At Death's Door: A Rabbi's Journey From Crisis to Faith
AUTHOR BACKGROUND
Rabbi Greg Hershberg is a Messianic Jewish leader, teacher, and founder of Beth Yeshua International. Born in New York City and raised in an Orthodox Jewish home in the Bronx, he graduated Magna Cum Laude from Pace University in 1980 and built a successful career in finance and executive search. In 1989, while on his honeymoon in Israel, he had a dramatic encounter with Jesus on Mount Tabor, the traditional site of the Transfiguration. That vision redirected his entire life.
He later moved into full-time ministry, leading congregations in Florida and then Macon, Georgia. Under his leadership, Congregation Beth Yeshua grew into Beth Yeshua International (BYI), a global teaching and training ministry with congregations and outreach in multiple nations, including India, Africa, Australia, Germany, and Israel. His messages are streamed worldwide and broadcast on radio to listeners in more than 190 countries.
THE BOOK: AT DEATH’S DOOR
At Death’s Door: 50 Days Between Life and Death — and the God Who Didn’t Leave is Hershberg’s raw, gripping memoir of a sudden and catastrophic medical crisis.
In November 2023, while traveling through St. Louis, the 65-year-old rabbi collapsed. What followed was a rapid unraveling of his body: a stopped heart, emergency interventions, and fifty days of intense physical suffering, fear, and uncertainty. The man who had spent decades helping others find God in the middle of suffering suddenly found himself lying in a hospital bed asking, “Lord, where are You?”
The book does not sanitize the experience. Hershberg writes with fierce honesty about the physical agony, the mental and emotional toll, the moments of despair, and the very real temptation to give up. At one point he begged doctors to release him despite a massive medical bill; later he returned to critical care, unable to move, speak, or care for himself, and told his wife he wanted to die. Through it all, the narrative returns again and again to the presence of God in the darkest places.
CORE THEMES
• Faith tested under extreme pressure: what happens when the message you preach becomes a lifeline you must personally cling to.
• The reality of suffering for believers and the honesty required to face it without platitudes.
• God’s faithfulness in the valley — not always through immediate healing, but through sustained presence.
• Survival against impossible medical odds and the doctors’ own acknowledgment that his continued life defied explanation.
• A testimony that moves from Jewish upbringing in the Bronx, to an encounter with the Messiah in Israel, to decades of global ministry, and finally to a personal confrontation with death.
WHY THE BOOK MATTERS
At Death’s Door is written for anyone who has cried out in pain, wrestled with fear, or wondered whether God is still there in the middle of suffering. Hershberg’s story offers no easy answers, but it does offer a powerful affirmation: God was present in the valley. He is present now. And He still meets people at death’s door.
Doctors involved in his care have stated that why he went through the crisis and why he is still alive are questions only time and eternity can fully answer — yet it is clear to them that only the grace of God explains his survival.
IMPACT AND AUDIENCE
The book speaks especially to pastors, ministry leaders, and ordinary believers who have counseled others through hardship and now face their own. It is both a personal testimony and a pastoral resource, reminding readers that the God who meets people in suffering is the same God who met Hershberg when his own body failed and his faith was tested to the limit.
AVAILABILITY
At Death’s Door is published by Aneko Press and available in paperback and hardcover through Amazon, the publisher’s website, and other retailers.
To learn more about Rabbi Greg Herschberg and his story, click the LINK!
CREDITS
Author, At Death’s Door; Things God Hates, Things God Loves; A Life for God; Don’t Die in Your Sins. Leader of Beth Yeshua International.
