The Shabbat Show - Converted: We Chose to Be Part of The Chosen

[Music] hello everybody welcome to another episode of the shabbat show so great to be with you again wow wow wow the time is flying by so much happens in one week last week we had lag by omer and we had a show as we were doing the show little do we know that was taking place around the world would be something that would change our lives forever so much going on we're coming out of lag ba omer we're coming out of maybe one of the greatest tragedies we've experienced in the modern era we're entering into a world of shivuas where we're charting the course forward we held on to each other this past week we rebuilt and we're rebuilding it's been an incredible week an incredible weekend it's great to be with you again we've got an incredible show for you this week another shout out to our incredible project inspire team for always producing this show is once again sponsored as a program of the carl enoch goldman center for jewish values we thank jay goldman for his consistent friendship and sponsorship dedicated by jake goldman we thank him for that we've got a show today that is really very much aligned with where we're heading towards the future we're heading towards the holiday that made us who we are the holiday of shavuot it's a holiday where we accepted the torah became the nations it's holiday where we chose if you will to be jews we're we're a nation if you will of converts abraham converted in the jews so to speak had a choice and what that choice was is a whole story itself but they became something jews by choice and so this period of time is time where we're where we renew ourselves remind ourselves how lucky we are to be part of this nation today's show is going to be talking about converts jews of choice because a they're heroes and we like talking about heroes and b we're so honored to have them part of our nation and see it reminds us that for those that were born into this how special it is that we have what we have look forward to the show before we begin i want to take a minute to reflect on the events of last thursday night you know many times when we go through tragedy it reminds us that we are connected it is a time of reflection and is a time where heroes emerge that set the way we experienced this past week in that in the ashes in the tragedy voices emerged to remind us of what's important to give a strength to keep on going and we want to play for you just a few quick videos check out this first video that we have in the aftermath of the tragedy [Music] i hope that we able to get that video back on but until we do um i want to just explain to you what's going on right now this is the father who is also a teacher who brought his sons and one of his students to mayron and unfortunately his son and one of his students ended up dying i hope that we can get that video going i'm not sure if if it's frozen let's see if we get this again [Music] me i want to stop for a second so that we can appreciate what we just saw this is a father who just lost his son his 13 year old son understand what we're watching we're watching a man in the middle of his greatest fear and pain and if you noticed his words there wasn't one bit of i'm gonna i can't believe why didn't he said we're all jews we love each other let's get through this together we believe that god runs this world this is the people that mean you are a part of these are the people this is what it's like to be part of this family that in the middle of this tragedy this righteous individual is turning around and saying let's just be together let's stop fighting we're one people let's continue on to see what the rest of this man's weak look like i the officer that saved their lives comes back and they rekindle and they reconnect at the shiva and the officer says i love you and they go i love you i hope we're painting this picture over here now there's one more thing that this wonderful person does this week just to give you a sense if you remember i said that he was a teacher now here's maybe some of the hardest things is that only did he have his kids with him that night he had his students with him that night that was the gift that he gave his prize student for being great in his classroom and unfortunately that student passed away and now victor has to go and work or chooses to go on his own shiva week to pay a shiver call to the father of that boy of his student who he took the logbo omer check this out okay oh [Music] um his father showed him something and he the teacher a victor who just lost his own son says he was like a son to me and here you have two fathers that are comforting each other each one more sorry for the next you know in tragedy you start to realize how special our nation is how much we love each other how much we care for each other how much we die for each other and many of us experience that this week we experience this incredible pain for people that we never met people that we never knew sadness our very own yasi friedman who is one of our producers and one of the the leaders here in project inspire went to these shiva these shivas he didn't know that he just sat for hours and cried many did that it's because we're a family and we're a nation and we're there for each other we're there for each other in down times and at up times and so on behalf of all of us here just want to express our sorrow for what took place but i want to try if possible to find some silver lining that we can use in which we can build on this shop and the lining is is that we got something special we got something special we're part of a special people not to the exclusion of other peoples but we're part of a special people and we have to appreciate that no matter where you are no matter who you are and if you remember what this said it doesn't matter