He Never Connected With the Synagogue. Then He Saw the Messiah

It’s very strange, but the mount was calling my name. I felt as if somebody had a rod and they casted it off the top of that mount and the hook went into my chest and I get up to the mountain and I got out of the car and I ran to this covering and there was a plaque and it said the Basilica to the Transfiguration and I heard a voice and the voice had come away and pray with me but I didn’t know how to pray so I emptied myself and closed my eyes and I saw a vision and I saw the Eastern Sky open up and I saw somebody come out of that Eastern sky that it came down and descended and his face shone like the sun and his clothes was white as light.

Shalom, my name is Greg Hershberg. I live in Georgia currently, born and raised in New York City, 64 years old. When I was a little boy, I was raised in a very Jewish Family. I was raised Orthodox, walked to my synagogue every Shabbat, and went to Hebrew school two days a week. It was pretty austere; my mom sat behind the curtain, my dad wasn’t too into it as I could tell, but he loved my mom, and my mom was Orthodox, so he went along with it. I knew I was a Jew, and there’s something special about being a Jew; a Jew isn’t just a religion; it’s a nationality. When I’d be hanging around friends, and somebody would say I’m Puerto Rican or I’m Italian, I would always say I’m Jewish. But then I got to a point where there was so much anti-Semitism in the Bronx that I didn’t want to be Jewish anymore. I’m not so sure I was ever tied into Judaism, to be honest with you. So I got pulled into some Eastern Cults. I got very involved in martial arts—martial arts sometimes it’s just not a sport, it’s a religion—and I had somewhat of a cult leader, and he started to teach us about the Kundalini energy and Sun postures and meditations, and I was kind of into it, but it was a little confusing.

Well, lo and behold, I married this swimsuit model, and we were thinking about where to go on a vacation, a honeymoon, and this cult leader, if you will, and I don’t know what else to call him because it was a cult. He said you need to go to Israel, and he was so influential in my life, such a powerful influence that I thought Israel—I’m thinking Jamaica, I’m thinking on the beach, to be honest with you, I’m thinking about partying and getting high and just just laying out—I’m not thinking Israel. I had no desire to go to Israel. But there was such a pull on my life this is hard for you to believe, but the next day I was on the train going to work in Manhattan and I sat next to somebody who I never saw before and they said “have you ever thought about going to Israel?” so I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed but I’m no bowling ball either, so I decided maybe I should go to Israel. But I was so convinced that I was going to have a lousy time in Israel that I put a week of the Greek Isles on the back end of the trip.

We went to Israel, my wife and I at the time, right get married, went to Israel, left New York City on an El Al flight, got into Ben Gurion Airport, and we immediately took a flight to Eilat. I was scuba diving in the Red Sea; we were water skiing on top of the Red Sea, we were going out to restaurants, partying, dancing, having a great time. Then we came to Jerusalem about five days later. There’s an Armenian corner and a Christian corner in the Muslim corner, and it was shocking to me, and I didn’t really enjoy it, but we went out to some great restaurants, we just saw some sites on our own, we’re having a pretty good time. But I’m thinking I gotta get to Greece.

Well, we had one day left, one day left of her trip, and I said to my wife, let’s get a car and let’s go up North, and so she said, why? I said I don’t know. I don’t know. She goes Where do you want to go? I said, you know, I remember hearing something about a place called Tabor, a mountain with something pretty special happened; let’s just go there. So we drove up, and we didn’t know where we were going, so there were hitchhikers—it was 1989—so a guy was hitchhiking, and so I took him where he was hitchhiking, and I looked over to the left and I saw this mount, and it’s very strange, but the mount was calling my name. I felt as if somebody had a rod and they casted it off the top of that mount and the hook went into my chest and as I’m driving up I got a little exasperated so in reality we’re looking for this Transfiguration Mount because something happened there right and I get up to the mountain and I got out of the car and I ran to this covering and there was a plaque and it said the Basilica to the Transfiguration and I heard a voice and the voice said come away and pray with me but I didn’t know how to pray so I emptied myself and closed my eyes and I saw a vision.

And I know that sounds weird but people all over the Bible saw visions and I went to a trance-like state and I know that sounds new age but Balaam went into a translate state in the Bible and others have, and I saw the eastern sky open up and I saw somebody come out of that eastern sky that had came down and descended and His face shone like the sun and his clothes was white as light and He pressed himself up against me and the first thing He said is “I love you.”

And I remember crying for a really long time. My wife says maybe it was about 20 minutes, and I looked back and it wasn’t tears of joy and it wasn’t tears of pain—it was like a sanctification, it was like a cleansing, like all the crap, all the Eastern thought, all the nonsense, all the religion just came out of me. I didn’t know anything about the Holy Spirit. I didn’t know that God can enter your heart and live in your Tabernacle, so I thought God was on the mountain, and I remember talking to God and saying I’m so sorry I have to leave; I don’t want to leave, but I hope one day I can come back here.

Two kids from the Bronx, punk kids from the Bronx, go to Israel on their honeymoon to party, and we come back Born Again, saved, knowing Yeshua as our Messiah. I gotta tell you, I was shocked because I was taught as a young man that Jesus had nothing to do with us. I thought He was the head of the Catholic Church and Moses, if you will, is the head of the Jewish synagogue, but then I turned over this New Testament expecting to see something really Christian, something hardcore Gentile, and it said, "This is the genealogy of Yeshua the Messiah, the Son of Abraham.

I’m like, what? I’m in shock. The son of David. I’m in shock. I’m reading this genealogy, and it’s purely a Jewish genealogy. I get into other parts of the gospel, and I see He’s circumcised on the 8th day like me. His mother goes through purification rites tohar like my mom. He has Pidyon haben and was dedicated like I was. Man, I can’t believe it. So to this day, when they say to me, you know, Rabbi Greg, Jesus was Jewish, I’m like, what’s with the past tense? It doesn’t matter, but that’s a fact.

And the crazy thing is I was secular, right? How did Jesus, the head of “the church,” bring me back to my Judaism? So if you believe in Yeshua, you don’t become less Jewish; you kind of become more Jewish! Jesus never gave up being Jewish. He was born a Jew, was raised a Jew, He was Torah observant, He died a Jew, He was buried a Jew, He rose a Jew, He ascended a Jew, and he’s coming back as a Jew.

I never look back. I’m so thankful for what God has done for me. I feel so free. I feel so alive more than I’ve ever felt, and you get to a place, man, when you meet Yeshua where He becomes enough, and I’m here to tell you if God isn’t enough, nothing will be enough. You’ll search and search and search the world over; you’ll go from one high to the next, you’ll go from one thing to the next, but when you meet Him, all bets are off. It’s done. The Search is Over.