Testimonies
The young man told his story with earnest, with passion, with heart. I thought about his story for a long while after-it had a great effect on me. What was it about that moved me? What affected me so much? Was it is his passion, his rabbinic family background or the power of being airlifted to Israel? Actually, it was the major holes in his story.
Many Messianic Jewish individuals offer great stories of traveling from Judaism to their current faith. With a little knowledge and common sense, you can catch that a lot of the stories are fake. Let me give you some examples from the above story. First, Samaria is in Israel. The famous airlifts were from Ethiopia, not from one part of Israel to another. Even if he mis-spoke and meant "Somalia" instead of "Samaria", there were never any airlifts from Somalia. Second, his accent sounded more Carribean than African. Ethiopia is in Africa, not the Carribean. Third, remember how he said that he lived in Israel? The first thing Israel does when you enter the country is place you in an intensive Hebrew class, called Ulpan. It is famous for how quickly you can learn fluent Hebrew. In fact, when I was in Israel I met recent Ethiopian immigrants who had been there less than a year. Due to the Ulpan classes, they spoke near flawless Hebrew. Yet, this young man, who lived in Israel, the son of a Rabbi, only spoke "some" Hebrew? How can you live in Israel for any amount of time and not learn more than "some" Hebrew? The answer is that you cannot. This young man lied to me in an attempt to convert me. Messianic Judaism is a form of Christianity. It lies about its identity to convert Jews, and its missionaries lie about their identity and history to convert Jews
Similar errors can be found in many testimonies. I will present individuals who make claims on their "testimonies" that are likely falsified. In each case, I will present the part of the testimony that looks false, and the reason behind each one. After, I will present a link to the testimony page so you can see that I have taken direct quotes off their story, and did not "invent" their story.
Rabbi San Stern
Rabbi Sam Stern presents a powerful story of a Chassidic rabbi who became Christian. His story is on the well-known site, Menorah.org. The story also has many "red flags" that question the validity of the story. Let's start from the first two paragraphs, demonstrating the unlikelihood of his story.
1.
"Early Background. I was born at a time when the whole world lay in turmoil caused by World War I. People suffered hunger and starvation. I came into a strict orthodox Jewish rabbinic and Chasidic home. Although my parents were poor at that time, they sent us boys to an expensive orthodox religious school. I had 3 brothers and a sister. My father's only desire was to make rabbis of us 4 boys.
At five I was already going to cheder for first grade pupils and when seven I was able to read Hebrew. At nine I was introduced to the Five Books of Moses and the Bible commentator �Rashi,� and also to the ancient now obsolete Jewish books of jurisprudence called "Talmud".
There are two major "red flags" in this section. He is supposed to have gone to an expensive orthodox school. Yet he claims that he was not intoduced to the Five Books of Moses (Torah) until he was 9, which would be 3rd or 4th grade. At an orthodox school, you would be introduced to Torah from the very beginning of your religious education. Even in liberal Reform Jewish Sunday schools, sections of the Torah are introduced the very first year of schooling. At a real orthodox school, when he went to "cheder" at age 5, he would have already been learning Torah stories. It is hard to believe that his history is true. The second issue that I want to also take a moment to comment on his attack on the Talmud. He refers to them as "obselete". But not only are they not obsolete to Judaism, but they are not obsolete to Messianic Judaism/Christianity. At every Messianic Jewish and many mainstream Christian sites, they discuss holiday observances such as Chanukah or the Passover Seder. The observance of Chanukah (like lighting the Menorah) and the Passover Seder are FROM the Talmud. So if it obsolete, why are they still using it? Why did Stern refer to them as obsolete? Probably because "Rabbi" Stern is not familiar with their contents. Third, if you noticed he stated that he came from an orthodox and Chassidic household. This is bizarre as, although Chassidic are considered "orthodox", they almost never refer to themselves as orthodox. They say they are "Chassidic", with the presumption that the term explains their observance fully. Using both terms is not something that a Chassidic person generally will do.
2.
"I, as a student of the Talmud, had to know by heart the name of every rabbi who expressed his opinion in the matters of damage, Holidays, etc. The Talmud was written in the time of the Tanriaim and Amoraim, l800 years ago. Since then thousands of books of comments on the Talmud have been written. The most famous books, which are as important and binding to the Talmudists as the Talmud itself, are: The Rambam, the "Rosh," The Tosafot.and Rashi, who is the greatest Talmudic commentator."
Yet, again, in the second paragraph of his "My Education" section, there are a number of errors. He discusses his educational history and says that the Talmud was written 1800 years ago. This is incorrect. The Mishnah, an earlier book of law, which is included in the Talmud, was written 1800 years ago. The Talmud was written 1400 years ago. Anyone who has studied the Talmud in depth would know when it was written. He also talked about books of comments on the Talmud. The Rambam, however, is not a book. He was a rabbi who certainly wrote many wonderful books (his writings on both Judaism and medicine are still read today), however, he is not a book, and his books are not named "Rambam".
3.
"Unbelief and doubt. Although I worked in the capacity of a Talmudic teacher in the synagogue, there was a great conflict in my heart. The question: "Why did God allow 6 million Jews to die?" bothered me. I taught things that I was not sure were true. I told my congregation and students: "If we Jews want to exist and to overcome our enemies we have to keep the Sabbath day holy." In my heart I knew that 99% of the Hitler-victims had kept the Sabbath-day holy, yet it did not protect them from being killed"
This is from his section of "Unbelief and doubt". He stated that 99% of Holocaust victims kept the Sabbath "holy". There is no evidence for that. It is well-documented that many Jews did not keep the Sabbath, just like many Christians do not keep their Sabbath, Muslims do not keep their Sabbath, etc. Any Jew who actually lived in Europe should know this basic fact.