what you have on your head or what you have in your clothes or what your denomination is or what your background is or what your country is we're all part of the same we're cut from the same cloth we're all one nation and that began on chivalrous we were together in egypt but we cemented our bond that held us together for the generations during our experience in mount sinai that's the holiday coming up that's the period of time that we're in when you sandwiched passover which is a nation emerging from slavery in between shavuot which is a nation cementing with purpose you have the period of time that we're in right now that's why it's so cataclysmic that the students are really kevin weren't nice to each other it's because we have something we have to appreciate something and knowing what we have and that we chose it is part of it and tonight we're going to celebrate people that not only were born into it that learn it from ups and downs from moments of peaks or gotham moments of challenges we've people that saw it from the outside that looked at it from the glass that they were standing in and said i want to be part of it and to do that is incredibly hard and as we build our way up to the moment we all in a way converted we're celebrating converts today and talking about them and highlighting them because they're the heroes that remind us in the in the joy they remind us how lucky we are by just being able to converse with jews of choice with converts with garem they remind us of what's special and we are reminded about just how incredible there are people in this world that will find truth and will do anything to get to it and so we've got an incredible incredible incredible cast coming your way before we go check out this video about maybe the most famous famous convert of recent time uh the one and only amari stademour from the nba check this out [Music] bye [Music] [Applause] [Music] no judaism is a connection with me that i've had since i was a little boy my mother always instilled this in us about the laws of moses and so for me to go through the conversion process now at an older age it's very beautiful [Music] i would teach this because it's the halacha you know it's the law you know [Music] that was maurice dodemour and his recent conversion to judaism our first guest is gabriel sanders he's invested 20 years as minister of the christian message including four years in israel as a missionary he studies his studies of hebrew which today is his second language provided a new set of glasses to reassess the claims of who's the messiah he lives in faraway now for the last 21 years he works with he worked with art school and sarah publications for 10 years in pr and marketing he's been a hebrew language instructor in a long island private high school for the past five and a half years he's also coordinating languages teaching strategies with the hebrew department at halb he's been he's been active in jewish media producing several hundred radio programs and more recently the how and wow of hebrew is an honor to welcome gavriel sanders's show welcome to the show welcome to everyone charlie what a pleasure to be with you what a moving you know just up to this point of just sitting here stunned with a lot of emotion as you've presented the both the tragedy and the triumph of this last week wow thank you and thank you for being who you are first of all and thank you for being with us on the show especially tonight give us if you can a little bit about your background where you're from and and sort of what brought you i guess to to judaism so it's a short question has a long answer anybody interested in the more amplified version if you go to youtube and you put in these two names finer which is rabbi eitan finer mairov finer and sanders we we did about an hour and 15 minute discussion with slides last december for the ou so what i'm going to say is very short but i started out this life in georgia and on to florida texas oregon california back to go uh and other parts of the world i've lived in the seychelles islands i lived in costa rica i've lived and worked out of singapore um you know i was saudi arabia for two and a half years during the first gulf war working for the saudi navy so i've had a lot of international influence in my life much of that was looking at the world through the lenses of the christian gospel i grew up as a street kid you know a child of a divorced family different school every year all of that you know creates a certain hole in the soul i was looking for something to fill that the package that was presented to me through christianity when i heard about something called the four spiritual laws had a lot of appeal to me because i thought okay so god isn't godzilla that was my concept you know the god was very angry and fire breathing and i what was presented to me was a heavenly father that loved me and understood my feelings because it injected himself into this world through the incarnation of his son 2000 years ago and not only that he was supposed to come back but i had a role to play with that and sharing the gospel around the world and specifically reaching out to jewish people which is why i went and lived in israel for a while that living in israel and learning hebrew which is my second language today gave me a new set of glasses by which to perceive the scriptures that i thought were fulfilled in jc and some 300 different prophecies that's a big number but as i began looking at them one by one through the corrective the corrective lenses of the hebrew language i saw very clearly that as they say in hebrew zeal jose this isn't it so i had to rethink some things i i was in the church world very actively until about 1986 i left i went into about an eight year free fall picking up where i left off with a lot of things that weren't the best