Countering Christian Missionaries and Messianists

Jews for Judaism's Counselors Help Bring the People of the Book Back Into the Fold
By MAX GROSS

Scott Hillman was in the lobby of a Virginia Beach hotel that was hosting a convention for messianic Jews when a woman approached him. "You're a nice Jewish boy; don't you know Yeshua HaMashiach [Jesus the Messiah] was predicted in the Tanakh?" she said in a thick Israeli accent.

Hillman — executive director of the countermissionary group Jews for Judaism, started in 1985 in response to Jews for Jesus — was prepared. He asked the woman which verse, exactly, anticipated Jesus. The woman produced an English-language Bible and pointed to Isaiah 7:14, where it said that a virgin will conceive and bear a son.

Hillman asked the woman if she could read Hebrew. "Of course," she said. He then pulled out a Bible of his own and pointed to the same verse in Hebrew. The woman shouted, "Mah Pitom!" ("What gives!") The Hebrew word used was "ha-almah"; it means "young woman," not "virgin."

And thus another Jew began the journey back to Judaism, thanks to the dedication of Jews for Judaism.

Hillman can often be found lurking around hotels or convention centers — or any locale where Jews for Jesus, the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations, the Chosen People Ministries or other Hebrew Christian groups is having a convention.

"At these conventions [Hebrew Christians] normally check into a hotel," Hillman told the Forward over a Diet Coke. "We check into the same hotel and make ourselves available. But we don't approach."

Jews for Judaism officials usually just stand around the hotel lobby. They don't preach or raise their voices. "You're not going to get anyone back by screaming," Hillman said. Many Hebrew Christians feel responsible for "educating" their "misguided" brethren, and so Hillman and his ilk are almost always approached.

There are roughly 900 evangelical organizations that pour money into missionary work aimed at Jews. Jews for Jesus, for example, has a $10 million budget for a 66-city, five-year plan called "Behold Your God." The goal: To convince as many Jews as possible that Jesus is the messiah.

More than 275,000 Jews worldwide over the past 25 years have been converted by Hebrew Christian missionaries, according to Jews for Judaism's Web site. But, as Hillman pointed out, this is a sketchy figure; estimates range from 50,000 to 1 million, depending on the source.

Jews for Judaism is far smaller than its messianic rivals, with only 15 full-time staffers spread between its Baltimore, Los Angeles and Toronto offices; their countermissionary efforts are supplemented by volunteers from the Jewish Community Relations Councils.

Not all of the volunteers have Hillman's restraint, according to David Brickner, national executive director of Jews for Jesus. "Some of them are real nice, real friendly [but] one woman... started cursing me out."

Hillman does not condone screaming. "We won't do anything we can't sign our names to," Hillman said. And in its quiet way, Jews for Judaism — which dispatches a squad of counter-leafleters whenever it catches wind of a Jews for Jesus session — has earned a prominent place on the radar screens of messianic organizations.

Hillman says that conference organizers have gone so far as to make attendees take an oath not to speak to him and to assign security guards to monitor him.

The edgy war between Jews for Judaism and the Hebrew Christian movement is as strong as ever, with Israel as its controversial new battleground. Asked why members of Jews for Jesus consider themselves Jews even as they view Jesus as the messiah, Brickner said, "We don't want to stop our Jewishness: We value our heritage; we support Israel."

"When I became a follower of Jesus," Brickner added, "I didn't stop eating corned beef sandwiches."

This summer, the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations organized a solidarity mission with Messianic Believers in Israel, which rented out space for the conference on Kibbutz Ramat Rachel, just outside Jerusalem. The kibbutz residents were unaware of the messianic group's agenda. It was the first time the messianic union held a convention in the Holy Land. Hillman, of course, had flown there to greet them — with a crack squad from Jews for Judaism in tow.

"We spoke to over 1,000 people over the course of the 10 days, and we got 5,000 copies of [our literature] out in Hebrew," Hillman said. Jews for Judaism met with 16 Israelis for "counseling." The idea of opening a Jews for Judaism office in the Jewish state was raised.

