Version Joel:
“You're not Jewish, Joel.”
It's a statement, or rather conclusive projection I once heard from an individual that I knew.
This is the only person who voiced this imposing and anchoring belief onto me, to hinder my spiritual metamorphosis into me wanting to adopt the Jewish faith for me and my family. His argument was based on me living a dogmatic view being thrust onto me alongside accusations, as I was raised in a family practicing the Roman Catholic beliefs, that was where I must stay and fit all my life.
But my response —
IT'S MY OWN FREE WILL MATE, BACK OFF!
There are a lot of underpowered, baseless stereotypes on the Jew by lying tongues and false pens. But nevertheless, I would like to embrace one of the stereotypes that Jews answer a question with a question.
I would like to ask you —
Are you really European, my friend?
Can any of you possibly point it on the world map?
No, I am not demeaning you, before I'm pushed into the prejudicial stereotype. I still unequivocally can't point out many places on the map that I have physically nothing to do with, other than possibly being a descendant of one of my forefathers of British-ruled India, who could very well be Jewish as much as they could be of any other race.
Like the opposition, I won't play resistance to the replacement theology ingrained in their seed, it's really commonplace, nothing Jews are unacquainted with. But I'd rather like to affirm their existence, not snatching their identity away from them, 'cause they're right about them being European, or whatever they call themselves, yet wrong in me not being Jewish.
You may ask what does this mean?
Story goes this way -
1. I was born a lukewarm Roman Catholic.
2. Was gliding through life with my lukewarm-minded beliefs.
3. Had a deep calling inside me to embrace the Scripture, which was in my hand, from the Roman Catholic Church, (which by the way, played a different purpose for which they did not intend, in me coming to understand and read about my Jewish faith in the first and only real testament of the book)
4. Had an international corporate stint alongside my wife, who's my partner in life and in faithfulness.
5. Pursued my own business and achieved success to a measure where I reached a crossroads — to either embrace the ways of the world, to trade my Truth for coin OR to pursue the Truth which I felt was most accurate in the Creator's Book of Glory which is possessed by all, practiced by a few, who are meant to be the Chosen one’s - Israel.
6. I chose the invaluable latter part, to pursue the truth and first cloak myself with the identity and beliefs I'd like my family to adopt and inherit. I developed a strong sense of purpose, to go the opposite of converting people to deeply bring internal changes within myself and the people under my headship or roof. I strongly detest the idea to convert someone else freely living his life, under the beliefs he or she wants to embrace, but each to his own.
7. My story continues from the point of me being strongly driven by the desire to keep my Jewish Faith as my foundation and not a lukewarm part of possibly 1-hour of the 1st day of the week. I strongly stand by the religious Jewish perspective of strict Torah-observance, which is the basis of any faith. Lawlessness isn't the basis of any faith or even world government. I believe you can't wrongly represent any authority figure, much lesser the Creator.
8. Contractual and covenantal documents in frivolous matters like a rental agreement or a partnership deed have many standard conditions that command compliance with the law of the land, followed by amicably decided miscellaneous laws which are punishable if violated. Even basic appliances come with a manual of detailed and lengthy rules telling the user how to operate the machine, and I don't see anyone of us calling the machine a "legalist" for telling you how to use it!
9. How much more the Creator of Heaven and Earth HASHEM who called us to be drawn closer to Him through keeping the terms of His Covenant, laid down for us in the Law of Moses - The Torah, which constitutes the 1st five books of the Holy Scriptural compilation.
10. These were my key takeaways which were catalysts for my metamorphosis into embracing the Jewish seed within me. The seed of curiosity, the seed of deep yearning for the Creator. This destined branching out was achieved by a deep sense of questioning, the answers of which were provided in the widespread Bible easily accessible to me.
My answer —
I'm as Jewish as they're Roman or any other race.
I'd like to factually breakdown the simple, yet mighty covenant God extended to His people on Mount Sinai.
The Torah was handed over to us, the Jewish people, by our Mighty Creator as the blueprint to living a life of higher morality and spiritual quality. It places less emphasis on worldly concerns which stem from innate lack mentality or limitation, to the abundance of the Creator's love, wisdom and knowledge.
We're being baked as vessels to be used for eternity, not broken into pieces upon being cracked or shattered, by worldly tremors.
Speaking of one who greatly exemplified the Jewish faith;
Our Father Abraham in the Jewish Bible was a child born to an idolator Terah who was his father, who was the prince in Ur the land of the Chaldeans. Under the fierce reign of King Nimrod, Abraham faced the knife many times for his compulsive questioning and truth seeking, which by nature brought to nothing the idolatrous views of the land he inhabited.
But his obedience and curiosity bore fruit and he's the Father of many nations today.
Your identity is what and who you naturally identify yourself to be. It's the person you'd like to create and construct in the mirror through whatever means you deem fit, and it's no one's business to deem you evil for it.
The same old accusation weighs down all growth, so clear the clutter, empty the trash, separate yourself from argumentative and baseless talks, then pursue your truth unapologetically. Don't let anyone cheat you of this chance. You're living for the first time, don't take it for granted, embrace whatever belief you want to, and then strongly stand by it.
But the desire in Abraham's chest to find His Creator was so high, he went beyond the stargazing and astrology that was prevalent in that time and turned to questioning, as to who created the earth and all its splendor.
He even broke the household idols of his father upon trying to convey to his father through means of a live parable that there is only One God, and the idols are nothing but wind and confusion.
