 One of the great famous sages in the Hasidic movement was Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berdychev. He was not born into a Hasidic environment, but became a follower of Hasidism and later a leader of the Hasidic movement through his contact with various individuals, leaders, teachers. The first time he heard about the Hasidic movement was when he was a young man, married, short time, and living with his father-in-law, parents-in-law, and continuing his studies. And as he had heard of this new movement, he approached his father-in-law who supported him at the time, asking him for permission to take off for a while, some five, six months, to go and travel to Mizritch, the seat of the leader of the Hasidic movement, Rabbi Doth Bear, the great Magid. His father-in-law laughed. He says, what do you need from those crazies, from this new movement, from those new people, whatever you want to learn, whatever you want to study? There are plenty of resources to be found right here in town. But he persisted and he nagged until his father-in-law finally relented and he says, okay, since Mizritch was about five, six hundred miles away from where he lived, and in those days no cars, no trains, this goes back to 18th century. So he get told him you have six months, but in six months I want you to be back here. Ableivitsok set out on the far trip and as promised at the end of six months he came back. When he came back his father-in-law looks at him with a mocking smile in his face. He says, now tell me, Levy, you have traveled that far to go and learn something new, new insights. What have you learned? What have you discovered there that you could not discover here? And Ableivitsok looked his father-in-law straight in his eyes and says, now I know that God exists. His father-in-law looks at him and says, he's crazy. Until now he was an atheist and agnostic. What was he till now? Now he knows. He says, what do you mean? He says, yes, now I know God exists. For that you had to travel six hundred miles. For that you had to seek out that strange group of people, the Hasidim. So his father-in-law called in the mate, a young girl about 12, 13 years old, and he pointed out the window to the field, the trees, the flowers, the landscape, and he asked her, tell me, where do all these things come from? She looks at him as if he's crazy. Says, what do you mean where do all these things come from? They come from God. You mean God exists? Of course God exists. What kind of nonsense is this? So Ableivitsok's father-in-law turns to him and says, you see, she never went to Miss Rich. For that matter she never went to any college or any school of learning right over here. And she also knows if God exists. For that you had to waste six months time. Ableivitsok smiled and answered him, you don't understand. She says God exists. I know God exists. In that little anecdote, we have the essence of what religion is all about and the essence of what our lecture tonight is all about. People make lots, lots of statements. People affirm lots of principles. However, more often than not, they don't even know what they're talking about. They talk it, they say it. But simply because that's the way they have been taught, that's the way they see everybody else says it, or somebody talk them into it and therefore they just follow the crowd, they jump on the bandwagon and say it. Religion is not about saying things. Religion is not about stating things. The definition of religion more than anything else in life is about knowing things. For religion by definition means a relationship between man and God, God and man. It's a relationship not that we have between people. Between people, if you like somebody, you like him, you go with him, you don't go with him. It doesn't make much difference. If you don't have this friend, you have another friend. When you talk about religion, you talk about God, you're talking about something altogether different. There you're talking now about ultimate reality. Another word for religion is truth. Truth and religion are synonymous. There cannot be religion where there is no truth. God and truth are synonymous. In Hebrew, in the Jewish tradition, the Hebrew word for truth, MS, is taken as a name of God and therefore it is a word that we are not allowed to pronounce in such places that God's name is not to be pronounced. In the Jewish tradition, MS is Choyz Moyshe Lachodoshporch, the very seal, the very sign of God. In Hebrew, the word MS, truth, consists of three letters, aleph, mem, sof. Aleph is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, mem is the exact middle letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and sof is the very last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, because that is what truth means. Beginning, middle, and end. Truth means consistency. Truth means literally everything going from the very beginning to the very end. And that is what religion is all about. To the religious person, God, religion is everything. To the point that a religious person is willing to lay down his or her life for their beliefs. To the point that to the religious person, my physical existence, my physical survival means nothing, absolutely nothing, if it is a threat to my soul, if it is a threat to my afterlife, if it is a threat to my spiritual reality. Not only in Judaism, but in every other religion as well. You have a whole long history of martyrs, of people who are willing to lay down their lives because they felt this world, this life, my body is only something for here and now, it's something transient. Here today, gone tomorrow, but what really makes me tick, that is my soul. And my soul is spiritual, and my soul lives on after I die, and my soul will be held accountable for the way it spends its time here on this earth. And therefore, spiritual life, spiritual reality, is the only thing that really matters to the religious person. And the physical life is merely a means, by a means of which you realize and you achieve or try to actualize your purpose, that which the soul is supposed to achieve here on earth. Religion therefore is not, as some people take it, simply something of belief. There's nothing wrong with belief. There's nothing wrong with faith. There's not a single person on earth that ever lived, that lives today or will ever live, that does not use faith. The greatest scientist on earth bases everything he proclaims on faith. He relies on faith when it comes to the criteria for his knowledge, for his basic premises. And once he has certain basic premises, now he experiments and tries to prove them on the empirical level. But the initial premises, the initial things that he starts off with, are acts of faith. So there's nothing wrong with faith. Without faith, we would not survive even one minute. All of us are sitting here today in this synagogue, and right now you are expressing an act of implicit faith that the ceiling is not going to cave in within the next five seconds. If it does cave in, you know where you wind up. And yet, none of you seem to be trembling or scared. For whatever reason you have decided, no, I think it looks pretty safe. It looks like pretty sturdy building. I don't know how long it's standing here, but it looks pretty sturdy. However, in faith itself, there are two kinds. There's the faith that you express by sitting here right now, the faith that is used by the scientist, the faith that is supposed to be used by the religious person. And there's another kind of faith for which there's another word altogether, and that is called credulity. The difference between the two, credulity means you just accept unquestioningly, uncritically, whatever you are being fed. While you accept it, it suits my purposes. It sounds attractive. It serves some kind of a purpose whatever that is to my use. You don't examine it, you don't check it out. For as long as it works out fine, I'm happy with it. If it doesn't work out, no problem, I drop it. That is not what I mean by faith. That is called credulity. That's called blind faith. The faith that I'm speaking about when we speak about religion is something altogether different. It is faith, it is belief, but it is belief and faith for which you have reason to believe it. You don't just jump with your eyes closed. You have reasons why you make these assumptions. You have certain foundations. The reason that you sit in here now is because I assume that in Australia they must have building codes as well. And the building has been standing for who knows how long already. So it must have been checked out. Who knows? It has been, it has a track record of safety so far. So therefore for all practical purposes, you assume, even though you don't have 100% ironclad guarantee, every so often we do read articles and newspapers that buildings cave in, but the probability, the possibility of that is there. The probability of this happening, however, is very slim. The lesser the probability, the safer you feel. Absolute certainty does not exist in life. And when it comes to religion, therefore, where religion is supposed to be the most important thing for the religious person, more important than literally anything in life, including your life. How much more so then do we have an obligation to check out, to examine, to analyze, to verify that which we believe in? To convince ourselves, to show to ourselves, evidence to ourselves, why do I believe that? What is the foundation? What is the basis? Do I simply jump with my eyes closed simply because somebody told me so? Or do I have a good solid reason for accepting and following that particular way of life? If it is simply blind eyes, you're not talking about religion. At best, you're talking idolatry. What kind of idolatry? You're talking about self-worship. You're talking about worshipping and accepting and following that which suits you, which has nothing to do with truth, nothing to do with reality, nothing to do with anything. Religion is probably the hardest thing, the most important thing that we have to examine, that we have to put ourselves really through a test before we can talk about it with any certainty, with any meaningfulness. And it's in that context of what religion is supposed to mean, truth, conviction, with solid foundations, that the idea of evangelizing, the idea of missionizing, the idea of going around and trying to gain converts, new members to whatever one belongs to, is the greatest and most stupid policy in the world. It's the very contradiction of what religion is all about. When you walk down the street and you feel a pain in your leg, and you don't know what is wrong with you, and you see a shingle hanging out in front of the door where it says John Doe M.D., and you walk in, you see it's a doctor, fine, I haven't shown it to anybody, so what do I care what he charges? You walk in and you're showing your leg and say, doctor, I have a problem here, what should I do? And the doctor gives one look at it and says, oh, this looks bad. This leg has to come off immediately. Are you going to let him take off your leg right there and then? Are you going to run to the nearest hospital and ask him, please take off my leg right there and then? The answer, I think, is quite obvious. You would say no. For some strange reason or another, you feel attached to your leg, and therefore you do not want to get rid of it so fast. At least you're going to ask for second opinion. At least you're going to ask a specialist in the field. So when it comes to your leg, and what do you care if they cut off your leg? Big deal. Today they have artificial legs. Today they have some such things as bionic man, the six million dollar man, the bionic woman, and so forth. You get a television show and you can do things with your artificial bionic legs that no normal person can do. You're much better off than before. So what are you afraid of? What are you losing? You can hop around even with one leg. And yet you're going to go out of your way to make sure that this will not happen. Let's go even a step further. You feel thirsty, you feel hungry, and you see there is some kind of a machine which sells drinks, and it says, I don't know how much a can of Coke costs here in Australia, but let's say the price there on the machine is $10. And you know down the street is a store, and they have to sell them for the normal price. $0.75, how much is it here? $0.50, $1. Are you going to say, well, look here, big deal, $10 here, $10, tomorrow is inflationary session, tomorrow it isn't worth too much anyway, so I may as well throw in the $10 and get my kind of pop. For that I'm not going to walk down an extra block. I don't think there are too many