HOW A RABBI
FOUND PEACE
Personal Testimony of
Dr. Max Wertheimer
Former
Rabbi of Temple Israel
In
Dayton, Ohio.
Additional copies secured from
American Messianic Fellowship
7448
North Damen Avenue
Chicago, Ill. 60645
Born in Germany of
orthodox Jewish parents, my earliest childhood impression was of my
parents rising in the morning very early in order to spend a long time
reading the Hebrew prayers. Even in the cold winter,
before fires were kindled for their physical comfort, they carried on
faithfully these early devotions. Insofar as their knowledge of God was
concerned, they were a devout and God-fearing couple.
From the ages of five to
fifteen my training was in a Jewish school, in Orthodox Judaism. A
scholarly Hebrew instructed me in the five books of Moses.
I went to the Gymnasium
for my classical training and later was apprenticed to a manufacturer,
doing office work. My associates at that time led me into the sinful
pleasures of the world, and although I attended synagogue and read my
Hebrew prayers on the Sabbath, I drifted from the faith of my fathers.
A parental decision to
send me to America to pursue my classical education brought me to Hebrew
Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio. I graduated in 7 years, having
meanwhile taken my degrees in letters and Hebrew literature, and 4 years
later my Masters degree. We studied the Old Testament, translated it from
Hebrew into the vernacular, went through Jewish history and beginning to
the present day, and learned the oral laws.
After finishing the
rabbinical course we were publicly ordained and inducted into the
rabbinical office. My first call was to Dayton, Ohio, where I officiated
as rabbi for 10 years, during which I made many friends and received many
tokens of love, which I treasure highly.
In my Friday evening
lectures I spoke on social, industrial and economic questions, monotheism,
ethic culture, the moral systems of the Jews, etc. In the Saturday
morning addresses I took weekly sections of the Pentateuch, followed by a
corresponding section of prophets. On Sunday I taught Sunday School from
eight in the morning until five in the evening, with one hour intermission
for dinner.
In 1895 a series of
meetings was held in the Christian Church of Dayton, with various
denominational pastors giving addresses on their religion. I stood
proudly before the audience of professing Christians and told them why I
was a Jew and would not believe in their Christ as my Messiah and Savior.
I gloried in Reformed Judaism that acknowledged no need of an atoning
sacrifice for sin, a religion of ethics, which quieted qualms of
conscience through a smug self-righteousness. In the audience sat an
humble aged woman, a devout Christian, who was deeply stirred as she
listened. “O God,” she prayed, “Bring Dr. Wertheimer to realize his utter
need of that Savior he so boastingly rejects. Bring him if necessary to
the very depths in order that he may know his need of my Lord Jesus
Christ.”
What unforeseen forces
were brought into action of that woman’s heart-cry! How perfectly
satisfied with life I was that day: I had a young, attractive,
accomplished wife, was rabbi of the B’nai Yeshorum Synagogue, had a
beautiful home, a comfortable income, a place of prominence in the
community, had become and honorary member of the Ministerial Association,
was a member of the Present Day Club, served as chaplain in the Masonic
Lodge, and was a popular speaker before women’s clubs, schools, civic
organizations, etc. Had you visited my library at that time you would have
found a wide range of reading. I had every book Bob Ingersoll wrote, read
them, and corresponded with the author. I was an oft-invited guest speaker
in every denominational church in the city. I was satisfied with life!
My wife and I enjoyed the musical treats. We had a large home, two
servants, and a beautiful baby boy and daughter, Rose.
Suddenly there came a
change! My wife was taken seriously ill, and in spite of many physicians
and specialists, she died, leaving me a distraught widower with two little
children. After the funeral, I put Rose in the care of my mother-in-law,
advertised for a house keeper for myself and boy, and found myself the
most miserable of men. I could not sleep. I walked the streets, striving
to forget the void, the vacancy in my heart and life. My dreams of a
successful career and serene domestic life were shattered. Where was
comfort to be found? The heavens were brass when I called on the God of my
fathers! How could I speak, as a rabbi, words of comfort to others, when
my own sorrow had brought me to despair. I investigated Spiritism, but
found it utter fallacy. I attended meetings and read the literature of
Theosophy and Christian Science, only to find it futile and hopeless. My
experience was comparable to Job’s when he cried: “My days are swifter
than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope” (Job 7:6). The
tenth year of my rabbinical office drew to its close.