way to live but it was my default system where else could i go but in the back of my mind was always this lingering sense of a bunch of questions since i lived in israel i spoke hebrew i knew israeli culture well the foods everything and a lot of israeli friends and somebody said to me well do you know anything about judaism and i had to admit other than the few academic things that i'd studied i didn't and a couple things that were a catalyst for me one was personal and the other was kind of academic the personal was some friends of mine in fact my first hebrew teacher in the u.s uh who nebuchad recently passed away from this life but she had a major turnaround by going to like a discovery seminar what we call hebrew arahim values it it just made such a difference in her family and i saw it i went to spend a shabbat there and i saw an experience of shabbat that i'd never seen now by this time i had in out of curiosity migrated into the reform world that's the chapter of my life called if judy call i call it if judaism is a house i'm kind of living on the porch you know it was it was a good transition it was light for me it didn't demand a whole lot but i i quickly assessed that for me there was a lot lacking there in terms of substance it was like having a credit card that only worked at macy's you know i couldn't get an airline ticket a meal or gas a guest tank filled with that credit card and i wanted to really have uh i wanted to be part of the jewish people in the full sense so somebody said to me you need to go the harder step and i did that's its own story and you can look it up there's a lot on the internet about me so i'm good and some not go so good so look for the good charlie let me ask you this yeah i'm sorry i continue on i thought that no just one thing i want to just just the academic part uh someone gave me a book called by rabbi moricha rein from down in lakewood i think called the magic of shabbos sure i i read that book and it just blew open to me the vistas that were unseen and the it filled in so many of the blanks that i wasn't aware of and i reading that book i said i have to do this i have to go for this i have to find out and i did discover it took a long time you know my second conversion if you will uh first being reform it took almost two years it was a long haul but i was grateful and i worked with some most tremendous people i'm still in touch with today to walk into the waters of shabbos if you will and i didn't drown i you know it's like the dead sea i was it's it's held me up you know it's it's an amazing life and i somebody said you kind of took judaism for a test drive yeah but after 22 years i'm still driving the car and it's in great shape so let me ask you this because you know like i said like i think those should really again google finer um and sanders because it it pays for everyone to watch this incredible story and now only get a snippet of it we're not going to do it justice but maybe share with us one more thing which is you know as you said it's not an easy ride and and i i think there are people like us that are born jewish that feel like i can't do more it's not an easy ride and i can only imagine from your sense just how hard that ride was both the shattering of previous beliefs then the having to relearn the or or to unlearn the maladaptive behaviors you had before those beliefs and then to now navigate a whole new world was there something was there an idea a belief that you hung onto that was really driving you through the process through the challenges so that it gave you the strength to keep on rolling first of all that was one of the best summaries i've heard and i i'm gonna go back to the recording and write the transcribe those because those are really excellent inspired words summed it up very well um you know i can draw from all kinds of things i guess first of all i have to say that especially after the tragedies of this week where we feel such pain and loss but the truth is the ultimate truth is life isn't life as we know it and death is not death as we know it we are all eternal beings and we've been sent into this world to perform we're on assignment we're on temporary assignment in this thing called from the cradle to the grave and we have what to do no matter what the time frame is whether it's nine years in the case of some child in marone or if it's a 109 years for somebody we all have what to do and part of the initial part of what to do is to find out what we're here to do right so i discovered that the torah is is kind of a blueprint a road map if you will to the treasure of realization and the treasure is inside of each one of us it's not out there with this guru on that mountaintop in this meditative center it's inside of us and the torah gives us spiritual techniques uh technology really to access that and and to then be empowered by that shabbos is part of that it's called the source of blessing and one of the songs that we sing on friday night i truly found it to be that i have 22 years of experience and frankly i'll say to anybody watching you know i'm not one to be sold to bill of goods i've walked away from things before and i was a street kid so it has to take something powerful and compelling you know to get my attention and to sustain the commitment yeah that goes along with that so i guess you know for anybody that's kind of in process which the truth is every one of us is um we're not where we were and we're not yet where we're going everyone this is under construction so put on your hard hat and that's really the torah gives you the the protective equipment to go through and navigate this life but it's it's it's tremendous to discover the higher powered living that comes from being part of this community shabbat for me is time out to tune up to close out to turn off equipment demands