people that will do that, unless you're really in a big, big, big rush, and your time is worth money as well, it's worth more than the $10, fine, then you'll do it. But under normal average circumstances you wouldn't do that. So for a lousy $9, you're going to walk down an extra block to make sure you don't feel that you have been fooled, that you have been tricked, that you have been had for the extra $9, then you can get it there for $1. So for $9, but it's $9 today, nothing. And the same or chances are you'll probably do even for half a dollar. You don't want to feel like a sucker, you will check out, can I get it cheaper, and if you know you can get it cheaper, you'll go over there. When you buy a car, if I got a car for you, only my mother-in-law used it, and only for six months and just to go to the corner drug store, two blocks down the road, I'll sell it to you, it's worth $10,000 for you, I'll sell it for $5,000. But you have to give me the money right here and now sight unseen. Would you do that? The answer is no. You want to see it, you want to check it out, you want to take it to a mechanic, see what's doing under the hood, etc., etc. So when it comes to money, when it comes to business, when it comes to a lousy $9, even $1, never mind your leg, you go out of your way to check out, to examine, to analyze, to find out, is it, do I get the real McCoy, or am I being tricked? If you go so much out of your way for all these other things, which are really ultimately bottom line, meaningless, how much more so must you go out of your way when it comes to religion, that you cannot take things about religion at face value, just only say so, or the appearance of sake, or what have you that people give you. Here's then the sad topic of religion, of missionizing and cults come in. Over the past so many years we have been blessed with a plethora of cults throughout the world. What do we call a cult? We have a tendency of calling a cult when you see a group of crazies. They look different, they talk different, they dress different, they eat different, they're different than we are. They stick out like a sore thumb. That we tend to call a cult. Why should we call them a cult? Just because they are or look different? That is not the definition of a cult. The definition of a cult to me is an organization or a group, and I don't care how many people they have, I don't care how many members they have, I don't care what they look like, whether they look even more normal than I do. The definition of a cult is people who follow somebody or something blindfolded, without questioning, without asking, without analyzing. That is a cult. And basically people who join these cults are people who don't ask questions. Are people who are not convinced? Are people who are seduced? Simple as that. Seduced, usually, generally, mostly, not all the time, on a purely emotional level. And that applies more specifically if you're not talking about just about cults, even though it applies to any cult, but the topic tonight is geared more specifically to a new animal, to a new cult, which is called Jews for Jesus, or Hebrew Christians, or sometimes they call themselves messianic Jews or what have you. What kind of a creature is that? Where does it come from? How did it come about? And how do we deal with it? How should we confront it? How it came about is very simple to see. And incidentally, I will put a warning right here now, and then later on, as things get hotter, the warning will be repeated. In America, I suppose you have the same here in Australia, when the show movies, as opposed to movies are classified. Adult entertainment only, restricted, parent guidance advised, nor admittance without parent and so forth. On television, they also sometimes they have shows, and before the show, they say viewers discretion advised, either because of language or content and so forth. So here I start also of listeners discretion advised. This is going to be a discussion in which no holds, no bars held, no holds barred, whichever way the expression goes. In which I will be extremely frank and I will be saying things that shall offend people. And not purposely so, not for the sake of offending people, but simply to spell things out for what they are. So therefore, any screamy souls, it was nice seeing you, have a good night, and perhaps you can meet sometime again. How does the creature, Hebrew Christians, Messianic Jews, or Jews for J, whatever other names that go by come about. This comes about with along as old as Christianity is. What is Christianity? Christianity is a religion that grew from some ideas and some beliefs that some Jews held some 2000 years ago. In which they felt that some interpret some meanings of certain passages in the Jewish Bible, in the Tnach, what they call the Old Testament, indicate certain directions with regards to a certain individual and his disciples, his apostles, and they are the fulfillment thereof, and therefore this is what to our ultimate Judaism was really all about. The problem they had is that they were a total failure, that the Jews just simply did not adopt this new religion. The Jews just simply did not accept these interpretations. They got lots of pagans to do so, Christianity then essentially grew from these Jewish teachers into one large worldwide religion of converted pagans and heathens. But that presented the Christians with a very serious problem. A theological problem, a psychological problem. If these interpretations are supposed to be the meaning of what the Hebrew prophets have in mind, what the Hebrew Bible is speaking about, then why is it that the Jews of all people, the Jews of all people, to whom these messages were addressed, have rejected it, have denounced it, rejected it, made it meaningless, decided and stamped it as sheer falsehood and nonsense, decided as sheer pure heresy. When a pagan comes and hears, this is the Bible given by God to whom, to Israel, through whom, through the Jewish prophets, then the pagan who is not stupid will simply ask the question, where are the Jews? How come they don't hear it? How come they don't listen to it? How come they don't accept it? That has been a very serious problem and therefore from day one Christianity had to struggle with this dilemma and therefore has an agenda of converting the Jew simply to bring the Jew into the fold, to show legitimacy to itself, to show that there is a legitimate chain going back to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and Sinai, right through Jewish history, into the continuation of what they claim to be Christianity to be. And as the New Testament itself says, go out into the hedges and compel them to enter, adding and to the Jew first. Christians would rather have one Jewish convert than 10,000 heathens. The one Jewish convert means to them legitimacy. The one Jewish convert means to them continuation. The one Jewish convert means to them an unbroken chain that they can show we are the legitimate historical fulfillment of that which Jewish tradition is talking about. That was their agenda and it has been the agenda from day one, as I say, going right back to the New Testament. What were the realities? The realities is that it was a total failure. They tried, they cajoled, they begged, they bribed, they did literally everything possible, but total failure. Why? Because to the Jew, as for that matter, to any other religious believer of any other religion, to forsake your faith is the worst thing you can do, is to deny your identity. The worst word in the Jewish vocabulary is to be called the worst insult is to be called a Meshomet. A Meshomet is one who has forsaken Judaism and joined Christianity or another religion. That's the worst thing that you can possibly call somebody, the worst insult. There's no lower name than that. You can call them any other name in the book. It doesn't even come close to that. And that is in the very blood and in the very soul, in the very mind and in the very heart of every Jew. And therefore Christianity in their mission to the Jews was a total failure. When they saw that it didn't go in good ways, they tried different ways. And then we get the story history of the basic contact between Christianity, especially as it started to become state religion in the Roman Empire and then in other areas in Europe and then in other places in the world. Now they could not only go and try and persuade with which they failed, now they could also go with the cross in one hand and the sword in the other. And come to the Jew and say, either you kiss this or this kisses you. And that has been the history of 2000 years of Jewish Christian relationship, of Jewish Christian dialogue. We have the story of the Crusaders, which decimated hundreds of Jewish communities on the way. We have the story of the Inquisition, we have the story of all the pogons and all these things ending and concluding in the Holocaust. Let no one fool him or herself. The Holocaust, the gruesome murder of six million Jews in the Nazi Germany is a direct result, a direct product and effect of New Testament Christianity and Christian teachings. There is today not a single decent Christian theologian in the world anywhere that does not admit this, not one of all Christian persuasions. Why again? Because of this obsession to the Jew first. Seeing that they failed first with persuasion and then with torture, with murder, with inhumanity of the worst kind that mankind has ever seen. They saw it's a failure, but the problem to them remained. Thus they invented a new thing and this goes back essentially in larger format to the 19th century, what they call the Hebrew Christian mission or the Christian missions to the Jews, in which they got, you have the odd one that some are fell into their hands and then they really pride them up and say, now you go and take the converted Jew to Meshomet and tell him, now you go and try to get others. You can talk Yiddish and so forth. But even with all these things it was still a total failure because the word Christianity, the word Jesus, the cross, these are like red, put in front of a bull when you put it in front of a Jew. We have had our experience and our dialogue and our conversations about what these concepts mean. Thus they saw that this is a failure again. So in the 20th century they hit upon a new idea. First they changed the name to the Hebrew Christian alliance, but Hebrew Christian alliance and let nobody fool himself or herself, these are purely Christian organizations. Purely Christian organizations funded and supported and pushed by the Christian churches. I don't know what particular churches are so active over here, but as far as the North American content is concerned, there it is mainly the Baptist churches, but basically there's every single church without exception. But it's only the ones who are the most active, are the ones most involved in the funding thereof. So they tried that and the new catch was that no, you do not become a Christian, you become a Hebrew Christian. So you can still retain something of your identity, but even that was a failure because again it's Hebrew Christian. And where did it take you? It took you to church. What did it feed you? The New Testament, the Christian practices, the Christian rituals. As this turned out into a third of failure, the final hit upon a new idea and they called it Jews for J. And they use now a completely new technique. What is the new technique? Now they no longer use the word Christian. Christian, the word Christian is taboo. What is the word they use now? Jew, Jewish. They now cover the slogan, it's the most Jewish thing for a Jew to do to accept the Jewish redeemer, the Jewish savior, namely Yeshua J. And they tell you, don't become a Christian, they will even go so far as to condemn Christianity to the Jew. They will tell you, Christians are all rotten animals. The Christians, look what they have done to your Jews. Don't become a Christian. And they are Christians themselves. They are funded. They're all ordained ministers. The head of that organization, Mark Rosen, is an ordained minister of the Baptist Church, but that is the slogans that they come out with. And they will tell you, look here, we want you should know that you are Jewish. We want you to be conscious that you are Jewish. We want you to be proud of your Jewishness. We want you to go to synagogue. We want you to wear a king size or queen size star of David. They even started wearing tzitzis. They even started wearing yarmulkes on their head all day long throughout the week. And they start teaching them Hebrew. They start using their Hebrew names if they didn't have any because they grew up as