I decided not to accept
re-election, and resigned. I wanted to think over things! I would study!
Where is the spirit and soul of one who was such a gifted pianist, who
gave charm to life, who made existence so sweet? What had become of all
the faculties, the intents and purposes of that active keen mind? I turned
to my Bible!
I studied about Judaism,
but it answered no questions, satisfied no craving of my heart. Then I
began reading the New Testament and comparing it with the Old Testament.
Many passages were read, pondered, meditated upon. One made a definite
impression: the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, eleventh verse, last
clause: “By knowledge shall My righteous servant justify many, for He
shall bear their iniquities.” Here was the only mention of that
phrase, “My righteous servant,” I said to myself: “Who is that
righteous servant?” I argued: “Whoever that ‘righteous servant’
of Jehovah is, of one thing I am sure: he is not Israel, because the
prophet declares Israel to be a sinful nation, a people laden with
iniquity, a leprous nation. The righteous servant of Jehovah must
be One who is holy. If it isn’t Israel, who could it be?” I decided it
must be Isaiah. But in Isaiah 6 I found it could never be the prophet
Isaiah for he confesses himself to be a guilty sinner and a man of unclean
lips in God’s sight.
“My righteous
servant.” Who could it be? Then I began to
study the context of the 53rd Chapter and in Isaiah 50:6 I found, “I
gave My back to the smiters.” I pondered that: Who gave his back to
the smiters? In the beginning of the chapter it says, “Thus saith
Jehovah.” Jehovah is the only speaker in the chapter. Jehovah gave
his back to the smiters? Had God a back? When and why was it smitten? Who
smote it? Further I read: “ Who gave his cheeks to them plucked off the
hair.” And still further: “I hid not My face from shame and
spitting.” What did all this mean? Who had been so abused? When? Why?
Did Jehovah have all these human characteristics? I studied more and more
various prophetic utterances. In Psalm 110:1 it is written: “The Lord
said to my Lord, Sit Thou at My right hand until I make Thine enemies Thy
footstool.” Here was David himself, speaking of his own seed and
calling Him “Lord.” How did He get up there? Why didn’t God
specify? Why didn’t He speak so plainly to Israel that every Jew could
understand?
In confusion I decided to
begin at the first chapter of Isaiah and read the book through. I was
stopped at the ninth: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is
given, and the government shall be upon His shoulders; His name shall be
called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The
Prince of Peace.” Here was a most incomprehensible thing!
I was faced with the
doctrine of the Trinity. We Jews have a popular monotheistic slogan:
“Sh’ma Isroel, Adonai, Eloheynu, Adonai, Echod.” The word “echod”
means one. Upon that word the doctrine of unity of Jehovah is
rooted and grounded, the entire philosophy of Judaism is based. Taught by
the rabbis for ages, that word “echod” means absolute unity.
Now I could not
believe it; my teaching was wrong!
I began to study the
word, and I discovered it meant, not absolute unity, but composite
unity. Let me illustrate: Adam and Eve became one flesh; the Hebrew
for one flesh is bosor Echod, a composite unity. Moses sent
twelve spies into Canaan, and they returned bearing a gigantic bunch of
grapes. That cluster of grapes is called in Hebrew Eschol-Echod.
With hundreds of grapes on the stem it could not have been an absolute
unity; they are called in Hebrew “one cluster.” Composite unity.
There was an uprising of the tribe of Dan, and their carnalities disgraced
Jehovah and His name and character. The other tribes rose in rebellion
and asked God which of them should go forth first to fight the Danites.
God answered: “Let the tribe of Judah go first.” That is what I
want you to see: at that time Judah was composed of 700,000 fighting men,
and they “stood up as one man” (In Hebrew: Ish Echod). Here
again composite unity: thousands acted as one!
These and other
Scriptures showed conclusively that Echod cannot
be an absolute unity.
God revealed Himself to
Abraham as Almighty (El Shaddai). The first letter of this word is
“Schin”: it has three strokes joined as one. This letter is
on the top of the phylacteries and on the casing of the door posts.
