Testimonies

I am Shawn, and I am studying Hebrew with my 15-year- old son, Noah. I have tried studying Hebrew by myself several times, but it is already helping to have a partner. As a single dad, I chose to homeschool Noah a year ago, and Holy Language Institute has been an excellent choice for Noah’s foreign language credit.

Here is a little about me, Shawn. I have lived in Columbus, Indiana my entire life. I am the author of the devotional book “As the Deer: A 30 Day Journey”. I have played guitar now for 28 years. I enjoy teaching guitar to students of all ages, and I’m looking to start my own business of teaching guitar over Skype. The Torah study group that I’m part of in my home with my family and neighbors is Magen Avraham Beit Midrash (Shield of Abraham House of Study). I’m also taking Torah classes with a Rabbi online so I can be an effective Torah teacher to the nations.

Now, here is a little bit about Noah. Noah turned 15 this past July, and he’s already growing taller than me (and he loves to point that out). We both enjoy comic books, Doctor Who, and any sci-fi fantasy entertainment there is out there. We proudly accept the geek labels. Noah has been working on his pencil art, and is doing great. He’s interested in writing his own stories for his own comic books.

Noah is excited about learning Hebrew so he and I can have our own secret language in our area. We are both excited to be part of the Holy Language Tribe. It’s great to have a group to connect with as Noah and I work on our spiritual, emotional, mental, and even physical health together (we both have a lot of weight to lose and are always open for encouragement). Thank you all for your kind and warm welcomes.

Me and my family having a lot to say about this from Sri Lanka. To begin from myself. When I was a little boy I use to search unseen. Especially when I see a cross on top of the roof in those churches I experienced something is telling me and a peace. Time passed as I grow I got caught to the world.

Came back to SL again after many hardships I got a free bible from a Mormon. I start reading just a one paragraph asking to show me who you God. After some time passed we got to know the Good news for many time and start to ask for help. One day in the night He talk to me by His Spirit and been told that I am a chosen one. All got changed. Now I have a church branch of my own at my house and serving God as much as possible. If I write what He has done for us. Unmeasurable.

I was raised Lutheran. I left "organized religion" at 18, not knowing who Jesus Christ was, what he did or what it meant to accept him as my Lord and Savior. I got married when I was 28 and we had two daughters. We raised our children in a "good home" though never once opening the Scriptures. When our youngest was 16 years old, she started going to church with some friends and one Saturday night, asked me and my wife if we would go to church with her the next morning. To appease her, we went. My quest was to catch the pastor in a lie. Fortunately, he was very Bible centered and preached Christ. We continued to go and the longer we went, the deeper I got into Scripture, again in an effort to corner the Pastor in a lie. It never happened! But what did happen was the Holy Spirit, a total immersion in the Scripture and within a couple of years (at the age of 54), I graduated with a degree in Theology.

Hebrew became a goal, a passion, a strong desire to get back to the roots of God's language to man. In doing so, I became more aware of the importance of culture and context when reading the Scriptures. In 2011, I went on a journey to Israel for 2 weeks and this only strengthened the importance of culture and context when reading the Scriptures. I continue on my daily journey through the Scriptures, through the culture, gaining a better and broader understanding of God and His redemptive plan. I teach adult Sunday School in a small rural Methodist Church, with a strong emphasis of diving deeper into the Scriptures, not just skimming the surface.

I look to grow in other ways in the Tribe, where I believe others here share the same passion for the truth, not just a sugar coated pill of salvation but a deep, rich relationship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!!

I was born into a conservative Christian family and from a young age, I became interested in knowing the WHY of my beliefs as opposed as to simply the WHAT. I excelled at apologetics but was always intrigued with increasing my knowledge and investigating my beliefs on a deeper level. Shortly before I turned 30, I moved halfway across the United States and away from the small hometown of around 7,000 people where I had been born and raised. Over the next few years, many of my closely held beliefs were challenged as I gained a wider understanding of the diversity of humanity and especially God's Kingdom.

Around 2007, a friend introduced me to a Hebrew Roots teaching on the secret place of Psalm 91, and what it means to be under the shadow of Adonai's wings. From that moment, something came alive inside of me and I was hooked. The depth of spirituality that lay beneath the surface of the English translations I had always read intrigued me, and I began to dig in and discover the depth of Scripture and the customs and culture that surrounded it. Four years ago, I met Izzy through a mutual Facebook friend and we seemed to click from the start. At some point, he contacted me and asked if I would be willing to throw a few dimes a day his way to support this project he was embarking on called Holy Language Institute, and I gladly became a supporter. Eventually I volunteered to take on some of the graphic design tasks on behalf of the Holy Language tribe and am excited that in addition to myself, The Holy Language graphic design squad has multiplied to four talented individuals, all willing to invest their creativity and skill sets into the Holy Language tribe.

I have a passion for interpreting life through art and graphic design, and as such, my interests tend to be wide and a little all over the place. I'm not above challenging closely held beliefs (especially my own), and as such, you may often see me taking the opposite side of an issue than I actually believe, because we should always seek first to understand, then to be understood. Dialogue leads to relationship, and relationship invites growth. It's all part of the practical application to love our neighbor, the stranger, and our enemy. (Lev. 19:18, Deut. 10:19, Ex. 23:4-5)

My path hasn't been smooth, and I feel that I'm only partway through my Hebrew story. I struggled through several years of resentment and bitterness toward Christianity after discovering the Hebrew Roots approach to spirituality. Part of that battle was a fight to find my identity in Messiah, and I feel like I'm making strides in embracing my God-ordained destiny as one from the nations who recognized Israel's Messiah, was grafted into His body, and supports Israel as a Gentile whose life has been (and is being) radically transformed by the Ruach HaKodesh. I currently attend a vibrant Christian church in Toledo, Ohio where my family along with the congregation is actively engaged in tikkun olam in a city plagued by spiritual oppression. Little by little, by pursuing the Kingdom on earth with fellow believers, we are piercing holes in the blanket of darkness and the light of Messiah is shining through.

Recently I decided to reboot ancient Hebrew study after mostly neglecting it for many months. It was part of a movement in my life to drop peripheral activities and habits, to be more disciplined, to be truly set apart for God. (This includes, of course, focusing on everything the Father has already put in front of me, especially my family.)

In terms of family strength and closeness, I have been extremely blessed. I come from a large, mostly homeschooled family and I am 26 years old. My parents met at a prayer meeting in the early 1970s, during the Charismatic renewal. They both came from very solid German Catholic families (though we are nondenominational).

I have an interest in languages which began during my correspondence high school days, when I studied Spanish. I just thought it would be fun to know a second language. I remember meeting a few Spanish speakers online and thinking it was so cool to be able to talk with them in their native language, especially those who didn't know English. It felt like "unlocking" a new level in a video game or something like that. I've always been struck by the fact that two people could listen to the same audio recording, and only one knows what's being said. One person *hears* it, and another person *understands* it. It's hard to explain, but it's always been amazing to me.

When I was about 20, I started getting really curious about the world. I'm not sure exactly how it began. It was almost like I woke up one day and realized there are about 200 nations in the world, and I know almost nothing about them. For a while I developed a kind of weird obsession with geography. I would read about different countries on Wikipedia and do online geography tests. One time I was going on a short drive with some family members -- a meeting or something -- and I sat quietly in the back seat with a globe I had brought along, memorizing all the countries. I read about world cultures, languages, exotic alphabets, and thought it was really fascinating.

