Israel needs Another Chanukah Miracle—Pray for Rain!

Israel needs another Chanukah Miracle. If you have tuned into the news then you have heard that there is a raging fire in northern Israel. We had an extremely hot summer and the winter rains, which are usually in high gear by now, have not come. This is a fire is burning out of control. Already nearly 50 people are dead. We need rain. We need a miracle.

In between the time I sent out a cute Chanukah greeting this morning and the present, Israel has experienced her worst national disaster ever—and there is no end in site. The Prime Minister has declared a day of mourning for tomorrow.

“If we don’t get foreign assistance tonight, I doubt we will be able to control fire, and it will stop only at shores of the Mediterranean,” warned Haifa firefighter spokesman Hezi Levi. (jpost.com)

Take a moment right now and pray for rain in Israel. We know from scripture that rain is a blessing from heaven (Det. 11:14), and that when there is no rain, it can be a sign of judgment as in the days of Elijah and Ahab. Living in Israel, there is no question that as a nation we have forsaken the Lord. Now is the time for the Body of Believers to stand in the gap for her fallen elder brother, Israel. May your prayers not only bring physical rain, but spirtual as well. “And so, all Israel shall be saved.” (Rom. 11:26)

Lord, have mercy on Your people Israel.

My Islamic Encounter—Political Correctness gone wild!

“How I am I supposed to feel when I hear this?”

That was what a young Muslim girl asked me at the conclusion of a speech I gave for the Richmond Justice Initiative at Virginia Commonwealth University. She was objecting to the fact that I pointed out that Islamic extremists are some of the worst offenders when it comes modern day slavery.

I told the story of the young lady I met in the Addis Ababa airport in Ethiopia almost three years ago. Joy and her husband were both working in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Dubai is supposedly one of the freer Islamic cities. I guess that is the case if you are a western businessman. But for two black Africans it can be different. They were woken in the middle of the night by non-uniformed police and arrested. Despite being married Jeff was charged with rape and Joy was charged with prostitution. They were both sentenced to six years in prison.

Only when they agreed to convert to Islam were they given the chance of freedom. Even this took three years. Joy’s ability to memorize large passages of the Koran made her a valuable asset that Imams were fighting over. She was paraded before crowds, where she would joylessly recite the Koran even though she did not understand Arabic. Once released, she was told she must go back to Uganda and work for the cause of Islam.

When she found out that she would be reciting the Koran in the presence of Muammar Gaddafi (and the Imam asked her to lie to Gaddafi and say she was his daughter), she fled Uganda, under the threat of death, seeking refuge in Singapore. She was denied and had to return to Uganda and that is when I ran into a terrified young lady who knew she could be returning to her death. I was able to pray with her a pray of salvation and connect her with believers in Uganda. But to this day, she lives in fear.

I also shared how in Sudan, Arab Muslims persecute the dark skinned Dinkas with disfigurement, rape, slavery and death. I also spoke about how so called Christians once persecuted Jews with the threat of expulsion and death. 30,000 Jewish converts to Catholicism were burned at the stake by the church for the ‘purification of their souls’ during the Inquisitions. I made the point that largely white audience’s ancestors likely owned slaves.

However the young lady didn’t hear that. She simply wanted to condemn me for mentioning that Muslims own slaves, as if I was saying all Muslims own slaves.

I knew this would happen. While I was preparing I could feel the spirit of intimidation try and come upon me. Despite the fact that Islamic suicide bombers kill fellow Muslims by the hundreds, not to mention the attacks on non-Muslims, there is so much pressure put on the West not to say anything negative out of fear of offending non-violent Muslims. (Or fear of offending violent ones!)

I knew I was speaking on a college campus where young minds are typically manipulated by naïve left-leaning professors. I chose not to care. I chose to speak the truth.

This is how I responded to the young lady after the meeting: Why is it whenever moderate Muslims speak out it is rarely against Islamic extremism and nearly always about being stereotyped? If there were more moderate Muslims speaking out against extremism, slavery, sexual abuse and domestic abuse, then she would not be stereotyped, but applauded.

It is possible that she came to that meeting with the intention of bringing up this issue. It is not the first time a well-spoken Muslim college student showed up an event where I was speaking. Whether she was sent by an organization or not, I don’t know, but this is standard practice. The goal is to portray the Muslim American community as persecuted.

Portrait of soon to be wed Faiz Mohammed, 40, and Ghulam Haider, 11, at her home in a rural village of Damarda in Ghor province.

Let me tell you who is persecuted:

• The Muslim pre-teen who is sold by her father to be the bride of someone much older.
• The 12-year old child bride who was raped and forced to use drugs.[i]
• Teenaged Afghan boys who become sex-toys for older Muslim men (even the raping of young boys is sanctioned among many Pashtuns, Afghanistan’s largest tribe). [ii]

It is not moderate Muslims in America that are persecuted, who yell racist and islamaphobe when Americans protest a mosque next to Ground Zero, and say virtually nothing about their own people who are being tortured and raped or sold as a teenaged brides.

This young Muslim lady told me how sad it was that Americans jumped to the conclusion that it was a Muslim who bombed Oklahoma City. I told her it was a reasonable hypothesis based on the fact that most of the people blowing up people and buildings in the world are doing it in the name of Islam. It turned out we were wrong, but based on the prior acts of Islamic extremists it was a reasonable assumption. She had no response.

A student came up to me afterward to try and explain why we shouldn’t share such things or seek different ways to communicate it or…to be honest, I don’t what she was trying to say, but it was clear that she felt bad for the Muslim girl. I felt for this student. She is a victim of a politically correct culture that has no problem attacking believers in Jesus, but tiptoe around issues surrounding the most violent, abusive people on earth.

Joy Behar can use filthy language on-air to describe another female running for the Senate, but walks out on Bill O’Reily for a comment about Islam. What is wrong with us?

I told this young lady about Rauda—an Israeli Arab who helped Elana clean our apartment a few years back. Rauda would regularly show up with black eyes from her abusive husband—and he’s not even what we would call extremist, he is just the product of a culture that allow men to beat their wives. He is a moderate! You can actually find Muslims on YouTube teaching—get ready for this…—the proper way to beat your wife![iii]

Where are the women’s groups? Where is the outrage? Where is the condemnation?

