My Great, Great Grand Parents immigrated from a Jewish farm in Germany to America and to blend in, became Catholic. Somehow, I was called back to my Jewishness and here I am.
My grandmother was %100 percent ashkenazi jewish from England. Her father sent her to Canada druing the battle of Britain and stayed behind and was killed as a medic in the British army. I was raised catholic because my mother is métis native and French Canadian.
The family of my great grandmother was jewish, then turned catholic. However those relatives still struggle to cope with their heritage due to the fascist regime in Italy... We had no more sence of what is jewish, and to be honest, my parents never introduced me properly neither to the catholic communities. So, i suppose longing is also concerning how much knowledge your childhood education embedded... if anything, you do not just meet expectations, you get to empathize with your group members, you eventually make sense of why those believes should be important. For me, personally, joining the atheist club has been relieving, and i strongly recommend the same to many others.
I'm not Jewish but the principles the Rabbi teaches are universal. I could never understand why people run to the Orient when they have great principled religions in their back yard! I always enjoy and try to apply his advise!
Mat Daniels exactly I see a lot comments here say he is prejudice orient religion .. he just saying before you go around look for something you don’t know yet.. trying research close to you .. your roots
yeah why run to eastern countries that are full of poverty...like what the beatles did...then brought eastern philosophy and its curse to the west...and now no one thinks right
I was born in a Sephardic Jews famiky who became Catholic because of the Inquisition, Hashem blessed is He, called me back and here I am a Jewish woman, believe it or not.
Dr. Abraham, I enjoy watching your videos. My mother is reformed Jewish and my dad was Catholic. Somehow they decided to raise me as the latter with Jewish traditions. I converted to Christianity later in life (by the book, not necessarily by history) and while I realize I didn't have the complete Jewish experience, I am very grateful for my people and seek to build bridges and educate others about antisemitism in history, inside and outside the church. My great grandfather was the 1st Jewish doctor in Omaha, Nebraska, and my grandmother who recently died at 102 was cousin to Leon Schlesinger, the 1st producer of Looney Toons. I hope to continue watching. These videos are a blessing. May the life of Joseph reveal itself to all. Amen. Amen. P.S. I celebrated Hanukkah with candles last year for the first time on my own, and I didn't burn the house down. So sad to see what is going on in the world right now, especially New York... I would have let them in the window if there weren't other people in my house. Even in my state, I hesitate with the intent of keeping my family safe.
Glad you decided to celebrate Hanukkah. Why not try learning about some of the other holidays. I’m sure there are many rabbis in your town wherever you are who would be happy to welcome you. Just an FYI that the word is actually “reform.” ☺️
@@leesher1845 😅 Thanks! We celebrate Passover too. (I hate to say "usually" because I don't want to celebrate that one alone, and my family has had some problems, logistical and otherwise, the past few years.) The nearest community is not that close, but not too far either. However, YT is probably my best bet to learn for now. Glad to hear from you. Shalom
Rabbi is simply amazing humble super wise human being. I never had a patience before listening to anyone on RU-vid. But he always captures my heart and mind with what he has to say.
Great message Rabbi Twerski! This applies to many things in life. I always thought there was something special about being Jewish and the funny thing was I did not realize I was not really Jewish. I am the daughter of a very secular Jewish father who did not know the first thing about his religion. I thought because my father's a Jew I am therefore a Jew. My mother instilled in us the pride of being a Jew and even gave me a present of a star of David necklace when I was 12 that I have to this day. I did convert when I grew up and realized I was not Jewish. As a convert I think we appreciate being Jewish more than most born Jews as we chose this path. It is probably true of others who convert to other religions as well. For these people as well as myself it is something you can not turn off until you become the person you were born to be.
No it is all in the NT. All anti Semitic literature has a clear chain from that, from early church fathers, to blood libels to mein khampf. Would not be a problem being smart of it wasn't for that
I really like your videos. I would like to purchase your books but they are so expensive on Amazon. Is there any other place I can order them besides Amazon
As a Christian, I am forever reminded that God’s relationship and promises to the Jewish nation are eternal. We must strengthen what binds us together and leave our differences for the Almighty to address at the end of time.