At age 21, I think that phase had mostly passed. One night I decided to search online for a late British Bible teacher. My dad, leader of our home meetings, had mentioned him many times over the years, and I wanted to see what he looked like. I ended up finding lots of his videos on YouTube, which I began going through heavily. What happened was that I was deeply affected by his love for and insight into Israel. I simply had never given Israel much thought. I never thought about the fact that the Jewish people existed today, and I couldn't even remember ever having met a Jew. It dawned on me that the Bible was *all about Israel* and that Bible prophecy was being fulfilled in my lifetime. I studied the history of modern Israel, and saw many connections to prophecy. It made the Bible seem so real and relevant!

I then began to search for online Hebrew lessons, because I already knew Hebrew was the language of the "Old Testament" and the modern State of Israel. I found Izzy Avraham's lessons on YouTube, and this I believe was the first time I ever heard of the phrase "Messianic Judaism." (I went through some of the videos, mainly just watching and not practicing, though I did learn the alefbet and vowel markings.) Mainly this sparked in my mind many questions and thoughts I had never considered.

First of all, just knowing there was a Messianic Judaism really fascinated me. It sounded kind of cool and exotic! Like many others, I realized the original Sabbath wasn't and isn't Sunday. I wondered about the role and purpose of the Torah of Moses, animal sacrifices, dietary guidelines, whether Jews and Gentiles had separate roles today, and so on. I was amazed by parallels between Yeshua/Jesus and the stories of Isaac, Joseph (son of Israel), and other Biblical characters. But what primarily captivated my attention was the thought that, "Wow, these people still exist today, and the Bible is all about them!" I was really curious to see if I had any Jewish ancestry, because I thought it would be so special to be Jewish, and have the Bible be "about me," in a sense. (I didn't find any Jewish ancestry, by the way.) I was definitely a philo-Semite!

For a while I had a pretty hard time accepting that it wasn't an extreme privilege and almost "better" to be Jewish; at the same time I felt it was wrong to be pressured into something if there was no peace in it. I wanted to be Jewish, yet I wanted to be honest about my identity and find God's purpose for me right there. It wasn't until a few years later that I fully shook off a vague sense of unbelonging or searching that often arose, and returned to the peace which I had ironically prior to being introduced to these things. It was also tied in with maturing more spiritually and psychologically. I also realized that I had been focusing on myself and comparing my status with others (which was a selfish attitude) when God clearly loved me the way He created me (which is just as Scriptural as the promises to Israel). I decided not to be a self-hating Gentile.

As for my questions about Torah, I'm not saying I threw them out, but I decided not to have a worrying, overthinking approach anymore. I'm just trying to describe how I went from a shallow fixation with "Jewish things" to a deeper love for Israel, because God loves them. I want to love everything He loves.

In fact, my love for Israel, the Jews, and the Hebrew Scriptures has really just grown deeper and deeper. Now I have what I'd call a holy burden to become very knowledgeable about the Bible, with a strong focus on the Hebrew language. (Because it's impossible to separate the Bible from the Jews!) I hope to see the land of Israel when the door opens up, maybe even hike the Israel National Trail.* I think God gave me a certain personality and interests which He wants to guide in a certain way. I believe it's something the Father has put in my heart, that it's supposed to be a major part of my life. So I'm pushing ahead with my studies with a passion, and I'll see where this adventure takes me!

* Because I really want to meet this cool Israeli ibex with sunglasses. He will be my guide through the scorching Negev desert. :)

When at a school’s Christian Association camp, I gave my life during a quiet one-on-one with my leader. (I hated the thought of doing anything like that publicly.)

I know now that I was serious and that the Lord took over my life from then. He never left me, and even when I left Him I am able to point out how His guiding hand was always there and His arms outstretched to welcome me back.

An example of this was no matter how drunk we were, my friends and I would always put on the LP (Long Playing vinyl record for you youngsters) playing our favourite musician; a heavy rock singer. He was definitely not Christian. Later on when I was in full rebellion I met him at a youth function where I was working and he had come to speak to the kids. I heard he had become a Christian so thought it was good-bye to his great singing. WOW! His singing was not just as powerful as it was before, it had moved up so many notches it blew me away. (God showed me that Christianity was fun.)

Example two, (don’t worry last one) I had to travel by train to get to school in the mornings, and there was a group of students from the Baptist college who travelled on the same train. I found myself always trying to get on the same coach as they were on because they were fun to be around and were always so happy. (God showed me that His people were loving people.)

During all of this I think something went very wrong with my thinking. I heard all of these testimonies of people who had been saved from all sorts of evil. I read stories such as the Nick Cruz book and how God saved him. I decided that God only really cared for them, and I decided I was going to become bad enough for God to start noticing me! Hey, this was not a conscious thought, or my mind would have shown me how stupid this all was. Fortunately, God kept His hand on me and prevented me from going too far.

One day I started going to a small Methodist church in the area. All you guys out there will understand why when I say that all the prettiest girls were going there. I did not have a car at the time, which meant that I would have to walk about three kilometres to get there. The walk was my undoing because one day when I got there I saw a sign that there was a revival meeting on that day. Oh this was my worst nightmare. I was far too tired to walk straight back so I thought that if I crept in and sat in the back all these crazy people would not notice me and leave me alone!

God showed me that he had noticed me, and during the altar call the next thing I knew I was running to the front tears streaming down my face and being very public!!!!! (Remember I hated the thought of doing this kind of thing in public.) Just as a side line: the Minister got this young lady to pray for me in front, 7 days later I proposed to her and I have now been married to her for 33 years!

I have always been very sceptical when it comes to Biblical interpretation and there is a good reason for this. I grew up as a liberal white during the South African apartheid era. During this time the Afrikaans church was using the Bible to justify apartheid.

Then the “Name it, frame it, and claim it” people with their prosperity Gospel followed with their interpretations. One of my hobbies is studying the World Wars and once again I see that the Bible has been misinterpreted by Hitler. I started realising that there were so many people who have interpreted the Bible to suit their own purposes. During the Crusades, even about 2000 years ago a group of men interpreted the Bible in a way to say that they should get the Romans to crucify an innocent person.

So as I spent more and more time learning how to interpret the Bible correctly and honestly I came across a common way people use to get around problems in their particular interpretation. They will say things like, “I know it says that but in the original language it meant . . . “ I decided I wanted to know for myself what did the actual original say and started by using transliterations.

This all changed when I realised just how much I was missing when I did not know the thought behind the words. I started to see that the original brought out extremely powerful nuances that English is not able to cope with. I was totally sucked in! Since then I have done a number of courses in Hebrew including Hebrew A and Hebrew B at the e-teacher school.

Now, I am learning something else that came as a surprise. I knew that Hebrew would help me understand the Old Testament better, but as I am getting to understand the Hebrew way of thinking I am realising that the New Testament was written in Greek. But the writers were Hebrews, whose thinking patterns were Hebrew and so my Hebrew understanding is helping me appreciate their writing more.

This is what my son did for me on my 50th Birthday. He got me helicopter search and rescue training as you can see in the picture. (I am terrified of heights!!!!!)

Raised Catholic in NYC, among all the marvelous ethnicities of the world, a pattern emerged early on. It was a respect and love for Jewish people, spirituality and traditions. I didn't even realize the connecting thread of Judaism through many of the best experiences of my life until I encountered the insidious undercurrent of anti-Semitism. I had left the city to live in the South where the fabric of life is embroidered and brocaded with 'gentile' overlay. I found myself trying to point out that the weft and weave of our lives is, in fact, Judaism. Pointing to the scriptures in love is the best way to defeat the ignorance at the root of anti-Semitism

Back-tracking: I first found my need of Jesus when I was implicated in an accidental death about 25 years ago. It was a vivid glimpse of eternity, like seeing the hinder part of God himself from within the cleft of a rock. Many times since then the living Word has spoken directly to me with blinding, jaw dropping, knee buckling clarity. I feel very loved for the precision of the Word in English. 