Jews have always taken this letter as symbolical of the “Godhead”
because it had three strokes (one for each Person in the Trinity),
joined together as one, to show unity. But another question troubled me:
if He who was on the cross was truly an incarnation of “Jehovah”,
then who was in Heaven? I turned to the eighteenth of Genesis.
Abraham had three visitors; two angels and the third he
addressed fourteen times as “Jehovah.” Later two went away, but
the third said to Abraham:
“Shall I hide
form Abraham that which I shall do? I am going down to Sodom and Gomorrah
to see whether to see whether or not they have done altogether according
to the report which has come to Me. If not I will know I am going to
destroy the cities.”
Abraham interceded for
them, the Lord went His way, and Abraham went home. Now here is the point:
We find Jehovah inspecting the moral condition of Sodom and Gomorrah and
refusing to spare them because not even ten righteous citizens could be
found within their borders. But in this same chapter we have this
statement: “ Then Jehovah rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone
and fire from ‘Jehovah’ out of Heaven.” How and why could there
be two Jehovah’s, one walking the streets of Sodom and another in heavenly
places? It must be one omnipresent Jehovah! Then if that were true, He
could simultaneously both in Heaven and with and in Jesus on the cross.
Another problem succeeds
it: “ Why is the name ‘Jesus’ never mentioned in Hebrew
Scriptures?” I studied this question.
Imagine my surprise when
I found that 275 years before Christ, King Ptolemy Philadelphus summoned
men from Palestine, and bade them translate the Hebrew Scriptures into
Greek vernacular. They took the Pentateuch first and when they came to
the name “Joshua” they translated it the book of “Yesous”,
written with a circumflex over it to show there had been a suppression
of Hebrew that could not be expressed in Greek. When Joshua went into
Canaan with the other eleven spies, he was called “Yehoshua” (Jehovah
is the Saviour). That is exactly what the word “Jesus” means.
I could hold out in
unbelief no longer; I was convinced of the truth of God as it is in
Christ Jesus. I cried:
“ Lord, I believe that
Thou as Jehovah Yesous hast made the atonement for me. I believe that
Jehovah Yesous died for me. I believe Thou hast made provision for me! I
believe Thou hast the ability and power! From henceforth I will publicly
confess Yeshua as my Saviour and Lord! Thus after months of searching I
was convinced that Jesus was the righteous servant of Jehovah (Jehovah-tsidkenu),
“The Lord our righteousness!”
On March 30, 1904, I
publicly confessed Christ in the Central Baptist Church, and having been
licensed to preach, doors readily opened to me. I was persuaded to enter
Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, Ky., from which I graduated after
a year of study. Mr. Icenbarger, at my request, called a council of
Dayton Association of ministers, and 35 Baptist pastors assembled in
Central Church questioned me relative to my personal faith and doctrine.
My ordination took place that evening, an my first call came from Ada,
Ohio, where I served as pastor for five years. From there The New
Covenant Mission of Pittsburgh, of which Maurice Ruben was founder and
superintendent for many years, called me to be their pastor-evangelist.
After two and a half years of this ministry, I was convinced that God was
calling me to a wider sphere in preaching the Gospel to both Jew and
Gentile, depending upon the Lord for the support of myself and family. In
1913, we returned to Ada, the little flock over which I had been
under-shepherd for five years, being very dear to our hearts.
I started out in
Bible teaching and God was ever faithful. Were I to write of all the
manifestations of His goodness and grace, it would fill a book. Critical
operations, publication of my books, supplying all our needs, He never
failed to care and provide. In Christ I have
found my only abiding comfort for every sorrow.
As a rabbi I had yearned
to give the bereaved some hope on which to lean, but how could I give that
which I did not posses? I gave sympathy, but in times of ‘heart aching
grief’ and tragedy, sympathy is of little comfort. But to the heartbroken
how satisfying and glorious are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ:
“ I am the
resurrection and the life; he that believeth in Me, though he were dead,
yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never
die.”
And again:
“Verily, verily I say
unto you: He that heareth My Word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath
(posses now) everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, but IS
passed from death unto life.”
There is but one
eternal life. There is but one source of eternal life: that is
God’s Son. What a great and glorious message we, His redeemed
ones, are commissioned to deliver today.
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