Rabbi Tovia Singer Project Inspire Convention 2022 Motzai Shabbos Keynote

most of my work does not involve standing in front of audiences as i am right now my life is dedicated to helping jews in the church return back to the truth and the beauty of the jewish faith i've done this for more than 40 years people ask me the question frequently how did a nice jewish boy like you from [Music] borough park brooklyn you heard of his bed it's a new upcoming community you heard about it i don't know if it'll make it not make it how did you ever get involved in helping jews in the church return back to the jewish faith so we're going to be spending a little time together this evening and tomorrow morning i want to tell you a little bit about myself grew up in a very traditional jewish home on meiji shabbos and even like this i remember i was 16 years old and we did a virgin we ended shabbat in a very traditional way it went to moja peking it was after dinner going back to find the car as we were crossing fifth avenue and 47th street i could see young men three young men pasting up posters on the lamppost and it said come this tuesday night the jews for jesus and learn more about your jewish messiah and i was shocked it was like a bomb went off inside of me how is it possible and i walked over to them and i began to argue with them i'm sure there are many of you sitting here tonight who've seen these missionaries on the streets of new york engaged with them it was a conversation that was going absolutely nowhere very quickly in the middle of this whole thing there was a fellow an elderly man who was watching this spectacle and he walked over to me he grabbed my arm he schlepped me away from them and he said don't you argue with them you don't know enough if you want to do something here tonight too but to combat these missionaries why don't you just follow them around and as they paste up all their posters well you were there you schlepped them down i'm thinking what are you talking about i mean i i went to i learned in the mirror yeshiva we had a whole space station named after all yeshiva i don't know enough to argue with these fellows i should be relegated to some kind of work like pulling posters down this would be my big contribution to the jewish people and i was very frustrated and walked away from that the following following spring i visited air testosterone for the first time in my life my uncle zachereno lebron lived in the old city of islam on recovery ladakh first time in airstrial took a taxi to the parking lot dragging my suitcases through the old city and my uncle greets me in front of his home and he was so excited and he told me by sheer chance the last shop is he had a very unusual guest at his home who did he have my uncles was at a a bookstore stymetsky's bookstore and he met a a swedish minister invited him to spend the entire shabbos at his home when shabbat was over it's time for the minister to go he wanted to show some gratitude for the hospitality that had been extended to him and he gave my uncle a gift this minister gave my uncle a present what present do you think he gave my uncle he gave him again if someone else was there ready yes he gave not just a new testament he gave him a king james bible not any king james bible a red letter edition and he shows this off to me says give a look at this give a look at this like he had the manual from the other team and i told him that's exactly what i wanted to read and i took it from him and i began to study it i remember praying at the western wall a few days later i was dominating at the kotel thinking about my great grandfather after whom i was named who was murdered in the spring of 1944 he couldn't be there i was i'm you know first time there to show first time in the holy land praying at a place so holy and i'm davening i'm just i'm in a very very special place and suddenly i feel a tap on my shoulder i turn around there's a fellow standing there with the yarmouth on his head you know the cardboard one with the staple they give out for free when you go down the ramp that one and he said excuse me do you know the lord what am i doing are you playing handball what do you do i know the lord i said of course i do he said you mean you know who yeshua is and i said of course i do i went to yeshiva with him he was in my class i was thinking yeshua jacob was right there in front of the western wall began to unravel this cross-cultural communications problem i spent two weeks studying with him inaudible this gentleman returned back the truth and the beauty of the jewish faith 22 years ago i want to say this to you my dear brothers and sisters to bring the jew home from the church the darkest place imaginable inspire more than two decades ago i was shopping in pathmark in muncie i don't think it's there anymore i had a pathmark on route 59. my wagon was filled with groceries and i was placing them on the belt for the cashier to ring me a lot a lot of stuff was in there and the fellow behind me he i could see he was a rough clearly at a hat and he's taking groceries out of my wagon and he's putting it on the belt for me and i said you don't have to do that he said rabbi singer you don't remember me i looked at him beard from jew who are you how is that boy from long island i'm a reviewer in muncie now our people are coming home people are coming home it's unbelievable i remember getting a phone call from a mother hysterically crying she was she was changing the dust ruffle under a door by a daughter's mattress and she discovered a christian bible underneath her daughter's bed and a fight breaks out in the kitchen and only mothers and daughters are capable of she called me karov told me to call me and i explained that in order for me to help your daughter i would need to meet with her and we met in in great neck new york it's a very fancy place i'd never been there before very fancy place the house had its own zip code it's a very nice area i sat down across the kitchen table from this young lady she went to boston university she went to boston university because her boyfriend was in medical school you there in the six year program at bu she told me that when she moved into her room in the dorm room as it turned out her roommate was a born-again christian can tell from her name that she's jewish and gave her a christian bible as a present as a gift she said i didn't really want such a thing i didn't like such a thing made her uncomfortable she took it why she didn't want to start and she stuck with this girl for the whole semester she took it she didn't read it she put it aside she said two weeks into the semester for a reason she does not know she does not understand her boyfriend broke up with her and it shattered her life she said that every dream she had was destroyed when he walked away from her she was laying there in bed crying her brains out her life was over everything was done he said rabbi i decide i remembered that christian bible that i was given by my roommate and i decided maybe there's something in there that can help me at this very desperate moment and i decided to open it and began to read it and he said that i found a verse in the christian bible in the new testament in the gospels she her words those the words in the book of mark touched me so deeply she knew that the new testament had to be the word of god and jesus had to be your messiah she knew it a little surprised to hear that and i asked her what pasik i thought i read through it i didn't know where what possible new testament was so moving was so transformative that you went she said well i'd love to read it to you so she took the bible with king james and she turns a few pages and she begins to read to me from mark chapter 12 and it goes like this you shall love the lord your god with all your heart all your soul and all your might oh you read the new testament this section here knows the new testament backwards and forwards never this girl didn't know this comes from the sacred creed of our people from the book of deuteronomy that every jew says every single day she never didn't know she asked isn't there anything true in this new testament i said anything true in the new testament is not new and anything new isn't true she was on an ill flight the following tuesday and learning in new shalom and now lives in silver spring maryland and return back to the truth and the beauty of the jewish people that's what project that's what inspire means i remember speaking in fairfax virginia i'll end with this speaking in fairfax virginia for those who don't know this fairfax is a bedroom community for the capital people live in fairfax and work in the capital federal agents met one he works for the secret service of the united states he does not protect the president or his family he trains agents how to detect counterfeit currency met him at a lecture they gave in his synagogue and i asked them how do you train agents you must have a real fantastic collection of fake money that's been confiscated over the years and the agents study it and they can identify it right away he said rabbi that is not the way we train our agents here the way we train our agents how does that count with money is we show them real money it's printed on a paper there's no other paper like in the world there are shifting watermarks fine line engravings agents study real money real american currency why because you take an agent with that kind of training and dare dare to put a counselor in his hand he will know it immediately kindle my brothers and sisters what am i saying to you what's the message of inspire am i saying to you that in order to protect yourselves and those that you love against missionaries who want to take your children away from you maybe we should start training our kids in the book of matthew they should know the synoptic gospels by heart maybe they should know all the letters of paul not the new testament backwards and forwards you are wasting your time know the real thing train your children those that you love in the turret in the holy terror and then no missionary will ever be able to take a relationship with them from god away from them thank you a good to all of you