Gentiles. Most of them, as a matter of fact, are Gentiles, outside Gentiles, so they pretend to have Jewish names. Mark Rosen no longer calls himself Mark Rosen, but Moshe Rosen. And not just Moses Rosen, no, that wouldn't do. Not Moshe Rosen, no. Moshe, that has a Heimishic sound to it. That means I'm really part of the family. Unlike with all the other ones. And now the slogan is a completely different one. And here they have been successful, certainly. Because now it is no longer to their victims a question of schmat. Now they are told, look here. Forget about the church. Forget about Christianity. Forget about all this Kaboodle over there. You are a Jew. When they had the demonstrations for Russian Jews, they came up in front. When they have demonstrations with the State of Israel, the right up front, they come and identify and do everything possible to identify as Jews, to give themselves out as Jews and to make them feel proud of being Jews. But of course, the agenda is something altogether different. That this is the back door in to overcome the basic fundamental block that the Jew has, the aversion that he has, to conversion, to Christianity, to anything that is alien and far removed from Judaism. The way they go about it is not only in terms of stressing and emphasizing Jewishness. But of course, as missionaries have done throughout the ages, by taking the Bible and opening up and say, look here, Genesis days and Exodus days and Leviticus days and Isaiah days and Jeremiah days and Ezekiel days, they're all points to that which you are believing in. And therefore that is what is the most Jewish thing to do. The slogan they use is, we don't want you to be just a Jew. We want you to be a whole Jew, a complete Jew. Right now you're not a complete Jew. You are lacking the salt and pepper. You have everything, but now add a little salt and pepper to belief and you know who, and that will make you complete. That will make you perfect. Like Jesus said, this is not something new, except the techniques, the tactics are new. And because of these tactics, what is a modern terminology called false advertising, they have been more successful than they have ever been throughout the past 2000 years. To be sure, the ones that catch invariably without exception, and I repeat without exception are Jewish kids or Jewish adults, mainly kids or elderly who know absolutely nothing about the Judaism, who have no background in it whatsoever. Don't know how to hold the Jewish Bible right side up, just as their missionaries don't know how. And thus they pray on their ignorance, they pray on their susceptibility, and especially as these are people who are looking for something. Their people are looking for content and here they come and tell them, look here, you're Jewish, you're searching, you're looking, I have an answer for you. And it's your own answer, it's from your own background, it's from your own tradition, it's from your own history, it is your own identity. The arguments that they use, especially when it comes to biblical passages, which is in essence all they can come up with, is not one argument that is new. Every one of the biblical passages that they throw at them, every one of the booklets or books that they publish and throw about, the pamphlets, which also come as phony marks with false advertising, they even advertise Hasidic concerts, Hasidic services, and show pictures on these things which make it look as if it is a genuine, authentic Jewish affair, until you come in and then either outright or subliminal in whichever way they go at them with all kinds of sorts of seductions. The arguments which they use, based on the Bible, not one of them is original. And here comes in the falsehood, the hypocrisy of it all. Every one of these passages that they quote, every one of the passages that they have printed are passages that have been thrown at us Jews for 2,000 years. It's not one that is original. And every one of these passages has been answered. In medieval times, the Jews were forced into public debates. When they saw they couldn't get us one way and they couldn't get us the other way, so they had, either they had some shumashumodim or they had some very learned priest and what have you who figured, oh, I'm smart enough. I'm so convinced in my faith I guarantee you I can prove to the Jew that if this becomes a public debate that our interpretation of the Bible is correct. And thus through state power, Jews were compelled. Jews don't like to have discussions as we have here today. Jews don't like to have debates about religion because it's a futile waste of time. It's not going to convince anybody. And thus they, but they tried, they still have this hope. And therefore Jews always avoided that, but they were very often forced into that. They were forced by the church to engage in public debates in which the priests would stand and question them. Here you have this passage. Here you have this tradition from your own, which talks about the Messiah, which talks about the Savior. And here the Bible says this, doesn't that obviously mean this and doesn't that obviously mean that? And the deal that was usually made at the beginning of the debate, Jews had no choice in that. They were just presented with the terms of the deal, is that if the priest convinces you, you have no answer, then you and the whole community will have to convert forcible conversions or face the other alternative, which is death. If the Jew happens to win the debate, no harm done, we'll find another priest tomorrow. And if not tomorrow, then next week. These debates have been held from early medieval times to as late as the 17th century. These debates are on record. They have been recorded not just by us, they have been recorded by the Christians themselves. They are available in every language that you can possibly imagine. Initially it was Latin, and then Greek and French and Spanish, they have all been translated. Every single debate that has ever been held between Jew and Christian has been won by the Jews. There is not one single passage, not one single passage that Christians have ever come up with, not one. In 2000 years that we have not shown them the falsehood of their claims, the fallacy of their interpretation, the meaningless of their approach. Not one. People would have the slightest interest, the slightest commitment to truth, they would not come today and ask the same questions. Because all I have to do is, my dear friend, before you talk to me, do me a favor, give me a break, go to the library, and I guarantee you that when the library is here in Sydney and every other city, you can find texts of these debates as well. Go there, study that, and then come back to me. But no, they're not interested. How did the Jews answer these debates essentially, showing consistently throughout history, how they have taken these passages out of context, or they have interpreted them in such wild ways which have absolutely nothing to do with anything messianic, nothing whatsoever, and just kind of forced these interpretations into it. Totally wild. If you were to give that to anybody else, looking open-minded at it, there's no way in the world, they would even see by the faintest stretch of imagination, what this means. This has been the history of it, which means in plain English, that there's nobody to talk to even. They're not interested in truth, they're not interested in reason, they're interested in bombarding people who don't know the first thing about what is happening, just as they themselves don't know. They have convinced themselves, fidelity, blind faith, and the field since they have this strong faith, then obviously everybody else must see it that way as well. When I got involved in fighting cults and missionaries, my initial approach was the same as traditionally historical. I used to answer them, basically what it says in all these texts, look here, what do you want? This is what it means. Read the verse before, read the verse after, and still come and tell me now what it's really talking about. How do you get the messianic passage into this and so forth? But you may as well talk to the wall, it means nothing. And even if they admit it, even if they say, okay I see your point, I still get the bottom line, okay that's your way of looking at it. But there may be another way of looking at it. And therefore back to square one, and on to the next customer. Me somehow, they no longer butter. Not only they no longer butter me, but they don't even allow their people to talk to me or to come even close within 100 meters of me. I've been pronounced the Antichrist himself and I'm very proud of that. They've held special prayer sessions for me, and they've circled my house, they've been following me, walking to the synagogue and that, tying from all ways and means. By now they've given up on that as well. When did I start giving up on that? Because once I started taking off my gloves. Because of how I came to a point I say, hey that's a waste of time. We have to take a new tack with them. Why should I be the one to defend himself? Let's change the ground rules. I'm going to out on the attack, let them defend themselves. And now comes the second warning, listeners discretion advised. Because what I'm going to say now will really sound very offensive to many people, purposely so, but when you hear me out till the end you'll see there's nothing offensive about it at all. So you have to, if you still decide to stay, now you have to stay till the end. How I go over to the attack is the following way. I say let's forget about Judaism. Let's forget about the Jewish Bible. Let's forget about what the Jewish prophets have to say because regardless what I say you don't listen to me anyway. You're going to give me your interpretation and the way you see it and regardless how irrational and absurd and stupid it sounds it means nothing to you. So you know what? Let's switch, let's move to the New Testament. After all you are trying to convince me to become a Christian. You are trying to convince me that in Christianity lies the answer. That Christianity is the ideal way of life, the godly way of life, the ideal of human morality and then I tell him look here I did my homework and I've decided to read up on that. I want to know after all and I have an obligation to be honest, to be objective, to be open-minded and listen to what the other person has to say and lo and behold going through the New Testament look what I found. All of a sudden I find a completely different picture than what they paint me. The Prince of Peace, the Savior of Mankind, all of a sudden turns out to me a completely different picture the exact opposite of whatever they say of him and I quote a passage which appears in Matthew and in Luke. When these Prince of Peace, the Savior of Mankind speaks and says think not that I have come to bring peace into the world. I did not come to bring peace but strife, war, to set a household against itself, to set a father against the children and children against the father and mother against the daughter and daughter against the mother. That's Prince of Peace and that's not repeated once but again. This Prince of Peace who has so much compassion and tells you to turn the other cheek it means we the Jews have to turn the other cheek every time they attack us. What about them? He says about himself bring my enemies before me so that I may slay them. Talk about humanity. Talk about concern for all of mankind after all they try to convert all of mankind. The New Testament tells us a story. After all these miracles that he performed and got a reputation for there was a Samaritan woman whose daughter was afflicted and she hears here is the great Savior here's the great miracle worker so she follows him running after him please I beg you heal my daughter safer. He doesn't pay any attention to her and she keeps following and she keeps screaming and she keeps begging and his disciples couldn't take it anymore and they said to him send her away let's get rid of her or maybe you should do something about it. What did the great Prince of Peace say? I did not come but to the lost sheep of Israel it is not me to take the children's bread and cast it onto dogs. In other words it's a Samaritan woman she's not Jewish if she's not Jewish she's a dog she's an animal. I'm here only for the lost sheep of Israel and therefore that which I owe them I'm not going to throw this out to those Gentiles to those dogs that in the end he did heal her because she simply didn't let go because she came back with a beautiful retort to him and she says even if I'm a dog don't you throw the morsels at the left on the table to the dogs