Over this past weekend we celebrated Purim, for those of you who don't know, it is the festival that takes place in remembrance of the Jewish peoples deliverance by Esther from the evil hands of Haman ( boo - hiss )and his evil cohorts. It is a time of great celebration. Of eating and drinking and even dressing up. It is quite literally a celebration of life and deliverance from death, of freedom from enemies and all that would seek to destroy you.
The part of it I would like to talk about briefly is the part on freedom, though in this case not from enemies so much as freedom from hiding in the shadows of who we are and what we believe.
Over this weekend my wife and I had various conversations with people from our families as well as some of our friends and we were finally able to just speak plainly of the fact that we no longer are xtian and are following Judaism as best as we know how. It was a breath of fresh air to say the least for it. We would be visiting some people and they wanted to talk about something that Jesus said and rather then get into it with people we have tactfully just turned the subject elsewhere, but as you can imagine that gets kind of tiring. So now they know and you know and anyone who doesn't know isn't paying attention!
Part of my reasoning for writing about this is simply this , I wish to make a request of those few xtian friends that we have left. Don't cry over us.
I know that you believe that it's a salvation issue and I do appreciate the fact that you care that much but please don't cry for us. We are not lost, G-D has simply led us on a different path from yours. All of us are on a journey that only G-d can lead so do not shed tears for us. We are not sad , in fact not only are we happy, but we have come to see G-D and life in a much different light then you could imagine. We know who the one true G-D is and we know what His plans for the future are and if the prophets are right, which I believe they are, the days are soon coming when His Messianic kingdom is going to be established and all the world is going to come to the Jews and ask to learn of G-D through them, and His kingdom will be in Jerusalem. Don't cry for me , rejoice in His soon coming kingdom.
I know that you don't see it that way and depending on what your denomination is you have been told many different things. But here is the beauty of what my family and I believe, we know because it is written in the Tenach, the old testament.It's all there just as plain as the nose on your face but you have to read it and really look at what it says. I realise that for many of you the thought of reading the Old Testament is foreign. You have been told everything from it's just a bunch of stories to it doesn't apply to us today, one man told me once that it was nothing but a history book. If you believe all that to be true and won't even take the time to look then I would say that it's your loss. However while for you it's a salvation issue if I don't see things your way, in my eyes the reverse does not hold true, G-D has plans for all of us and in the end we will all be worshiping HaShem.
In the latest Star Trek Captain Pike says to a youngish Kirk, your father was captain of a star ship for 12 minutes ,he saved 800 people including you, I dare you to do better! So there is my challenge to you to do better then your forefathers, look for yourselves , study and learn.
Maybe next year we can celebrate Purim together.
Shalom,
Ignacio
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