I asked the student who was concerned for the Muslim girl, “Who should I defend? The young lady who enjoys every freedom in America and yet is offended or Rauda whose husband punches her in the face?” These idealistic young students have no idea what it is like to grow up in Afghanistan, where if you are not part of right tribe, you are treated like garbage. While their fathers are paying their college tuition, fathers in other nations are selling their daughters as child-brides—often to someone who already has one or two wives. While they weep for the poor offended American moderate Muslims—who are also ignorant to these truths—who weeps for the child brides, rape victims and those enslaved by Muslims?

If moderate Muslims do not want to be stereotyped then they must become the most vocal critics against extremism. Instead of building mosques at Ground Zero, they should be doing everything they can to combat radicalism. Instead, they spend most of their energy making sensitive Americans feel guilty for even mentioning the fact that Islamic extremism is a problem. Instead of condemning the West for bringing up the issue, and they must join with us in condemning terror and extremism.

How vogue it is to lift your voice today against the injustices of the world, but just don’t mention the fact Islam is behind much of them. And sadly, not all Muslims who owns a slave in Afghanistan or rapes a young lady (or young man) in Darfur or beats their wife in Syria are extremists. Some of them are simply the end result of a culture that places a low value on human life.

We have no idea how amazing it is to live in a culture where it is generally believed that “all men are created equal.” Are there any more powerful words in any American document?

To be clear, there are heroic Muslim Arabs in Sudan who have risked their lives to rescue black-skinned Dinkas from slavery, by purchasing them from other Arabs. These are called slave redemptions. Sadly these heroes are few and far between—a needle in a haystack.

We must refuse to submit to political correctness that demands that we say nothing about negative Islam and the worldwide injustices against women and children. We must call on the so-called moderate Muslim community to join the fight in combating these abuses.  Yes, you will make enemies. Yes, it is dangerous—but only then will non-Muslim Americans believe you are sincere, and furthermore you will gain our respect.

This is what I privately challenged the young Arab-American student to do as we continued to talk after the symposium. Our conversation ended quite pleasant, with her wishing me success in my ministry. But she is not my only concern. As Americans we must not be afraid to speak the truth. America was built of freedom of speech and this young lady wasn’t afraid to use hers. Will you?

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[i] http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=12-year-old-bride-rescused-by-police-from-abuse-2010-03-17

[ii] http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-08-29/opinion/22949948_1_karzai-family-afghan-men-president-hamid-karzai

[iii] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl8g8S6F3do or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp3Eam5FX58&feature=related

May I have your Daughter’s Hand in Marriage?

I have three daughters. I look forward to the day when each one will get married. I pray regularly for the young men that God is preparing for them. So as a father, you can imagine why the story of Ann Hasseltine, and how her husband asked for her hand in marriage, affects me so deeply. Adonirum Judson was the first American missionary to the Far East. Before he left the shores of the US for India, and then ultimately Burma, he asked Ann’s father for permission to be a suitor.

Adonirum Judson tells Ann Hasseltine's father that she will never see him again.

Adonirum was completely consumed with taking the message of Yeshua to the Far East. He had been training for years to this end. In June of 1812, on the same day in which he presented himself to his missionary board to serve overseas, he met Ann—and was smitten.

In his letter to Ann’s father he wrote:

I have now to ask, whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring, to see her no more in this world; whether you can consent to her departure, and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of missionary life; whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean, to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India; to every kind of want and distress; to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death. Can you consent to all this, for the sake of him who left his heavenly home, and died for her and for you; for the sake of perishing, immortal souls; for the sake of Zion, and the glory of God? Can you consent to all this, in hope of soon meeting your daughter in the world of glory, with the crown of righteous, brightened with the acclamations of praise which shall redound to her Savior from heathens saved, through her means, from eternal woe and despair?

TO SEE HER NO MORE IN THIS WORLD! Can you imagine? This poor father had to choose between keeping his daughter close by and safe or allowing her to pursue the call of God. At least Adonirum was honest. In the end Mr. Hasseltine allowed his daughter to  decide. She wrote in a letter to her friend Lydia Kymball of her decision:

I feel willing, and expect, if nothing in Providence prevents, to spend my days in this world in heathen lands. Yes, Lydia, I have about, come to the determination to give up all my comforts and enjoyments here, sacrifice my affection to relatives and friends, and go where God, in his Providence, shall see fit to place me.”

WOW! This reminds me of the words of the apostle Paul who referred to stonings and imprisonments as light and momentary afflictions that were achieving an eternal glory that far outweighs them all (2 Cor. 4:17). Paul endured the cruelest hardships in order to get the message of the gospel to those who had never heard it.

The Jewish rabbi wrote: “Woe is me, if I preach not the gospel of Messiah.” (1 Cor. 9:16) He was compelled to go, but that did not mean he did not suffer. In fact, he seems to say that the suffering that he endured to get the gospel to others actually released the life of God to those who were lost.

We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. (2 Cor. 4:10-12)

We often think that to obey God, to be in His will, means we will always be sheltered from suffering. This certainly was not the experience of Paul and it was not the experience of young Ann.

Indeed Ann Hasseltine’s decision to become Mrs. Judson proved fatal in this world. She miscarried her first child. The second, Roger, died before his first birthday. And shortly after her third, Maria, was born Ann died of smallpox. Maria followed her to eternity before she was six months old.

But her decision also proved to bear much fruit. In all she spent 14 years on the mission field. Before email lists and blogs, she wrote of her life on the mission field and her calling as a missionary’s wife. Her letters were published in the United States. She translated the books of Daniel and Jonah into Burmese and Matthew into Thai (the first evangelical to translate any of the scriptures into Thai).

Her husband persevered with Ann at his side and after her death. Yes, it took him three years before he shared the gospel with his first Burmese. Another year before he dare preach in a public meeting. After a decade he had only 18 converts. He was still far away from his goal of 100.

But he pressed on and in the end, not only did he compile a English/Burmese dictionary, but translated the New Testament into Burmese. Instead of hitting his goal of 100 converts, he planted 100 churches with 8,000 converts.

His dear Ann only saw the beginnings of this great work, but she was always there for him. When he was imprisoned for seventeen months she lived alone in a shack outside the prison so she could care for him. She was all in as they say in the poker world—but for the gospel.

I don’t think we are all called to follow in the footsteps of Ann Hasseltine Judson. We can only do what we are called to do and have grace to do. But we should honor her memory and be inspired by her witness to fulfill the call of God on our lives.

End Human Trafficking and Prostitution in Israel!

