Imitation Inspiration

I get emails all the time with questions on different topics, and I do my best to answer them according to Rabbi Arush’s teachings. If needed, I’ll ask the question to the appropriate person and get back with the answer.

While I’ll leave the exact question private, I was shocked to find a question from someone in America whose 13 year old daughter had gotten sucked into Missionaries – simply by looking for inspiration on Facebook!

She likes inspirational quotes, and found good ones on a Christian Missionary page. Then they started sending her “miracle stories” of Christians, you know the “Jesus saves types.” Now, she’s interested in Christianity because if it worked for them – well, maybe it’s the best? You know…

Of all of the risks of letting children onto the Internet, don’t forget to not only worry about inappropriate content. Even “inspirational” content can clearly be extremely dangerous!!!

But let’s dig a bit deeper. Someone who has tasted the sweet taste of real Judaism, which is emunah in Hashem, will never search for something else. I cannot recommend highly enough The Garden of Emuna for Young People which is like learning emunah in a school textbook. Or for the really intellectual ones who love books, let them go for the regular Garden of Emuna New Edition.

Nothing is more powerful than finding God in your life and speaking to Him on a daily basis! Because when we speak to God and include Him in our lives – then we start seeing God in our lives. We are not talking to the air, or to the wall. We start finding answers, start solving problems, start moving forward – sometimes through ideas that come to us, others by a messenger clearly sent to help us.

It’s critical to remember that like all idol worship, these “miracle stories” from Christians might just be true. I assume many are made up or embellished, but it wouldn’t surprise me if some are indeed real. How does that make sense? Easy – idol worship gives fuel to demons (yes, they do exist, but not like the make believe stories you might have heard). While a full explanation of them is far beyond the scope of this article, God gives them the right to do just enough miracles to give people free choice.

If it was always clear that only by believing in God does everything work out right, and idol worship never, ever worked – then there would be no choice but to believe in God. Most of the time, they only do lots of serious damage, but they love playing tricks and pranks on people who are foolish enough to think they have power. And since they get power from those who believe in them – sometimes, they are allowed to do things for those people in return, in order to keep the free choice of those who don’t realize that they are worshiping demons, not God.

If, God forbid, you know someone who has fallen in with missionaries it is critical to get professional help right away. Contact Yad L’Achim in Israel, or Jews for Judaism in North America.

But don’t forget that ultimately, someone can only be led astray if they don’t already see the beauty and meaning in Judaism, and if they haven’t already forged a real and direct connection to God. The missionaries give a bunch of superficial sound bites. The Jewish soul craves the real deal.

A personal prayer session is like plugging the soul into an electric socket – nothing else compares and once you’ve tasted it, the fake stuff just won’t cut it anymore. I don’t need little inspirational clips – I read a paragraph or two in The Garden of Emuna daily and it gives me all the strength I need and more!!!

Such situations also absolutely require a Pidyon Nefesh with Rabbi Arush. Get connected to the tzaddik!

Do a pidyon monthly, and I’ll send the name to Rabbi Arush to pray for her every month. I can tell so many miracle stories that I experienced either for myself or for those who I brought their pidyon to Rabbi Arush! You can use maaser (tithe money), you need to give enough for it to hurt a little, we’re talking about serious spiritual danger here! Technically, $180 one time or $50 a month is the minimum pidyon but for something like this, you want to do as much as you can (but you can break it up over a year to make it more reasonable).

Here is an article I wrote about the power of a pidyon – in fact I recommend the entire series called “Spiritual Weapons” – you need some big guns right now!

One last reminder – you can influence those around you, especially if as in this situation, the person getting involved with missionaries is a child. I recommended this:

A parent influences a child even more than what they say but with what they DO. God wants YOU to wake up too. Your daughter isn’t in this predicament for only her to wake up – but also you. Start doing one hour a day personal prayer, all praying for your daughter. No excuses! A parent must stop everything to save his child!!! If you have emunah, you can give it to your daughter – emunah in Hashem will give her soul what she is really craving!

Start singing “Tamid ohev oti” – here is a great version with some English – The Maccabeats – Tamid Ohev Oti – תמיד אוהב אותי. You can even sing it during the Omer. Rabbi Arush says sing it 10 times, and then make your request that Hashem save your daughter from this cult!!! You can also do the Law of Gratitude for her. Try to get your wife involved too, even better!

Never forget: Missionaries can prove to us the power of the side of tumah (impurity). But the power of holiness is so much stronger!

A funny story from the part of the Gemara which was removed because of persecution proves this easily. Jesus was once flying around, using the name of God which he had scrawled on his arm since God always made people forget it when the High Priest said it on Yom Kippur. The Jewish sages back then (Tannaim) could also fly, but through using holiness properly. So he flew after Jesus and was able to make Jesus fall into the water!

Like the staff of Pharoah which was swallowed up by staff of Moses – impurity can fake it, but holiness is always stronger because it’s the real deal.

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Rachel Avrahami grew up in Los Angeles, CA, USA in a far-off valley where she was one of only a handful of Jews in a public high school of thousands. She found Hashem in the urban jungle of the university. Rachel was privileged to read one of the first copies of The Garden of Emuna in English, and the rest, as they say, is history. She made Aliyah and immediately began working at Breslev Israel.

Rachel is now the Editor of Breslev Israel’s English website. She welcomes questions, comments, articles, and personal stories to her email at [email protected]. If you wish to arrange a pidyon nefesh, contact Rachel at her email, and she will set it up.