Gradually these two themes merged. Within the Word, the most pivotal scriptures for me are found in the book of Hebrews and in Psalm 119. Thankfully the images and concepts as conveyed in English just didn't have the power that I saw demonstrated by the lives of the apostles and the early followers of the Way. I felt there was an inexplicable disconnect between what I read, even between what I heard preached when contrasted with the transformed lives of the 12, and the subsequent movement that transformed the world. So, I felt I had to learn Hebrew since I found Greek utterly incomprehensible.

For the first few years of this endeavor to learn Hebrew, I had only a few books. But with the advent of the internet, I found Izzy Avraham on youtube! Izzy, I hope you don't mind this analogy, but you seemed to me like a very hip Hebrew Mr. Rogers. The teaching style in Hebrew Quest taught me how to approach large bodies of information. I've been a subscriber for a few years now learning at warp speed. 

I'm a passionate organic gardener and cook, owned by two Great Danes. My husband is a bilingual minister of the Word, very much involved in benevolence as a missionary in Belize. Our primary home is in the Atlanta area and we are headed back to Belize the next few months. Whenever I have opportunity, I hastily paint biblical imagery and scribble convoluted concepts gleaned from the Word, which may be poetry. 

My name is Patricia from South Africa. I am a born again Christian. I grew up in a Christian family until 1982 when I made a commitment to personally accept Jesus Christ as my saviour.

I am a nun in the Convent. I am a teacher by profession. I enjoy working with small kids doing community projects.

I had always been interested to know more about the Jews because I found that there are similar things with African Culture.

Few years back I started to want to know more about Hebrew language. I browsed in the internet and choose Izzy's site. I became hooked reading interesting stories of the people of God who are followers of Jesus like myself. That is how I met you all.

The Spirit of Adonai ELOHIM is upon me, because ADONAI has anointed me to announce good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted; to proclaim freedom to the captives, to let out into light those bound in the dark; to proclaim the year of the favor of ADONAI and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn, yes, provide for those in Tziyon who mourn, giving them garlands instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, a cloak of praise instead of a heavy spirit, so that they will be called oaks of righteousness planted by ADONAI, in which he takes pride. They will rebuild the ancient ruins, restore sites long destroyed; they will renew the ruined cities, destroyed many generations ago. Isaiah 61:1-4

Early in my walk with Yeshua I desired to do social justice from a Yahweh centered perspective. This desire is birthed out of a deep gratitude for the total salvation I experienced at age 14 after four years of being led by the Holy Spirit to pray and read the Bible starting with the Psalms, though I was not raised in a religious home and had only been to church two times during my entire childhood. Yeshua did not just save my soul but he saved my life from the unjust systems that enacted violence on my very being as a young woman growing up in the inner-city community of East New York, Brooklyn.

In 2012, I felt led by the Holy Spirit again to keep the Sabbath and in the fall of 2013 I returned to the seminary I graduated from to study Hebrew and West African Jewish communities because in May 2013 I watched The Jews of Nigeria documentary and realized my ancestors who were taken from Nigeria into slavery were descendants of one of the Lost Tribes of Israel. It was very difficult to learn Hebrew in an academic environment but with the Holy Language Institute learning Hebrew seems spiritual and joyous! I found the Holy Language Institute when Izzy started liking my Instagram post on African Jewish communities and since I found this great ministry I have been encouraged by it.

My faith has been greatly enhanced by studying the Hebrew language and culture and now I am sharing what I know with women of faith as a Faith Based Community Organizer I recently led three lessons on Ezer Kenegdo the Hebrew term that has been translated as Helpmate in most English Bibles and many women have been encouraged including those who are not of faith. From this experience I now realize that knowing Hebrew is a great way to prepare to share my faith in a more in-depth way.

I recently found a congregation that observes Sabbath and the Biblical Holy Days and the women there want to learn Hebrew too!

As I reflected over the past 20 years of my faith life, I realized how much Yahweh's faithfulness has sustained me and now learning Hebrew is taking my faith to a deeper level. This August I was blessed to visit Israel for the first time and I was able to address women concerning Yahweh's purpose for their lives and this address was Daughter of Zion Who Doesn't Want You to Give Birth which focused on the Yahweh's call to us during these times.

Justice work is my song of praise to Yahweh, not out of a desire to deal with my personal problems through this work, or to make those responsible pay, but out of a love for the God of the orphan who came to preach good news to those just like me, and who did not stop there but actually said that those like me would repair the ruined cities and restore the devastations (Isaiah 61:4). This gives me joy and no reason to pity myself. Yahweh ordained that I would have agency in righting the very wrongs that were committed against me, and organizations like the Holy Language Institute have given me the opportunity to work toward the fulfillment of this prophecy.

I will not say that the road has been easy. Because even when you accept Yeshua, you have to “wrestle against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in high places” (Ephesians 6:10-18). For me this has meant systematic injustice that reaches all the way back to my family being taken from Nigeria and Angola to be owned by one of the largest slave-holding families in America.

Even as I write this I am still praying for full healing. Sometimes I have struggled with not feeling equipped to do the work of justice due to my humble beginnings, but as I learn the Hebrew roots of my faith and study the original language of much of the Bible I gain more confidence rooted in Yahweh. Often we do not see those who are personally affected by injustice actually standing up to it, but Isaiah 61 has encouraged me that God actually can use me because of the injustices I have experienced, not in spite of them.

I strongly hold the conviction that each time justice is enacted in the world we get one step closer to salvation, one step closer to the kingdom, and one step closer to answering the prayer that Our Heavenly Father's will be done on earth as it is in heaven – and THIS is my song of worship.

I live in Harlem, New York and I enjoy music, walking, theology, film and museums.

I started following Yeshua since childhood in the Catholic religion. That’s where I was baptized at three years old and made my first communion at age eleven. To tell the truth, I had a very beautiful experience despite being in these religions as they were. For a few years, two very nice ladies taught me the Bible, being of Jehovah’s Witnesses. I remember I used to say, “Look, all that time in this landscape God has in store for you were some people having a picnic.” I think they were referring to the millennium. I also said, “Jehovah knows and knows everything about you—what’s your name and how many hairs you have.”

I always knew that God lived in my heart because I could feel Him alive in my whole being. I always knew that I was a child of God. I was different from the rest of the world. I did not delight in evil. Although we all have evil, those who are really sons and daughters of God are always being rebuked, corrected, and guided by the Father in His true ways.

Now I am almost thirty years old, and I can tell you of an endless number of things that the Father has done out of His love and mercy in my life. I have been able to face many giants from my past, thank God. When I met Yeshua, it was through a women’s prayer group we had every Thursday in Jalisco, Guadalajara, Mexico. That was where the Lord transformed my life radically. After having gone for a couple of years, God restored my life through prayer and His Word and delivered me from smoking. I had started smoking at age twelve and continued until twenty-four—half my life. My addiction was so strong that only a miracle could free me, and that’s exactly what God did.

My desire to know the whole Bible became immense. I challenged myself to read it from beginning to end. I started in Genesis, then continued to Exodus, and soon I felt very strong spiritually. Through this I could declare that it was Yeshua who allowed this miracle to happen in my life.

