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I grew up in Los Angeles
California and I was raised as a secular Reform Jew. I became a
religious (Orthodox) Jew about 12 years ago. In retrospect, I
realize that my Reform Jewish education was devoid of three things:
Torah, a sense of (Jewish) holiness and God. Instead, my Reform
Temple was oriented towards social activism, Jewish food, and Jewish
culture. Unfortunately, none of these things satisfied my yearning
for intellectual, spiritual or emotional growth. As a result, my bar
mitzvah was the last time I entered a Jewish Temple for the next
forty years. Most of my friends had a similar experience. If
anti-Semites had designed my Reform education, I don't think my
alienation from Judaism would have been more complete.
Since I (falsely) believed that I had "experienced Judaism" and
found it spiritually empty and lacking intellectually, I became an
agnostic and I turned instead to a hedonist lifestyle that
emphasized the physical world. Since I entered college in the
mid-sixties, I embraced the counter-culture. After graduation from
the University of Southern California I traveled in Europe, Israel
and Morocco for a year and upon my return earned a law degree from
the University of San Diego School of Law. I have earned my living
as a commercial real estate broker.
About fifteen years ago, I was approached at work by a Jewish friend
who challenged me with the information that an Orthodox Jewish
outreach organization called Aish HaTorah gave a weekend seminar
called, "Discovery" which purported to prove that God literally
wrote the Torah by dictation to Moses. I was highly skeptical of
this claim and I went to the seminar intending to debunk it. At the
seminar I met Orthodox rabbis for the very first time. I was
impressed with the depth of their learning and also with their
friendliness and courtesy. More importantly, I found their proofs
compelling and I was truly amazed by the depth and profundity of
Torah (Orthodox) Judaism.
I began to realize that the "Reform" Judaism I had been taught as a
young man was empty of authentic content and only a shadow of Torah
(Orthodox) Judaism. I was fascinated. I had gone to "Discovery" to
debunk it and instead I discovered that it had debunked me. After
the seminar I began learning from the Aish rabbis and attending
Shabbat services. I also began accepting invitations to Friday night
Shabbat dinners and Saturday Shabbat lunches. I was amazed by the
spirituality and intellectual depth of these experiences. That was
the beginning of my Orthodox Jewish life, which grew from year to
year. I now am married to an incredible Orthodox woman and have
three teenage children in Orthodox day schools. Orthodox Judaism has
elevated me beyond my expectations.
My interest in responding to Christian missionaries was kindled when
a born-again Christian co-worker challenged me with supposed claims
and proofs for Jesus and Christianity that I was not theologically
equipped to answer. His challenge spurred me to take an
anti-missionary seminar, which led me to decide to pragmatically
address the problem of Christian missionaries who specifically
target the Jewish community.
I began reading books by Jewish anti-missionaries and Jewish and
liberal Christian scholars that critically analyzed Christianity and
the claims of Christian missionaries. I then carefully synthesized
this material and created an anti-missionary lecture series to help
those Jews being proselytized. Over the course of several years I
delivered this lecture series at the Aish Hatorah and at many other
venues. My lecture notes slowly evolved into this book. There is a
story about Moses in the Torah that teaches "when there is no man
(to accomplish a crucial task or goal), you must be that man."
Finally, I realized that, "there was no man" who had written a
readable book which comprehensively explains why Jews have correctly
rejected Jesus and the claims of Christianity for the past two
thousand years. I decided to be that man and, God willing, this is
that book.
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