on the floor that's the humanity. Other passages if that is not enough the scandal which Christians theologians called the scandal of the New Testament because to this day they haven't found a solution how to get around it. He did a lot of traveling and once he came back from one of his trips and he was very tired and he was very exhausted. He was hungry he was starving he was thirsty he was still far from the city and he sees in the distance a victory. Finally solution to my problem it comes to the victory he looks low and behold there were no figs on it. What does he do what would you do in such a case I turn around and I move on he did not turn around and move on he stood there and started cursing out the victory let more fruit grow and eat forever more and then the New Testament proudly relates no fruits ever grew on that fig tree anymore fig tree what do you do to you didn't touch you and if that is not enough mark gives us a reason why there were no fruits on the tree in another book of the New Testament says mark because it was not the season for figs it's not the season what has the tree done to you what does he do he flares in the rage starts cursing it out then there's the verse which perhaps disturbs me more than anything there's a verse in the New Testament which very often you can see outside the bulletin boards of churches hanging which I find and listen carefully the foulest most abusive sentence ever uttered in all of human literature which makes Hitler's mind come look like a nursery rhyme what is that sentence I am the way I am the truth and no man come out and to the father except for me I cannot think of another sentence that had ever been uttered in all of human literature that is so responsible for so much suffering for so much inhumanity for so much torture for so much whatever has possibly happened to the lowest of the lowest in all mankind but that sentence no man come out and to the father except for me it's a one-way street you are not part of my group you don't follow my way you're finished you're condemned you are not advised it says also if people wonder why the christian churches were silenced during the holocaust all they have to do is read the New Testament read the book of romans where Paul declares the powers that be are ordained by god whosoever therefore rises against the powers that be rises against god even if they do evil in other words if Hitler is in power if Hitler sets up concentration camps gas chambers that is the way appointed by god the way of god you try to fight that you're fighting god himself then the book of collisions what I call the credo of the missionary excuse me the credo of the hypocrite where paul speaks about himself paul was a very interesting figure paul is the real founder of christianity not yashu paul was a person who he's the one who really started christianity and going out to the pagans to the heathens to convert them he saw time in the jewish land amongst the jewish people waste of time forget it doesn't get anywhere then he started traveling the heathens oh that's just like that all of a sudden out of nowhere he gets these converts in the hundreds in the thousands wherever he goes now this paul when he went out there coming to the heathens remember here again the first christians were jews and the first christians were observant jews yashu the christian savior declared that you must follow the Torah every single law of the Torah heaven and earth shall cease before one jot or one tittle of the law shall cease lest you be more righteous than describes in the Pharisees you shall be the least in the kingdom to come in our not only the Torah the written Torah do you have to observe but even the declarations the pronouncement the rules the laws proclaimed by the Pharisees whom jesus condemned as hypocrites phonies everything under the sun he says unless you listen to what they say the religious pronouncements you shall be the least in the kingdom to come so according to him every single detail of jewish law of the jewish bible of the Talmud of rabbinic law rabbinic declarations must be observed or else when the christianity changed after he died after the crucifixion christianity changed through paul through paul who proclaimed if the law still applies christ died in vain so the only way to explain hey here the messiah has come the messiah was put on the cross the messiah is dead nothing in the world has changed what happened where's the messianic redemption so therefore he had to bring in an radical change what is that radical change no longer shall you be saved by actions but by faith the law no no longer applies if the law still applies christ died in vain so therefore he obligated the law he started condemning the law you are cursed under the law etc etc now this paul coming to the Gentiles forever before he started changing the rules came now imagine he comes to them and says look here i want you to convert you i want to convert you to convert me to what to truth the messiah has arrived what must i do well first of all you must circumcise yourselves then you have to know that you have to keep shabbat then you have to know you have to keep the dietary laws he threw the book at them now the pagan said it's nice meeting you goodbye have a good time none of them of course would follow that seeing that none of them is interested in doing these things and i can't blame them who wants to put a straight jacket on so therefore he says okay special deal for you and also you can't refuse you don't have to do any of these things all you have to do is just accept and believe in the savior that's it and to prove his point he used to sit down with them eat with them drink with them kosher non kosher who gives a hood that's on his travels the moment he came back to the new testament tells us he came back to the land of israel he came back to jewislam first thing he did he jumped into a maker to purify himself from having been defiled by these gentle contacts from having been defiled by this non kosher food from having been defiled by these non- jewish practices then he rushed to the temple to bring a sin offering for having violated jewish law and then he lived again for a few weeks in the jewish community till the next trip next trip back history repeats itself again you guys don't have to do it and he sits down to eat and drink the sun coming back isn't that and if somebody asks but my goodness what is the man doing so paul explains in the book of corinthians i am made all things and to all men and to the jew i come as a jew and to those that are under the laws come us out those are under the law unto those that are without the law i come as without the law i am made all things to all men in order that i might gain the more for you know who this to me is the credo of hypocrisy it's the very essence of what hypocrisy is all about there are no principles there are no rules there is no truth nothing matters there is only one thing that matters produce get the numbers get the converts and so i have a whole whole list going through the new testament this is just a fraction a tiny fraction of passages which are outright offensive obscene and obscene is a very kind word to be used for that and i come to the question i say to him look here my friend this is what you want me to convert to this is what you want me to accept this is the worst of the worst lowlifes even thieves have honor among themselves here there's no honor at all hypocrisy nothing matters nobody else matters even poor vegetables a victory then they come back to me oh there's another passage not a beauty how do you become a true christian how do you become a true disciple yay he who hates not his father and hates not his mother hates not his brother and hates not his sister hates not his wife and children shall not be hates not himself shall not be my disciple direct quote hatred it's a book literally heating teaching and preaching hatred racism obnoxious uh empire building chauvinism it's the literally the worst of the worst that one can possibly imagine and i say to my christian friends and i do have christian friends what do you do with this what do you do with this and then the response is to me hey hold it to say all right what you have just read to me is not what it says say beg your pardon here is the book i show them chapter and verse and i show them it's already in context not one word out of context show me where i have misread or misinterpreted i'm not interpreting one word i'm reading literally the words as they are written and as they are printed so then the response is yeah you're right hundred percent right they're not accusing you falsifying however you don't understand these passages are not to be taken literally these passages have to be interpreted for example the passage about hate hate your mother hate your father hate your wife hate your children hate your brethren hate your sisters hate everybody and if not you can't be my disciple to say what that means is that your first loyalty belongs to him that when it comes to a conflict between doing something for your parents or your spouse or your children and that goes directly diametrically opposed to what god wants from you or what they say what you know who wants from you then they say you have to cast them all aside everything aside and just go with what he says i have no problem with that interpretation because technically every religion teaches the same thing every moral system teaches the same thing if there are principles of morality if there are principles of truth they reign supreme and no personal or emotional considerations can outweigh an overrule morality and truth so i have no problem with that and they say the same applies to the other passages you have to read not what it says you have to read in between the lines you have to read behind the words okay so he was a lousy writer he had a lousy speech writer for him he should have to express himself in a bit more delicate fashion but there is a deeper meaning to it and so forth and then as i listen to that and i say are you sure i say yes and then i ask him that maybe i should take these passages literal so they say to me oh no christianity throughout the ages has taken these passages with that deeper meaning well in reality i've seen the opposite in reality even all the interpretation of the gift they haven't come up with one interpretation yet for the story with the victory but in any case i say and i ask him what do you mean you mean you have a tradition of different interpretation and they say yeah going right back to the beginning right back to the source they say yes and then i sit and listen carefully and i shake my head and i say you know what you say makes sense and i'm willing to accept your interpretation and not my literal reading and then you can see a smile from ear to ear on the face they're happy there is hope for him yet he's coming out but then of course comes the punchline and my punchline is a very simple one i say to them look here all these passages which at face value are absolutely obscene and there's no better word for it i'm ready and willing to surrender and say there may be a completely different meaning to them and that meaning perhaps only those who have been born into the christian tradition who are the heirs of a chain of interpretation from day one to this day only they would know it i'm an outsider first one to admit it i come from completely outside a completely different tradition i come from judaism i as an outsider cannot come now and jump and into that book into that text into that tradition into the practices and tell him look here i think that this is what you are saying this is what you mean only the christian can tell me what the new testament is really all about but if it's good for the goose what is it it's good for the gander the punchline then is with regards to judaism only the christian can tell me what jc really meant through his tradition but by the same token then only the jew can know and tell you what the jewish bible is about what kind of a chutzpeh do they have to come johnny come lately hundreds and over thousand years after the half of bible a bible given by god through the jewish prophets in the jewish language to the jewish people with a jewish message addressed to the jews given to the jews transmitted by the jews interpreted by the jews preserved by the jews and now comes his johnny come lately christian who can't hold our bible right side up knows it at best from a translation of a translation of another translation and he dares come and tell me what the bible is talking about he can't even read the original text and even if he could read the original text