everything to just spend time with my family my wonderful jewish family to read great books to spend time with my my wonderful friends at uh at shul to pray together to focus together to learn together this is this is it's otherworldly living really and it's a foretaste really it's a it's an appetizer for the world to come evergreen what can i say you're an inspiration i'm inspired i'm sure everyone else is inspired i i really implore point to go check this video out and find out more because it's really only going to inspire you thank you so much for what you do who you are and shining this big bright light on the world of my pleasure to be here shabbat shalom everyone stay tuned thank you so much that was gabriel sanders what an incredible individual i'm not sure what happened but but i'm back so that's great uh what an incredible individual very inspiring um i think we're going to go straight to kahoot right now we had a video planned but uh i think we're going to play that video later on we're going to go straight to kahoot i'm getting excited because i'm seeing all these shabbat shaloms popping up and it's time to play games and it's almost 8 30. so it is time to go to kahoot if you're out there remember kahoot.it check it out you have it on your app so everyone please take a second to go to kahoot and type in 651-3088-651-3088 uh we're going to be playing while we get people signing up i want to wish you shabbat shalom to the goon bolton family shabbat shalom to you guys and shabbat shalom the novak coming from toronto good to see you again jerry and eileen hirsch milwaukee shabbat shalom to you guys uh to the kirsner family rochelle and michael curtis in toronto shabbat shalom we got a special happy birthday shout out to sarah zelman novak it's her birthday today so happy birthday and thanks so much for being a part of this tahenya from toronto shabbat shalom rifka tyler shabbat shalom to you shabbat shalom let's get almost going one more minute well ten more seconds and we're going to get the kahoot thing going shabbat shalom to the silver family in highland park new jersey shabbat shalom to rm shabbat shalom to sharon from virginia shabbat shalom to mitsuri mitzi cohen shabbat shalom to you as well okay let's get rolling over here uh let's get the games beginning kahoot we're back excited for it let's get rolling first question here we go what special mitzvah is there in the torah regarding converts to love the convert to honor the convert not to harm the convert or to help the convert what special mitzvah in the torah do we have regarding our lovely wonderful hidden heroes that are converts love honor not harm or help shabbat shalom to nama siegel karas coming to coming to us from grand rapids michigan shabbat shalom to you here's the first answer the answer is to love we got some good response there of course we love them they're awesome shabbat shalom rm jumps on top rachel saraz novak toronto and the silvers we should get some familiar people on the board over here excited to have them playing the hoot again here we go which of these famous personalities grandchildren converted richard nixon haman napoleon or genghis khan which famous person had grandkids that converted richard nixon haman napoleon or genghis khan mark and michelle mandelman from mottvel shabbat shalom shabbat shalom to linda from boston shabbat shalom to stuart federer from houston thanks so much for being part of the seven seconds left shabbat shalom to lisa weber from pomona shabbat shalom to you and the answer is haman believe it or not can you believe that haman's kids actually can you how how how awesome is god's sense of humor the man trying to wipe out the jews had grandkids who were jews can you imagine if he was alive looking going to like you know the little sitter play you rm rachel s m fam novak family rachel g awesome let's keep on rolling question three on the day of a male's conversion he receives a prayer book a talis a gefilte fish or a circumcision when a man converts what does he get prayer book talos to filter fish or a circumcision the yakuba family shabbat shalom from new york shabbat shalom to you and gavriel sanders thank you again for an incredible interview appreciate who you are aviva himmelstein from toronto shabbat shalom to also remember you can always uh come onto my facebook page we'd love to see you there two seconds left for the third question answer is circumcision just to give you an even more of a reason to love converts rachel s m pham novak toronto rachel g and winner is climbing up the board last question is where it all happens last question for what happens when adult converts to jerusalem to judaism they grow a big nose a bottle of manishevits is sent to their home they're now obligated in the commandments of the torah they can field all accounting questions in the synagogue lobby this is a gimme for those that don't have stereotypes in their heads debbie laufer shabbat shalom to you michael weingarten my good friend from germany shabbat shalom to you ken winkler my brother shabbat shalom shabbat shalom desi blocker shabbat shalom to all of you and continue please anybody please jump into these shabbat shaloms the answer is yeah you do commandments i want to know who said i just want to know if we can get the data on who voted for the manishevitz bottle and who voted for the accounting questions we love you all the same let's see what happens let's see who wins here goes third place mervis family congratulations second place m family i wonder if it's also the mervis family and number one the answer is the winner for tonight's kahoot is rachel s climbs the leaderboard congratulations winner and the novak toronto is uh as well reaches the board thanks so much for being a part of it check out this incredible video um coming at you from h.com check this out