Then one day, God gave me a vision—a dream that I will never forget. I saw golden letters appear, one by one, glowing on a black background. They were Hebrew letters—living letters—and they spelled out words that I understood: “I am your Father. You are my daughter. I will fulfill all of your heart’s desires and will keep you until the last of your days.” When I woke up the next morning to go to work, it was the happiest day of my life. From that moment, I knew that the Lord had control over absolutely everything that happened in my life. I was not alone. He would sustain me through any problem. And I knew beyond doubt that it was Yeshua speaking to me. Praise the name of the Lord!

I began to serve Yeshua in a children’s room on Saturdays for two years. Later, when I moved to Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, I found a Christian church where I volunteered for three years teaching English classes. Serving the Lord with a devoted heart is the most beautiful thing that can exist in the universe, and I’ve learned that we were created for Him.

My testimony today is that Yeshua gave me identity and a new life. I was married on Saturday, August 15, and I thank the Lord for everything He continues to do in my daily life. Last year I started learning the Hebrew alphabet. As I went deeper into Hebrew culture and the study of the Torah, I realized that the Christianity I knew for so many years lacked a clear foundation. Now I see that the genuine truth is found in the Torah. Though I still attend church, little by little the Lord allows me to share the one truth that exists for every human being—His Word and His precepts. Psalm 34:27.

My name is Neven. I am writing you from the most beautiful part of the world God created, Croatia. Denomination? I am trying to follow Yeshua, as much as I can. In my family we are all Christians: Catholics. Going to church at Sunday, it was a normal thing I did, but there was nothing deeper. Until one day everything changed. My whole life had a new beginning. From that point in my life I started to count years. It was the day that I decided to step into the unknown, into uncertainty, but put my faith in God. It was the wedding day. When I look back now, I see that God really blessed me and my wife on our wedding day, and from that day on our lives started a new exciting journey along with the blessing of our God. As we have learned we prescribe this recipe to others: in marriage there are coexisting three persons: husband, wife and between them, and with them - God. If one person is missing the marriage will suffer.

So when I saw how much God loves me, and how many miracles He did in my life, I started to read the Bible, because I wanted to know Him better, I wanted to become His best friend. Our Lord spoke to Hebrews in Hebrew language, the Holy Bible is originally written in Hebrew language, my Lord Yeshua who gave his life to take my sins away came from a Hebrew family. That is the reason I wanted to learn Hebrew language, and I am still learning when I find some free time, and that is how I found Izzy Avraham’s youtube videos. Thank you!

I want to tell you a story that happened recently when I was visiting Budapest for three days. It was the second day, and I wanted to take a tour around the city, but my wife had to go to a conference, so I decided to wander around the city alone. I was excited because we were situated in the Jewish part of the city, and I wanted to visit the synagogue and meet some Jews. I love Jewish people. But that evening it was the beginning of Sukkot, and there was a sign that the synagogue is closed for tourists. So I walked into the courtyard of the synagogue, and there I found a sukkah standing in the dark. Suddenly, an elder Jew came out from nowhere and started to shout at me and gesticulate with hands that I have to leave. He was at least friendly. So now I was wandering around the city, disappointed because my wife went to the conference, and a Jew threw me out of his courtyard like a dog.

In a few minutes my disappointment disappeared when my eyes met a homeless man sleeping on the street. It was cold and wet that evening, and people were just passing by without even looking at that man. In that moment I realised what my Messiah wanted to tell me about who is my brother and who is my sister? The words from Mathew 25:34-36 came to life:

"Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me."

I put some money I had with me into the man`s bag and went on. I was happy because I knew Jesus just taught me a great lesson, and in the same time I was sad but also with a sense of obligation towards those people, especially Jewish people, who still didn’t find the love of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God bless you all!

My name is Moshe, a Jew by birth, education, calling and ultimately restoration within the context of faith in Yeshua as Messiah. I grew up in a Conservative Jewish context, attended Talmud Torah and was blessed to be required to speak Hebrew half the day at school! I had my lost years of late adolescence and young adulthood which nearly cost me my life multiple times; I distanced myself from my G-d, and nearly lost everything. ב''ה I heard the word about Yeshua and joined myself to him through faith.

I did this within a traditional Christian context and took up with that good news the heartbreaking distancing of myself as a Jew from this new life. I spent time in a monastery, and traveled through almost every permutation of church self-conception, but have only come home through the road of scripture that has always disquieted me (in a good way). I have great love for my brothers and sisters in Messiah, but have found that it is an extremely lonely road home to re-incarnating the life of Jew and Gentile together but not the same. I am very thankful for this group for that reason!

I have been blessed in reacquiring my Hebrew through Holy Language, and finding encouragement and thought provoking materials there. I am a student of Second Temple literature and social context, as well as profitably study cognitive theory and language theory in making a way to provide a safe space to critique, discuss and move forward. I teach Torah (just wrapping up 3-years in Shemot), write and try to build fellowship in a generative, non-reactionary Messianic manner.

Hello everyone, I am Mitch. I live in the N.W. Atlanta area and went to high school in downtown Atlanta. I began doing some traveling and then ended back up in Atlanta around 1987. Met my amazing wife in 1989 and we soon married in 1990 when I was 31. I am currently a Deputy Sheriff in my county and teach a “Making A Great Choice” program to over 1200 5th graders a year as my wife looks out for about 1800 high schoolers as a High School Principal. G-d has blessed us with three amazing kids through adoption. Both my daughters chose us the day after they were born and my son chose us at 15 months old. One is now in college, one is in high school, and one is in middle school.

I did not grow up in the church, I even dabbled into Buddhism in the early 70’s early on in my martial arts training. After I got married, I lost my mom and then through a series of events and people, began my journey to know G-d through Christ. We began attending a Baptist church and my wife and I started working with the youth group. I officially became the Youth Pastor, attended a Baptist seminary and was ordained into the “Baptist way”. I spent several years in that baptist church and then eventually moved out west of Atlanta to be part of an explosive contemporary church plant. I helped with the operations of a Sunday gathering of over 3500, meeting in a high school first and then moving into our own building.

After spending many years making “converts” and creating “emotional moments”, something amazing happened: myself and 4 others from the church went to a church in Grand Rapids Michigan to hear a young man who was very popular on the speaking conference tour at this time and to get to meet and hear him live was cool. I had been told that the first year he started the church, he taught from Leviticus that full year. I wasn’t even sure where Leviticus was in the Old Testament. He was the first evangelical teacher that really started my heart to question and try to understand scripture in its original context. I used to be one of those that would look at the sticker on the back of cars that said “Jesus was a Jewish carpenter” and thought “so what?”. Then I began thinking about this “Jesus was Jewish idea” and the light bulb started to turn on.

As I pursued this idea, many people, even some in leadership roles would say, “you’re not Jewish, why worry about it?” Over the next several years I wrestled with my own theology and thought process. I began hearing about First Fruits of Zion and their resources and work. That really messed me up, but in a good way! It was like the left side of my brain finally turned on. I soaked up the Hebrew Roots through many different resources. Long story short, I left the church world. My wife Dianna who grew up in a fundamental independent church has always been my balance and great sounding wall. We would wrestle through these new thoughts and concepts together as we became “misfits” on “misfits island.”