@@clintn.kildepstein1656 thanks. But if so, then the jewish story should come first as judaism is a very old religion, then why did paulocohelho wrote this known story and millions of copy of this book was sold? I have another question, if u kindly answer me, what does going to orient mean? Ik i can google but i want to know from a person who is jew. I never had a chance to talk to a jew, so i am asking you..hope u will reply. Thanks.
Afrin Taposhi wow I wasn’t expecting you to reply, thanks. So regarding your first question, maybe Paulo cohelo stole the story because he heard of it from Jewish literature and simply wanted to adapt it into a book. The Jewish story didn’t necessarily come first because Judaism is an old religion...it could have been written and most probably was written by some random Jewish writer in the 1800’s. I’ll look up after this which story came first. Also, tbh I have no clue what the orient is. I’ve never heard of it before, so if you google it feel free to share. Also also, who said I’m Jewish. I mean I do happen to be Jewish but why’d you assume I was😂
Afrin Taposhi ok so apparently The Alchemist was released in 1988 and is said to have been inspired by the Jewish story. I know the Jewish story was told by Rabbi Bunam to his students (I guess it was meant to be a life lesson or something), and Rabbi Bunam lived in the 1700’s, so the dates match up
@@clintn.kildepstein1656 oh so the writter was a jewish. Didnt know that. I assumed u r jewish by looking at ur name, Jacob! Its one of our prophets name as well.
I didn't know religion could make sense till Judaism. I started listening to rabbis 7 yrs ago bc I wanted to know the roots of Jewish belief. Christianity claims a crack between it and Judaism when in reality there is a chasm. Jewish thought to me shows the true beauty and love of our Creator for ALL of His Creation. :o)
When the egyptians fall into the sea, it says the angels wanted to join Bnei Israel singing "halel" which means praise sing for god. God told them No. god said: "Bnei Israel, Humans who live on the ground, it's ok for them to do it, but you my angels, are not allowed" they asked why God told them: The egyptians, evil as they were, all the the actions they did, they are still my creations. i made them. you the agnels, you see the whole package, you know the future like me i allowed you to, you sit by near me, and you want to sing and praise me while my creations is falling into the sea? this is unacceptable. "
I like your video's, your way of telling is nice because of the humor in it. I'm not Jewish because only my granny from fathers side is Jewish. And you never know who your father is, so to be shore I take wisdom from a lot of people and history and beliefs. A lot of time it is a same advice / message in other words. I understand for most people it's easy to know who they are and it's a kind of freedom to copy idees from the house / country / culture where you born. Go on with your excellent videos, Shalom from Netherlands
You can convert, it's actually as simple as keeping Torah. That's all that's really required. Yehovah says anyone who keeps his commandments is apart of Israel, aka Jewish. May God bless your life journey.
@@matthewpettipas8233 Keeping the Torah is a mind bondage. In REAL truth, there is no Torah at all. All God's 10.commandments are not meant to be written on two tablets. Thus it is said that it will be carved into the hearts of the jews or seekers better word.
As a non-Jew I admire Rabbi Twerski but this is the 1st time I kind of disagree with him: If the man didn’t go to Prague, he wouldn’t have found the treasure under his own hut. As such, going to the ‘orient’ is part of finding your own truth; no matter if you are a Jew or not.
Isil A. Hird you are right I think what the rabbi twerski is saying that everything happens for a reason and if that dreamer would have focus in his own backyard from the first place he would have found it anyway because no matter what everything that meant to be yours will find its way to you its only a matter of time 😊
There's really a sub message here in Jewish thought. You have to put in your own effort. He put in the effort to search. You do your part and when G-d decides it's the right time, you receive.
