I Don’t Do That!

I Don’t Do That!

     A five man film crew from France was filming at the Kotel yesterday. They were x-ians making a documentary about Judaism and some connection with yushka. (The Jew that x-ians believe in)

     I began talking to the director. I motioned for the cameramen to film our conversation. As things often go at the Kotel, this French x-ian turned out to have a grandmother who was Jewish.

“Was it your mother’s mother or your father’s mother?”

“It was my mother’s mother.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes”

“Since your mother’s mother was Jewish, your mother is Jewish, and since your mother is Jewish, you are Jewish.”

“No, I do not believe in any of that.”

“It doesn’t matter what you believe. It matters what you are. You can believe whatever you want, that doesn’t change who you are. Religion goes by belief. Jews go by the mother. Come put on tefillin.”

“No! I don’t do that.”

“You’re a x-ian, right?”

“Yes.”

“Didn’t yushka put on tefillin?”

“Yes”

“So, then what’s the problem?”

I took his arm, rolled up his sleeve and put the tefillin on him.

He didn’t want to repeat the blessing. “What do those words mean?”

I told him and he repeated it. He read the shema in English, and I had him pray for his family.

When he finished I asked him if G-d was in the heart of the devil. They always say “no” to this because they were taught to “ask G-d into your heart” when they became x-ians. I explained why he was mistaken and that G-d is Infinite. He agreed. Then the punch line, “Was yushka in the grave on the 3rd day?”

“No, he was arisen,” he said with full conviction.

“Then he is not everywhere. Don’t worship him. Worship only the G-d Who is everywhere.”

They were shocked,… and the entire conversation is on film. Will they use it? No way! But they cannot deny the facts, and they all heard the information.

     Will anything come of this? Spiritually, for sure it will. A Jew found out that he is a Jew, and put on tefillin for the first time in his life… This will surely affect his life. Will the entire crew throw away their belief in that myth? I doubt it, but I have had people come back 10 years later and tell me that our conversation changed their life.

     We have to try with a good heart. Then, if we succeed or not, is up to G-d.