This is part 9 of the 11 part series on the writer's journey back to Judaism. For the other parts, read this.
My husband was on his own journey out of the wilderness. He was googling something odd about his family just for fun. Most of his family were Polish, but some of them claimed to be Hispanic, not a usual mix:) To his surprise, his family name showed up on a Sephardic Jewish name list. What? Could his family be Jewish too, we wondered with excitement?
We ordered one of those new, fangled DNA kits and waited, and waited. Finally a million years later, the results came pouring in, that YES, he had Jewish heritage! Something turned on inside of him. He started feeling Jewish, even if it was not yet halachic. More on his full exciting, gerus story later!
He planned on teaching a class on anti-Semitism inspired by his newfound Jewish feeling. It was in his studies, that he discovered a very disconcerting truth. It was the messianic teachings he had given his life to that was the very inspiration for anti-Judaism. It became so scarily clear to him. He realized what he had been practicing was a form of replacement theology. It was a hard realization, because he had also thought this faith was so Jewish!
Meanwhile, I had received an email about a new teacher everyone simply loved! I pressed play on this hot, new teacher’s sermon, and couldn’t believe my ears! It was like listening to a Nazi of old! Pure, unabashed, anti-Semitism came pouring out while quoting “Yeshua” all the while. He claimed he and his flock were the true Israelites. Jews were phonies and not the true Biblical heirs of promise.
I cried for days, tormented inside that so called believers in “Yeshua” would find this inspiring! Why would my friends like this teacher? I didn’t understand! Didn’t everyone in our circles love the Jewish people? What was happening?!
About this time, the location we held our meetings at, informed us they were planning to sell and encouraged to move out all of a sudden. I see this now as a blessing from Hashem. We tried to find a new place, but we also thought we needed time to think. We told the attendees at our congregation what we were feeling deep inside, that G-d wasn’t in our meeting together anymore. We had come to love many of our friends there and did not seek to hurt them. Many of the fine people in our smaller circle did have a warm love for the Jewish people but did not understand that helping the Jewish people, would mean encouraging them to be faithful to G-d, and no other.
It was when we officially ended our congregation that we felt fully free to address our feelings. I searched online to see if ANYONE combated this hate teacher that was such a rising star. Surprising to me, it was not a messianic who fought back, but rather a Noachide man who was brave enough to stand up for Jews against this bully in Torah clothing.
If this Noachide man didn’t believe in Yeshua and loved the Jewish people . . . and there were folks who DID believe in “Yeshua” and mocked the Jewish people, what was I to think? And then it began. I began to think and think very carefully for the first time in a long time . . .
To Be Continued . . .