Donald Trump’s ex-wife, Marla Maples, has revealed that the US president carried a Kabbalah text in his jacket close to his heart during their marriage.
In an interview with Channel 12, the actress and TV host said that Trump kept the Book of Pinchas, a section of the Zohar, the primary text in Kabbalistic literature, under his clothing for “protection and healing”.
Maples was married to Trump between 1993 and 1999, and in the interview spoke extensively about his spiritual side.
She said: “He has a very big heart. He wouldn’t be where he is today if he didn’t want to help others”.
Though both she and Trump are Christian, Maples has said that she has ensured a strong connection to Kabbalah, Judaism, and Israel for some time now, including making visits to Tsfat, a centre of Jewish mysticism in northern Israel.
She also recounted her visits to the grave sites of Jewish religious figures, and claimed she has observed a kosher diet for over 20 years, and often keeps Shabbat.
And she suggested that her stepdaughter Ivanka’s conversion to Judaism before marrying Jared Kushner in 2009 helped connect the president to Jewish traditions.
Maples also detailed a life-threatening experience that occurred two decades ago in Nigeria, when armed men reportedly halted her convoy and held the group at gunpoint.
She said that, during the ordeal, she began spontaneously reciting the Shema.
"I understood that I had to let go and that everything was in God’s hands,” she said. “After my prayer, they simply left.”
Since then, she says, she has recited the prayer every morning.
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