In Israel there are well over 100 Hebrew Christian congregations, organizations and seminaries with roughly 7,000 followers, according to Hillman. There are more Hebrew Christian institutions than Reform or Conservative ones combined. The Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations seems to be most successful with Jews from the former Soviet Union, who are often unfamiliar with the laws and practices of Judaism.

"Any time there's any vulnerability, they take aim," said Larry Levey, who from 1985 to 1989 served as the president of Jews for Judaism and is himself a former Jew for Jesus.

"It's an interesting group that gets involved" in messianic Judaism, Levey said. He said he agrees with one of his friends — another countermissionary — who once said that it was very different dealing with converts to Christianity compared with Jews who became Buddhists or Hare Krishnas. "They're a different breed... laid-back, sweet.... These fundamentalist groups are not! They're mean, deceptive, hostile!"

The hostility some Jews feel for Christian missionaries can be attributed in part to two millennia of Christian persecution. Buddhists and Hare Krishnas don't tend to inspire the same heated emotions.

Levey grew up in a Conservative home in Rockland County, N.Y. After graduating from Antioch Law School, he went to work at a Washington law firm. "I had everything that was supposed to make me happy, yet somehow I felt empty," Levey said. In 1980 one of his clients, an Evangelical Christian, began speaking to him about Jesus. "They said that by believing in Jesus, I wouldn't give up Judaism — I would just be a fulfilled Jew."

Indeed, Congregation Beth Messiah — the Hebrew Christian congregation in Rockville, Md., that Levey joined — had a distinctly Jewish feel, with its yarmulke-wearing congregants and chasidic-sounding hymns. There were no crosses, and no mention was made of "Jesus" or the "Virgin Mary," only "Yeshua" and "Miriam." Newcomers were not "baptized"; they were dunked in a "mikvah."

Levey convinced his brother and sister to join Jews for Jesus and then quit his job so that he could spend his days proselytizing on college campuses. But this "became very tiresome," he said. He disliked the way his fellow believers shunned both people who left the movement and countermissionary literature.

After meetings with Jews for Judaism in 1982, Levey returned to Judaism. He himself became a counselor for the countermissionary group, drawing upon his own experiences. Brickner of Jews for Jesus dismisses Levey's claim that his organization targets the vulnerable. "We target everybody — anyone who's been willing to talk to us," Brickner said. And that includes Christians as well as Jews.

Like Levey, many revert back to Judaism, although no one in the countermissionary movement can say just how many. Jews for Judaism, along with a handful of other countermissionary groups, has brought hundreds — perhaps thousands — back into the fold.

Rabbi Tovia Singer is the founder of Outreach Judaism, an international countermissionary organization. Singer, who hosts a Tuesday night radio show on 98.7 FM, estimates that he brings back between one and two Jews per week. "It usually takes about nine hours of counseling," he said, "but the success rate is very high."

Singer tries to address their spiritual concerns with seriousness; his reasonability often spawns trust. For those who don't meet with him one-to-one, Outreach Judaism sells Singer's lectures on tape.

An evangelical pastor in Palestine, Texas, ordered the tapes so that he could better counter the countermissionaries. To his own surprise, he was so moved that he decided to convert to Judaism. He now lives in the chasidic Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights.

Bereshet...

The large beit, the first letter of the Torah and the beginning of Creation, expresses this ultimate purpose, as is said: "The final deed arose first in thought."

Rabbi Yitzchok (Isaac) said: "Why is the á "Beth" open on one side, and closed on the other side"?

He offers the following answer: "When Man comes along in order to unite with the Torah, the open side of the á "Beth" indicates that the Torah is ready to receive him and to participate with him, meaning to co-operate with him".

However, when man closes his eyes and diverts from the Torah, walking away into another path, the Torah then conceals herself from the other side, resembling the right side of the á "Beth".