okay welcome to the shabbat table welcome to october my family is currently converting to judaism i like judaism we want to become jewish [Music] i was born in kenya and i grew up in in a small town known as ed bargon we started our conversion last year and so it's one whole year and so we are halfway now part of the conversion is they must eat kosher and they must have a kosher kitchen it wasn't easy like for the kids to remember which day she is for the meat which one is for the milk so the kids came up with the remembering and so it has been very amazing for them putting their stickers so that we could uh remind each other we don't find it so difficult now we're really used to it it's really easy because we've had them for a long time [Music] i was born in the former republic of sudan so i grew up among the dinka people of the sudan i never heard of the jewish people before the war the war i know very well i got very graphic pictures of what happened so these these are lost boys all of these ones here so i'm here the lost boys of sudan what happened was after the war broke out the the sudan liberation army asked the parents to give up their sons to be taught in bush school but that was not the truth because they wanted to go and train us up as soldiers i escaped i did escape to the republic of kenya i was still in christianity then i came across this group of people that were kenyans but they were introducing judaism from the 1940s by a jew from jerusalem this guy because i was already shattered i'm hunting for the truth and he saw in my eyes that i really wanted to know god from that point onward that was the beginning of everything so basically my kids go to a jewish school so i'm just going to pick them up and on the way and i mean i'm gonna buy something nice for them for the shabbat we are converting and we are learning more about the jewish role so it's very exciting for us but to our family and to our friend they find it very strange they always say so how do you fit in to the people who are outside is a strange thing to see a colored person joining you know people who are caucasian physically i look like the where i was born but inside of me i'm trying a very different person so if i go among jews i am actually fit in because that's where i belong but if i go among my people where i was born i don't fit in because my soul is different maybe we start with your friends me me me so before we eat what [Music] this this year last year since we came to the community and the community is very welcoming and very friendly it's all a transition i'm not the only one making the change through these the human beings that come in contact with me and plus you know the seeking for the truth the transition is happening everyone is looking forward to finishing the conversion and there is a party at the synagogue and everyone will come us and we become part of the community [Music] fully amazing amazing amazing see how people are struggling and striving what i love most about this video besides just these incredible individuals who alone are striving for being part of our of our people what i love about it is just how little we can judge others by how they look we don't know who they are and the way he said it was so perfect he said on the outside i might look like one thing but on the inside i'm totally different such tremendous words such you see somebody on the street you don't know who they are you don't know their soul their journey tremendous to be able to see people and really striving like this our next guest is shannon newson she's the form she's a former evangelical missionary now orthodox jew living in israel she's been involved in the counter-missionary world for the past 15 years with a focus on bringing awareness to the missionary agenda to jewish leadership and monitoring missionary groups in israel what an incredible story she has i had a chance to choose an israelite a chance to catch up with her early early this week check out this interview with shannon give us a little bit about your background where are you from and a little bit about your journey about my background i'm from houston texas a texas girl um my background is i was uh i was born as an evangelical christian into an evangelical christian family my father was a minister i was as youth trained to evangelize and to convert people the general the world to christianity which is a big focus in evangelical christianity as an adult that took a turn towards it was a focus on converting jews because jews are sort of prioritized against the other the rest of the world why why is that why are jews prioritized for that gets into the christian theology which is there's a great commission is to go forth and bring the gospel to the entire world but the jews play a specific role in christian theology about end times it is so they prioritize because while it's great to bring the whole world to jesus jews specifically coming to jesus triggers the second coming i was i was a pretty decent missionary when the focus was the whole world but i found trouble when that focus started to be geared towards jews because to evangelize a jew you really have to get into the text and know the text because jews sometimes know what they're talking about okay so what happens you get into i'm loving the story so you get into the text and what happens i get into the text i have to start memorizing all of the prophecies and things in tanakh that christians believe refer to jesus and i need to find ways to get jews to read those verses in tanakh and see jesus the same way i see jesus in those verses but i ran into big problems when i was speaking to orthodox which i happen to like being in the orthodox world but i wasn't having such an easy time getting them to look at the text the same way and i wasn't successful in converting any orthodox