It is absolutely amazing what he is saying. I thought it will be something narrow minded but here it is great! Nothing nationalistic but very beautiful. We should be careful about everything and balance.Maybe every religion has something beautiful. I am a Christian but he is very powerful.
Great truth about the treasure hunting. Without investigating the truth about the new belief one should not step into it . What happens if the expected truth is not in it.? Regret it and then return back?. As the Rabbi Dr.Abraham Twerski said correctly it is better to look at the back yard first and then decide.
My grandpa left Judaism just after ww2 I am the only descendant that recognises, respects and defends my ancestry and because of that I have been treated shamefully and was forced to accept christian doctrine until I learned it is a lie, now my spiritual development has truly begun as I deprogramme the corruption of my early years and become what g-d has designed for me...
*Sub Zero:* Good for you! I understand your sentiment, however, George Carlin once said that you can't be "proud" of something you were BORN into, that YOU personally, had nothing to do with. You can be _happy_ to be whatever ethnicity, but you can't be "proud", because, actually YOU had nothing to do with which family you were born into, and I think the point he was making is that you can't have pride in something you didn't accomplish.
@@janishart5128 Of course you can be proud. I can be proud to be a Bengali, proud that my Bengali ancestors gave their lives to fight the brutal Pakistani regime and made our own country Bangladesh. I can be proud for my Bengali music, literature and art. I can be proud of our current government that's posting GDP growth rates of 8% and moving towards rapid development. There are numerous things to be proud about that you yourself did not accomplish.
@@omarfaruque98xy: Yes, I get what you're saying about your ancestors, and I'm happy for you, and all, but YOU really had NO CHOICE in the matter - you COULD have been born into any nationality, and you still would have no choice as to what family you were born into. You can be "proud" of their accomplishments, but not "proud" to be the nationality you were born into, because you had nothing to do with it - it wasn't YOUR accomplishment - ultimately, God placed you into your lineage! There's a comedy routine by George Carlin, where he addresses this very issue, and after thinking about what he said, I tend to agree with him. What I (and George!) are trying to say, is that you CAN'T be "proud" to be whatever nationality you are, because YOU had NOTHING to do with it! It's probably just a game of semantics, but the point George was trying to make is, you CAN be "proud" of accomplishments, but NOT something you had no control over, such as your lineage. You can be "happy" to be that nationality, but definitely not "proud". I guess he was pointing out his own annoyance, that people use "proud" in the wrong sense these days.
@@janishart5128 Yes I understand what you're saying. Too much pride can lead someone to uber nationalism which can even result in fascism(like Nazi Germany). I'd like to add though taking pride in something you are born with can help many people deal with oppression and injustice. Such as the gay "pride" movement, essentially feeling pride for being gay since they were born like that. I'd like to say taking pride in nationality is sensible, but pride in race is not. We have to disagree on that i guess.
How does Jewishness differ from other religions? All religions have rituals and traditions and their followers have a sense of belonging also. BTW, I agree with the rabbi's message and have deep respect.
Znam ,još Karl Georg Govorio da ne vredi tražiti i prelaziti iz religije u religiju, ali koliko ja znam Judejska religija tojest verovanje u potpunosti celovito. Ostale denominacije govore u parolama a da ih pitaš : "šta znači bojati se Boga oni ne znaju" ali judeističko objašnjenje je potpuno zadovoljavajuće. Prema tome verujem rabinu Dr Abraham Twerskom. amin
In Quran there is a verse that said Torah is light and guidance for human kinds, also in another verse said Jewish people are chosen people. I can see by own eyes why Quran said and it is true. God bless. For those Christian brothers and sisters , I have to say Mary mother of Jesus and Jesus himself were Jewish and attended the Jewish ceremony and passover, and other types of Jewish rituals. My God bless all of you.
naya shams According to some, the 1st wife of Prophet Muhammad was a Jew and the 1st Quran was written by her uncle, who happened to be a Rabbi. Considering that his wife was a powerful/rich business women and only the educated religious figures were able to read/write at the time, this is a credible story.
her uncle wasnt a rabbi . he was called waraqa bin nawfal , and was a man who studied scripture ( both torah and bible) and a monotheist and he died shortly after muhammad ( may peace be upon him) started receiving revelation. so what u said doesnt make sense . revealation continued for atleast 20 yrs after he died so unless a dead man can teach , read and write i suggest u check ur facts. thank u
Learning and practicing Judaism is the simplest way. You would also want to perform teshuva, repentance. Repentance in Judaism has 3 parts: confession before G-d, regret of the error, and resolution to not repeat it.
