Romans 10:1-3 (NIV)
Earlier this week, my wife and I were reading the testimony of an Orthodox Jew who came to faith. Or to be more correct, my wife was translating a testimony for me while I stared blankly at the computer screen. I have included an English Translation of the testimony below and the link to the original testimony is here:
As I was reading this testimony, I felt this man gave a clear example of how Jewish people view Christianity. Christianity is a serious threat to Rabbinic Judaism. Yeshua spoke against the teachings of the Pharisees, which are the same teachings the Rabbis teach today.
The Rabbis teach Jews about the antiemetic Church. They teach them all the things the church did in the name of Jesus, in the name of the cross. They teach how the New Covenant scriptures are the poison that teaches Christians to hate Jews and forbid them from reading them. If you have time, here is a great article from the Jerusalem Post about how the New Covenant Scriptures were sent to all the members of the Knesset:
Missionaries in the Knesset?
Recently, I have been sharing with you a lot of information about the history between Christians and Jews. I am not sharing it to make Christians feel guilty, but so that you can understand what is being taught to religious Jews. I am trying to help you see the Jewish roots in the scriptures, not to change how you live, but so that you can show Jewish people their Messiah in the scriptures written by their people. Perspective makes all the difference in the world.
Here is the testimony:
Who are you?
(posted with permission from http://www.oneforisrael.org/)
My
name is Yaron. I have been married for 11 years with 3 children. I was
born into a religious family; "knitted skullcaps [kippot, yarmulkes or
yamakas]", but religion did not fit me at a young age. I remember
myself as a child in primary school, muttering prayers without any
conviction. When I muttered them, too often I never really said them,
but it was enough to convey the appropriate amount of devotion to please
the teachers.At that time I knew only the less beautiful portrayals of God and religion. I grew up learning more about the vengeful and punitive, and less about the "merciful God." There was a lot of hypocrisy around me which was very disturbing. The term "appearance" (it is forbidden to do certain actions which in themselves are not sin, but appear as if they sin, while other actions that are sinful are allowed) was for me the embodiment of the established religious hypocrisy. It bothered me that there was too much irrelevance in many of the mitzvot, such as: What is the connection between the prohibition of work on Saturday and electrical lighting? You drag yourself up and down four flights of stairs instead of using the elevator.
Another issue that bothered me was the prayers in the synagogue. How are you going to talk with God and mean every word I say, if half of what I'm saying I do not understand, and the other half I'm not fast enough to complete because the Cantor is in such a hurry to go home. I'm still on the "Shema" and he has already finished the "Eighteen [Blessings]."
I mustered the courage at age 17 or so, and I confessed to my father that I did not want to have his religious life. I also left the yeshiva to go to a secular school. My father took it hard and wouldn't talk to me for a year and a half, from twelfth grade, until joining the Army and not much after that. My mom did not take it as hard as my father and she continued to speak with me. The only thing my father would say to me was "the food is ready,” and other basic things, but he never talked to me. It was a period of lawlessness for me. I would go to a restaurant specifically to eat pork and other unclean food.
The turnaround happened at the end of the basic training. After the induction ceremony, my father approached me and asked to make an agreement. He said, in light of the situation, that he understands that I am an adult, so he gets my decision regarding the secular life. The agreement was simple: "As long as you are at home - you obey the custom of the house; you wear a skullcap on your head, you do not turn the light on during the Sabbath and you eat only kosher food at home. Out of the house, you do what you want." After this we became best friends and the agreement lasted until I was 25 years old, until my wedding.
Genesis 2:24 reads, "… so he left his father and mother, to cleave to his wife, and they become one flesh." This made me the head of a family and as such I received the authority to act as an "adult." But the truth is, in the last decade I felt this lack of faith and spirituality. I looked for it in the arts and all sorts of Eastern religions – New Age. I even returned to the religion of my father (for real this time) for a few months in late 2008. I had a great feeling of safety under God and felt His warmth, but again those things from my childhood bothered me. The Cantor in the synagogue again hurried through the prayers and I quickly looked around and wondered how all the other men thought they could "really talk to God” in their prayers.
It's like what is important to God is to "check off" this morning’s prayers, not whether you prayed from the depths of your soul or had a deep talk with God. I'm sure I am aggravating an entire religious community who do pray with sincerity, but I can only speak from my own 30 years of experience.
I first learned about Jesus, almost against my will, during my undergraduate studies. I am studying for a BA in history. About six months ago I took a course on the "History of the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages." By the way, this is a dark time period, in religious terms, for Orthodox Judaism. But the point is, the first thing I had to do was read the New Testament, since you can’t learn about the Catholic Church without knowing the basic concepts of New Testament Christianity. Lo and behold, my ignorance was lifted, I learned, to my great surprise, that the New Testament was written by the Jewish disciples, about a Jew named Jesus and the events that happened in the Jewish community in Israel.
I must here stop a moment and interrupt my train of thought, to admire the elaborate mechanism of self-preservation that has been instilled in us by the rabbinic tradition for over 2000 years. Rabbis have no problem reading the Koran, but the New Testament is an abomination. It is a book we should not touch, let alone read. It is taboo in the religious community, and rightly so. “Do not read the New Testament! This book is dangerous! You may find the knowledge (you may insert your religious faith here) doesn’t want you to know!” Who knows, maybe the people will start to believe that the rabbis hid their obvious concerns from you, that the Messiah has already arrived, and no one bothered to tell you.
I realized that Jesus preached right up against all the things that had troubled me about religion from when I was a teenager. “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.” Matthew 6:1-2
“When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.” Matthew 6:16
I still hide my faith underground, leading a double life. My wife does not know about my faith (although at any given moment there is at least one "new covenant" book in every room in the house, and a lot of Christian literature on the tables.) I’m not going to bring up the conversation and tell her: "You see, I wanted to tell you that ...", I'm waiting for a question, for the door to open for me to tell her. At least one of my brothers already knows, but it really does not interest him. It would be difficult for my parents.
I have had lots and theological debates with my dad recently. He even agrees with me that there are things that do not make sense (like not being able to use an elevator on Shabbat) but he said he was already used to living like that and he’s not going to change. My grandmother also told me this, but they do not know that my opinion was not merely secular, but came from somewhere else – from something better. The guys at work know and it does not bother them.
Jesus sacrificed himself for me, and for you. He took my sins (which are many) and now, I am saved. I believe as he taught us. It's not easy. Jesus sets before us a much higher standard than that set by the rabbis for themselves. But this is a subject for another time.