4.
" I took the New Testament, put it into my pocket and said, "Yes, sir, 1 will read it, I want to see what the New Testament is really like. I don't know anything at all about it. " In the next few nights I had much to read. Every line, each page, was a great revelation to me as I read with great interest. Opening the Book of Matthew, I was surprised to read that Jesus is of the lineage of Abraham and David, I also noticed that on every page it says "As it is written," which means that it was written in our Jewish Bible.
There are numerous errors made in the "Love" section of mistranslation and misuse of the Bible. I will refer the reader to my "Great Sites, Priceless Information" section where various scholars review the typical errors that are made. I want to focus on the lineage aspect. If you read the Book of Matthew, it does not give Jesus' lineage. It gives Joseph's lineage, the husband of Mary. In fact, it claims that she was pregnant with Jesus prior to their marriage ceremony even being completed (Editor's note: In ancient times the 3 rites of Jewish marriage took approximately 1 year. In modern times the rites have been condensed together). Now, any Jewish rabbi can tell you that the Messiah must be from the family lineage of King David. Further, any rabbi can tell you that family lineage is traced through the birth father, and never an adoptive or step-father. Hence, Joseph's lineage is irrelevant, and has nothing to do with Jesus. This is a major general difficulty with Messianic Jewish/Christian belief. If G-d is the birth father of Jesus, which they believe, then Jesus is not from the family lineage of David and cannot be the Messiah. If they claim he is Joseph's child (or some other unknown male, as it is clear from the beginning of Matthew that it is not his child), in an attempt to give him the Davidic lineage, then Jesus is not the son of G-d. Either way, something has to give-the two cannot be true at the same time and any Talmudic scholar would recognize that.
5.
"God forgives Sin. When I came home I took the Bible and read the 53rd chapter of Isaiah over and over again. As I read I wondered why I had not heard of Isaiah 53 before. Why didn't the rabbis tell me of this chapter? It was obvious to me that we Jews could not be considered Bible-believers if we deny Isaiah 53. As I read more, it became clear to me that Isaiah's prophecy in chapter 53 expresses God's glorious plan of forgiveness, reconciliation with God and salvation.
Isaiah 53 is a favorite of basic misinterpretation by missionaries. Again, I will refer you to the "Great Sites, Priceless Information" section to review all of the errors. I want to point out a huge problem with his claim in his "God Forgives Sin" section. Let's review his background first...years of orthodox Jewish education, 9 years in Rabbinical school, years as a Rabbi, and he missed reading part of the book of Isaiah, one of the most studied prophets in all of Judaism? Basically, if you take his testimony, he is a Rabbi that did not read the whole Bible! Would a rabbi really miss reading part of the Bible? Would he miss Isaiah, a book which is publically read from in synagogue in the Haftorah portion just about every other week? I find it hard to believe that a trained Rabbi missed ever studying part of a major book of the Bible!
As you can see, his claims just do not make sense. It is rather unlikely that his story is completely true. Then again, here is a final quote from him that may explain why he would be motivated to not tell the truth, from his "My New Education" section:
I think the quote says it all: simply put, he is a minister trying to convert Jews. Here is the link to his "testimony": Click Here"My new education. I went to Los Angeles and started my American education in the second grade of elementary school. After finishing 8 grades I graduated from high school. Later I went to Los Angeles City College, and finally to Biola College, where I received a B.A. degree. I was baptized, and ordained a minister of the Gospel. Now my deepest interest is to bring the Gospel to my people, the Jews, that they, too, may accept their Messiah and inherit eternal life. Messiah said, I am the way, the truth and the life; no man cometh unto the Father except by me (John 14:6)."
There are many reasons why Jews do not accept Jesus, and the links below are some of the better explanations on this topic. Of course, if you have questions that are not covered on the links, you can always e-mail me with your questions.
An Answer from Rabbi Stuart Federow Click Here
An Answer from Rabbi Shraga Simmons Click Here
Ask the Rabbi from Ohr Somayach Click Here
Rabbi Tovia Singer Click Here
Countermissionary Counseling
There are a number of groups that provide Countermissionary Counseling. Here are links to a few of them:
Great Sites, Priceless Information
Here are a number of great sites that counter missionaries and explain the differences in belief between Judaism and Christianity, including addressing the Biblical verses that missionaries try to use against the Jews and explaining why the missionaries are incorrect. For the most in-depth analysis of verse by verse questions, go to Messiah Truth (sections on Counter-Missionary: Multi-media training [this can be read without being "multi-media"], Knowing Your Orchard and Judaism's Answer), Jews for Judaism (in their Reference Section (please note that the Isaiah topics tend to be under "Suffering Servant" part of the "Proof Text" section) and the Q & A section of Outreach Judaism.
Escape From Counterfeit Judaism
Talking to Kids About Missionaries
| I am more than happy to answer any questions regarding why Jews do not believe in Jesus or on Jewish beliefs in general. Feel free to e-mail me. There is no such thing as a "stupid question". E-mail me-click here |