..but if the guy didn't follow his foolish dream he would have never met the other guy who told him the treasure is under his own house. So you need to go through with it, make your own mistakes to realize things.
Very nice sermon: The teaching reminded me of Deuteronomy 30:11For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. 12It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? 13Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? 14But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.
If there were no Christianity I would be Jewish, provided I knew about it etc. As a Catholic I thought it would be possibly better to be Jewish since there is only one God and being Jewish seemed to me at the time easier to believe since Christ is an extra layer to believe in. However, over time and with prayer and such my faith in Christ increased since only He made sense in the way He took God from a tribal limit to an international non-tribal, but universal arrangement or covenant. That to me seems the logical progression or evolution that makes the most sense. Then, I would be remiss if I did not include my personal experiences with the miraculous demonstrations provided by God in the complete context of the Catholic faith. He multiplied my oil, quite literally and He, when I asked in His mercy, showed me a great miracle in the sun itself. A miracle many have seen and witnessed to others, but which people apparently wish to ignore. To this day Jesus works miracles, and He has done them in a completely Catholic context; which is not to say He does not do them for others in other ways. God is merciful. In the end the world has only 2 Gods, the one in the mirror and the actual creator of all who is indeed ONE God. It is His nature, His intimate nature that Christ revealed. There are lots of things said about the messiah and what must happen and on and on. I can tell you Jesus is the guy, convenient or not to anyone, me included. The debate is principally over the nature of the Divine, and that is known by revelation. If the revelation does not fit, you must submit. Kind of an OJ thing there ;) Best wishes!
*FBooth90:* You would have to do as much research on your ancestry as possible, and then, depending on what you learn, you are always welcome to convert to Judaism if you agree with its teachings, and that's the way God leads you.
First we find out what We want then we grow our knowledge and then our want changes until we reach at stage where we think what our Creator want us to do. On the next stage we realize that Creator loved certain personalities known as Prophets and Allah loved those who synchronize their wants with the wants of prophets. We have to deny our self to reach Allah , those who can do this all the time that I am nothing, I own nothing are the true believers in Allah, doing this opens the world of realities.
@@goldengun9970 two things one is shaitaan and other is Nafs , if we contemplate what a human being is capable of doing ? , not even lifting one foot only once ! How ? If human being own what he/she has it should be self managed why a body needs outer source to heal and get energy,,, if human being owns something it will stay in that always ,,, reality is that we are images of the capability of our Creator, how awesome Creator He is, the very clear reality in front of us is death , if someone would be eternal he / she will remain on earth , however after death rewards are eternal.... so we should relax and think and study before discussion,,, hindus are non Muslims they go against their self desires and recognise what self desires are and fly in air heal many sick and much more ... chinese do same meditate , understand and do strange actions which a common man couldn't do, its only Allah who guides towards Right path we should always ask for Guidance of right path only as divine guidance is on both right and wrong paths whoever wants to walk on right path He will be rightly guided and whoever want to bring his understandings with arrogance and want people to think like that will go astray ... try the righteous intention,,,firstly deny all things what we know what we have ,, how by saying I am nothing , I own nothing and believe these saying and watch how the Real will show up , warning there will be shaitaanic attacks if anyone do this. How ? Shaitaan will attack in bathroom, he may come as angel or a rightous person or even he will say I am your lord follow seek protection of always and believe Allah without seeing him its the real belief.