There is a restaurant just north of Tel Aviv near the beach that Elana and I like to visit. Just about 200 meters from the restaurant stand prostitutes on the side of the road. Prostitution is actually legal in the Holy Land. Their customers know where to find them. And amazingly many of their customers are the most religious among us.

A Prostitute in Tel Aviv

While most orthodox Jews do not engage in prostitution, you might be shocked to know that the prostitution market in Israel is defined by three groups: Foreign workers, Arabs and Orthodox Jews. That’s right. An Orthodox Jew is not allowed to have relations with his wife for a minimum of 12 days after the beginning of her monthly cycle. He can receive a temporary divorce that somehow allows him to use a foreign prostitute.

Please don’t ask me to explain how that makes sense or is biblically justified. It is absolutely disgusting. He is forbidden to masturbate, but is allowed to temporarily divorce his wife and visit a prostitute. Often a prostitute is being held against her will or addicted to drugs that she can only get from her pimp. Sometimes she has been trafficked in from another country.

I am going to assume that this is just as disgusting to most orthodox Jews, as it is to me, but there are enough ‘customers’ out there that participate in this crime that the demand for more prostitutes remains steady. That includes those who willingly participate and those who do so against their will. The video below is about those who are seeking to make prostitution illegal here.

Black Sabbath or Typical Saturday?

We were on our way to service on Shabbat. It’s always a nice feeling when you know you are going to be on time to the meeting (not that being late to a service has ever caused family stress…eh). Suddenly all the traffic stopped on the Ayalon. The Ayalon is one of Israel’s major interstates that starts in Herzilya, goes through Tel Aviv and ends just south of Jaffa.

Tel Aviv Traffic on Saturday Morning

It is not normal for traffic to be at a standstill on a Saturday morning. In addition to the fact that nobody works, a large minority of the country won’t drive on the Sabbath.  So that meant one of two things: A traffic accident or a havila hashuda (a suspicious package). It turned out to be the latter.

In Israel, any time one leaves a package, a book bag or what appears to be a bag of groceries unattended, the police are likely to be called.  About ten years ago my sister-n-law walked out of her apartment building and noticed an unattended bag. She called the police and within minutes the roads were blocked off and the bomb unit was called in. Fortunately it was nothing.

And thank God that in recent years terrorism has fallen dramatically (not for lack of desire, but because of the security fence that the whole world rails against). But on this Saturday, with temperatures in the 90s, realizing that I would be late to service, needing gas, I had to wonder how long I would be stuck there and if there was indeed a bomb.

Of course I was confident it wasn’t because most of the time it isn’t. But in a country that is so used

Israeli Robot to Deal with Bombs

to terrorism, you can’t let anything slide. And for me personally, after the death of my young cousin, Daniel Cantor Wultz, a few Passovers ago, when a terrorist’s bomb ripped through his backside, things changed. You can’t think anymore, “It could never touch me,” because it has.

I got out of my car like many others and began to walk down the highway towards the roadblock. I asked someone “Ma Kore?” (What’s going on?). “Havila Hashuda,” came the reply. As I walked back someone asked me the same thing and I gave the same answer. He was wearing a Black Sabbath T-shirt. Now there is irony I thought.  Is this indeed going to be a Black Sabbath?

My Traffic-Mate with the Black Sabbath T-Shirt

Suddenly, the bomb squad pulled away and we all jumped back in our cars and began to move. This would not be a Black Sabbath after all, just a typical episode in Israeli life. Suspicious package, bomb scare, stopped traffic, bomb squad…wait…continue.

Youtube Weddings: How do they fare after the viral video?

One of my favorite shows of all time is Law and Order. It is mostly clean and usually the good guys win. However that was not my attraction. It was the courtroom drama. After a few seasons of the second longest drama series in television history, I became a pretty good ‘TV lawyer.’ I knew when to object, when the lawyer was leading a witness and when the attorneys would begin to make a case to the jury, disguising it as a question to the witness. “Objection,” I would sometimes blurt out.

 

Cast of Law and Order

 

Now imagine if I took this casual experience and wanted to practice law for real—if I went to Israeli Bar and told them of my qualifications. They would laugh me out of the building. You can’t get a law degree because you watched a television show.

ER was another long running drama about the intensity of the Emergency Room, and like Law and Order, no amount of watching ER would prepare you to even draw blood from a patient. No, you must study for nearly a decade before you can practice medicine, and even then, under close supervision.

Yet when it comes to marriage, not only do we not prepare young couples for the ups and downs that come with living with another human being, sleeping in the same bed, eating together, paying bills, etc, but we don’t have any example from pop culture that is even close to helpful. Desperate Housewives cheating with neighbors (I assume, I have never actually watched an episode) and now we have the award winning Modern Family. In this way too Modern for me Family, a middle-aged fellow is married to a Colombian woman half his age that has a preteen. His son, who is gay, lives with his partner, and they have adopted a Vietnamese baby.

It is not wonder that statistics say that 50% of all marriages in the US will end in divorce. Honestly, I think it is a miracle that anyone stays together who doesn’t proactively seek counsel and advice on marriage life.

Last night we started teaching a series in Hebrew at our congregation, Terefet Yeshua in Tel Aviv, on The Five Languages of Love by Dr. Gary Chapman (If you haven’t read it, READ IT!). In the middle of the class I showed a video that has gone ‘viral’ as the kids say on YouTube, showing the father of the bride and his new son-in-law singing L’Chaiyim from Fiddler on the Roof. It is very cute and the couple truly appears to be in love.

 

One of the best books young couples can read.

 

But that was not my point. Most weddings are exciting. Everyone is celebrating, toasting, laughing and dancing. “Do you realize that as excited as that young couple appears today, there is a 50% chance that they will get divorced?” I soberly shared with the class. We put so much emphasis on the wedding day and nearly no emphasis on the married life.

Normally you get your reward at the end. Do we give diplomas to first graders? Do we let would be pilots fly jets on their first day of school? Or give a scalpel to a college freshman that is premed? Only in marriage do we over stress the ceremony and under stress what it takes to succeed.

Now before you assume that this simply the ranting of a father of three daughters that simply wants to get out of paying for three weddings, let me say that I am not against the wedding celebration. But I am fighting for more intentional, focused preparation for young couples that want to get married.

