Benny is featured in HaAretz’s Yom Kippur supplement

Read the interview in Hebrew here

A short summary was published by the Caspari Center:

"Nurit Wurgaft interviews Benedetto DiBitonto, a young Italian monk living in Jerusalem and completing his Ph.D. in Hebrew literature at Hebrew University. “What,” she asks, “causes a 31-year-old man to become a monk? And in a country where Christian are a minority – almost a persecuted minority?” DiBitonto explains that “I have always been drawn to the person of Jesus. It was not the church lifestyle that drew me, but this man, who speaks eternal words and gives us the opportunity to commit to him in a relationship that very much resembles a marriage, but one that is lived for others.” DiBitonto relates his life story, which is the typical secular Italian story, although he acknowledges that he always had an awareness of God in his life. “From a very young age,” he says, “when I was alone in a room, I talked to Jesus all the time, as though he were my invisible friend.” After high school, DiBitonto decided to study languages at university, including biblical Hebrew, which, he says, “opened a door to a whole new world.” He explains: “I was better able to understand things that Jesus had said to his disciples, since there are things that you cannot understand if you do not know the Jewish background.” After graduating from university, DiBitonto entered seminary and eventually came to Israel to complete his doctoral studies in Hebrew literature. “All at once,” he says, “everything came together and I felt that everything had led me to this place. ... Here I found a community that prays in Hebrew, like I do, when I am closed in my room. ... There is an immense work that needs to be done in order to translate those prayers, since one of the goals of the community here is to express the Christian faith in Jewish Hebrew.” DiBitonto still has six years of study before he will qualify to become a priest. When asked if he is afraid he might fail, he answers: “Of course I am afraid, but I trust God more than myself. God’s faithfulness is for me the rock upon which I can build my house, because I am unfaithful, I turn my back all the time. ... But God always comes looking for me. Apart from that, I have no guarantees.” "

Photo HaAretz - Emil Salman