I was then introduced to HLI and Izzy about a year and half ago. This was like someone turning on, not a light bulb, but a bright spot light. During this time I was reunited with not one, but two old friends who had become messianic rabbis. This allowed me to have someone help unfolding the idea of reading the Bible forward and not backwards. My desire to go beyond concepts to actually learning the Holy Language has grown. I absolutely love to hear Izzy’s teachings as well as those that are close to the tribe. They have been a great source of encouragement in guiding me into an amazing study path which now includes the learning of the Holy Language.

I thank Yeshua daily for this path of grace and love as I have tried to turn a ship gradually into a new direction. I stand more in awe of G-d and His word than ever before. I hope to one day be to be back into teaching and challenging those that want to know the real Yeshua on a firm foundation. Context, context, context.

God, Elohim, found me, I did not find Him, I was the one lost not Him. Many of us endure great hardship in childhood and sometimes there are none for us to turn to for help, love, security and guidance. I was one of those children, frightened, alone and nowhere to turn. At the age of 6 God looked down on myself and my 2 siblings, He saw fear, pain and anguish and He had love for us. He sent The Word to us, in the form of a Christmas show, The Little Drummer Boy. Yes, I know not what anyone is expecting to hear. He showed me Jesus, He also sent the Holy Spirit to me to provide for myself and my siblings. Speaking for myself, I can say that when I was afraid The Holy Spirit would comfort and protect me, when I was in danger He would save me, when I was hungry He provided for me, when I despaired He gave me hope. I was out on my own at age 15 made many bad choices, never drugs or sins such as that, relationships were the problem , whether it be a friend or a romantic relationship, I made very bad choices and those choices often endangered my life. I live only because of Jesus Christ, only because of Him.

I have seen many miracles, my being alive and prospering is a miracle. I think the miracle that people truly understand was irrefutably God's hand was when my son died at the age of 3 months. I had flown to Spokane Wa, it was very late when we arrived, 1:00 AM. My son had a seizure and ceased to breathe, I did not know the city, did not know where to go. I saw a 7-11 and told my sister in law to go there. As she pulled into the parking lot I jumped out of the car even as it was moving. The cashier saw Jeremy was dead before I even entered the store and was already calling for help. Jeremy had been dead for many minutes. Man would not be able to save my son, it was too late and God knew that. So God sent his angels to heal my son, raise him from the dead. Angels come in many forms, these angels were a Priest and a Nun, they came in right behind me. Now, keep in mind it is after 1:00 am in the morning, they weren't there and then they were. They did not speak to me, they just took Jeremy from me the two of them, they both held him between themselves, heads bowed, they prayed and suddenly he breathed. They handed him back to me, the Priest smiled, a slight smile and then they were gone. Jeremy spent about a week in the hospital, but, God healed him fully, no brain damage. Many saw this miracle, today I wonder, who did God draw to Himself that early morning?

I did not pursue Jesus though until I was 52, I prayed, I had faith in Him but I was ignorant of the words of the Bible. It was God's plan that it be this way, I still don't know the why of this. Despite my ignorance of the Bible and even the Holy Spirit, I didn't know about the Holy Spirit, I thought it was Jesus who was with me, always guiding, always protecting, always comforting me. There is a church on the highway I drive every day and for roughly 2 years every time I drove by that church God would say , "I want you to go to that church" and I would say back "I will when I have time". Every day we had this conversation until finally, the Holy Spirit moved in me so greatly I could no longer disobey. I was headed to town to get feed for the farm animals and church was in progress, the same conversation started to take place, but, God would have no more of it, it was not possible for me to drive by that church, I had to go in. It is a good church, filled with Godly people who are not afraid to teach the truth. They do not deviate from God's word, not even in these times. There are many in the congregation who have spent untold hours in study with me. Once I started reading the Bible, I could not stop, there is so much to understand, so much to read. Every time I read it God reveals something new, I can read the same verse 50 times and then suddenly I understand what I did not understand before. It is God's desire that I pursue His Word with intensity, He has filled me with need to pursue Him that is so great that if it is denied I would suffer. In the process of pursuing His Word He eventually led me to learning Hebrew, why, I don't know for certain, not yet. My theory is that He want's me to learn Hebrew so that I can read The Torah and maybe other written books as well, in Hebrew. Will something become clear to me or a new understanding obtained by this, very possibly. God has a plan, only He knows what it is, I trust Him and so I obey.

I heard a phrase that I would like to share, it's a truth that we can hang on to. "The shallow end of hope is the deep end of Grace" . This has proven to be true throughout my life, when all hope was lost, God raised His mighty and powerful arm and pulled me from the jaws of despair.

God adopted me as a child, I was as an orphan and He cared for me when no other would. I was blessed in my suffering, I was given life through Jesus Christ.

Psalm 10:17-18 Lord, You know the hopes of the helpless. Surely You will hear their cries and comfort them. You will bring justice to the orphans and the oppressed, so mere people can no longer terrify them.

Today, I am a database administrator and once again, it was the hand of God guiding my path and providing what I needed to accomplish this. A high school dropout with 2 children, He provided the finances to go to college, He gave me the desire to go to college, then He gave me knowledge I did not possess to jump through the hurdles to even get into college and through His efforts I graduated top of my class. This set the foundation for the financial well being of myself, my children and the many creatures He would send to me over the course of my adult years. Not faring well in cities, God has made certain that I was provided with a farm which is populated with whatever creatures He sends my way. I love horseback riding, camping, anything that keeps me close to nature.

God also blessed me with 3 children and 11 grandsons, He has evidently decided to withhold from me a granddaughter. My thought is that I am spoiled by my Father and so He has decided to say no to this one request or perhaps He will work another miracle. :)

I love our Father, Jesus Christ and The Holy Spirit, who are one, Jesus will come for us soon, let us pray that we are all ready.

Hello Holy Language Tribespeople (is that a word?)!

I started following Yeshua (Jesus within the Christian context of the church) in response to a puppet ministry at the age of seven, which told the story of HaShem's one and only Son. I believe this aspect of my faith brings me back to a point of humility, which I need regularly, knowing that a puppet opened up my heart to Yeshua.

While I've been drawn to various ministries since a youth, it wasn't until I was thirty-three that my learning took on a more intentional focus. It wasn't until forty years of age that I really began to dig into the Hebrew (but only using a reference book at that time). In response to the Ruach HaKodesh, I began attending Seminary classes online, but quickly found during the second semester that it was lacking in it's Jewishness. I REALLY enjoyed, however, the taste of Hebrew I got from my seminary professor.

Not wanting to loose the basic Hebrew I had learned, I found Yisrael Avraham's YouTube videos on learning Hebrew and watched every one of them (some multiple times). My favorite of all the videos is the teaching on the "brachot" for meals. My three year old son sings the blessings along with me, and even my 19 month old daughter joins in for a hearty "AMEIN!" at the end of the brachah. I've also purchased a wooden Hebrew Aleph-Beit puzzle, from which my son is proudly showing me letters and saying the names even as I type this story.

In the meantime, I had been searching for another "seminary" which would provide the Hebrew teaching my heart yearned for. As silly as it may sound, I wanted to learn the Hebrew language (inasmuch as possible) like a Jewish boy growing up in Nazareth. Then, suddenly, it hit me! Why not look for a Messianic school?! That is when I found Rabbi Paul Saal at Shuvah Yisrael in Bloomfield, CT. He in turn introduced me to MJTI - Messianic Jewish Theological Institute. Now, I'm enrolled in the Masters of Jewish Studies program at MJTI (mjti.org).

My primary congregation is Praise Christian Fellowship in Barkhamsted, CT, where I am a "Lay Minister" and adult Bible teacher. I teach, mostly out of the Tanakh (showing the connections to verses in the Brit Chadashah), nearly every Sunday, with opportunities to preach on a regular basis.