Again, it takes nearly ten years to get your medical degree, and no one even gives us a book to read before we get married. The only test you need to get a marriage license is a blood test (to make sure you don’t have AIDS). “But Ron, a doctor has the responsibility of life and death!” Hello! Have you ever seen the emotionally damaged children that come from a dysfunctional family? Proverbs says the earth trembles when a married woman is unloved. Go to a prison and find out the percentage of violent criminals that grew up in a affirming, loving home with a mother and a father. This is a life and death issue!

Young couples need to meet with a professional who can help them deal with their emotional baggage (we all have some!) BEFORE they get married. You see, these things are not typically revealed during the dating process when everyone is on there best behavior, but sooner or later, if not dealt with, emotional baggage, wrong understanding of marriage and marriage roles, not knowing how to deal with stress and not knowing how to express your spouses love language (READ THE BOOK…PLEASE) can wreck a marriage.

Yes, two people who look so happy on YouTube can come to the point where they hate each other, as they peer at one another across the conference table at the divorce lawyer’s office. But they don’t have to. A little training, accountability and humility can go a long way to creating a happy marriage.

And if you think it is bad in America, it is worse in Israel. While the Israeli divorce rate is slightly less than that in America, adultery is most likely much higher. With so many holidays here there is much more emphasis on being a family, but almost no training on what that family is supposed to be like. Shouting is the norm when trying to make a point. There is tremendous dysfunction in so many families. And for that reason we started this course, so at least the believers we know can began to improve their marriages.

There is no doubt that Elana and I are a work in progress, far from perfect. We had very little training when we first were married, but we have had wonderful mentors over the years to help us work through difficulties. Most people don’t. And if they do go to get help, society makes them feel ashamed—as if they have failed when in fact, the opposite is true. Couples who receive counseling are far more likely to survive than those who don’t and those who receive concrete premarital counseling are 31% less likely to divorce.

Here is a thought: What if it became tradition that every married couple received another wedding reception at 25 years and then again at 50. Just as it makes more sense to congratulate a high-schooler upon graduation than it does on his first day of kindergarten, maybe we should seek ways of highlighting those couples who have stood the test of time and maintained a happy, vibrant, exciting marriage. Just a thought…

Ode to Abe and the Exodus

“No Ron, you mean Moses, not Abraham.” No, I mean Abe.

Abe Pollen

Growing up in Richmond you had to choose your sports teams based on the geography, meaning we had no sports teams of our own (other than the AAA Braves). In basketball I was a 76’ers fan as Philly wasn’t that far away, but once I moved to Washington I began to root for the Bullets. In 1995 owner Abe Pollin decided that the name was too violent—especially with the growing homicide rate in DC. The final straw was when his longtime friend, Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated.

A contest followed to find a new name (And quite honestly I came up the best name. It was obvious. You are in Washington; basketball players are tall, duh! The Washington Monuments! Right?). They went with a ridiculous name that has nothing to do with Washington—the Wizards.

Abe Pollin died this year. He will be remembered mostly for being the owner of the Wizards, Mystics and Capitols, but when I heard of his death the first thing that came to my mind was a story I heard him tell at a memorial service for Prime Minister Rabin in 1995.

“[O]ne day [my father] said, ‘Son, I’m taking you to a meeting downtown.’ I said, ‘Where are we going?’ He said, ‘I can’t tell you right now, but you’ll see.’

“So we went downtown to an office where a Middle Eastern-looking guy was guarding the door. I found out later that he and others were from the Hagana, the Jewish military organization that fought for Israel’s creation.

The ship "Af-Al-Pi-Chen", which sought to run the British blockade, tried to bring 434 immigrants to the country, now is home to the Museum of Clandestine Immigration in Haifa.

“Inside the meeting were about 20 leaders of the Washington Jewish Community. They locked the door and said, ‘Nobody leaves here until we raise the money.’ The next morning they bought an old steamship which was in the port of Baltimore, and renamed it the Exodus.”

The Exodus was the most famous of all the clandestine or illegal immigration ships that sought to bring Jews from Europe during and just after the Holocaust to British Mandate Palestine.[i] One of the ships, The Af-Al-Pi-Chen (In Spite Of…), which sought to break through the British blockade with 434 passengers, was one of 116 such ships of every shape and size that tried to offload their human cargo in pre-Israel Palestine. It is the only ship that is still in existence and houses the Museum of Clandestine Immigration in Haifa.

Over 100,000 Jews tried to escape the Holocaust of Europe through clandestine immigration. Most of them, like the passengers of the Af-Al-Pi-Chen, were taken in internment camps in Cyprus. How ironic that the same British that were seeking to defeat the Nazis who were imprisoning Jews in concentration camps, were taking Jews who escaped or survived the Holocaust and putting them in similar conditions.

The reason Jews could not freely immigrate and start a new life in the ancient Jewish homeland was because, even as Hitler was getting started in his final solution, Great Britain passed their own solution to Jewish immigration, the White Paper of 1939. It stated that from 1939-1944 only 75,000 Jews (out of 11,000,000 in Europe) would be allowed to immigrate to Palestine and after that, immigration would be allowed only with Arab consent. Oil was more precious than Jewish blood.

On July 11^th, 1947, three years after Britain closed off immigration to Jews, the newly named Exodus that Abe Pollin’s father and friends raised the money to buy in Baltimore, set sail from France with 4,515 Holocaust survivors for Israel.

The Exodus is the most famous of all the ships that tried to smuggle Holocaust survivors into Palestine.

“The ship sailed from the port of Site, near Marseilles, on July 11, 1947, with 4,515 immigrants, including 655 children, on board. As soon as it left the territorial waters of France, British destroyers accompanied it. On July 18, near the coast of Palestine but outside territorial waters, the British rammed the ship and boarded it, while the immigrants put up a desperate defense. Two immigrants and a crewman were killed in the battle, and 30 were wounded. The ship was towed to Haifa, where the immigrants were forced onto deportation ships bound for France. At Port-de-Bouc, in southern France, the would-be immigrants remained in the ships’ holds for 24 days during a heat wave, refusing to disembark despite the shortage of food, the crowding and the abominable sanitary conditions. The French government refused to force them off the boat. Eventually, the British decided to return the would-be immigrants to Germany, and on August 22 the ship left for the port of Hamburg, then in the British occupation zone. The immigrants were forcibly taken off and transported to two camps near Lubeck.

“Journalists who covered the dramatic struggle described to the entire world the heartlessness and cruelty of the British. World public opinion was outraged and the British changed their policy. Illegal immigrants were not sent back to Europe; they were instead transported to detention camps in Cyprus.

