TESTIMONY

Sharon Allen

An Orthodox Woman
Finds Yeshua in the Tenakh

 My Hebrew name is "Sura Rifka". I was raised in an observant Jewish home. From the moment my Mom lit the Shabbos candles on Friday evening, until one hour after sundown on Saturday night, there were certain rules and regulations that we followed. They did not make us feel constricted or oppressed. It was our way of showing our love, our respect, and our devotion to God.

 I was born in 1945 at Beth Israel Hospital in New York City. My Hebrew name is Sura Rifka. I was raised in an observant Jewish home. From the moment my Mom lit the Shabbos (Sabbath) candles on Friday evening, until one hour after sundown on Saturday night, there were certain rules and regulations that we followed. They did not make us feel constricted or oppressed. It was our way of showing our love, our respect, and our devotion to God.
     I married a man from a similar Jewish background. We had a daughter whom we named Elisa. Her Hebrew name is Chava Leah. When she was only a few years old, we divorced. We received a Jewish divorce, known as a “Get.”
     Elisa had an allergy problem, so we moved to Los Angeles in August 1974.
     I got my real estate license and went to work in an office owned by a man named Ron Allen. He was to become my husband. A few years after we married, our discussions about his converting to Judaism turned serious. I knew our future together could be impaired if Ron refused.
     Before his conversion was to take place, I wanted to make Ron aware of the ceremonies that would be required. The last ceremony that must accompany an Orthodox conversion is the renouncing of a person’s prior beliefs before a Beit Din (rabbinical court.)
     Ron agreed to all of the ceremonies but the last one. He said that he just didn’t think he could renounce Jesus. I was horrified! My husband never mentioned Jesus, and had not gone to church for more than 30 years. 
  

The Bible speaks of His suffering and death. It frightened me because what I read sounded very much like Jesus. I bought the Rashi commentaries, the Soncino commentaries; I read texts from the Talmud, the Encyclopedia Judaica, the Mishneh Torah by Maimonides, the Targum…

   I was so upset. I said to my husband, “How can you believe in something so pagan?”
     And then in the midst of my horror came this calming thought I’ll read the Jewish Bible, and I will be able to show him in the Scriptures that Jesus could never have been the fulfillment of the Jewish Bible.
     As I began, I prayed a very specific prayer. I prayed to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to show me the truth to help my husband become a Jew.
     I began to read the Bible. Within the pages of my Jewish Bible, there is much written concerning the Messiah where He would be born, live His life, the miracles He would do. The Bible speaks of His suffering and death. It frightened me because what I read sounded very much like Jesus.
     I bought the Rashi commentaries, the Soncino commentaries, I read texts from the Talmud, the Encyclopedia Judaica, the Mishneh Torah by Maimonides, the Targum…on and on I read, day after day.
     During the next few months, my home library grew as my fears multiplied proportionately to the amount of books I accumulated.
     The night I heard Rabbi Schochet proved to be a turning point in my search for the truth. After the rabbi completed his talk, he asked for questions. I raised my hand, “Rabbi, what do you tell someone like me who knows Yiddishkeit, follows Judaism, has a Jewish home, and yet, when I read the Jewish Bible, I see That Man!?”
 I could not even say “Jesus” or “Yeshua” due to nearly two thousand years of persecution in the name of Jesus Christ and Christianity, we just called him “That Man!”
     Until midnight, Rabbi Schochet and I discussed Yiddishkeit, Jewish customs, the Bible, and other subjects. To close the meeting, he said the words that would show me and the others in the room why Jesus could not be the promised Messiah. He shouted to the audience that Jesus committed blasphemy from the cross. In an angry, mocking tone, the rabbi quoted Jesus saying, “My God, my God, Why hast Thou forsaken me?”
     I found it amazing that in his anger, he apparently forgot that the statement Jesus made was first said by our own beloved King David in Psalm 22. AND WOULD ANY JEW DARE TO SAY THAT DAVID COMMITTED BLASPHEMY?!
     That night I told my husband and daughter, “I have no more doubts…Jesus is my Jewish Messiah.”