Additionally, once a month, my family attends Shuvah Yisrael (Messianic Jewish Congregation) in Bloomfield, CT. Most Wednesdays, I also go to Shuvah for a Yeshua based Mussar program and Hebrew Grammar study. So, at my Christian congregation, I'm a preacher/teacher, while at the Messianic congregation I'm a Talmid (with big ears!).

I'm so excited to see HaShem moving in my life in such a new and refreshing way, and equally excited to see where He might lead me in helping to repair a schism which occurred between Jewish and Gentile believers in Yeshua that was almost two millennia ago (and it is two millennia too long!). If you are reading this, and have not yet begun to learn from the materials at holylanguage.com, then you are in for a real treat. I encourage you to dive right in!

If YOU have already benefited from Izzy's posts and YouTube videos, do the right thing and send HOLYLANGUAGE.COM a donation. I don't give a lot, but I give every month. 

תודה ושלום

(thanks and shalom)

Michael

One of the strongest memories I have is visiting with my grandmother after school one day when I was in 1st grade. We had just made peanut butter cookies, and I was telling her about my day at school, and my new friend Adam, who I had just found out was Jewish. I don't remember exactly how old I was, but I remember exactly what she said to me. "Matthew Aaron," if she ever said both my first and middle name, I knew that I had better be listening to her.

She began to tell me, "Matthew Aaron, I am going to tell you a secret about our family. We are Jews."

"But you must be very careful who you tell, because the world is not always safe for us."

I asked her why.

She began to tell me how "not too long ago, some really bad people gained control in Europe, and they thought that all the Jews should die," "and very many Jews did die, because they could not get away, and there was nowhere to hide."

She said, "the bad people made it almost impossible for the Jews to leave the country, to find a safe place," but that her grandmother had left Europe before it was too hard for the Jews to leave.

Again, she said, "You must be very careful who you tell, because there are still many places and people in the world who do not like Jews."

By the time I was born, my Jewish grandmother was practicing as a Christian. So were my mom and dad, even though my dad also came from a Jewish family. As a "Christian" family, we went to church on Sundays, we celebrated Easter and Christmas, and we even ate bacon.

Even in all of this, there were also times when we were different from other Christians that I knew. We celebrated Passover and had a family night every Friday night where my mom would light candles on the dinner table, and they would burn while we ate, and my dad would read stories from the Old Testament. My mother raised me with Bible stories, and every day I was required to read a chapter of Proverbs and the Old Testament.

When I was 13, my grandmother wanted to have an official Bar Mitzvah for me, but my parents didn't know any other Jews, and we didn't go to a synagogue. So it came down to my grandmother as the family matriarch. She said to me, "Matthew Aaron," again with the first and middle names, "it is customary to tell you now at this age that you are a man, and old enough to follow the instruction of God and read the Bible and obey it without me or your parents having to tell you to." That was my Bar Mitzvah.

Growing up, there were times that I asked my dad about his Jewish family history, but my dad was a human version of Fort Knox. He only told you what he thought you needed to hear. So I never got much from him about it, only that his mother was born in a Jewish family, "but now we are Christian, so don't worry about it."

For a while, I tried to do what my dad said, but I never got over the feeling that something was missing. Then I got into my teenaged years, and I noticed how our Jewish family traditions were fading away. My little brother never got his Bar Mitzvah "talk" from the family elder, we stopped celebrating the Passover, and Friday night's candlelight family Bible study stopped.

I grew into a classic 90s teenager with angst toward just about everything. I was never fully convinced that Jesus was the Messiah. As I watched the dysfunction of my parents' relationship, and how my family and all my other friends who also professed Jesus never had a concrete answer about anything in the Bible, I thought, "this just can’t be the real deal." All I saw was hypocrisy—the contradiction to what I was raised reading in the Bible. To me, this became like a void space in my life. Deep down, I knew that I should be doing something that I wasn't doing, especially when the holidays would come around. It became a cycle of depression for me around the High Holidays, or any Jewish holiday for that matter.

I felt in my heart that I was missing something—that I should be part of something that was happening at that moment, but I was lost in finding out what it was because I had no one who was willing or able to show me.

I deeply longed to be connected with my Jewishness. The day my grandmother told me that I was Jewish often rang in my memories, even to this day. I often asked my grandmother to tell me about her mother and grandmother—anything I could glean to know who we were back then and why we are the way we are now. I would hear stories of how my great-great-grandmother and her daughter used to have secret conversations in Yiddish when they didn't want my grandmother to know what was being said. My grandmother used to tell me, "Matthew Aaron, we are blessed to have been saved from the Holocaust because my grandmother left when she did. But not all of our family was saved."

My grandmother told me that once my great-great-grandmother was in the USA, she married a Jewish Christian, and to keep themselves safe from the rising anti-Semitism, they hid their Jewishness.

Later, I also discovered that my dad’s mother confided in my mom that her family had perished in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Now I was able to understand my grandmother and my dad. I saw that they were raised in a very hard period of history—they were raised to hide. My father was actually born in 1940, before the Jews in Auschwitz were liberated. He was probably raised in extreme fear. I think that is why our traditions faded.

When I was 14, I became very sick with bronchitis, and as a child, I already had a few illnesses that I lived with. As a baby, the doctors discovered I had a spinal curvature right between my shoulder blades. This caused a unique kind of nerve damage to my lungs, giving me shortness of breath and symptoms that resembled asthma. I had no arches in my feet. And when I turned 15, I developed arthritis in my knees. I had an ear infection that got so bad it caused a hole to develop in my left eardrum. The summer I came down with bronchitis, it lasted until I was 16. Yes, that's right—I had chronic bronchitis from the ages of 14 to 16. Needless to say, by this point in high school, I had no athletic aspirations.

The summer I turned 16, my mother dragged me to a church that she had been visiting. I hated church meetings. I hated church, and I was on the fence about Jesus. Ministers from every church my family ever visited had prayed for me to be healed and to fully accept Jesus, but I was never healed. I was burnt out. Due to the nature of my chronic illnesses, I had become severely depressed and borderline suicidal.

At this church meeting, for the first time in my life, I saw that God is still the God of miracles.

The meeting lasted seven weeks, every night of the week. There were people every single night who God healed from various kinds of injuries and sicknesses. About the seventh week of this meeting, a girl I knew in the youth group—this girl was deaf. I knew her. I had taken sign language as a course in high school and had spoken to her in sign language. One night during the sixth week, God healed her, and she could hear. She was completely made whole. I spoke to her after the meeting, and she heard my voice. Now it was all becoming real to me. Now it was hitting home.

The next night, the preacher said that God told him that a young man was here, and that the young man needed a miracle in the spine. It was me. Now, I did not respond at first—of course not. Like any responsible Jew, I tested it. I put out a fleece to God and said to Him, "Well, if that's really for me, the preacher will call for my spine again." And he did. Several more times during that night, he called for a boy who needed a miracle in the spine, and every single time I chickened out.

The last call, the meeting was wrapping up. The preacher said once more to the crowd, "Son, you've been hiding in the crowd all night. You've been hiding from who you are and from God your whole life, and now the God of heaven wants to make Himself real to you by giving you a miracle in your spine. Please come."

I found myself walking up to the front of the room. I wasn't sure exactly how or when I got up from my seat, but I made it to the front, and I was weeping. By the time I got to the front of the room, something tangible had happened to me. I stopped dead in my tracks and fell to the floor sideways. I could hear the preacher calling to an usher to catch me, but only the floor caught me.

