So I was born in Jerusalem, Israel
to a conservative family.
I graduated, as most kids,
at age of 18, then went to the army.
in the army, you know in Israel
you have to go.
You want to go, you don't want to go
you just go.
So 3 years, I finished as a sergeant
I was a tank commander.
And I felt that martial arts would
be the way that would
make me a better man.
I'll be more in control, more disciplined
I knew that I was a mess.
So I wanted to go to China but
in those days I couldn't go
so I saved some money
and the age of 23 I left Israel
and went to Japan to learn
the art of the ninja.
Everybody thought I was nuts.
I ended up staying in Japan for 21 years.
I didn't expect that
I thought I'm just going to learn
the art of the ninja and then
go back to Israel and teach it.
I just got my black belt
the first Dan in the art of the ninja.
Some of the stuff was New Age stuff
and that caused me to think about
life in a deeper aspect
and I realized that the
art of the ninja is not fulfilling enough.
It doesn't have the depth
that I was seeking.
I was starting to look to find
the aura, see such stuff of New Age
so I told my teacher of the ninjutsu
that I'm sorry but I have to leave.
And I understood in that search
that the real enemy is not
other people around you.
The real enemy is you yourself.
And that's a battle that you're doing daily.
I was looking for martial artists
to help me with that and I found it
after a few years of search
it was Japanese archery.
It is an art that you're focused on
finding peace and balance
under the pressure of the bow.
So I did that for a few years
But then I got married and that
was the end of my martial arts career.
The Japanese company that I was working for
offered me a job in Belgium to be a
president of a diamond company there
to open a branch for them.
That was the beginning of the end
of my stay in Japan.
And it turns out my marriage
didn't work out, job didn't work out
and so at the age of 45
I came back to Israel broken.
And so I had to ask for money
from my parents and to
stay in my sister's house.
It so broke me down.
It's so humbled me.
And then I was working in Qumran
in the Dead Sea - a shop for tourists
when one blue day
this group from America came.
And to my surprise, I see them
holding hands and dance in the store.
I mean who is dancing in the store?
I mean, come on, that's crazy.
It hit me like lightning in a blue day
that this joy is that I was seeing
I've never had it.
Never experienced it
never seen it even.
I didn't have such joy
and I knew that I want it and I need it.
And then the manager of the shop
Introduced the pastor to me.
That pastors name, Devorah,
looked at me and just says,
"You have a broken heart"
"you're running away"
"you're searching for the truth"
"you've been to New Age stuff"
Now woah, woah! Wait a second!
What's going on? How?
How can she know all these things?
Are you a fortune-teller?
So she got angry at me and she says,
"It's your God - the God of Abraham"
"Isaac and Jacob that told me about you."
Wait a second, what's going on here?
She is the Christian, I'm the Jew here.
How come she's using
the name of my God?
How come you know my God
and I don't?
An interesting answer was:
"It's because you never looked for him."
I was always searching about
what I want to do.
I was the center. I was my own master.
I was so self-focused it was disgusting.
She gave me her Bible
a Bible that has the New Testament
and the Old Testament -
there's the Tenach (Jewish Scriptures)
and it's in Hebrew and English.
She told me that I need to read it
and also the New Testament and
if I don't read the New Testament
God will know!
After high school, most of us people
don't open the Bible,
and the religious Jews?
They're focused on the Mishnah
the Gemara, the Talmud, Kabbalah.
Nobody's just focused on the Bible.
She also asked me if
she could pray for me.
Nobody ever prayed for me. I mean...
I just came out from Japan.
Nobody's praying there
unless someone died.
So I said "Yeah, sure!"
So she lay a hand on me
on my heart here, and prayed
And I don't know what happened.
It was like a jolt in me.
What happened? What happened?
So she told me
"What you just had now,"
"it was Lord change your heart of stone"
"to a heart of flesh."
And so when I read in the New Testament
the Scripture: "I am the Way"
"the Truth and the Life" (John 14:6)
Poof! It's all in one scripture.
Exactly what I'm seeking.
I realize that all my life
I had been searching for the Way
I was actually searching for Yeshua
And then in Romans 1
the Scripture says the Gospel
is first of all for the Jews?!
How is that possible?
I mean, this is a book for Christians
not Jews, and you see most Jews
have this aspect of Christianity, that
it's Catholic - all these big churches
and the masses that you have
the holy cracker and holy water
and everything is so holy there
that it just scares you.
So after reading the New Testament
and just falling in love with Yeshua,
I knew what I needed to do.
"I don't want to beat around"
"the bush anymore."
"I want to have Yeshua in me"
"like you have Yeshua in you."
"What do I do?"
So what she told me was,
"You simply ask him."
Boom! Went down on my knees.
It was in the parking lot behind
King David hotel
I raise my hands and ask him
to come into my life.
And since that moment on,
my life has changed.
And that's one of the things
that I want to tell Christians:
You don't need to come with scriptures
You don't need to be so knowledgeable
about the Bible, or to start arguing
with Jews about scriptures to show them
that Yeshua was also in the OT
No need to do that - and that scripture
comes alive, Romans 11, that you guys
provoke the Jews to jealousy.
I was jealous of her, of that group
of Christians, that they have such joy.
You're ambassadors of Christ!
Just bring your love and your joy
and the Jews will come to you.
I know - that's what happened to me.