Who is a Jew ? Is it someone who shows strives to be kosher by adhering to the law and is a proud Jew or is it perhaps someone who who does mitzvah does not keep all the kosher laws but has a humble heart? What is a Christian? Is he or she someone that prays and attends church regularly or is he or she rather a person who does mitzvahs and has a humble heart. Perhaps their is no Jew or Christian but rather a faith based in pride and another faith based in humility. I believe a true Jew performs a mitzvah with a humble heart and a non Jew tries to show off how much he has done for the less fortunate. Being Jewish is a state of humility allowing you to care. After all was the devil not the most beautiful angel who fell because of pride. Looking up to God means exactly the same as looking up to the hungry and the lonely and the suffering.
So, one has to be born into a religion? Being born into a non religious family, means you wouldn’t have a sense of belonging? I agree with much of the message, however, there is much confusion in it. I take issue with any and all religions. Because, all religions profess to the “right one”, one better than the other. Who’s to say which is right and which is wrong? This conflict has been since the beginning and why so many wars have been faught.
I dont agree in this, because when you are brought up by your family,they teach you their religion ,maybe that is not right for you. I dont believe any religion. I believe people dont need religion.
I am sorry but this is BS. He is claiming that there is no absolute truth, you should stick with your roots conserning religion. But we know that they (religions) all cannot be right because they all contradict each other. So there must be absolute truth, true and right religion. I think that it is person called Jesus Christ, beautiful way God provided us to get evelasting life.
I dont think you got what he meant: before going to far away places or turning to exotic cultures look in your own courtyard and understand what it has to offer. Then, once and only after you made this educated step you are in a position to take an educated decision.
The repeated reference to the "Orient" as some alien other is pretty offensive and certainly doesn't help creative a cohesive world. You can appreciate your own identity and culture without holding an "us vs them" attitude. This does not make Jewishness look good.
We are all different. It isn't offensive to say that. As human beings we have certain universal traits but different traditions and identities. I doubt any orientals found this offensive. I think western liberals get offended on their behalf because they have rejected so many of their own traditions that they want a universalist world. Why to they want universalism? It's because they don't know what it is like to have a culture of their own anymore.
Sorry but what's offensive about that? You obviously don't know how many young Jewish people travel to the 'Orient' to look for some answers. This 'us vs them' attitude is your own interpretation.
Tora nije zastarela nego ne znaju da je tumače. Greška je samo što je jezički tumače a Tora ima 4 nivoa znanja, Prvi ivo je jezić čko tumačenja a gde su ona tri. Samo je rabin Savle ili Pavle imao to dostignuće. moje je dostignuće prvo i drgo. prvo je jezičko a drugo je svet ideja što nam Tora kazuje.
@seekermike007 continued from below: if one person dislikes you somewhere you go that's one thing...but if ppl hate you EVERYWHERE you go you are the one with the problem..not everyone else......i give you the noble jewish race lol..my bro-n-law is jewish. he lives in texas..has a construction company that builds ALL over the world..EVERYWHERE.. he once showed me a list of every country they have done business in,,there were only 6 or 7 countries they have never done business of..
90 % of the world doesnt even know that they are jewish , they read the torah ,tanak call it old testament ,they pray to the god of abraham and israel ,jewish , if christian ,yeshua was jewish ,his apostles jewish ,new testament written by jews , they are all jewish and dont know it ,lol so im i ,baruch aloheinu adonai yeshua ha massaioch , baruch hababshem adonai ,
Actually no. It’s a very valid question. He does, and I’m sure of it, but it may seem that he has an agenda because he was a rabbi. But if you’ve done any research about his background you’d know that he’d also been a clinical psychiatrist for a long period of time and has excelled in that field. His word should therefore be able to be taken from a non-religious/jewish standpoint as well.