As I was there on the floor, I felt a warm feeling all over. It was like being all wrapped up in a fluffy blanket that was fresh out of the dryer, but it was much more than that—I felt loved. I felt the love of God.

As I lay there, I could not stop weeping. I heard the voice of Yeshua. He said to me, "Matthew, I am the Messiah. I am healing your body." In utter shock that I was hearing this, all I could do was to say, "Thank you!"

As I lay there, I felt my body shifting and adjusting. I felt my spine move and straighten. I felt arches press into my feet. I felt a warm oil begin to swirl in my ear, and the hole was filled. I felt my lungs open up fully for the first time in my life. I felt the airways clear and the bronchitis leave. I felt an electric tingle all over my body, still wrapped up in this warm, fluffy blanket of tangible God-love.

When I got up to go back to my seat, I discovered that three hours had passed. After I had gone up for prayer, the Spirit moved again, and the meeting had kept going this whole time. I was healed—completely healed. I went back to all my doctors whom I had seen on a regular basis for maintenance. I had new X-rays taken, new blood work done. The doctor told my mom, "This is not the same boy I saw the last time he was here!"

I learned that the preacher I had just spent seven weeks with had a Bible school which he led in another state, and that he was only a guest speaker at the church. So I decided that I must learn more about what had just happened to me, and I joined the Bible school correspondence program. I studied the Bible school courses from home while I finished high school and graduated early so that I could attend the Bible school. It was a really good school that taught me about faith, miracles, and who I was as a believer.

But even then, I felt this nagging in the back of my mind, telling me that something was still missing. This was not all I was.

I went to Bible school for ten years. I received two doctorates in Christian theology and divinity. As an alumni, I was also licensed and ordained through the school of ministry. This was a long investment of my time and energy, all through school, and by the end of it, I was still feeling that same void space in my life—that same wretched depression every time Passover, Chanukah, and all the High Holidays came around—as if I were on the outside looking in, longing to go in, yet I did not know how or where the "in" was.

This part of my life was supposed to feel different. I mean, I am a THD now. I should feel like I know a few things. But after so long in a Christian school, hearing doctrines like "the law was done away with because of Jesus," and "the Jews are still God’s people in a way, but the Christians are really God’s people now because they are the real seed of Abraham," and "it's okay that Christmas and Easter were once pagan holidays, because of Jesus we can celebrate on those days now and eat bacon while doing it," it felt like this huge pressure to be and act and believe the Bible in a certain way. It just felt more and more like when I was a kid—it felt like pressure to not be Jewish.

Then something happened to me in 2014, during Chanukah. I was enduring the usual feeling of displacement and longing. During a night meeting in the church I was a part of, the minister asked from the pulpit, "Is anyone here Jewish?"

Something came over me—I can't really explain it—but on the inside, it was like I had just "volunteered as tribute" in the Hunger Games. After I raised my hand, the speaker replied to me with a prophetic edge in her voice, "Wow, Matthew, you've been hiding!"

That night I knew what she said was true. I was hiding. I had been hiding out as a Christian for most of my life.

Soon after that night, in another meeting at church, the minister was laying hands on people after the meeting. When he prayed for me, the Holy Spirit, the Ruach HaKodesh, overwhelmed me, and I was "slain in the Spirit." I collapsed to the floor and began to weep under the power of God. I felt that same tangible warmth envelope me, and again I heard a voice say to me, "Matthew, you are a Jew! Now, act like one! Do not be afraid." It felt like the tone my dad would take with me when he was encouraging me.

Immediately, it was like my eyes were opened. I saw my childhood again. I saw all the times my family observed Shabbat and the holy days. I remembered all the stories my grandmother told me. And I understood my parents for the first time. They were afraid, and they thought that somehow by hiding who we really were, it was protecting us. For the first time ever, I felt compassion and empathy for them. God opened up my eyes to see the layers of everything that happened to them, and He said to me again, "Matthew, you are a Jew, now go act like one!"

I got up from the floor, still weeping, but empowered. I felt free—freer than I've ever felt in my life. I was so happy that I finally understood. I was not just free, I was commissioned to discover who I really was.

I spoke to my wife on the way home from church, and she had the same witness as I did. My wife of six years now has always supported me and prayed for me in this. She knew from the start that I was Jewish. God actually told her as a young girl that she would marry a Jewish man. I was the first question she asked me when we started dating: "Are you Jewish?" She said to me, "I've been waiting for God to do this in you!"

Adonai began to show us together how He would use us to restore our family to its Jewish roots, and how He would use us as Messianic Jews to reach Jews around the world, to bridge the gap of separation between the Christian church and Judaism.

I found myself charged and ready. I was delivered of fear and finally felt comfortable in my own skin as a Jewish man. I knew that God had made this reconnection to my family's Jewish roots.

When I told my mom about this, she actually thanked me and said that she was proud of me, for having the courage to do what she was afraid to do.

Now what? Where do I even start? What is the first step I needed to take? With no other Jewish leader's influence in my life, I felt like the car was started, but there was a club on the steering wheel.

I prayed and asked Adonai to put a teacher in my life that I could learn from. I decided that the first thing I should do was read the Bible again through this new perspective and learn Hebrew.

I reasoned to myself that any serious Jew worth his salt should learn how to read, speak, and write in Hebrew.

So I set out on a quest to learn my ancient native language. The search was daunting, to say the least, even a bit discouraging. Naturally, there were thousands of options to choose from, each in varying quality and teaching skill.

I eventually came to a video that Izzy Avraham loaded on YouTube. He shared his passion to know Yeshua the Messiah in a more intimate way by learning the language that Yeshua both spoke and read His own Bible in. My heart was moved by Izzy's passion. I felt a witness in my spirit that resonated with my own newfound passion—to rediscover my Messiah in His original Biblical context.

As I devoured all of Izzy's Hebrew quest videos on YouTube, I felt like I rediscovered myself as a Messianic Jew. The void space that I had felt in my life for so long began to fill up with light and revelation as Izzy taught Hebrew through a Yeshua-centered perspective.

I highly recommend Holy Language Institute to anyone who even remotely desires to learn Hebrew—not just to learn a language, but to connect with a tribe of people who follow Yeshua of Nazareth, the Yeshua (Jesus) of the Bible. To be able to understand the Messiah in a more intimate and contextually accurate way.

I want to say thank you to Adonai for divinely connecting me to this tribe and for the work that He has done in my life. I pray that one day I will be able to contribute to the tribe as much as it has touched me.

Also, to Izzy: thank you for your hard work, your scholarly attention to the details, for leading the tribe, and for your patience and ability to show the strength and validity of this movement through the love and kindness of the Father. Blessings to you.

I was brought up Protestant in Erfurt, Thuringia, where apparently the oldest synagogue in Europe still stands. When I was 11, we moved within the freshly reunified Germany to Hamburg, where my mother’s second husband worked. They both entered into a Protestant church within the charismatic renewal movement.

As teenagers, my older brother and I were distant and skeptical. We got “confirmed” like many young teens—some earnest belief, but also for the presents. Later, I did an Alpha course there, but what impressed me most in retrospect was that they invited Benjamin Berger to speak about the Messianic Jewish movement. Benjamin and his brother Reuven lead “Kehilat ha’she al Har Zion,” the Congregation of the Lamb on Mt. Zion. I was struck by how much sense it all made; it felt like the Lord I was trying to believe in was coming back home into His own.

