's painted on a flat surface this looks like it's coming out at you look at the arm look at the legs you you would swear that it's three-dimensional it isn't Michelangelo wanted it to be outstanding because the message was outstanding now here giving this prominence to the prophet Jonah is absolutely incredible at first glance because Jonah is a minor Prophet both in Jewish tradition as well as in Christian altogether 42 sentences why why make this the one that stands out so what is there about the message of Jonah that appealed to him so we as Jews know that Jonah is reserved the Book of Jonah is reserved for special place on y Kipper at the end of the day at the end as we begin to draw near to the conclusion of this day of fasting and of repentance we tell the story of Jonah and what basically is the story of Jonah a man who didn't want to assume the role that he was given wanted to escape fled and that's of course when swallowed by whale uh he had to go back eventually he had to deliver the message does that ring a bell for us in terms of Michelangelo of course Michelangelo just like Jonah didn't want to do the job he was commissioned to do as a matter of fact I hadn't told you yet that two times he tried to flee just as Jonah did to flee his commission Michelangelo has to do the job because the pope insists Jonah had to do the job because because God insisted what was his job to preach to the Gentiles a unique a very unusual mission for a Jewish Prophet to preach to the Gentiles does that ring a bell of course it does what was the mission of Michelangelo what did he consider his mission to preach to the Gentiles to do chuva in the story of the book of Jonah although Jonah didn't want to accept the message and he felt it would be pointless why go tell them to repent or else nve will be destroyed Jonah brings this message to the people of nve and lo and behold they believe they accept they repent and ninva is saved and I'm sure that Michelangelo hoped and prayed that the same thing would be true in this instance and maybe he would get his ideas across and maybe he would temper the anti-Semitism and the hatred of the church of his time and give it a more Universal kind of flavor you see that here too there are two figures two little Angelic figures Michelangelo wanted the church to go back to its roots and the roots of the church were the Kish the five books of Moses and that's why he chose the subjects that he did for the ceiling the center of the ceiling take a look at what the top Angel is doing putting up his hand what do you see clearly five fingers and if I say to you who knows five anyone with slightest intelligence and anyone who can remember the ha and sitting at the Seda will be able to respond I know five five are the books of Moses indeed that's what he was saying and in a more remarkable way you see that the angel right below him right below the hand with the five up is looking down at the legs of Jonah the legs which and Michelangelo does this numerous times and we have it in the book uses the way in which people disport themselves the positions that they take to make it look like Hebrew letters in this case Jonah and the position of his legs creates a Hebrew letter you will see that there there is a diaper or whatever you want to call it over the genitalia of Jonah nowhere else did mangelo do that he wasn't hesitant about portraying genitalia as a matter of fact later on the church got upset by that and they hired somebody to cover up the ceiling and to undo all these blatant sexual symbols but uh Michelangelo didn't hesitate except for here because in doing this the legs of Jonah form a Hebrew letter watch the top Angel five the bottom Angel says and take a look what kind of five see the legs going this way and that that is the Hebrew letter hey and there it is the five and the five five is a number and five is a Hebrew letter and take a look at Jonah's fingers on the left hand side and Jonah makes with his hands a form of a Hebrew letter and that Hebrew letter is the base the BET and that base is the opening letter of the Hebrew Torah baret Elohim Jonah looks up to the heavens the pope is below him let's say this more clearly Jonah looks away from the pope towards the heavens one more time indicating the disdain that mcanal had for that present Pope the pope who Michelangelo knew was not living up to the spiritual demands of his high position I have the last it's not a fresco but a remarkable historic coincidence there's no such thing as coincidence I believe a remarkable final word from God himself Michelangelo died we indicate in the book that the church began to get wise to the way in which Michelangelo uh sent messages and uh espoused ideas that were not in harmony with the traditional Church thinking of the time when mcanal died the church buried him in Rome in a very nondescript Place uh off the beaten path because they didn't want to give him the honor that was due to him it was very disrespectful the people in Florence where Michelangelo came from were aware of this and they were very upset and so they did something remarkable they made an appeal this is history sounds like a funny story perfect for a movie they made an appeal and they hired the two best thieves of the time to go to Rome and steal Michelangelo's body and bring it back to Florence so that they might bury him with the proper honor and respect they went and they did their job well it's a great story the movie possibilities are fantastic as a matter of fact we have uh we are in the midst of negotiations with uh a major corporation to uh see whether this will be turned into a movie anyhow they bring the body back uh body's hidden in straw comes to Florence and they bury Michelangelo as he should be buried in the Church of Santa Kota where he is buried to this day but in 1845 something very fascinating happened the church wanted to um fix itself up a little bit and uh to build a nicer facade and beautify itself uh they needed an architect the best architect was a Jewish AR architect and they went to him Matas and they said we want you to do this work mangelo is buried here it's a great job and it's a beautiful Church make it more beautiful Matas said I'll be happy to do it but one condition I want my name attached to my work I do this I want the honor of being acknowledged as the architect and they said no way will a Jew ever have his name on a church so they argued back and forth Matas was not really in a position to have the upper hand so they compromised and the compromise was that they won't put his name but at the top of the church indicating that a Jew did this there would be a mug in David and lo and behold there you can see on the facade and it to this very day there is a mugan David and underneath that Mand David a cabalistic symbol of the unity of the whole world of God the Creator being the one who loves all people and of all people having the opportunity to come to him and of no one people being cast out lo and behold where Michelangelo is buried on top of that church there is a main David I think that's God's way of saying that Michelangelo came to understand a great many of the teachings of cabala and had if not a great Jewish heart at least a great heart for Jews and therefore there would be that acknowledgment in the church in which he is buried there is so much more but this is merely a taste of what we have discovered uh does the church agree with this no do great Scholars about Michelangelo agree many of them do this is still a battle to be won for us to gain full acceptance but more and more as I've said this book that reveals all these secrets is now in 26 countries translated into 16 other languages you can find in Portuguese Spanish Chinese Italian I have the Japanese edition hopefully the news will get out that Michelangelo was an ohave Israel loved the Jewish people and hated the hypocrisy and the anti-Semitism of the church of his time May that message go forth today until it is understood grasped and embraced by All Peoples and all mankind thank you