Repent for the day of judgment is at hand! ... excerpt from JewsforJesus newsletter - September 2009

"REPENT, for the day of judgment is at hand!"

Shocked, I turned to see that it had come from my own mother, standing in the congregation. Silently I swallowed what felt like my heart lodged in my throat. As twelve hundred eyes were turned on my mother, I desperately wanted to disappear or become one inch high and run away. Silently she sat down. The twelve hundred eyes then turned to our rabbi, who said calmly, “Now turn in our prayer books to page 326 where we will continue with the Al Chet ( recitation of sins ).

I saw ushers rush to my father, who was sitting in the back of the congregation. “Will your wife be making another outburst?” they inquired. “No, I think she’s fine for now, I’ll be having a word with her” he said.

After the service he approached my father with, “Mr. Meyer, your wife is not well. She needs to see a psychiatrist. No Jews believe in Jesus, and certainly no healthy person makes such an outburst in the synagogue on the highest of holidays. Here is the name of a friend of mine, Dr. Williams. I am recommending that she see him soon for an evaluation.”

The next week my mother went to visit Dr. Williams. He listened intently as she explained about the Day of Atonement and about Temple Beth El and the emotions that had prompted her outburst.

“Hmmm,” he said, “What’s that? … Oh, my … !”

“What’s wrong doctor? Am I normal?” she asked.

“Praise the Lord, sister!” Dr. Williams responded. “It must be the end times, because it’s being proclaimed in the synagogues! There’s nothing wrong with you. Here is my certification that you are healthy – and my prayers are with your family.”

There was quite a buzz around Beth El after that. Some said scornfully, “The Meyer family are a bunch of “Jews for Jesus”. Others didn’t really care. But out of the woodwork came a few relucatant secret believers who confided that they were pleased that Mrs. Meyer had said what she did.