In Israel she always had this feeling of being disconnected until she decided at age 17, even before completing high school to go back to her birthplace, Mexico hoping she would feel at home there as she did in her early childhood. “When I landed in Mexico I felt I was tossed right into real life. I started to live an adult life at a very young age. On one hand I went straight to all the parties, made a lot of friends and tried to have a good time. But on the other hand I knew I was alone and had to fend for myself.”
Time went by and being influenced by this new culture and friends Moriah picked up a new hobby; she would work out in fitness spas. “I first started only for some fitness training. I’d go work out, meet some people and have a good time. In Mexico people are obsessed with the material and their bodies and it was contagious. I soon got caught up in it myself.”
One day at a fitness spa a fitness trainer that worked there spotted Moriah. He was also an agent for “Body Fitness” a whole new business that encourages physical fitness with intense workouts to turn people into professional models. Moriah says: I used to see him there a lot and he each time tried convincing me telling me I have great potential. I would always laugh and refuse. But with the passing of time I kept getting more and more compliments and each one made me more confident inflating my ego and giving me the incentive to invest in this. I joined competitions very popular in Mexico in which you train for hours each day to attain a certain physique. I trained 6 days a week for at least 3 hours a day. It became an obsession!”
Moriah describes her meteoric rise to fame across Mexico: “I’d stand on the stage with hundreds of competing participants and people would recognize me and start cheering from the crowd. I had thousands of fans on Instagram and Facebook,” Moriah says with a laugh knowing that they no longer exist. “The media interviewed me a lot and every prominent magazine had my picture in it, I made a lot of money and I helped many girls that wanted to look just like me and be skinny and develop their bodies. I gave advice on how to improve looks, what to eat and how to maintain your health. All this was just to be enslaved to the body and make other people happy. Materialistically speaking, I had it all; an apartment, money a car and crazy publicity which made me haughty to the heavens!”
Along with her success she learned of the dark side of herself and of the modeling profession in Mexico. “With time I became really haughty, arrogant and angry. I think that the most wholesome person that gets to be on stage, receive lots of honor and gets great treatment from so many people after a long time of never having it in an empty childhood, that it’s impossible that it won’t go to his head.”
“I always felt like the ‘strange religious Martian’ in the crowd”
In spite of Moriah’s hyper focus on the physical and modeling she actually describes her constant and deep closeness to G-d that she always felt even from a young age. “I was always strong in my faith. I always tried to listen to G-d. The fact I had a place to live, food and success was only because G-d was always with me. The fact that I’m alive all these years is because of the little faith that I had knowing that though my father is not alive, I have my Creator and only him.”
“As a matter of fact I was always the religious one of the crowd. On Friday nights I would pray and light Shabbat candles and then go out to the night clubs. I would also listen to many lectures from Rabbi Zamir Cohen. I always talked about G-d and everyone would look at me like I’m strange. I felt like a “religious Martian” compared to them. I would pray before anything I did, I’d talk to G-d every day. And the truth is G-d gave me everything I asked for. I never stop praying to G-d; it’s implanted in me and stays with me my entire life. This is what protected me in all the impurity I was surrounded by.”