where do you come off telling me what it's talking about in all of us for two thousand years the jews didn't know what we had for two thousand years we jews were deaf blind and dumb for two thousand years we got messages for two thousand years we got teachings which we had no idea what the heck they're talking about until johnny come lately who could not read hebrew the apostles could not read hebrew listen carefully the apostles could not read hebrew did not know hebrew they barely knew greek and they come to me and they tell me what the jewish bible is all about okay it's closed you want to take your passages in new testament and give them a different meaning i'm game and i'll be the first one to admit that i as an outsider and certainly who does not have a positive view of this has no right to impose my interpretation on it how much thousands of times millions of times so today fall by the side when it comes to our tradition case closed there's nothing further to discuss you want to know what the jewish bible means don't come to me and say doesn't it mean this i say to him shut up you want to know the jewish bible wants to say sit down and i will tell you and what i tell you that's the only thing that you can take and anything else is sheer rubbish and garbage case nothing further to discuss you want to take it differently and they interpret if they were to take my bible and read literally what it says they might have a case there's not a single passage that they take little there's not a single passage that they take in context which i am doing with theirs case closed nothing further to discuss and they turn silent now some people have accused me in the course of time that i'm using this a cop out that perhaps i'm afraid to confront the passages directly so i tell them look here you want to take the passages directly i'm game let me give you two examples the two most common passages quoted by them one is i say a 714 the other one is i say a chapter 53 these are the two most common quoted going right back to the new testament i say a 714 is the passage where which they call the virgin birth passage means so much is based on the virgin birth traditionally historically jews have answered them what kind of rubbish are you talking about first of all the whole chapter when i say has nothing to do with any messiah or messianic era the chapter is speaking quite explicit about a war going on at the time on the king asa in which the jewish people were close to defeat it was a hopeless situation and god tells the prophet i say go tell the king not to worry you'll be victorious and go tell the king he should ask you for a sign for proof that he has nothing to worry about and the prophet goes to the king and the king says i'm not going to test god i'm not going to ask him for any signs and then god said to i say uh i'm going to give him a sign nonetheless this shall be your sign is the sign so traditionally what we have answered and then indeed this happened they were victorious case closed that's all i say is talking about there comes christianity and says hold it the people wrote there are more they translate as virgin and the say that god gave i say a design behold the virgin shall become pregnant shall conceive and shall bear a son and call his name immanuel so we have answered them look here this who is talking about the messiah here we are talking about a situation a condition which existed 700 years before he was born is that going to be a sign for the king and for the jewish people that 700 years later somebody is going to be born what kind of nonsense is that secondly they say the word almo means virgin the hebrew word for virgin is psullo almo means young woman the same as ilayne means young man you may aluma say no the days of our youth we're not talking the days of our virginity we talk about the days of our youth this has been the quality and stress even proof brought from various other verses where you see that almo could not possibly be relate there to a virgin so they say yeah sula means virgin almo can also mean virgin etc etc this has been but you can talk your head blue it's not going to go anywhere since that is not going to go anywhere i have chosen again a different way and i say to the christians you know what you want i say a chapter seven to be messianic fine i'm game let it be messianic you want almo to be a virgin have no problem let it be a virgin what do i care everything you want but i'm gonna ask you a question now what was the sign what is the sign that god is giving so to look at me and say are you crazy what do you mean what is the sign can you think of a greater sign than a virgin virgin virgin getting pregnant saying no i can't that is indeed indeed miraculous supernatural phenomenal if i would know such a case yes i would have to say this is divine intervention ah see that is a sign i said just a moment when you give me a sign i have to see the sign i have to recognize the sign can you tell me anyone in that generation that would know that she was a virgin did she run around with a certificate from a gynecologist that he has examined her and found her in fact yes she's a virgin if she doesn't have a certificate like that who would know that she's a virgin imagine your daughter comes home mom i'm pregnant i didn't fool around didn't see any boys from miles around just happened like that immaculate conception would you take that serious if you don't take that serious why should i take that serious who would know that she's a virgin so obviously that is not the sign there's no way in the world that you could possibly imagine even that the pregnancy the conception of the child is a sign in terms of virginity that is number one number two i say to them if you read that verse what does it say even in your interpretation the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and what does it say then and she shall call his name immanuel i've checked the new testament from the beginning to the end from the front to the back and from the back to the front and back again and back again not once not one single time is yes you ever called immanuel not once what happened to the prophecy so they tell me you know immanuel means god with us of course immanuel means god with us just as abraham means an exalted father and utzok means he shall rejoice and jacob means to heal and noses means drawn from the water every hebrew name has a meaning but you will not find a single biblical passage throughout the whole bible that the bible says so and so shall be called by this in that name that that person is not called by that name and indeed these names are meaningful so therefore if that is supposed to be messianic let it be messianic i say everything you say let it be a virgin birth but one thing i can tell you for sure it's definitely most definitely not him because that prophecy has never been fulfilled in him case closed then they wonder and say oh yeah if it's not him then who else is it saying no problem i know who it is well i know of a certain individual whose mother was a relatively young woman when he was born and then he was born she called his name immanuel his full name is immanuel shoket myself so now the messiah has been revealed and exposed for that matter i have an advantage which he never had according to jewish tradition the messiah has to come from king david and according to jewish tradition as we read in the Torah reading of this week explicitly and as we read in so many other the very first chapter of numbers and in so many other passages genealogy in Judaism religion is determined by the mother genealogy tribal affiliation hereditary laws are determined exclusively through the father he had no father did he no father forget it he can't be a king of his own his mother descended from king david king david muzzle tough therefore what means nothing absolutely nothing my family has a genealogical table for some of my mother's side and my father's side no problem so if you're looking for qualifications you're looking for a viable candidate i'm volunteering for the throne of israel not just volunteering but i think the time has come i should demand it that's so much for i say a 714 even granting them every mistranslation and every misinterpretation that they want to take for it there is no way in the world no way in the world that they can show that this has anything to do with him let's take i say a 53 the suffering servant passage the traditional interpretation of that has been by many that tried to escape the confrontation from Christianity and say the suffering servant that is the people of Israel and 2000 years certainly are shown that we are the suffering servant however to be true and honest there is solid sufficient evidence in Jewish tradition going right back to the Talmud and medieval commentators no i say a 53 speaks indeed about the messiah speaks about moshiach so i take it you know by now you know i'm very frank and open i take frontal attacks i say 53 i give you everything you want messianic moshiach the works but regardless what one thing i can tell you it is not him then they ask me what do you mean it's not him how do you know it's not him maybe it isn't say no for my say a 53 it says right there that it couldn't possibly be him where does it say that well it talks there but the suffering servant suffering for the sins and the iniquities of his nation and the world and then it says i think verse six like a lamb dumb being led to slaughter opened not its mouth that's the suffering servant whoever it is i say one thing i know it can't be him why not because he did not keep his mouth shut what do i mean by that go back to the new testament according to christianity he was born he came into this world for what to save mankind save mankind how so his vicarious suffering by dying on the cross with his blood he cleansed the blood of all mankind which means obviously the crucifixion was the intended end was his whole purpose here on earth that's what he came for no crucifixion his mission has failed and what happened with this crucifixion there he is being led he comes to the cross the nail him on the cross what does he do he cries out my god my god why has thou forsaken me imagine at the height of his career physically as well as otherwise having reached the apex of his whole purpose in life that for which he came into this earth what is he doing that last moment before he breathed without his last my god my god why is thou forsaken me millions of jews have walked to the gas chambers millions of jews have walked to the stake were burned alive skin the life torn alive crying out schmah israel adonai elohino adonai echot millions of jews went to the death proclaiming the faith in god they went to the death singing not just proclaiming the faith in god for millions of jews this was indeed the greatest moment in their life the after story of rabbi akiva the greatest teacher of the Talmud who was condemned to death for one sin violating the roman prohibition to teach Torah and the roman governor wasn't satisfied in just killing him in just executing him no for what he did saving Judaism he was going to be tortured to death how by taking pitchforks and literally tearing pieces of flesh from his body piece by piece until he died and while he was lying there pieces of flesh being torn from his body he was lying there smiling just about laughing nobody could take it his disciple said rabbi what is happening how can you laugh at the moment like this the roman executioner stood there you must be a demon there's no way you could be a human being and undergo this suffering and lie here smiling and what did he answer them said what do you mean by my smiling this is the most glorious moment in my life i say the shema i proclaim my belief in god i proclaim the unity of god and i proclaim how i have to love god they are half to a sudden oh you shall love hasham your god the whole of hope is all your heart with all your soul with all your might every day i proclaim that every day i affirm that but all my life i was wondering and all my life i was waiting do i really mean it it's so easy to say it with your mouth but do i really mean it if and when i shall be put to the test would i still say it would i still believe it today it is happening sir today i'm being killed for being a jew today i'm being killed and murdered and tortured for my faith and believe in god and strengthen that amongst others is this not the most glorious moment in my life that i can lay down my life for god that has been the jewish attitude and he my not only the martyrs in jewish history in christian history as well how many christians went in the arenas of rule and they're