Yitzhak Buxbaum (d. Dec. 23, 2020 [Tevet 8, 5781]) was a maggid (inspirational speaker) and mystic, a well known teacher of Jewish spirituality. He was the author of eleven highly acclaimed books including Jewish Spiritual Practices (Jason Aronson, 1991), Jewish Tales of Mystic Joy (Jossey-Bass, 2002), and Jewish Tales of Holy Women (Jossey-Bass, 2002). He wrote two books on Jewish teachers who were among the closest to Jesus in the Jewish tradition, The Life and Teachings of Hillel (Jason Aronson, 2000) and The Light and Fire of the Baal Shem Tov (Continuum, 2005). He earned a B.S. from Cornell University and a Masters degree and ABD in Zoology from the University of Michigan. Yitzhak taught at universities and seminaries about Jewish spirituality and ecumenical subjects, such as “Founders of the World's Religions” and “Guru, Rebbe, Saint, and Bodhisattva” at The New School University in NYC. He was a disciple of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, who along with Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi ordained Yitzhak as a maggid. He studied at a Lubavitcher Yeshiva in Brooklyn for half a year, and was often in the presence of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. While living in Israel for three years he studied with Professor David Flusser in an undergraduate course and a graduate seminar on the Jewish background of the gospels. He lived near Professor Flusser and they spent many hours together discussing the gospels. Yitzhak worked for 40 years studying the gospels from a Jewish point of view and produced many discoveries which he is now bringing to the world. Yitzhak saw himself as having a mission to bring back the lost sheep of the house of Israel to Judaism.