web analytics
May 23, 2013 /14 Sivan, 5773
At a Glance ▼
InDepth
Sponsored Post
The Tosfos Yomtov was convinced that the death of 300,000 –600,000 Jews during the Chmielnicki massacres of 1648-49 were because of improper Tefila. Communicated: Tefilla

Chillul Tefila Bifarhesia, as well as halachicly challenged verbiage and dress, are external manifestations of a critical lack of personal yiras shomayim which has lethal consequences.



Israel Is Forever


Latest update: April 22nd, 2013
tell a friend
Shurin-Dov

My most recent column elicited a fascinating response from an American woman. Before I share that letter and my reply, I will briefly reiterate the substance of that Dec. 28 column, which was titled “My Reasons to Be Jolly.”

I wrote that I was constantly hearing the refrain of “‘Tis the season to be jolly” during my recent visit to the U.S. during the Christmas holiday season. And whenever I heard those words I would think of my own reasons to be jolly – chief among them my personal and direct relationship with our beloved One and Only God, the Master Of the Universe.

In Judaism, we don’t go through an intermediary – we have direct access to Our Father Above.

In last week’s Torah portion our God ordered Moshe to inform Pharaoh that “my firstborn son is [the nation of] Israel…. And if you refuse to free my son, behold I shall kill your firstborn son” (Shemos 4: 22-23).

Our Torah is comprised of the eternal words of our Creator, to whom we cling. They are words that are as relevant today as they were at the time of our receiving the Five Books on Mt. Sinai – a testament that has never become “old” to God’s firstborn son – the Nation of Israel.

Now, here are excerpts from the letter I received shortly after the column appeared:

I read with interest your column in which you wrote about why we Jews reject the Christian deity. When I was young and still in high school, I worked in a hospital serving meals to the patients after school. At a certain point I decided to become a nurse, and the head of the dietary department who hired the high school girls had to approve of my grades and get me into the hospital’s school of nursing.

The school was run by a Baptist church. I was very naive about that religion and not very knowledgeable about Judaism either. At the school, the other students began to pressure me to convert and be baptized but I dug in my heels and subscribed to The Jewish Press, which strengthened my Jewish observance.

During my second semester, a woman in our Conservative synagogue asked my grandmother if I would go out with her son. My grandmother agreed to the shidduch and convinced my parents. The woman’s son, a medical student, and I became engaged but were unable to marry until he finished medical school.

Before we married I agreed with him to keep a kosher home and keep Shabbos to the best of our ability. Meanwhile, at the Baptist school, I made friends with a Baptist girl with “Jewish blood” from her mother. Her father was a Baptist minister. She always tried to convert me but I would tell her I would never commit such a terrible sin.

After graduation, my husband and I moved to a frum community and were blessed with a large family. The friend with the “Jewish blood” married an abusive man who abducted their child and she had no knowledge of the child’s whereabouts for two years. Eventually her divorce lawyer informed her that she was fully Jewish according to Jewish law. She struggled with obesity and illness and attempted to repair her relationship with her child who was a stranger to her.

She located me about two years ago and after hearing about my husband, children and grandchildren, declared, “Your life is so stable.” I think that she expected to find my life in shambles and that I would now want to become a Christian.

She wants to be my friend but she posts all kinds of Christian messages on Facebook (she calls it her ministry) and quotes her Bible frequently. My rav has warned me not to give her too much information about Judaism because she could use it in her efforts to get Jews to convert to Christianity.

I do like her and don’t want to avoid her but I know I can’t get her to become a better Jew and I don’t like being “witnessed” to. What is the solution?

My reply:

First, I must correct you; my article had nothing to do with rejecting what you refer to as the Christian deity. I do not reject but rather fully respect the beliefs of every man who walks the earth.

tell a friend

About the Author: Dov Shurin is a popular radio personality and the composer and producer of several albums of original composition. He lives with his family in Israel and can be contacted at dovshurin@yahoo.com. His column will appear in The Jewish Press every other week.


You might also be interested in:


no comments

You must log in to post a comment.

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

Current Top Story
Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director of Human Rights Watch, having lunch. Peter likes long walks on the beach with fellow "insider" correspondents and dumping on Israel.
Yes, There Is an Anti-Israel Media Cabal and They All Meet on Facebook
Latest Indepth Stories
Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas has said he will never recognize a Jewish state and there will be no Jews allowed in a Palestinian State.
InDepth → Op-Eds

parently an affront to J Street’s worldview, the focus of which appears to be the creation of a Palestinian State, whether or not that will bring peace.

Member of Knesset Moshe Feiglin (Likud).
InDepth → Columns → Moshe Feiglin

The importance of the caucus on organ harvesting in China, sponsored recently by the Liberal Lobby in the Knesset, cannot be exaggerated.

Shurin-Dov
InDepth → Columns → Dov Shurin

My mother, the eldest daughter of Reb Yaakov Kamenetsky, zt”l, was niftar last month at the age of 92. She took her last breath in her home in Efrat, Israel, next door to the shul that was my father’s for 24 years before his passing in 2007.