jews they would give me a really hard time they would taunt me a little bit they would tell me things like i was taking the verses out of context that they're mistranslated and that they were totally made up which i thought was absurd um they're just regurgitating what their rabbi told them they're just so it was clear that i needed to learn more if i was going to reach more affiliated jews they knew what they were talking about so i looked up how does an orthodox jew answer christianity so i found the jewish response to christian missionaries online and i decided i'm going to study those and even if i don't have the text just right or can't get the text to work or just write i'll learn how to debate them and i'll bring them in that way so i was learning all of the arguments on how to how jews answer christian missionaries but in the process started looking at it myself and everything i believed sort of crumbled because the rabbis that were providing me those responses were right and my whole world fell apart and everything i believed in just crumbled rug out from under you so what what happened next i reached a very low point i ended up reaching out to the rabbi who's whose lessons i was learning i said but that's i can't believe that everything i believe and i have nothing there's no god he said that's not true he says there is a god and he's been with you the whole time you just don't need that intercessor you don't need that person between you and god you have direct access and he's watching you he knows what you're going through and he's been there your whole life and then i decided i i'm not giving up religion altogether but i want to learn i want to learn torah and i want to learn judaism from the beginning so i would go to art scroll and i wanted to learn judaism i took to learning online and a little bit with chabad and decided that i wanted to convert to judaism um i uh this is all taking place this is all taking place online meaning you haven't yet been to israel you haven't yet been in any type of seminary this is mostly an online journey back i had been to israel just before this process it was when i was a missionary and trying to reach orthodox jews i did take a trip to israel with a bunch of secular israeli friends i did go to the hotel and i had my personal prayer that i gave to god saying i don't know what's what's what with this whole idolatry thing but i really i want you to show whatever it takes show me the truth what was the moment where you just said i'm i'm joining i'm converting like was there a moment or was it just a natural progression without any sort of defining moment where you made the change i uh decided that judaism was it and the traditions every i loved learning the traditions behind even the minhagem the uh the the little things that people do that i'd i'd ask a question and it would be a beautiful answer um and then every mitzvot that was described to me i would i would ask why why do you do that i was i was a like a little child why why why why why and everything i got back was just beautiful and had so much meaning i said i want this in my everyday life i want to learn all of the mitzvot and i want to do all of those beautiful meaningful things the conversion process was quite intense the orthodox conversion process is not easy it took four years almost a year after i completed my conversion i ended up getting married to somebody in texas who has a whole bunch of family here in israel so we had a wedding in israel and um i always wanted to move to israel and turned out he'd always wanted to move to israel also and his whole family was here so we set out to to make that happen it eventually happened we got here to israel so when i landed in israel it was like something stood up inside me and like a whole new soul woke up and felt like it was home which is crazy because i've never known any other home but ever since then israel has been my only home amazing well shannon thank you so much for joining us and giving us your incredibly inspiring story and we look forward to staying in touch and hearing more and we just want to thank you i was i am so inspired by it and i'm sure everyone watching is inspired as well thank you shannon cheese the story is so much larger if you can we're gonna post the full interview especially her work with missionaries in jerusalem and it's an amazing web of of intrigue really and we think shannon for her work over here we'll show you this incredible video from h.com check this out my chinese name is chai translated into english it is wood into edit is wowder that's how i come i chose the name waldman i'm the man of the wood [Music] i was born in modern china modern china is now the classic traditional china the modern china is like a western style country it wasn't really chinese so in the modern china we were not educated with tradition we are cut off from the from the root i feel the emptiness the spiritual emptiness i was told when i was young in elementary school the universe has no beginning no end if you believe there's a beginning of everything you're religious you're like superstitious stupid in university i was told that the universe has a beginning called big bang if you do not believe that the universe has a beginning you are you're stupid what what's the truth when i was young communism was the truth after the researcher realized that it cannot be at the end of university i was approached by this english teacher who was a christian missionary in disguise he told me that a man who died on the cross he was the truth who's telling the truth 1995 i started to research christianity i'd read maybe 10 verses in the bible english bible or chinese bible are all translations to know the truth i have to read the original text so in order to know i learned hebrew or biblical hebrew after a while like maybe