fed to the lions affirming their faith in their religion in their god how many christians how many muslims how many members of all religions in the world were willing to sacrifice their lives proudly standing up happy that they can prove their faith in their god by laying down their lives and he the so-called savior of mankind the role model the one who comes to die for the sake of mankind my god my god biased are for secondly like a lamb dumb being led to slaughter opened not his mouth that is the suffering servant whoever it is i don't know but one thing i can tell you it is for sure not him and if that is not enough there is another word that's in chapter 53 where it talks about the serving servant how he goes through his sufferings and then god promises him a reward don't worry he shall see seed he shall see children he shall see upstream now unless there is a secret history of you know who according to all records christians and non christians when was he crucified he was about 30 years old 33 years old if not a three years for like here if another 10 years is that long life promised the suffering servant he shall see offspring where are they did he have a mistress somewhere on the side where is she where are his children where are his grandchildren the year is there i shall see offspring in the jewish bible the hebo has only one connotation physical offspring not disciples not students where are they who is the suffering servant whoever it is one thing we know for sure beyond the shadow of a doubt whoever it is it is not him it can't be him he doesn't fit the bill aside of the fact that he simply does not fill up the bill of a messiah altogether according to the jewish bible according to jewish prophets what is the messiah supposed to do the messiah supposed to redeem the jewish people the messiah supposed to rebuild the temple the messiah supposed to usher in an era of peace and harmony so all mankind the messiah is going to bring about peace and harmony between all human beings without exception jew and gentile believers non-believers whoever it is a peace an era of peace and harmony not only amongst all mankind but even amongst the animal kingdom the wolf shall live with the lamb the lion with the kit the wood the lion shall eat straw like the cow no one another no animal shall have another animal let alone a human being and certainly the human beings will no longer harm the sword shall be changed into plowshares no more arms there is nothing ultimate utopia that is messiah that is messiana gauge what has happened since that messiah came there has never been so much suffering there has never been so much torture there's never been so much violence there has never been so much in humanity in all of human history as there has been in the last 2000 years and all in the name of jesus christ the savior of mankind that is the messiah the christians answered and said oh no those people who did it are not true christians there are people who call themselves christians but they're not real christians my answer to that is to go back to the new testament i've called them a passage in matthew 15 by their food shall they be known a good tree does not bring forth bad food and a bad tree does not bring forth good food i don't care whether these people were true christians or were not true christians the fact remains that all this inhumanity has been caused by the new testament by the christians falling or those who claim to be christians is based these are the direct fruits of those teachings as i said earlier there is today not a single christian theologian catholic or protestant or whatever have you that does not admit that the holocaust in our own day regardless what the nazis claimed in terms of religious affiliation the holocaust in our day is a direct result not indirect direct result an inevitable result of christian history of 2000 years so much for the terms of refutation for the polemics i could go on and on and on with all the other passages etc etc every one of them comes up with the same answer but ladies and gentlemen my purpose here tonight in spite of what it may have sounded here before now you know why it auditors or listeners discretion advised is not to attack christianity no i have no quarrel with christianity no i'm not being facetious not at all not at all being facetious to me christianity is a lie outright falsehood sheer nonsense but that's to me the same as the christian would say that juda isn't the way i live it is to him a lie and outright falsely you cannot be a true christian and accept the validity of another religion nor can you belong to any religion and accept the validity of another religion that's an absurdity it's impossible but we can respect one another nonetheless just because that is a lie to me i did not say it is a lie period it is a lie to me and it is a lie to every jew on earth to the christian to the gentile for all i know there's something in it the same as all these other religions god has many children and you don't demand the same thing from all your children penicillin has healed and cured and saved millions of lives but penicillin is also responsible for the death of thousands upon thousands of people if you're allergic to penicillin it's fatal when a christian would live the life of a jew the life of the torah he would be living a lie he is spitting in god's face because of the life of the torah has no relationship no bearing upon the gentile none whatsoever he is taking a medication that has been prescribed for me the jew and every other jew for the christian that is fatal by the same token the jew that would live the life of the christian is also swallowing poison outright poison is living a lie i've often said in various lectures and these lectures are not held just for jewish audiences i've given this same lecture with the same content i'm much worse tonight they have to be short we started late and i'm all formally scratched the introduction in front of christian audiences and i have no problem with it because they understand exactly what i'm saying whatever i have said so far could be said by any christian any muslim any buddhist or any hindu just change the wording just change the terms but the content is exactly the same it once happened at megill university that i gave this lecture and there were a whole bunch of priests and ministers in the audience and they heard me say well i want christians to be good christians do your own thing but jews must do their own thing must be two jews in a question and answer period a priest raises his hand says rabbi i understand everything you said in your lecture and philosophically theologically there is not a hole to be shot through you're absolutely 100% correct however when you tell me to be a true christian and a good christian and my book tells me go out into the hedges and compel them to enter go and evangelize the whole world and to the jew first you want me to be a good christian you leave me no other choice but to go missionize jews and my answer shocked him i said him i have no problem is you going out missionizing i have no problem is christians going out evangelizing i have no problem and i even challenged the christians by all means go and try and convert every single jew you can find on earth just one thing make sure you convert him what means convert him conversion does not mean that you sprinkle some holy water on him there's an anecdote told of a jew in poland who couldn't make a living and he hears that the priest offers money to ever convert fine so he moves from one village to the next and he converts from one from one parish to the next but in one parish the priest was not stupid says before i pay you the price and all that you have to settle here for a little while and i want to observe you and he taught them all the laws whatever you are supposed to follow what he's allowed to do what he's not allowed to do and that was in the good old days when there was no meat on fridays so i want him remember no meat on fridays sure everything no problem converted him paid him his fee and he moved there in that village for a while one Friday night the priest goes on an inspection tour a secret inspection tour he looks through the window of the jew's home and Friday night you know what the jew does job is a Friday night without chicken soup without the filter fish without the chicken and all that kugel and kishka how can you survive it's impossible and the jew sits at his table eating the priest runs in i told you no meat on friday meat meat what are you all talking about what do you mean there's chicken lying here on the table chicken where what chicken chicken schmicken what are you talking about says stay out the chicken says that's not a chicken that's a fish since when do fish have wings since when do fish have legs father i'm telling you this is a fish you think i'm crazy i'll explain to you father he says remember when i came to your last day and i told you i want to convert you took me to the church you took some holy water you sprinkled it on me and you said now you're no longer a jew now you're a christian tonight before i sit down to eat i took some holy water i sprinkled it on the chicken and i said now you're no longer the chicken now you're a fish case in history and i state that without qualification of a jew joining christian or christian group christian doctrines has never ever been a case of conversion in all of history it has never yet been a jew to convert to christianity and i go a step further and i make a prophecy you know now who Emmanuel is there never will be the most they have you're no longer a chicken you're a fish what do i mean by that what does conversion mean i told the priest conversion means conviction religion is as i started off tonight truth you don't join the religion to keep your mother in law happy you don't join the religion for whatever other outside reason that may come in religion is not changing the dress the way to do it in hollywood today i marry a jew i become jewish then tomorrow she's divorced next day i marry a buddhist i become a buddhist that's not religion that's a farce religion you can only join if you really sincerely deepen your heart and soul and mind know and are convinced this is the truth absolute truth do you want an only truth as far as i'm concerned it may not be the truth for somebody else but for me this is it and there's no other way if you don't have that feeling if you don't have that intellectual conviction not feeling just alone but intellectual conviction by examining by analyzing by studying and coming up with an answer you are not talking about conversion you're talking about the force sprinkling holy water that's all so i told him by all means go ahead and convert every single jew in the world but convert him which means you cannot convert a single individual unless that individual first knows who he is and what he is and where he comes from once a jew knows everything about judaism that is to know about it and he has found with judaism he can show whether something wrong with judaism this makes no sense this is ridiculous this is a contradiction this is absurd and now that he has rejected judaism he starts looking for something else and he comes up with the other thing and he checks that and analyzes that and investigates that from beginning to end and he sees oh no here there are no contradictions all the problems i have with this book do not exist in this book if you can never show me a case like that by all means you have converted him who are the people who joined the jews for jay who are the people who joined the evocations who are the ones who have been converted to art history either opportunists as happened in the 19th century in germany because the professions were closed off for them unless you were a christian and the same as happening in medieval spain so they converted for convenience like hey now i can get a professorship now i can become a doctor now i can become a diesel i become a dad never out of conviction who are those who may even be in the audience tonight i guarantee you without knowing who what where and when not one not one that can stand up and show that he knows what judaism is about not one that can show that christianity has any one single question to answer that judaism does not have absolutely impossible and therefore i state without hesitation willing to be contradicted that it has never yet happened in all of history it's logically impossible to happen in all of history that the jew has ever converted to christianity or another religion or that the jew ever will do so conversions has never taken place change yes joined yes and that was why i answered