The following is expressed in Proverbs, thus:
THE TORAH SAYS TO MAN: IF YOU WILL FORSAKE ME FOR ONE DAY, I WILL, IN TURN, MOVE AWAY FROM YOU THE DISTANCE OF TWO DAYS. MAN WILL NOT BE ABLE TO FIND HIS ENTRANCE TO THE TORAH UNTIL HE REPENTS AND BECOMES UNITED WITH THE TORAH, FACE TO FACE, AND THUS NOT ALLOW HIMSELF TO BE MOVED FROM THE TORAH ANY MORE.

THEREFORE, THE TORAH CALLS OUT TO MAN: TO YOU, MAN, I AM CALLING: "UNTO YOU, O MAN, I CALL; AND MY VOICE IS TO THE SONS OF MAN. SHE CRIETH IN THE CHIEF PLACE OF CONCOURSE, IN THE OPENING OF THE GATES, IN THE CITY SHE UTTERETH HER WORDS …"

211) Rabbi Yehuda said: The á "Beth" has the Image of two roofs and one line which unites them. We learn from this that one of the roofs points to heaven above, which is "Z.A"; whereas the other points toward the earth, which is "Malchut" (Kingdom). The Creator, who is "Yesod" (Foundation) is united with them and is receiving them.

Rabbi Elozor said: The first three upper lights are holy, that is, they are the three pillars which constitute one unity and make up the whole Torah. It is they who open the doors to all treasures, meaning that they bestow bounty to the "Emoonoh" ("Malchut").

The three pillars" house everything, which explains why they are called "House". It is because they are the three pillars of the "Beth", which refer to the three pillars relating to "Z.A". Thus, the three pillars are a house.

This is why the Torah begins with the letter á "Beth"; for the á "Beth" is actually the Torah and she is the healing balm of the world. Therefore, laboring in the Torah is tantamount to being occupied with the Holy Name.

212) We have learned that the whole Torah is actually an Upper Holy Name. Hence, inasmuch as the Torah is a Holy Name, she begins with the letter "Beth", which is the principle of the Holy Name; that is to say: The á "Beth" consists of the three letters called å "Vov".

The three "Vovin" of the initial letters of the three words "Vayiso", "Vayovey" and "Vayeit", which symbolize the three "Vovs" of pillars of "Z.A", constitute the three ties that bestow upon the "Emoonoh" ("Malchut").

213) Behold, all those who labor in the Torah are uniting with the Maker, and are crowned with the crowns of the Torah. They are beloved above and below.

GOD, stretches out His right hand to them, which is the light of "Chessed", (Mercy).

How much greater then is the merit of those who labor in the Torah at night! The Sages of the Zohar have established the fact that such students of the Torah co-operate with the "Shechinah", "Malchut", thereby uniting with her.

Kabbalah-web
http://www.kabbalah.info/engkab/zohar/207.htm

The Mashiach will close the open side--The integration of free will and Omniscience.

Revelation 3
7 And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; 8 I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.

Thus, the three pillars are a house.

1 John 5
7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. 8 And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one. 9 If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son.

Yohanan 8:12
Then Yeshua spoke to them again, saying, "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life."

Light Alef-Vav-Reish, as in...

Bereshet 1
3 Then G-d said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. 4 And G-d saw the light, that it was good; and G-d divided the light from the darkness.

Shalom!

Toda Rabbah for the excellent article and notes on Beit.

For those who do not yet Believe Yeshua HaMoshiach IS The Jewish Messiah, please Read The BIBLE.

God's Prophet Zechariah wrote these words according to Ruach HaKodesh:

On The Great Day of HaShem:"And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son. On that Day the weeping in Jerusalem will be great, like the weeping of Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo." (Zechariah 12:10-11, NIV).

And also we find this similar passage in Revelation:

"Look, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of Him. So shall it be! Amen.

I AM the Aleph and the Tav, says The Lord GOD, Who IS, and Who Was, and Who IS to Come, The Almighty Living GOD."

(Revelation 1:7-8, NIV).

Your fight is not with us...take it to The LORD in honest Prayer, ask Him to show You Who The Messiah IS!

And HE will!

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