five years i can read the bible in hebrew who's telling the truth check the bible hashem is one and they say hashem is three this is three this is one they're not the same there's no three there you should keep shabbos they don't the christians don't keep shabbos five years later 2000 i reached the conclusion that christianity was wrong judaism has the as a whole peace so i made the choice that i want to live this way of life but in china i couldn't there was no synagogue when i decided how can i keep kasu so i decided i have to go away i felt that the land of israel is my homeland i found home this was what i'm looking for a sincere honest devoted life i came to israel my parents they were furious on the media even friendly to the jewish people we occupied airplanes we slaughtered or massacred the arab people so from my parents point of view they thought that i joined an evil cult and i went to an evil country now i think they they reconciled somewhat after i became jewish i found that chinese culture has some similarity with judaism i wear suit i have a hat and i have beer but think about it it isn't that that big difference right the suit made in china this is chinese youth i have a shoe black shoes made in china also this one is a hat we call it the harley hat the house is also from china so everything i have is made in china so what's the difference [Music] that's a very good point it's a very good point great to uh to hear that story thank you for that for that video our next guest rabbi avraham goldstein from scranton pennsylvania he actually has a kahila an entire congregation of converts of garem and their congregation is called taurus it's an organization to help garam rabbi welcome to the show so malaysia how are you alaikum shalom how are you nice to meet you thank you so much for joining us my pleasure my pleasure you know i'm a little bit between emotional and and introspection because all the different videos that i see and and the words and the events that happen in miron but it gives me great joy to see the different diversity of people from all over the world coming close to hashem yeah absolutely tell us a little bit about your story and your journey and what you have in scranton pennsylvania that we don't know about okay so i became george when i was 16 years old i came from puerto rico and my whole path to the other skies started when i was 14 years old um across the street from my house there was a bar where people used to get drunk and you know the wild life and and i used to pray that that place should close their own because i used to come late to school because of them and because of the noise and there was an earthquake in the middle of the night and i ran out of the house in fear and i saw people running out of the bar also in fear and they thought that it was the yoma misa they're gonna die you know so when you think you're gonna die we all become religious so so all of a sudden they went on their knees and started praying god forgive me i promise i'd be good i'm gonna go home and i'm gonna be a good person and at that moment i said that bar is going to close there but you know after 30 seconds they noticed that nothing happened everybody's okay they went back into the bar and they kept doing what they were doing before so for me i think that the beginning was to ask the question of spiritual honesty these people that were doing whatever they were doing they were doing something wrong because that's how they felt immediately they have to repent and yet when they saw that i'm not gonna die today so okay i'm gonna go back to doing what i was doing before even though it's wrong so i felt like i want to live a spiritual honest life and for that reason asking questions led me to my mother and my mother told me i lived in williamsburg in a jewish neighborhood and i saw how the jewish people behave how they live and the truth that you're looking for the type of life that you're looking for you can only find it there wow you ended up wow i i made a raffle sold newspapers made enough money to be able to buy a ticket and come to new york and and that's how i ended up um in the past wow what a story so so what is tell us a little bit about your shul about your congregation um and what's what you have in scranton pennsylvania well after many years of being a ghetto they can borrow hashem you know being successful with their family and everything so there is uh the communication device of today tell jews and one you tell the other and whenever they see um a person who wants to come and become a heat so they get many cases they given my number and i speak to them and i share my experience and over the years people became convert so i you know it was difficult to find a place where to be because one of the other difficulties of becoming a convert is they have no family and they have to start new in a new place and so in scranton pennsylvania was a place that was affordable and the people in the community were very willing to welcome these families that had no jewish background and in jewish education and so they opened up so nicely and we said well this is the choice and so we came here and we are part of the community and we have about 17 families here with about 60 people together wow we use the entire system we're part of the system we contribute they contribute to us and we're part of the community in the full sense of the word wow wow wow you know there's an article last month in the washington post about the emerging jews of colombia why so many christians in the south american country are converting to orthodox judaism do you have any perspective as to what's happening in south america and if there is some resurgence for the interest in judaism from there well definitely um you know the losses in ghazal and our sages when they speak about converts