him and he had no response to that he saw the point so much for that this however one thing more time is getting on and that is it's all finding good for me to stand here and show the fallacy of other religions and show the the immorality of conversion the immorality of evangelizing that the pray on the ignorant they never come to me once after a lecture like this they challenged me are you willing for a debate i said yes by all means anytime but i'm not willing to base my time so the only way i will engage in a debate with you i said is on the following conditions listen careful the debate will be on television i will provide the television time and the debate will be in front of a jury who will judge the arguments so we're not gonna have a shouting match i say it means this and you say no it doesn't mean that no it doesn't that's what you always have will have a jury let the jury decide who will the jury be i tell them you decide you the christians you can pick the jury they can even be members of your church they can be believing or reborn or whatever have you the words i couldn't tell us there's only one qualification that i demand that they be professionals that they be professional judges or lawyers or scientists of that caliber the rest what their religious affiliation is and all that i couldn't care one who you choose them you pick them and i promise you before the debate i guarantee you before the debate that is not a single claim not a single interpretation not a single argument that you can come up with that your jury is going to agree that you have proven a point and if you will get them to agree on television because then the jury of course has to watch it step their professional credentials are now on the line then i withdraw and i'll apologize in public and i'll send all my students to go to you to un-learn from you first they gathered the set first debate oh they gathered with both hands the moment i gave days it took them about a week to catch on then they started right i have this in writing i have this in writing from the highest officials in the heat but they used to call themselves in the 70s the hypocritical lines of america then they wrote me back a letter what are you gonna call proof what are you gonna call evidence even in science that problems determining what is called proof and what is called this and also started back again way out i told look here let your own people decide what is proof not my people not some outsiders from out there believing reborn christians your own people your own ministers but they will have to do so and show the evidence and make their proclamation and their pronouncements on television in front of an audience bottom of the line they're backed out and this has happened every time they challenge me i make them the same thing once you tell them that they're backed out when it comes even on a limited basis after a while they today they don't even want to talk to me anymore they arranged somebody in california wants to arrange a whole debate in a college of their own where they have quite a few jewish students and for that reason they wanted them to be exposed to the other side so they asked them are you willing to have a debate as rabbis in your own college in your own premises so sure oh by all means i've been looking and yearning and thirsting and hungling for that okay with the setup at date they asked them who you're gonna pick they asked it was about i was there in los angeles so we haven't decided yet they'll find somebody don't worry and so who did they pick and they already set up their list of their professors of that bible college and the rabbis had told them i've warned them beforehand don't tell them until the last day uh because until if it's before i guarantee you they'll back out comes to the last day they figured last day they figured eight they will be too embarrassed to back out the last day they said okay you have you have got somebody you have to tell our students when what yes you're bringing up a shocker from thunder forget it he has no respect for us he speaks condescendingly he's condemning he's just critical this is that we don't talk to him fine i certainly don't want to talk to them ladies and gentlemen this is all fine and good and in some ways may even have sounded entertaining though i do not find it entertaining and i refuse in general to speak on this topic when it's just for entertainment unless it really serves a purpose i don't want to talk about this everything i've said so far and we are forgetting one other side of the coin to criticize the missionaries the easier thing to do to me missionaries evangelists are vermin dirt the lowest of the lowest of the lowest and i'll make a statement that will probably shock you out of your feet out of your shoes i prefer the nazis with the gas chambers with the holocaust repeated rather than the missionaries because all the nazis could take from us is our bodies our lives they could not touch our souls the missionaries are after killing the jewish soul and that to us is the worst the worst tragedy i regard them as infinitely worse than the worst of the nazis outright murderers of the lowest kind however on the other side by condemning them we have not solved any problems we have not answered any questions the other side of the coin is who are their victims their victims are essentially our young boys and girls and not the way we used to think those who are strung out on drugs those with terrible emotional problems lying in the gutter so they picked up this human refuse let them have them that's an attitude that is very often taken in the jewish community another attitude that is taken in the jewish community how many are involved if you have a community of a hundred thousand do you have a hundred involved two hundred five hundred even it's not even one percent what you're making such a big tumble about they play the numbers game the truth of course is that those people who get involved are not the refuse of judaism more often than not they are the best and the finest that we have they are precisely the young people who are spiritually attuned spiritually searching spiritually starved looking for answers looking for meaning and neglected by our community and whether it is five thousand or it is one it makes no difference you want to know the value of one jew as the missionary the missionaries have a budget running literally in the hundreds of millions of dollars estimates it costs them approximately three to four hundred thousand dollars us dollars hours of work is in weeks and month to get one jew and my response to that is they are getting them dirt cheap if we were to spend just five percent one percent of the financial resources of the emotional resources of the time that they are willing to spend on one jew we would have no problem not that you save one we would be literally saving thousands but then we have the numbers game how many are involved or we have so many other problems we have so many other commitments we have so many other obligations it's all finally good to stand and condemn the missionary but the missionary gets them by default the missionary is very often the first one that provides for them a shoulder to lean on an ear that listens to them to show them some sympathy that is willing to talk to them i had an interesting story some 20 years ago i was asked to to deal with a case in denver colorado and i decided since i'm ready in denver colorado in a few days i already hop over to california we had some family i've never been that far west those made all the arrangements everything i figured i would need about two three days in in denver and then this would be a travel on sunday from toronto be there monday tuesday and wednesday go to california since i'll be there till after the weekend i told her about how it's there okay i'll be coming there as if you want to use me fine and they arranged a shabbaton about two days before i leave toronto i get a phone call from chabad house in san diego over here you're coming to california yes we need you we have lots of problems there was curls lots of problems there was kids getting involved they're very active and so forth could you please come out i said i'm sorry i have no time i'm going to this and that remember then have two days in california at the weekend i already promised to chabad house in alay and sunday i have to go back to toronto now i don't know if you people have ever been in contact with chabad directors and chabad workers in they have selective hearing they only hear what they want to hear and the word nor when you tell it to them it doesn't register they have their own agenda he kept me on the phone literally for 45 minutes i give him every argument in the sentence no way i can do it and he keeps buzzing then he sees it's a hopeless case so he takes a new tack he says where are you going from the airport he said oh i'm going to long beach i have a sister there long beach california oh and you're coming there when it's the night you know what we'll pick you up from long beach shortly after your life we'll take you to san diego it's 20 minutes drive and then we'll give the lecture and you take you back so you have lost no time well that i could no longer say no to i mean all they're asking us cup just a couple of hours it's not a special thing okay i gave in i surrendered the case in then the colorado was a failure at least at the time what happened thereafter i don't know yet um i go to to color to california i get to long beach tired exhausted get there about five thirty six o'clock and relax just hi hello five minutes later the car in front of the door came to pick you up to take you to san diego already lectures and call till eight eight thirty yeah so i figured maybe to give me supple day and let me relax there okay fine good i hop in the car the car goes ten minutes twenty minutes thirty minutes forty minutes fifty minutes an hour san diego is two and a half hours from long beach if you go full speed on the freeway i was furious i mean even chutzpah and this sounded a bit like paul heavenly deception i came there was about eight thirty already but i'm arrived there the kebab rabbi stands on the steps of the kebab house like this you're late people are waiting for you chutzpah not even a hello he has tricked me in light and cheated to me and all that and what is the hello you're late he still has a complaint i'm starving have eaten all day said san diego i didn't never heard about san diego before i went there and i decided after alivia san diego will not exist on my map i anymore either i come into the kebab house i figured maybe there's a big audience five six seven hundred people twenty five people and of those twenty five people twenty three at least we're associated with kebab house the other two i don't know for that you have to drag me out to come and preach to the converted to waste my time i didn't even want to argue with him they want to say decided you see how long the spiel takes tonight i'm going to give him a 15 minute thing and goodbye and erased from my memory i start speaking 15 minutes wind it up if they have complaints let them complain what do i care just as a minute before i finished a whole group walks in this guitar or something else and the kebab other comes behind me says send a dose send a dose you say the Russians are coming Russians are coming who are they obviously it was the opposition the loyal opposition a whole group from campus to say it for christ active on campus of the university san diego well at least now i had somebody to talk to before there's just a waste of time so there i went into the whole thing i mean i felt the responsibility and i came to question and answers one of the kids one of their kids kept asking lots of questions challenging questioning this and that i answered them everything he said and then we finished it's about 11 30 and the old power went out and came over and said goodbye thank you very much it's a very interesting lecture and when he passed by i stopped him and said it's just are you jewish he said yes hold it hold it hold it said um you're jewish you asked you lots of questions first of all how did you get involved here listen to his story how you got involved he tells me very simple his mother is a graduate of Auschwitz came as a young woman to california got married there and joined the reform temple he said since his early youth he was very tuned into religion and he always used to bother his rabbi with questions about religion about god torah this and that he used to ask him does god exist and the rabbi kept debating what is god god is love god is the universal principle god is the