InDepth → Columns → Louis Rene Beres

Following the Boston Marathon bombing, one crucial point will likely remain overlooked. The most loathsome aspect of this or any other terror bombing attack on civilians will always lie in the inexpressibility of physical pain. While all decent people will abhor the idea of bombs expressly directed at the innocent, whether here or in other countries, none will ever be able to process the very deepest horrors of what has been inflicted.

InDepth → Columns → Keeping Jerusalem

It’s only natural to see increasing evidence of Jerusalem’s glorious Jewish past being unearthed, quite literally, under modern Israeli sovereignty. The new archaeological finds are also very timely – as the Arab onslaught attempting to detach Jerusalem from its Jewish roots gains steam, the facts on the ground, or “under” the ground, show quite otherwise.

InDepth → Op-Eds

The Talmud (Berachot 26b) says, “tefillot avot tiknum” – “prayer was established by the avot.” The Talmud then uses the following verse (Bereshit 19:27) to prove how Avraham established prayer: “Vayaskem Avraham baboker el hamakom asher amad sham et pnei Hashem” – “And Avraham got up early in the morning to the place where he had stood before God.”

InDepth → Op-Eds

Nearly 13 years ago, then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak journeyed to Camp David to end the conflict with the Palestinians. With the approval of President Clinton, he offered Yasir Arafat an independent Palestinian state in almost all of the West Bank, Gaza and in part of Jerusalem. Arafat said no.

InDepth → Op-Eds

The news that the Internal Revenue Service unfairly targeted conservative groups has brought renewed spotlight on a 2010 lawsuit filed by the pro-Israel group Z Street, which alleges it was also singled out by the IRS when applying for tax-exempt status.

InDepth → Editorial

In an editorial last week (“Circling the Wagons”) we noted the efforts by the administration and its supporters to dismiss allegations that the government’s spin on the Benghazi attack was designed to shield the president and that the IRS was improperly used to stifle opposition to Mr. Obama’s reelection.

InDepth → Editorial

As the controversies besetting the Obama administration continue to grow in number and intensity, the prospect that President Obama would seriously consider military action against Iran, should that country continue its drive to become a nuclear power, becomes more and more remote. So we welcome the current enhancement of sanctions against Iran on the federal and New York State levels.

InDepth → Interviews and Profiles

To his parents’ friends, he was “Mrs. Greenberg’s disgrace,” but to sports fans he is one of the greatest – if not the greatest – Jewish baseball players of all time. Long before Sandy Koufax, Hank Greenberg excited Jewish sports fans with his prowess on the baseball diamond.

InDepth → Front Page

To eat is to live – to keep our physical bodies alive. For without the body, there is nothing. No experience. No memory. No joy and no hardship. But man, unlike animals, eats to live and to enjoy. So how should a Jew respond when he is challenged as to why he imposes upon himself not just ceremonies dedicated to the enjoyment of eating but even more to the limiting of what he can eat?

InDepth → Op-Eds

Neither Secretary of State Kerry nor the president he serves seem to understand Russia’s goals in the Middle East.

More Articles from Dov Shurin
Shurin-Dov
InDepth → Columns → Dov Shurin

My mother, the eldest daughter of Reb Yaakov Kamenetsky, zt”l, was niftar last month at the age of 92. She took her last breath in her home in Efrat, Israel, next door to the shul that was my father’s for 24 years before his passing in 2007.

Shurin-Dov
InDepth → Columns → Dov Shurin

I want to share a Holocaust story as told to me by Heshy Frank, owner of Quality Carpet and my radio sponsor for the past 32 years.

InDepth → Columns → Dov Shurin

For days and weeks before Pesach, we meticulously clean our homes, making sure that not a crumb of bread might, God forbid, be found when we begin the festival of matzahs.

InDepth → Columns → Dov Shurin

The post-election coalition negotiations are underway and it may take several weeks for the country to finally have a new government, with Prime Minister Netanyahu once again at its helm.

InDepth → Columns → Dov Shurin

I’m writing this on the day before Israelis vote for our Knesset, but one thing I can presume is that unless a cow is seen jumping over our ten-day-old new moon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be asked by Israel’s president, Shimon Peres, to form the next government.

InDepth → Columns → Dov Shurin

My most recent column elicited a fascinating response from an American woman. Before I share that letter and my reply, I will briefly reiterate the substance of that Dec. 28 column, which was titled “My Reasons to Be Jolly.”

InDepth → Columns → Dov Shurin

I’m wrapping up my trip to the U.S., a visit that for the first time in many years happened to coincide with Christmas.

InDepth → Columns → Dov Shurin

I write this column with my bags packed. I’m lighting four candles in Israel and my fifth I will light Wednesday evening at about 9 p.m. in the lobby of the Avenue Plaza Hotel in Boro Park. I’ll have my guitar in hand, and everyone is invited.

    Latest Poll

    Which is the most beautiful location in Jerusalem?









    View Results

    Loading ... Loading ...

Printed from: http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/columns/dov-shurin-columns/israel-is-forever/2013/01/09/

Scan this QR code to visit this page online:

Related posts:

  1. Winnipeg Rabbis Split on Bill Favoring Gay-Straight Clubs
  2. Finding Emunah
  3. Learning To Dance In The Rain
Close