After failing the entrance exam into an elite musical college in Berlin to study violin, I moved there anyway and studied something else: landscape planning and natural resource management. I lived without fellowship for some years, until personal issues and big questions led me to an evangelical church. I joined a small group, cycling 14 miles across Berlin every week—something I’ve done ever since.

One night on a university field trip, I overheard a fellow student talking to another peer, a hardcore Greenpeace activist, about his faith. That student became a close friend, and we got talking. I was fairly active in my Christian faith, but his convictions and principles were much stronger and clearer, which I admired. I entered their movement, which from the outside impressed with apparent unity and strength. It seemed like Christianity for real.

I was born again on May 7th, 2002. Soon I noticed that much of the external unity was maintained by very strong central leadership: discipleship partners, absolute demands for transparency, and accountability. Long story short, I left in 2005 after strong criticism from within, particularly about the obsession with numerical growth, coercion, legalism, and intolerance that rightly put this movement in the category of a cult.

I then moved to England to do an MSc, found work, settled, and started a family—again without any congregation and not living according to Christian principles. I now have two lovely boys and am not married to their mother, who is not a Christian. I am trying to sort this in a way pleasing to my Rabbi, with much prayer and consultation.

In 2013, I became unemployed. My work-and-family-as-everything worldview collapsed. I returned briefly to this movement to explore how different it would be since the turmoil starting in 2003. Overall, I found it slightly tinkered around the edges, but still fundamentally the same: systematically quenching the Spirit and replacing it with central, human leadership.

In 2014, I left for the second time. I prayed on my knees, asking the Lord to show me who “the church” truly is, whether leaving twice meant I was now “lost,” and what truly pertained to salvation. I also wanted to understand the book of Revelation, which we had just read through.

While in the movement, I experienced a day-to-day checklist faith: “Have you studied your Bible 30 minutes and prayed 30 minutes? Check. Have you confessed your sins to your discipleship partner or small group? Check. Have you been out evangelizing at least once a week? Hmm…well, something must be wrong with my faith, I ought to repent.” The end times, or the perception that spiritual history occurs in distinct ages, seemed outlandish and not directly relevant to our current lives.

Spiritual development in response to my prayers came in multiple ways. Most importantly, I grew in trust in the Almighty, entrusting Him with my life more and more. I began to understand that Yeshua is the true giver of freedom and peace, the most loyal friend who will always support and never abandon anyone seeking His presence.

Another important element was my renewed interest in the Messianic Jewish movement. Through end-times studies, I came across amazing people. Starting to learn Hebrew just seemed natural. I am overwhelmed by how much insight, wisdom, and meaning is contained in every element of the Hebrew language and culture, down to each individual letter. I yearn to learn more and would like to dedicate more time to Hebrew studies, beyond work, raising two boys, and occasionally scratching my violin.

As, I was growing up, my family attended several Christian denominations. I learned something at each one, but none led me fully to the truth. In 1985, my journey really began with following Yeshua because I knew that there was much more to what I had been taught growing up. On my own, I kept the Saturday Shabbat for a short time. Feeling so isolated and too afraid to go to a synagogue, I eventually decided to return to Sunday church. Fortunately, all the while I knew and kept it in the back of my mind that the Shabbat and feast days were important in following the Messiah. For some reason I could not make the connection then that Torah was for "whosoever will" and not just the Jews. Finally in 2009, the truth became evident to my family. From that time on, my understanding of being a disciple of Yeshua has gradually brought me to the place of understanding the Hebrew roots of the faith. 

During 2012, I first became interested in the Hebrew language so I could read the Tanakh for myself and in its original context. Since learning some Hebrew, my understanding of the scriptures has greatly increased. I find myself having to do something Hebrew-related just about everyday. Lately, my focus primarily has been learning syntax and vocabulary. I found Holy Language Institute on Facebook a couple years ago and started following. To help further my growth with learning Hebrew, last year I taught an introductory course (letters, vowel points, 50 vocabulary words and some songs) to a group of homeschooled high school students. By the end of the class, all of them could clearly read Genesis chapter 1. One mother even attended the class and has continued to learn Hebrew on her own. Because of learning the Holy Language, my relationship with Yeshua has deepened. I can’t wait until I am fluent.

When I am not busy working for my husband, being a stay at home mom, and homeschooling my son, I enjoy learning Hebrew, gardening, landscaping, archery, four wheeling (at least watching my boys ride) and spending time with my daughter and granddaughter. While in 3rd grade, I had to memorize Psalms 91; I now hope to have it memorized in Hebrew one day. One of my favorite scripture verses is: Psalm 121:1-2 “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from Yahweh, which made heaven and earth.”

My name is Lorettza. I was one of the ten children born into a Chinese Buddhist family, following the tradition of my culture and family.

I used to think that everyone has to solve his/her own problem. It was not until I had grave marriage problem, then I knew I came to the end of my wit.

I realized that the Buddhism that I practiced and believed in cannot help me at all! Then a lady friend asked me to join their bible study. That was the grace of the Lord for me, and it was my first step towards renewal and freedom in Christ.

Through the Scriptures, I came to understand our fallen nature, and the effect of the fall in the Garden. We can’t save ourselves, but by faith in Christ, and by the transforming truth of His Word enlightened by the Holy Spirit, will help us to overcome in this world, with the joyful expectation of the world to come.

Life has never been the same since the Lord has given me an opportunity to sit at the feet of Messianic pastors and Rabbi who know the Hebrew text, and the way they expound on the meaning of the Holy Scripture. My eyes are opened and I have a desire to understand what God said as they did.

A dear friend, who is also a member of the Holy Language Institute, who loves the Lord and the Land and the Jewish people, recommended this program to me, and I am forever grateful that I can learn the holy tongue at my own pace with an affordable price. Though it is not easy for my age, yet I find joy and great pleasure learning it, and appreciating every time new discovery of His gem buried in His word.

I am retired and still married to my husband, happy to be grandparents to my daughter’s two children, and praying that the Lord will give my son a virtuous wife. I am interested in sharing the word of the Lord with those who want to know about Him.

I'm Thomson, age 51. I was saved and baptized around age 9 and belonged to a Congregational Methodist church most of my life.

 We learned in church one day that the sabbath was really on Saturday but we were observing it on Sunday for various reasons. I was very young and remember thinking at the time that no one really had a right to change a day that God specifically established, and hoped that someday, somehow there would be a church in our area we could attend (besides the cult churches) that worshiped on Saturday.

Around 7 years ago (not sure how long ago) my husband and I started attending Beth Israel Congregation. We heard they had free Hebrew classes so I went to one. I had been learning on my own for a long time.

Next thing I knew we were keeping Shabbat on Saturday and I was teaching Hebrew! Since then we have learned a lot in the weekly Parasha classes - things that didn't make much sense before in scripture now make perfect sense!

God has been answering our prayers like never before since we started observing Torah - it's amazing and has really built our faith.

I've been a graphic artist for around 28 years and have been freelancing for the last few. My husband works at home too for a company in Maryland, so it's a blessing to spend so much time with each other.

I came across Holy Language Institute online somewhere, signed up for the emails and recently volunteered to provide graphics or whatever else the Institute may need. I'm looking forward to my first assignment and getting started with the classes.

I've been through the three sets of Hebrew Pimsleur CDs and the Hebrew Rosetta Stone, but of course that's not enough. I'm trying to get the hang of verb conjugation so I'm hoping the classes will help, and I need to learn Biblical Hebrew. It's great that the classes are so affordable they can be recommended to anyone!