“The majority of the passengers on the Exodus 1947 settled in Israel, though some had to wait until after the establishment of the State of Israel.”[ii]

The Exodus served as one of several events that turned British public opinion against their government’s presence in the dangerous Middle East, and shortly thereafter Great Britain turned Palestine over to the UN, who voted a few months later on November 29^th to allow the creation of a Jewish State. (They also allowed for the creation for an Arab State next to it, but the Arabs turned it down and attacked the new nation of Israel instead.)

Abe Pollin’s legacy should not only include winning an NBA championship in 1978, but he should also be remembered for making a contribution in winning Israel’s independence.

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[i] It is important to note that the name Palestine had nothing to with an Arab ethnicity. It was a name that the Roman’s borrowed from the ancient Philistines, when they renamed Judea as Palestine. There has never been a country called Palestine, there is no language called Palestinian. The people who called themselves Palestinian today are Arabs, no different ethnically from Jordanians or Syrians. When I use this name I am referring to pre-1948 Israel.

[ii] http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Immigration/exodus.html

“Am I Going to Die?”

Ron Cantor’s Testimony

That was the thought going through my mind one dark evening in the middle of North Carolina on a cool October night in 1983. Death was always a concern with me. I loved life and didn’t want to die—not now, not ever. However as the small yellow car swerved from side and to side and then began to spin around, that was the thought racing through my mind, “Is this it? Am I going to die?”

The car finally flipped over once or twice, I can’t remember. What I do remember was the first thought that came to my mind as we sat in the car in shock in the middle of nowhere: Jesus is not real. If Jesus were real this would not have happened.

That was a strange first thought for a Jewish young man who was raised with the belief that Jesus was not the Messiah. Why would such a thought even be a concern? Especially when my main concern should have been getting out of the car and getting help.

To explain that I have to take you back about eight months.

First, a little about my background. I am Jewish. I was circumcised on the eighth day, went to Hebrew school (this was a three-times-a-week Jewish Life and Culture school, that most North American Jews go to in addition to their formal education) and became Bar Mitzvah when I was thirteen.

I was not religious, but neither was I an atheist. I did not see any clear evidence for God or really care that much, as my main purpose in life was to have fun.

When I was seventeen years old I began to notice a change in the way my best friend Brian was acting. After quizzing him, it became clear that he had a deep religious experience with Jesus. I was not happy for him as I always looked at religious people as boring or weird. Why would anyone want to be religious, I thought. Nevertheless, it didn’t have anything to do with me because I am Jewish, and while I was not on the path to become the next Maimonides (Jewish sage), I did know at least one thing about being Jewish—and it wasn’t what we believed, but rather what we didn’t believe. We don’t believe in Jesus.

Nevertheless, Brian’s new found faith did awaken an awareness in me that I had no idea where I was going after I died. So many of us spend our whole life preparing for a thing called retirement, a period of time that some people never even reach and others only spend a short season there before they die. So much emphasis on this season and yet we never take the time to think of our eternal retirement and what we must do on earth to secure it.

Despite my passion for fun, I realized that if I died and spent eternity in hell, it would not be worth it. I had to find out the truth. Who is God and how do I serve him. This realization came to me about month after Brian’s experience.

On one occasion we were together and Brian had been using a certain phrase to describe his new state of being: Born again. “Brian, there is nothing in the New Testament about being born again!” I blurted out. This was funny because I had never read the Old Testament, much less the New Testament, but somehow I knew there was nothing in it about being born again. That is, until Brian opened his New Testament to John 3:3. In this passage Yeshua is talking to a Jewish rabbi named Nicodemus. Nicodemus believed that Yeshua had been sent by God because of the miracles He had been performing and wanted to ask him some questions. Brian read to me these words:

Except a man be born again he can not see the kingdom of God. (John 3:3)

When Brian read those words to me it was as if swords came flying out of heaven. I knew it was true. It was as if something had been blinding me and suddenly I could see. But I wasn’t too crazy about what I saw! I screamed inwardly, “No, this can’t be true. I am Jewish and we don’t believe in Jesus!”

Over the next few months I continued to wonder if this Yeshua could actually be the Messiah of the Jewish people, the way to eternal life. On Yom Kippur 1983 I decided that I would do something radical—I would fast! Like I said, I did not grow up religious and while I always went to temple to pray on Yom Kippur, it had never entered my mind to actually not eat for 24 hours. However, I wanted to find God—to find truth, and as a Jew this seemed like the most logical place to begin my search.

That evening I saw a young lady in whom I had been interested. She literary threw herself at me. (This never had happened to me before!) Her intentions were clear. However, contrary to everything inside of me as a young man, I pushed her away and told her that I could not. I was intent on finding God and I knew that breaking one of the ten commandants by taking advantage of a drunk young lady at the beginning of my fast was not the best start.

After 24 hours of not eating I did not feel any closer to God. I was hungry though! Discouraged, I headed off to college in North Carolina. I had hoped to find God and I didn’t feel any closer than when I started.

About a month later I was home during a five-day break from school, when I ran into Brian. The conversation quickly turned to Yeshua. Truthfully, I only had one question for him. My Jewish heritage was important, but I was willing to suffer criticism and even persecution from my own people if in indeed it turned out that Yeshua was the Messiah. However, as an 18-year-old who loved to have fun, I had to ask Brian this one thing: “Is you life better now than it was before.”

You see, I loved my life. Sometimes that meant doing things I knew were wrong. But I didn’t want to trade my fun life for a boring, religious life. Like I said before, other than Brian, everyone I knew who was religious seemed depressed and miserable—completely uninteresting. And if that was what Brian was offering, I wasn’t interested.

It seemed to me that the deal was that you live a boring life for God and your reward is eternal life. Of course, seventy or eighties years of boredom in exchange for eternal life is still a pretty good deal, but I was about to find out that that wasn’t God’s plan.

When Brian answered me his face lit up with joy. “I know God,” he confidently exclaimed and I could see he was telling the truth. “Ron, there is no comparison to the old life.” That was enough for me. I told Brian to call me up that weekend to go to his congregation. I wanted to check this out. However when the ringing phone woke me up after a night of drinking and partying, I told Brian I would come some other time.

Not long after that, I returned to Richmond again; this time to buy supplies. I was in the pharmaceutical business at that time in my life. What I mean is I would buy caffeine pills and sell them to friends at school, telling them it was speed. They didn’t know the difference, it was legal and I had some spending money. On the way back the young man who drove me, Dean and I began to talk about religion. I told him that my friend had been “born again” and had been talking to me about Yeshua. He told that he also had been a believer.

