Apples of Gold Mar/Apr 2025
We are celebrating Passover here in Israel. Children and their parents happily sing “Avadim Hayinu,” a song with one sentence: “We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt—now we are free.”
I speak often to the ultra-Orthodox men who are confident in their freedom. When I recently approached them, I asked them, “Are you sure that you are free from slavery?”
“What do you think?” one questioned me in response.
“I think you are not free,” I answered.
“How can you say this?” he asked.
“Look on the walls behind you,” I said. “Who do you see there?” On the wall was a picture of Menachem Mendel Schneerson, a rabbi who had lived in New York City and died in 1994.
“This is our messiah, our holy rabbi,” one said.
“You have been slaves to this man, though no one forces you to be slaves,” I said. “But you have fallen into his net, becoming slaves to false gods.”
They began to treat me harshly. I knew they would be rude, but my duty remains to bring them the truth.
“What do you think about Passover?” one asked me.
I answered by singing the words of Psalm 118:24: “This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” They asked why I sang these words.
I was alone among men waiting to attack me, but I wanted to obey the Lord by proclaiming His salvation to them. As it is written, “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord” (v. 17).
“Do you know what the Lord has done for us?” I asked them. “He gave His life for us all, and those who receive Him are freed from their sins. Only by Him can our sins be forgiven.”
I showed them verse 21: “I will praise You, for You have answered me, and have become my salvation.” It was hard for them to hear this truth because it is so different from their rabbinical
traditions. They are far from the pure truth of God’s Word.
“Who are you that you try to make us believe a new faith?” one asked me.
“We are the people of Israel,” I answered. “In the Bible, the Lord said to His people, ‘You are My servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified’ [Isa. 49:3]. So, I ask you, does one of us have the right to say he is in the place of God? You have done this. You have taken Rabbi Schneerson, a simple man, and called him holy, putting him in the place of our living God. You think you are holy; but you worship false gods, not the one true God.”
I directed them to Deuteronomy 6, which they read in their prayers three times a day in the synagogues. I read verses 13 and 14 for them: “You shall fear the Lord your God and serve Him, and shall take oaths in His name. You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are all around you.”
“Now tell me: Whom do you worship?” I asked them.
“Do you think you are wiser than our rabbi?” one man replied.
I read Psalm 111:10 to them: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Then I asked, “What is more important? To worship rabbis or the mighty God of the Holy Bible?”
One of their Talmudic teachers joined us and told the men, “Be careful! This man is dangerous to us. He is a missionary.”
“Who was the first missionary to the people of Israel and all the world? Was it not the one you call ‘Father Abraham’?” I asked. “You can call me whatever you want, but I am proud to be called a missionary. This is what the Lord wanted us to be—‘a light to the Gentiles’ [Isa. 49:6]. What I am telling you is no fictitious story but the Word of God.”
The men did not look to their teacher for answers anymore. They were interested in what I said. Please pray that their eyes will be opened by the words of the Bible.
From The Friends of Israel archives