they use the word gerd chenis gaier they don't use the word goi became a journal they used a cover that became a convert so to speak so why they use that kind of language because in reality converts are souls that have been around for until finally they they come out and and and and they become jewish so they're not really you know it's like you see so many and if you look into jewish history you see so many people that were forced conversions then they went through all kinds of difficulties and they and that soul still there and his longing and he wants and a lot of the congress and i noticed they are emerging now and they have this soul and in the middle of nowhere in the middle of not not having anything all of a sudden they feel this desire to look for the truth and to to come into classroom and and i think that's what's happening this soul mashiach is coming we're getting close to the gerula and all these souls are coming back to where they belong wow wow rabbi thank you so much for joining us i would love to maybe we'll do this again we can find out more about your community maybe we could do a trip to scranton and so to see everybody i i i would love it and uh maybe we can make a project inspire event in your community thank you for what you do thank you for what you're doing continue shining your tremendous light on the world okay thank you thank you that was right goldstein wow wow wow wow do you hear what he was saying he's got a community in israel pennsylvania of all these incredible incredible individuals but i want to end with what the rabbi said and if if you didn't catch it i want to i want to double click on it the torah speaks about converts gersh and his guy or gare that a a convert that con that converts right it shouldn't say that it should say a gentile that converts and what he was saying which is so powerful is that the soul of a convert was always part of us for whatever reason how it worked out there's different interpretations of what took place and i'll give you share with you one that i found to be very powerful we're talking about shavuot we're talking about the moment where god gave the torah to the jewish people so there's an opinion that i once heard that during the time when god gave the torah to the jewish people he asked every nation of the world do you want it and the nation said no but the nation voted no but in the nations were these souls that said yeah but they were outvoted they they didn't have enough votes to to to choose yes so they stayed part of that nation but their souls were really desirous of being part of the torah and i heard this beautiful concept of what really a convert is a convert is a soul that always wanted to be part of it that was always with us that really their heart was with us during the the time where the jews got the torah and throughout history throughout history throughout history their time came and so really the converts that are amongst us were always with us and that's why they're some of the greatest people in the world and i hope when you're part of the show you're seeing the pattern of greatness the show on addiction digging into a place and being more we're doing a show now on we did a show last week on resilience or be a kiva who came who descended from from converts and now we're doing a show on converts digging deep into more challenges before them upheaval in their lives but it doesn't matter because their soul says this is where you belong this is where they belong they're part of us forever that's what your bot's all about it's a take of deep breath and realize we're honored to be part of this we've got a special nation it doesn't mean to knock anyone else but it does mean to enhance our pride in our own heritage and our own traditions and maybe me and you didn't fully appreciate but the fact that so many jews are clamoring to give up everything to come in their souls are on fire from all over the world maybe the shabbos that'll inspire us to say wait maybe i should fight harder for my own heritage maybe i should understand what i do more maybe i could be more inspired maybe i can push harder and be a convert myself i'm already in but maybe i could be a jew by choice especially as i prepare myself for the getting of the torah this year in shavuot and so i wish you a shabbat of wisdom a shabbat of appreciation shabbat we appreciate what we have and that even if we were born into it we choose it all again where we see other people and appreciate them and not know where they come from but know their souls are connected to our souls and i hope that we never learn the lessons from the down but to look at the people like avigdor that we saw earlier telling us to be closer telling us to appreciate life may we always see the silver lining and the down but always appreciate the ops appreciate what we have appreciate who we are and be a stronger nation come together as you prepare ourselves to receive the torah anew and to start the next chapter of our lives to be renewed if you will in our commitment it's on behalf of me and mine to you and yours i wish you a shabbat shalom as we ascend together to the mountain mount sinai may we hold hands no matter what your background is and be stronger and this weekend we should have a weekend of introspection and study and learning and inspiration i hope next week to see you in jerusalem but if not hope to see you back here wonderful weekend a good shabbos and shabbat shalom we together with every generation they take one raising the haters then i should hit the pavement blazing to save us then the world asks where they where patients are faithless the torah get the whole world of facelift and hatred it's baseless we take it erase it and exchange it for that master goal we don't forget wherever we may go [Music] oh [Music] know [Music] together [Music] me [Music]