What he meant was that in high school he had given his life to Yeshua, but then later on, because of pressure from his friends, he left his faith. I asked him, “What was your life like when you were serving Yeshua?” This was still my main question.

Suddenly, just like Brian, his face lit up as began talk about Yeshua. “I had purpose. I woke up every day high on God.” As he went on to share about how wonderful it was to live for Yeshua, I couldn’t help but wonder why he would give it all up. “In the end I cared more about what my friends thought,” was his answer as his face when from light to darkness.

We continued to talk for the next two hours about Yeshua and as we were talking a presence came into the car. I had never felt such peace before in my life. What was this?

Dean told me that on Thursday he was going to take me to a movie about Yeshua in his hometown of Durham. I consented to go and at the end of the movie we were both in tears. It was a powerful movie but I was smart enough to know that movies can sway your emotions in many directions. I wasn’t going to start believing in Jesus because of a movie.

However on the way home I did something very unusual—something I can’t remember ever doing before—I prayed. “God, I believe You are real. A year ago I wasn’t sure, but now I am. I need to know how to serve You. Do I become a religious Jew? Lubavitch? Or is Yeshua the Messiah? If You show me, I will serve You.”

As I was praying silently, Dean suddenly lost control of the car as we went around a curve. The car began to swerve from side to side and then began to spin out of control. That was when I wondered, “Is this it. Am I going to die?”

Upside down, Dean and I made our way out of the car and walked to the road. Many people wrongly assume at this point that surviving the car accident is what caused me to embrace Yeshua. On the contrary, my first thoughts after realizing I was alive were, “Yeshua can’t be real. This would not have happened if Yeshua were real.” My goodness, my first prayer and I nearly get killed!

The story doesn’t end there. There was only one house near us, as we were in the middle of farm country. We walked up to the house and knocked on the door. Dean was in shock as he had not only totaled his car, but also almost killed us. I was still thinking about God.

A married couple opened the door. They were very helpful and the husband took Dean to use the phone. Meanwhile I noticed a bible and a magazine, in which the cover story was about a man named Keith Green, also a Jewish believer in Yeshua, who had died a year earlier in a plane crash.

I asked the wife if they were believers and she said yes. I asked her, “If Yeshua was the Son of God, the Messiah, how could they kill him? Why didn’t He get off the cross to prove it?” I didn’t know that that was exactly what those who witnessed His crucifixion said:

“He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” (Matt. 27:42-43)

She explained to me that during His lifetime He did many miracles including healing those with terminal sicknesses like leprosy, causing the lame to walk, and even raising the dead. However, His mission was to die on the cross, not come down from the cross. He came to Israel for this purpose. According to Isaiah the Jewish prophet, the Messiah would come to Israel, be rejected by the Jewish people and ultimately give His life as a sacrifice for their sins:

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.  (Isaiah 53:3-5, 8-11)

These words were written 700 years before Yeshua came. On more than one occasion they tried to kill him but could not, however when the time came for Him to “give his life as a ransom” (Matt. 20:28) He was willing. She explained to me that He gave His life and took my sins, so I would not have to suffer for my sins.

As a Jew, I always thought that was why we fasted on Yom Kippur—to be forgiven. However, when I went back and read the passages about Yom Kippur I discovered that fasting was merely the position of humility in which we approached God. Like if you were invited to a presidential dinner, you wouldn’t wear jeans and a t-shirt. Fasting had no power to remove sin. It was the sacrifice on Yom Kippur that dealt with sin—not fasting. It is not called Yom Tsom (Fasting), but your Yom Kippur (Atonement). It is no wonder I felt no closer to God when I had fasted the previous Yom Kippur. Without a sacrifice, there is no forgiveness.

Since the destruction of the Holy Temple in 70 CE there have not been any sacrifices. Even the Talmud says that from 30 CE (when Yeshua was crucified) until 70 CE (The Temple’s demise) God rejected the Yom Kippur sacrifices every year. The reason for this is simple. Yeshua died in 30 CE and there was no longer a need for a sacrifice as He was the once for all time and all sin sacrifice.

But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Messiah was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. (Hebrews 9:26-28)

As she was explaining this to me, I began to feel a presence. Not like the peace I had felt the other day with Dean, but this was pure power—like electricity all over my body. I could not fight it. It was the most amazing experience of my life. And suddenly it all made sense—I realized what was happening. Just a few minutes before I had told God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, that I was willing to serve Him if He would simply show me the truth.

In less than a half hour from that prayer I was in a violent car accident that left us unharmed. As we approached the one house in the area, we found inside two real believers in Yeshua, and now I was sitting in their living room as she was explaining to me the very thing that I had asked God for just a few minutes earlier. To top it all off I was being filled with the presence and power of God!

That night I believed. I left that house a new man. My sins were forgiven. My name was written in heaven. I was enjoying the presence of God. Suddenly I could relate to the words of Nehemiah who said, “The joy of the Lord is my strength.” (Neh. 8:10) I was experiencing what I would later read in the writings of the Rav Shaul, one of the first Messianic Jews, who said that when we receive Yeshua we become new creations spiritually.

Therefore, if anyone is in Messiah, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (1 Corinthians 5:17)

When you are born from above the Spirit of God comes inside of you and cleanses you from all the garbage of this world.

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Maybe you are still struggling with the fact that you are Jewish and you were taught that Yeshua is not the Messiah. Consider these facts:

1. Yeshua is the name His parents gave Him. Not Yeshu. Yeshu is an acronym that rabbis used to refer to Yeshua, that stands for: May his name and memory be blotted out forever. Yeshua, on the other hand, comes from the word yeshu’a which means salvation. When the angel of the Lord appeared to His father, Joseph he said “you must name Him Yeshua, because we will save (from yeshu’a) his people from their sin.”

2. Maria was not the name of Yeshua’s mother, nor was she a little Catholic girl, but rather a young “sabarit” (Israeli) named Miriam, the same name as the sister of Moses.

3. The big controversy in the New Covenant was whether or not Gentiles had to become Jewish in order to believe in Yeshua! (See Acts 15.) All the original followers of Yeshua were Jewish and it never entered their minds that there were anything else.