What most people don't realise is that , the original Torah, original Bible and Qur'an are actually connected. In a nutshell .. god gave people of Israel the Torah by Moses, but they rebelled against it and changed its content to their desires .. so god sent Jesus son of mary the virgin , with the Bible.. to correct the error in the Torah and once again they rebelled and claimed that Jesus was the god ( some believe he's the son of God ) and they again modified the Bible , and after a while , god sent the last prophet Muhammad with the Qur'an , a book preserved against all kinds of modification , to correct the errors and sins commited by the jews and the Christians , so finally god wrapped up the final one and only true religion (islam) as a correction for Christianity and Judaism before it .
@Musa Yesil And that is the ongoing discussion between Judaism, Christianity and Islam. We all agree that there is one G-d/Allah. We just don't agree on the prophets. Jewish people do believe that Jesus and Mohammed really existed but we don't see them as prophets sent by G-d.
@seekermike007 continued from below: never done business of any kind in. most were obvious and understandable.. north korea, iran, etc,, but the lack of israel kinda jumped out at me..i asked him why and he was vauge..months later i heard him saying how he 'hates doing business in south fla. and new york/it was beginning to make sense,i asked his cousin about this and he said:'look, here's the deal 'for us'..it's hard to out jew another jew..that speaks volumes if you think about
Your a wise man Rabbi but what you are saying here is deeply flawed thinking. We all long to belong to a community but i would say that such hopes are a fantasy of your emotions. The reality is that spirituality does not recognize human created physical or cultural borders. The truly spiritual people in this world can be found scattered in all communities religions and philosophies. Spirituality is something separate from theoretical intelligence. Spirituality is not a nation of people all coincidentally and conveniently located in one geographic area. You will find true spirituality lays in peoples intentions not in their theoretical intelligence, cultural label, or passport. You don;t need to be a nationalist to have an identity. Your identity can be internationalist and be proud that you have the wisdom to accept that you don't have the supernatural power to easily identify peoples intentions. Before you judge a person as nonspiritual, ask yourself if you have always been spiritually conscious and treat that person as your former self whilst exercising caution.
@seekermike007 this is acontinuation from below*//example: i'm sure you know of someone, be it a distant family member?, friend?, etc., who always seems to have a hard time keeping a job,,they describe at length(everytime they lose/quit a job) that basically everyone is against them and they just can't understand why/// i could give u numerous more examples but u get the idea..if one person dislikes you somewhere u go that's one thing...continued on above..
As a muslim , the real yews are good people of god just like uss but evil is trying to rip us apart shame ,butt like the almighty god praise is to him people who still have a connection with him know this we are people plain simple its sad we are living in a time we dont have somebody like mother theresa , gandi or some positive person we have to deal with trump ,putin ,netanyahu ...., i beter say money ,money ,money
You need to belong somewhere. If you're yemeni, you will miss yemen & the identity will never leave you. If you're Persian, you will always feel something towards Iran & the Iranian people. If you're jewish, you will always look towards Zion(Jerusalem) & your people who are connected to you & to the land. All these politicians are not angels, but the sovereignity of the jewish state is not even recognized by Islamic nations who do not respect it. How can you demand respect when the other doesn't even respect your being, your existence & conspiring against you to erase you?
This is in many ways can be interpreted as a dissection of settler colonial Zionism. The treasure is not in some promised ethnostate, the treasure is within you yourself.
You will find that approximately 90% of people in the world today who call themselves Jews are actually Khazars, or as they like to be known, Ashkenazi Jews. These people knowingly tell the world that the land of Israel is theirs by birthright, when in actual fact their real homeland is over 800 miles away in Georgia.
Even if the Khazar theory is true, they are still Jewish lol, because being a Jew is about keeping Torah, period. It's not about race or ethnicity. Sure, I do believe most Ashkenazi Jews aren't descended from Jews from Israel,same thing with Sephardic Jews, but that doesn't make them any less Jewish. Clearly you have no idea of Torah, Yehovah says anyone, ANYONE, who keeps his commandments is apart of his people. Thus all Jews, regardless of their race or ancestry, are the children of Israel, and nothing can change that fact, whether you like it or not.