The events recorded were this way:
Abraham was deeply enraged upon the very sight of his father Terah's household idols. He had a vast collection of them and placed food before them from time to time.
One day in the absence of his father, Abraham broke to pieces all these idols with a weapon and sat about as though he had nothing to do with it. He left the bigger one unscathed.
Upon returning his father saw him nonchalantly sitting around a room full of his valuable idols strewn around, with a head here and a tail there. His father began an inquisition to get him to be answerable for this kind of behavior. Abraham said, I didn't do any of this. I placed food before the smaller idols, so the larger idol broke down all the other ones.
His father didn't really buy this fable that Abraham crafted and negated Abraham's whole defense for the destruction of the idols. Point being — If Abraham's father, being an idolator, wasn't persuaded or deeply moved by the rumor floating around that an idol made of wood or stone could do anything worth taking notice, or even do anything at all… why do we, the people of an evolved and supposedly mature age of the earth believe in such fables?
Deep down, we are clear about our stance about worshiping alien gods, yet our evil inclination loves to overthrow all logic and obedience to sound instruction, rationalizing submission to an atrocious and hideous stone-like creature.
Everything boils down to:
Choices and Consequences.
Choosing…
The path of good or evil.
The path of Truth or lies.
The clear path laid out by the Creator or the road we choose to pave for ourselves.
In the society of Israel, there is the mention of the children of Israel as "born-citizens" taking unprecedented priority in the charter of matters in the land. However, there's also laws and many mentions of "sojourners" and "strangers" under which we, the lost seed from the tribes, fall behind.
Proselytes or converts are the ones who find extreme resonance in the Jewish journey and who are born with a Jewish soul that they identify as they live and join themselves to the Jewish nation in their lives and follow the God of Israel.
Ruth the Moabitess is one such beautiful story of someone who was so loyal to the God of Israel that she left her heritage in Moab behind and joined herself to the Jewish people and her statement of faith is documented below:
"Do not urge me to leave you, to turn back and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go; wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus and more may HASHEM do to me if anything but death parts me from you.”
It's a choice to be and live as a Jew.
It's a consequence to be blessed by the Creator for obeying only HIM.
Hence, Joel is Jewish, ‘cause he chooses to be Jewish. :)
Version Anisha:
Ever since I was a little girl, I knew I loved my God. But I had the wrong idea of Him. Yet my quest and my love was sincere as He made Himself known to a nobody like me.
Our purpose and knowing the reason for our existence is extremely essential to our happy survival on the earth. For me, it was completely embracing my Jewish identity and shedding all layers of the catholic faith I was born into.
I tried being a “good church-going catholic” when I was a child.
I tried saying yes to everything, even when it did not make sense, which was most times.
I stayed quiet and obeyed, not questioning what was told me.
Until…
I could not.
Until…
I was shaken up by a rude awakening from Heaven to stop being so limp and to actually start to seek Him before all else.
This awakening, though painful and hard to comprehend, even till today, is the reason I have become the person I am today, not stagnant and still learning.
My catholic upbringing had its firm grip onto my life and I would view everything faith-related through that lens. That toxic lens that has such a polluted doctrine that I now cringe in anger as I write.
I finally asked myself this one question, loud and clear —
“Would God really want a "human blood sacrifice", Anisha?”
Sin or no sin — it is a disgusting doctrine to think of the Maker of Heaven, earth, and man to need a “man/half-god-man” to die a gruesome death, and this is everything the righteous and holy Torah is against (Leviticus 18:21).
Basically, in short, things got tougher for me in life and the things that occurred pushed me into falling into the path of questioning my dispassionate search for the Truth, got me to embrace religious Judaism and recognizing the Creator and taking matters of Torah VERY seriously, and it all started off with getting rid of the false doctrine of the “son of god JC” which is totally contradictory to the singular nature of the Creator as stated in Deuteronomy 6.
It got me to give light to and accept my Jewish soul.
When I put off being what I was created to be — which in my case is Jewish (following Jewish Law and worshiping the Most High God in the ways stated in Torah) — it would leave my soul with a dent. I would have to constantly be in touch with the reality of my soul in order to be in a happy state to live and function in this world.
But as humans, we struggle with ourselves and are deterred to go all in and pursue the matters of the heart because of many reasons that keep us from realizing our full potential. Be it the reactions and lack of acceptance from family members to the fear of the uncertain, it all hinders us and keeps us from going full throttle.
Needless to say, I put off going all in and accepting who I was created to be and was then faced with the unpleasant and unhappy consequences that followed.
Being a Jew in the world is not easy. It is an exhilarating ride of very high ups but very low downs when we disobey and when the Creator wants to grab our attention to get us to focus on our mission, but it is worth every bite.
The Most High knows how to push His people into obedience in the land of our exile and get us to return home to Him.
And I am glad I did. It’s the best thing I did for myself not caring about the world but putting Him first and myself first to embrace who I am.
I’d like to encourage everyone out there who feels called to embrace HASHEM, who feel like they don’t belong, who tip-toe around the place, afraid of owning their different self because of being judged or not accepted, or in fear accepting that they’ve been living a lie all this while — Don’t prolong the process. Accept who you were created to be, and repent and make your way back to the merciful HASHEM who wants you back home.
We are Jewish. We serve HASHEM. We know no other truth. We love our life. Baruch Hashem.