4. Shaul, the writer of half the New Covenant, was a Jewish Rabbi who studied under Gamaliel, grandson of Hillel. He was a Pharisee and supervised stonings and imprisonments of Messianic Jews before he became a believer in Yeshua.

5. All the writers of the New Covenant, save one, were Jewish.

6. Tens of thousands of Jews in Jerusalem believed He was the Messiah.

“You see, brother, how many tens of thousands of believers there are among the Judeans, and they are all zealots for the Torah.” (Acts 20:21, CJB)

His Jewish devotees ranged from rabbis to peasants and everything in between. “And the word of God spread, and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many [Jewish] priests became obedient to the faith” (Acts 6:7 NIV).

7. Yeshua fulfilled over sixty Old Testament prophecies. According to Mathematician Peter Stoner, the probability of Yeshua fulfilling just eight messianic prophecies is 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000! That would be like covering Israel 22 meters deep in silver dollars, marking one of them, and then randomly picking it up! Let me write it again in case it didn’t sink in: That is the probability of someone just fulfilling eight of the prophecies about Messiah, and Yeshua fulfilled more than sixty!

WHAT NOW?

Maybe you are like me. You love life. God is an afterthought. If only things could stay the way they are. But the truth is they won’t. Not to be morbid, but you will get older and eventually you will die. No one has beaten it yet. And if the scripture from the book of Hebrews is correct, after death comes judgment.

The truth is that I was not afraid of judgment because I never consider myself a sinner. After all, I had never killed anyone, right? How sad is that? My definition of not being a lawbreaker is simply to have never killed anyone.

Here is the question you must ask yourself. Have I broken God’s law? You see when I finally measured my life against the Ten Commandments I realized that I was guilty. Just take a look:

I.     Do not have any other gods before me.

II.     You shall not make for yourself an idol.

III.     You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God.

IV.     Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.

V.     Honor your father and your mother.

VI.     You shall not murder.

VII.     You shall not commit adultery.

VIII.     You shall not steal.

IX.     You shall not lie.

X.     You shall not desire things that don’t belong to you (like your neighbors wife!)

How many of those have you kept? Most people jump to number six, saying they have not committed murder, but Yeshua said that if you simply hate someone you are guilty of murder. He said the same thing about adultery, if you desire it in your heart, it is as if you have done it!

You see when you are judged by the Holy One it won’t be based on your actions alone, but your thoughts as well. God’s word is sharper than a two edged sword, meaning that it cuts deeper than flesh and goes all the way to the soul, “judging the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12-13)

At this point you may be realizing that we are all guilty. Even if you hired the best lawyer to convince God that you keep two or three of the commandments, you would still be guilty of breaking seven or eight. What judge would let a lawbreaker go free?

GOOD NEWS

Once you realize this fact—that you are guilty before a Holy God—you can receive the best news of all. Just this week a young American girl who has been imprisoned in Iran for over a year was told that if she paid $500,000 she could go free. She didn’t have the money, but the US government paid the priced and she was released.

Yeshua paid the price for you to be free and live a new life. When He died, He died for you. When you admit that you are sinner and need his forgiveness and repent of your sin, you will be forgiven. Forgiveness cannot be obtained any other way. He was sent to Israel and we rejected him, but He is the salvation of the Jewish people. This is what He said to His Jewish followers:

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” (John 5:24)

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)

The only question is do you want life? Eternal life? It is free is you will turn to Yeshua now. Pray this prayer:

Yeshua, I turn to You for salvation and forgiveness. I believe that You are the Messiah, the Son of God and that You die for me and rose from the dead. Forgive me and set me free from sin. Break the power of Satan from me completely as I give my life to You fully. Even as You have forgiven me all of my sin, I forgive those who have sinned against me. Let Your Spirit fill me now and let me experience eternal life.

Yom Kippur: To Fast or Not To Fast

Growing up I was always fascinated by Yom Kippur. How could my father go 24 hours without food? I couldn’t imagine skipping a meal, much less a whole day’s worth of eating. I was a big fan of eating in those days. Why would we do such a thing? To be forgiven of our sins, I was told. Not such a bad deal I guess. Do what you want during the year and then fast for a day and all will be well.

As I grew older I saw no evidence of God’s existence so I didn’t bother to start fasting. In fact, previous to receiving Yeshua, the only Yom Kippur on which I actually fasted was in 1983, a month before I came to faith. I was searching at this point, realizing that I didn’t know where I was going when I died or even if there was a God. But I wanted to know. So on the evening of September 16^th, 1983, I decided to fast along with the rest of the Jewish world.

Not long after sundown on the 17^th I ate…and boy did I eat! However, no matter how full I became physically that evening, I was still empty on the inside. I did not find God during the fast. (to read the full story of my salvation, click here)

After coming to faith I came to realize that fasting cannot remove sin. It was never intended to remove sin. It is called the Day of Atonement, not the Day of Fasting.

Fasting has become the major component or focal point of Yom Kippur, but when the Day of Atonement was given to Moses it was not. The sacrifice was. In Leviticus 16 Aaron is given detailed instructions for Yom Kippur, and while that chapter mentions fasting, it is clear that the focus is on two goats.

One goat would be sacrificed, while the priest would lay his hands on the other goat, imparting Israel’s sin to the goat. The goat would then be released into the desert.

Fasting cannot and did not atone for sin. The passage could not be clearer:

“…because on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you.” (Lev. 16:30)

“The priest who is anointed and ordained to succeed his father as high priest is to make atonement.” (Lev. 16:32)

You cannot atone for your own sins, “atonement will be made for you.” The priest would intercede for the people and the goat would receive the judgment that Israel deserved. But Jewish children all over the world are taught wrongly, as I was, that you can atone for your own sins through fasting. This is because the Temple was destroyed in 70 CE. With the destruction of the Temple came the end of sacrifices. No more priests; no more goats. (The goats were happy!) The emphasis was then moved from blood sacrifice to fasting.

To be fair, I don’t know many rabbis that teach that you can sin with reckless abandon and simply fast on Yom Kippur, but the way to forgiveness in virtually all Jewish circles is not by relying on a innocent substitute, but on that which you can do: fasting, good deeds, repentance, giving and prayer.  All good things, but good deeds cannot erase bad ones anymore than not murdering someone can’t erase one’s guilt for murdering someone else (or stealing, lying, etc.)

Why Fast?

