Emes Ata Hu......
This morning on my way in to work I was listening to a tape of a lecture given by Rabbi Nasan Gamezde. For anyone who is not familiar with Rabbi Gamezde, he is the son of the King of Swaziland. Yes, he is an african prince, and gave it up to become not only a jew, but a frum torah jew, and not only that, but a rabbi as well.
Listening to him made me think back to a few months earlier. Around Thanksgiving time, I had heard another speaker who touts himself as a six year old jew. He was a christian minister, who converted to yiddishkeit six years ago. Finally, I have a friend who has a relative that married an african american ger. I once spent a shabbos shmoozing with this ger and gained so much from the experience.
What's the common thread between the three? All three used pretty much the same line. When they discovered yiddishkeit they just realized that it was the "emes", the pure truth. One of them compared it to turning on a light switch.
Here are three souls, all very unlikely candidates for geirus and lo and behold, they are not only frum, I believe they are without doubt frummer than me. They all three have an excitement and an enthusiasm for yiddishkeit that I have never seen in a fellow "FFB". I thought one of them put it best when he said, "A ger naturally feels closer to Hashem, because he has nobody else".
They are proud that they are jewish. You would think it would be more difficult for them than for us, but whereas we sometimes try to hide the fact that we are jewish, they display it as a banner for all to see.
What a wonderful thing to see and experience and to learn from. Where is our enthusiasm?? Where is our excitement??? It's not because it's fresher to them. Rabbi Gamezde was megayer more than twenty years ago, as was my friend's relative.
Do we take the truth for granted because we were born into it? what an absolute shame. We must remind ourselves and energize ourselves. Hashem Elokaychem EMES!!!
Listening to him made me think back to a few months earlier. Around Thanksgiving time, I had heard another speaker who touts himself as a six year old jew. He was a christian minister, who converted to yiddishkeit six years ago. Finally, I have a friend who has a relative that married an african american ger. I once spent a shabbos shmoozing with this ger and gained so much from the experience.
What's the common thread between the three? All three used pretty much the same line. When they discovered yiddishkeit they just realized that it was the "emes", the pure truth. One of them compared it to turning on a light switch.
Here are three souls, all very unlikely candidates for geirus and lo and behold, they are not only frum, I believe they are without doubt frummer than me. They all three have an excitement and an enthusiasm for yiddishkeit that I have never seen in a fellow "FFB". I thought one of them put it best when he said, "A ger naturally feels closer to Hashem, because he has nobody else".
They are proud that they are jewish. You would think it would be more difficult for them than for us, but whereas we sometimes try to hide the fact that we are jewish, they display it as a banner for all to see.
What a wonderful thing to see and experience and to learn from. Where is our enthusiasm?? Where is our excitement??? It's not because it's fresher to them. Rabbi Gamezde was megayer more than twenty years ago, as was my friend's relative.
Do we take the truth for granted because we were born into it? what an absolute shame. We must remind ourselves and energize ourselves. Hashem Elokaychem EMES!!!
posted by A Frum Idealist | 3/09/2006 10:48:00 AM
9 Comments:
Natan Gamedze..is truly a fascinating person.
I know him personally..and he used to hang out in my apt in Israel...before he was famous...
Good job..
It's common knowledge that BT's have more enthusiasm for Yiddishkeit than FFB's, why would I get excited about a Pesach seder I've had two every year since I was old enough to understand.
I imagine that it cools down for them as well as time progresses.
I know there's a Mitzvah to love a Ger, but I can't help but think it's strange, they can earn heaven with 7 Mitzvos, it's always puzzeled me why a someone would choose to convert.
I completly agree with prag - why would someone want to convert? We have so much responsibilty and rules as a jew I could never understand why they would want to convert! As prag said all they need to do is sheva mitzvos bnei noach. easy enough!
The danger of using such stories as some sort of "proof" of the truth of Judaism is dangerous.
Because anyone reading biographies of converts away from Judaism to Christianity, islam or any other faith will find similar language...of suddenly realizing the "truth"..etc...etc...
What I'm ost impressed about is what Prag touched upon...the willingness to join such a restrictive religion..
What is left to say regarding your post... previous commentors basicly covered it all....
I can find an answer to Prag's question, though. I mean... imagine you just realized the truth - that there is a supreme force, Hashem, that created the world. And Hashem has a code of law for His chosen people to live by... and each person has an opportunity to join in on this to be part of something divine... to worship Him.... why is that so hard to understand?
Why do jews seem to always look for an easier way? :-)
for more information on Rabbi Gamedze, go to www.natangamedze.com
I would like to hear/read anything from Rabbi Gamedze. He seems fascinating.
As a "convert-in-training" who grew up X-tian, I can respond, from my own point of view, about why someone would want to convert to such a "restrictive" religion. As a child, I knew X-tianity very well. My Grandmother who raised me was a Sunday School teacher and the vast majority of children's books I had were X-tian storybooks. Even then, on that elementary level, I found confusion and discrepancies in X-tian teachings. Not that I fault X-tians, and see them as naive. Protestant X-tianity is very emotional. You pray fervently, cry out, rejoice and praise G-d with music and dance. It's beautiful. But it never spoke to me. I'm the type that needs more than dramatic expositions of spirituality. I need a stable philosophy and teaching to go with it.
At first I took the Reform route. As a convert to Reform Judaism, there are not "all these rules"; you are just shedding off one identity, and embracing another. You can still drive on Shabbos, eat treif, and engage in same sex intimate relationships. When I stumbled upon Orthodox Judaism, I was not thinking about taking on so many "rules"; I just wanted to see the source for it all. I fully realized that before Reform, Conservative, Humanistic, whatever - there was Orthodox. Now at this point, I had been exposed to Judaism for over 12 years. I knew that Orthodox Jews did all of these "practices" and sure, they made absolutely no sense to me. But as I started to learn; the meaning behind Shabbos, the special status of a Jewish neshama, the sole purpose of the mitzvot to infuse kedushah into otherwise mundane living. Then you see that it's not like a ger is "taking on this burden when they don't have to"; but rather taking part in an awesome role and responsibility.
I like to pose the analogy of being Jewish is like being a parent. You don't have to have biological children to contribute to society and be a good person. However, parenthood is probably life's most fulfilling responsibilites. On the other hand, you have a lot of parents out there who see their children as a burden and the worst thing that ever happened to them. Do they, or do they not have the right to think so? Same with Judaism; where converts are like those who choose to adopt children who are not theirs. Why would they want to do such a thing!
beautifully said misshona.
Thank you so much for commenting.
I meet Rabi Gamedze in Salvador, Brazil, where he gave a speech last may 3. I was a very intense occasion to us from Israeli Society of Bahia. Your comments about the pride of be jewish is true. Most jews try to hide your condition as shameful background
Post a Comment
<< Home