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About Eli Hadar
Expertise
If you are a Jewish person who has been approached by missionaries and who is considering leaving the Jewish faith, please let me know and I will help you see how beautiful and moreover how right the Jewish religion is. Don't leave the truth of your fathers before you resolve the facts for yourself, and I can help you on that journey.

Experience
I have been involved in counter-missionary activity for several years, counseling many Jews who have left or have considered leaving Judaism having been attracted by other religions. I have been able to show the truth to these people through the correct reading of the texts (vs. deliberately wrong translations used by missionaries), through showing how missionaries manipulate the Jewish scriptures to achieve their goals, and through helping you rediscover the beauty and truth of authentic Judaism.

Organizations
Chabad synagogue in Atlanta

Education/Credentials
Largely self-taught, I still am and will be learning for a long, long time. I have educated myself through a wealth of resources, including Nachmanides' Disputation, Hyam Maccoby's writings on Christianity and Judaism, as well as such vast resources as Outreach Judaism, Torah Atlanta, and a great number of others.

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Orthodox Judaism - esplain salvation

Expert: Eli Hadar - 10/26/2009

Question
I have a Christian friend trying to tell me salvation, in the old testament, that it is finish, Jesus now will take it over, there is no way that us Jews have no way to be redeem, our works our dead, please explain, the plan of salvation to jews.I read over and over, we don't have sacrifice for our sins, so we will never be redeemed

Answer
Hi Frank,

Your Christian friend is utterly wrong. These statements you've quoted do not have foundation in the Jewish scriptures, and are completely unfounded. On the contrary, the Jewish Bible says on many occasions that repentance, prayer, and charity will earn us a portion in the world-to-come.

I credit Rabbi Tovia Singer with the following.

Deuteronomy 30:10-14 states:

. . . if you will hearken to the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this Book of the Law; if you turn unto the Lord thy God with all your heart and with all your soul; for this commandment which I command you this day is not too hard for you neither is it too far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, "Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it to us, and make us hear it, that we may do it?" Neither is it beyond the sea that you should say: "Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, and make us to hear it that we may do it?" The word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.

How can someone claim that this is no longer valid? One of the foremost principles in Judaism is that Torah is the law that's given to us by G-d and it is not to be changed, shortened, or amended. Anyone who attempts to do so actually is the enemy of the Torah. So don't listen to your Christian friend - but what I recommend you do is that you study the most precious gift that HaShem gave us, His Torah, which is our salvation manual.

The notion that man is saved by being washed in water or forgiven through human blood is unknown to the Jewish scriptures. The Almighty does, however, clearly lay out His sovereign plan for His covenant people when he declares, "See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil." (Deuteronomy 30:15) What is this "life" and "good" of which the Torah speaks? Missionaries insist that the Jewish nation must convert to Christianity and believe in a crucified messiah in order to be saved. The Torah, however, disagrees. Throughout the Hebrew Bible the Almighty unambiguously declares that the children of Israel are to draw near to Him with intense love and faithfully keep His commandments. This is the desire of the Creator. Moses beseeches the children of Israel,

I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees, and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. (Deuteronomy 30:16)

Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, remained intensely loyal to God's commandments and, as a result, the Torah regards our first patriarch as the paradigm of faithfulness.

I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands, and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws. (Genesis 26:4-5)

The Almighty did not give us desires that we cannot govern or commandments that we could not keep. The Torah was not delivered to angels, it was given to the children of Israel long after our first ancestors transgressed in the Garden of Eden.

In Jewish terms, sin is not a person, it's an event, and that event happened yesterday. In chapter after chapter, the prophets of Israel beseech those who lost their way to turn back to the Merciful One because today is a new day.

I hope this helps; if not please let me know and I will elaborate.

All the best,
Eli

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