There was purpose in the fast, just not to atone for sin. The corporate national fast, was meant to be a gesture of humility and the correct posture in which you ask for mercy. Here is an example. When I was a young man I was arrested for shoplifting in a J.C. Penney’s. While everything was handled out of court and I was able to do community service, I can imagine if my case went to trial. How would I dress when I presented myself before the judge? A t-shirt and ripped jeans, with a cigarette behind my ear? Or would I go out and buy a suit and tie, and present myself in a way that showed I understood the seriousness of the situation? Obviously, the latter. It would not guarantee leniency, but it would certainly heighten my chances.

In this same way, fasting was not purposed to atone for sin, but was the proper attire, if you will, to present your offering before the Lord. It expressed to God an acknowledgment of sin and a brokenness over it, but was not intended to deal with it. Only the shedding of blood can atone for sin.

For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life. (Lev. 17:11)

Should We Fast?

The Bible says that Yom Kippur “is to be lasting ordinance for the generations to come.” (Lev. 23:31). And yet, as believers in the New Covenant we know that Yeshua fulfilled Yom Kippur in that He was the once-for-all-time sacrifice for sin (Heb. 9:26-28). So how should Jewish believers deal with Yom Kippur?

In the same way that the Yom Kippur fast was the proper posture of humility to present the offering, so too is it the proper act of humility to commemorate Yeshua’s work of salvation. We should fast as a way of saying thank you to Yeshua for taking our sin. It is not a work to earn something, even as before Yeshua, the fast was not intended that way, but rather an expression of thanksgiving and gratefulness.

For example, imagine that you saved my life. I was walking across the street and a car was about to hit me. I was seconds away from death, as I didn’t see it coming. At the last millisecond you pushed me out of the way only to have the car hit you instead. You die in my place. How would I act towards your memory for the rest of my life? Would I not visit your grave regularly leaving flowers? Would a day go by in which I didn’t consider your sacrifice? Would I not do everything to make sure your family is provided for? If I were truly grateful, yes, I would do all those things and more.

In the same way, we must remember Yeshua’s sacrifice. Fasting is one of those ways that expresses thanksgiving. It is a way of remembering that He took our bullet.  It recognizes that we are weak humans and there was nothing we could have done to save ourselves. This is why Yeshua was so disgusted by those who would use fasting as a means of impressing others with their spirituality. Fasting was meant for the exact opposite—as a means of humbling ourselves before God.

Furthermore, it can be a time of intercession for unbelieving Israel. It was people like Anna (Luke 2) that fasted and interceded for the Messiah to come, and He came. She was able to read the writings of the prophets and pray. We, also, know that the scriptures promise a great awakening for Israel (Hosea 3:5, Zech. 12:10, Rom. 11:26). Fasting on Yom Kippur and praying for Israel can be a powerful tool to see that awakening realized.

In closing, may you have a Tzom Kal, and Easy Fast, and may the presence of Yeshua be close to you.

An Open letter to my Jewish Friends on Rosh Hashana

There was a story about a man who had inherited a substantial amount of money. The problem was that he did not know it, and when he was finally found and told, he would not believe it.

On this day before Rosh Hashana we prepare to utter the traditional blessing, one to another: May your name be inscribed for a good year. We share these words between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kipper because of the belief that our destinies are set on Rosh Hashana based on the prior year’s actions and during the ten days between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, we can change that destiny, through good works, repentance, giving and prayer.

Of course this idea is found nowhere in the Jewish scriptures. In actuality, we can be sure that our names are written in God’s Book of Life forever, without the fear of it ever being removed. The only question is will you be like the inheritor who refused to believe or will you open your heart to the possibility that God has something great for you?

For centuries endless sacrifices were made in the Jewish Temple. However in 70 CE the Temple was destroyed and there have been no sacrifices for sin ever since. What’s more, the Talmud (Tractate Yoma 39b) says that the last 40 years, from 30 CE to 70 CE, the Yom Kippur sacrifices were rejected by God Almighty. What happened 40 years before that in 30 CE to cause God to reject the sacrifices?

That was the year that Yeshua (Jesus) was sacrificed for the sins of Israel and the world. I know you think of Jesus as a non-Jewish concept, but all of His original followers were Jewish. It wasn’t until many years after his death (and resurrection), that non-Jews began to believe in him—and initially all these non-Jews were told they would have to become Jewish in order to believe in him. After all, He was the Jewish Messiah (not from some other people) and He came to Israel (not Rome!). In the end, the Gentile believers were told they did not have to become Jewish—but  it never entered the mind of the Jewish believers that they were anything but Jewish.

Isaiah, the Jewish prophet, predicted Yeshua’s death, 700 years before He came, as the ultimate sacrifice. Isaiah prophesied that a man would come from Israel to Israel. He would be rejected, but he would not defend Himself. He would die as a sacrifice for sin and yet see life again. Read the Old Covenant passage for yourself!

The point is that we no longer have to wonder if we will be inscribed in God’s book. The book of Hebrews says that Yeshua was the once for all time and all sin sacrifice that pleased Adonai. He died in our place. Through His sacrifice we can have eternal life.

But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Messiah was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. (Hebrews 9:26-28)

Yes, He will appear a second time to bring salvation and usher in the Messianic Age, but He came first to deal with our sin. As a friend of mine once said, He had to first bring peace to our hearts, before He can bring peace to the world.

Many years ago as a young adult I attended a lecture at the Jewish Community Center. I sat and listened to a rabbi as he sought to discredit Messianic Jews. He went on for some time. At the end, a young Jewish girl with black clothing and purple hair asked him a question in front of the hundreds assembled. How can I know God?

The rabbi, who had a plethora of information to damage the reputation of Messianic Judaism, did not know how to answer her. He could tell what not to believe, but he could not introduce her to a living relationship with her Creator. In the end, he simply told her to study the holy books. Her expression made it clear that she did not get the answer for which she had hoped.

Through faith in the Jewish Messiah, Yeshua, you can truly know God—not just know about Him. When you ask Him to forgive your sins He will, because Yeshua already suffered for your transgressions. And that is why the Yom Kippur sacrifices (according to the Talmud! According to the Rabbis!) were rejected every year after the death of Yeshua—because they were no longer needed.

My hope and prayer for you during this Holy season, is not that you will be inscribed for a good year, but that you, through faith in Yeshua, will be inscribed for eternity!

I have not written this to be offensive in any way, though I am sure some will receive it that way. I have written this out of deep concern and care for your eternal destination. I want to see you in the Messianic Age when He returns.

Sincerely,

Ron Cantor
ron@cantorlink.com