story of an Ultra Orthodox Jew coming to faith in Jesus

This is the story of a friend who grew up in ultra orthodox Judaism from a young age who has just recently come to believe in Jesus. He is 34 years old. I will explain that this is a very closed group of Jews who devote their whole lives to religion and studying. I won't explain what else ultra orthodox judaism entails here, but you can look it up.

My friend was schooled from an early age with the intention of his parents to enter what is called a yeshiva to study the Bible, but mostly the Talmud (not part of the Bible), and other rabbinic literature for the rest of his life.

During his 5 years of yeshiva, some in the U.S. and some in Israel, he thought of himself as a rebel for taking time away from studying the Talmud to study the Torah or the Tanakh instead. He figured since the Torah and the Tanakh were God's word, and the Talmud was just a collection of rabbinic discussions, that it was more important to do this, even when he wasn't following what the rest of the students were doing and sometimes got in trouble for it. Already he was beginning to break away from the system.

He says he came to faith because of an anti-missionary paper. As you may know, in Israel it is illegal to evangelize and be a missionary. The paper contained reasons why one shouldn't believe in Jesus, such as the claim that Jesus desecrated the Sabbath many times. (There's a story in Matthew 12 of Jesus allowing his disciples to pick grain on the Sabbath, then stating that he is Lord of the Sabbath.) Since my friend was well-versed in both scripture and rabbinic literature, he thought it strange that they should pick out this aspect of Jesus and use it as against him, when rabbis in the past did similar things, changing the rules of the Sabbath when they thought prudent and necessary.

At that point, he decided to read the exact story in Matthew for himself, but he didn't know where to find a copy of the New Testament. Of course the yeshiva did not have one. Some months later, at his job in a bookstore, there was a lady that brought a box of old books she wanted to give away. She asked if the store could sell them as used; it was a shame to just throw them away. The store said they couldn't, so my friend asked if he could look for anything interesting to take from the pile. There he found a copy of the New Testament. "This is what I've been looking for!" he said to her. As he read the story in Matthew, he didn't find Jesus as bad as the rabbis had said he was.

About 4 months ago, in Haifa, my friend was walking in Hadar when he saw a church with its doors opened and a service going on inside. It took him three times walking past the church before he entered. It was a Filipino congregation, so they spoke good english and he could talk to them easily. It was there that he decided to put his trust in the promised Jewish messiah--Yeshua.

Now he is a part of the network of believers in Haifa, and his experience and outlook on the Torah and Tanakh is very valuable. When I have talked with him, he is able to explain the meaning of the feasts and parts of the Bible in its cultural context. After all, it was written from the perspective of the Jewish people. To have grown up in that environment, soaked in the history and culture that dates back to the Patriarchs and the original covenant is an amazing thing. Even more amazing is when a Jew comes home and returns to the One true God--Elohim.