JL;DR SUMMARY Dave Shainberg, a young man from Memphis in the late 1920s, embarked on a journey of spiritual discovery that led him from a successful family background to profound Torah study in Chevron, expressing a deep longing for authentic Jewish living in the Land of Israel. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.