universal soul and is that it's a torah divine well you know it's inspired there's an ongoing divine revelation ongoing inspiration etc the whole work he says after a while i came to the conclusion in my temple there are at most two people that really believe in god my mother and myself and the rabbi at best was an agnostic if not the nastiest but still maybe that's the way judeism works who knows maybe it's an optional thing and that's how he went through the whole thing till he went to university and one day passing on the campus of university where the campus crusade had a table he was approached by one certainly scheming out are you there you think you'll go to heaven imagine somebody asking a question like that i mean i as a kid teenager how did i get my kicks we had no television we had didn't got to the movies and that i got my kicks by going to when i was in ishiva going to time square and hassle these street corner preachers giving them with all these passages that's how i got my kicks um so when i get questions like that if i hear people coming out with these insane things i think i have time i take the mickey out of them like this oh somebody get knocking on your door so uh i invite them in with a big smile yes they always come in and isn't that uh usually five or ten minutes they walk out back us be gone satan be gone satan and so forth i treat them very nicely i just questioned them that's all so he said when he heard that question he had the same reaction that i get hey we are dealing here with a bunch of that cases he can have a good time with them so he started questioning them what you mean heaven isn't that time to take the mickey out of them and he says something happened he says they asked foolish questions they made stupid statements i challenged them but whatever question i asked them they were not ashamed to stand up for what they believed in they were not embarrassed to state what they believed in they said it forthright and that impressed me for the first time in my life i came across a person that was willing to state speak openly frankly no beating around the bush like his father did and one thing led to another he became involved and he wound up to be their main recruiter on campus and he had really a charisma about him that's what my attention about him was something about him real charisma and so i could understand that he was successful so i asked him look here you have been here now tonight you heard what i said you asked lots of questions frank open direct i answered you what do you say now says yeah you gave me lots of food to think about i said hold it this is not food to think about we are dealing here about religion we're dealing here about truth we're dealing here about reality this is not something that you play games yeah i'll shove it till tomorrow either it is true or it is false there's no in between yeah yeah yeah yeah it goes on to make a long story short i asked him i said i want to i ask you to for just one thing go home take the bible don't take any rabbi and don't take any of those people just take the bible open it to genesis one one and start reading in sequence don't start turning pages from genesis three and then to genesis 49 and then to exodus 12 and then to leviticus 16 and then to deuteronomy 18 and then i say a seven and i say a 53 and daniel seven and daniel nine and he's equal 31 and all these whole rows of passages that keep throwing at you read in sequence from genesis one one for as long as it takes you don't ever ask anybody for interpretation no jew no gentile and then as you come across all these passages ask yourself what these passages mean if at the end of going through the bible that way you still come up with the way the approach that you have now i have no problems with you but i dare you to do that it took me till three 34 o'clock in the morning i didn't get back to long week she'll six less than a week later i get a phone call from the rabbi of the gabbard house in san diego he has dropped the whole campus crusade he did what i told him to do he dropped the whole thing he went to yeshiva later on and he came back and he was instrumental in getting out literally dozens of jewish kids because he was in there he knew what it was he knew what their arguments were he knew their approach and he now also saw the other side and here we have a typical example of what is going on that here he found somebody who was sincere one thing they have to give to missionaries they're hypocrites they're cheats they're vermin they're the lowest of the lowest low lives but one thing they're sincere in what they're doing and they're willing to to take abuse they love abuse because that means chalking up more extra bounty points for upstairs but they stand for what they believe in and we jews unfortunately don't we are weak in that regard not only are we weak we neglect when there's a crisis we jump we scream all the way what is happening here but if there's no crisis everything is hunky-dory and it isn't that no problem it's not in the family it's only my neighbor's family how many kids are involved how many of them they're on drugs how many were lying in the gutter etc etc so initially i don't even blame the missionary the missionary is simply picking up that which we have left for them to be picked up and that is where we have to worry about we have the concern to see to prevent that when i give lectures like these even though i have had it happen that from the lecture alone people came out of these groups i don't expect that i see my lecture more as preventative medicine let people at least know what the score is so that if anybody's ever tempted has ever been accosted by any of those low lives let them know who and what he's dealing with when it comes to taking them out that's a different ballgame it depends on what level they are involved if they're involved emotionally you can talk your head blue if they're involved rationally i can get them out in five minutes if not five minutes 20 minutes if not 20 minutes a day if they're involved emotionally forget it i have i don't know how many cases of those involved in jews for jay and all these others that were brought to me and i talked to say at the end of the conversation i see your point you're a hundred percent right to admit the truth some of them are honest and then i ask you but the answer is but i feel it right in there and that i cannot act against that i cannot fight i can fight on this level where religion is at where it's a motion there i can't fight it and all it would take then is just patience and perhaps in the course of time we can wean them away from this i compare people involved in cults and jews for jay is an outright cult as drug addicts they are drug addicts and the missionaries are drug peddlers literally drug peddlers they are peddling a spiritual drug and the proof you have if you need any i feel it right in there and when i ask them you tell me you feel it right in there go to the moonies unification church go to the scientology go to the divine light go to any of these groups the way whatever it is you can shoot down their arguments in no time you don't need to be a great sophisticated professor of philosophy to do so nor do you have to know any theology simple comment down to earth common sense that's all you need what do all of them say once you're finished with the arguments i feel it right in there will the real one please stand up he feels it he feels it he feels it in a way the simplest refutation to any missionary take that as advice in case you're ever challenged whenever a christian asks you or whoever it is asks you why do you not want to join us why do you not want to believe what we believe in you know what the simplest answer is how does a jew answer question is a counter question you tell me if i talk to a christian why you are not a muslim give me the reason for that and by giving me the reason for that you have given yourself the reason why i am not a christian it's exactly the same reason and i don't care what he's going to answer and the same i can say to the muslim you tell me why you are not a christian and you will know why i'm not a muslim you tell me why you're not the buddhist and i'll tell you why i'm not a not a christian the whole concept of jew for jay is such a falsehood which denies all of judaism and denies all of christianity people claim to be jews for jay obviously don't know the first thing about the new testament which declares quite explicitly neither greek nor hebo neither freemen nor bondsman neither male nor female there are no distinction between jewish christians and christian christians or gentle christians it's all or nothing and those jews who are circumcised and got involved let them listen to what paul says if you are circumcised christ shall avail you nothing finished case closed you are lost case your hopeless case why your hopeless case because paul says also if you're circumcised you're bound to do all of the law so forget about christianity the whole idea from a christian point of view to be a jew for jay is a denial of the new testament is a denial of jay himself is a denial even of the teachings of paul it's a total absurdity it's a square circle and for sure it's a denial it's a lie from the point of judaism only i the jew can tell you who is a jew you're the outside that can't come and start giving me definitions who is a jew i doubt whether very much whether the pope will allow me to lay down the criteria who is a proper and good catholic so neither can the christian come and tell who is a jew or the jew for jay so those who claim to be jews for jay those who claim to be messianic jews those who claim to be hebo christians whatever they are denying judaism and they are denying christianity they're just plain simply denying liars but they don't realize that the ally is why because they're involved in the emotional level and so we come back she says god exists i know god exists that is where religion is at the definition of a cult is somebody who simply says who simply closes his eyes jumps blindfolded fidelity doesn't know what he's talking about purely emotional religion has to be like i believe it's like a baticha says now i know i examined it i checked it i investigated it and i've come to the conclusion from here not from there that is what religion is all about that is what truth is all about that is what reason is all about that is what morality is all about we are not even talking here jew versus christianity we are talking here basic decency basic decency basic truth basic morality basic ethics missionaries are anti-semites missionaries are pinpointing an identifiable group within society and saying what jay said no man come and do the father accepts for me you don't become a christian down to the eternal barbecue all his henchmen and so far that they accept him go straight up to heaven to dance with all the angels the six million jews killed by the christians because they died thank god in their faith they are burning down there eternally in the barbecue that is the christian concept that is the morality of the missionary so when they talk about jew for jay that makes as much sense as pope paul for buddha the archbishop of canterbury for christian it's exactly the same absurdity means the same thing because this is a contradiction in terms when we are talking about here tonight is not attacking this is not attacking that that is not the issue the act of missionizing we attack because it is in essence absolutely indecent offensive obscene and if you think that i can say such things on the here just last year i had the debate in oxford at oxford university with the archbishop of oxford on that very topic the morality of missionizing and the bottom line is he had no answer it is offensive it is obscene because you are pinpointing you're telling us this is what hitler is all about there are subhuman beings who are the subhumans those who do not accept christianity or for missionaries of other religions who don't accept that that's exactly what it means no man coming to the father accepts for me this means if you are not one of ours you're not one of us you are subhuman you're an animal you're a beast you're a cockroach i can step on you i can get rid of you this is what it is all about let the christian lead a good christian decent life and leave us jews alone let us strive for that which god and truth a god and religion and decency and morality is all about and that is commitment to truth that's the beginning the olive the first letter the men the middle letter and the soft the last letter it's the beginning and end of all that mankind of humanity decency is all about thank you