Jewish Encounters

Seventeen years ago, Batya Segal was struggling with her conscience when she was asked to typeset the New Testament in Hebrew as the first manuscript in her new job. Raised in the traditional ways of an orthodox Jewish family, she tried to typeset the text without reading it, but she couldn't: "I just was consumed with the figure of Jeshua." At one point she needed to make a decision for herself and she prayed to God to show her if Jesus was the true Messiah for her. That night she saw a vision of an angel from the Lord. "I didn't understand why, but I saw him very clearly. I saw his face, his clothes, I saw his beard and details of his face. And I had never seen an angel before, or desired to see one."
The next day she completely forgot about the apparition and went to work as usual. After she had finished her work day, she was waiting for the bus to go home when "the same angel that I saw in my vision, appeared to me in life. From the bus stop on the other side of the road he came closer and closer. I was so astounded. I was shocked, because I realized that the night before I had prayed to God to show me whether Jeshua was the true Messiah and if I should follow him." She looked beside her to see if the other people standing there also saw the angel and when she looked back he disappeared. "Finally, my bus came and I could just shake everyone and shout: 'Wake up, Jeshua is the real Messiah! I just found out!'"

Historian and author Lance Lambert was one of the studio guests of the Dutch evangelical television programme Omega, focusing on the increasing number of Jews who have come to accept Jesus as the Messiah. Lambert is a Messianic Jew who believes "that we are in the beginning of an unbelievable movement of the Spirit of God" whereby many Jews "for the first time are discovering that Jeshua (Jesus) is the Messiah for Israel. The larger number of Messianic Jews that I know have all had visitations or a supernatural revelation of the person of the Messiah."

Yehuda Zabari, another studio guest, says he has encountered an angel. While at a prayer conference in Jerusalem, he felt the urge to leave the hall. Once outside, he decided to make an unwarranted telephone call to a friend of his who answered the phone in tears. A cousin of his, a complete stranger to Yehuda, had just been taken into Intensive Care after a serious heart attack. Yehuda decided to leave the conference and go to the hospital to pray for his friend's relative, but he was not allowed to see the patient. Outside the hospital a man in white clothes asked if he would please follow him. The guard let both of them pass through, so Yehuda assumed the man must be a doctor. "There you go. The Intensive Care is to your left," the doctor said. Yehuda went to the left and when he looked back, the doctor had disappeared. He sat down at the bed of his friend's dying relative, took his hand and prayed to God to heal him. Within seconds, the man sat upright, drank a glass of orange juice and started asking questions. When Yehuda enquired about the doctor, no one of the hospital staff knew the person he described. (Source: Omega, Evangelical Broadcasting Organization, The Netherlands, 1996 )

From the Share International "Letters to the Editor" column :

Dear Editors,

During the winter of 1987-88, in Olympia, WA, USA, we experienced the most unusual visit. We had in our house a blackboard where we wrote notes or messages for the day. On that day, after my meditation, I wrote on the board the message: "Yes is the answer" and decided to practise this all day.

The day went very easily, saying yes to many happenings. In the afternoon, around 5 o'clock, I suddenly got a very strong inner feeling to prepare a good dinner as if some unexpected guests were to come; and it started to rain very heavily. The doorbell rang. I opened the door and there was a young man, with dark hair, who looked like a street person. He asked if this was the Decatur house, which I said it was. He said: "So I will spend the night here." My heart started pounding, and as I looked in his eyes they were kind and clear and I said: "'Yes'. You will also have dinner with us." Without seeing the blackboard he said: "If it is written on the board, it has to be true."

He came in and sat in the living room where we had a picture of Sathya Sai Baba with His two hands raised in blessing. Our visitor looked at the picture intensely and started raising his hands in the same manner, so I asked him: "What do you see when you look at this picture?" He answered: "I see your best friend." The atmosphere had a feeling of intensity. We were all very silent, sort of speechless.

Our visitor told us that he had come on a motorcycle that had broken down about one mile away, that is why he was soaking wet. We proposed that he take a shower and change his clothes. My husband gave him a jogging outfit, and he came out of the bathroom, his head wrapped in the towel in Maharaja fashion, and looking very dignified. He thanked my husband and from a small bag gave him a bracelet, Tibetan style, of three different metals, and told him that this will be good for his arthritis. The bracelet fitted perfectly and we wondered how he knew my husband has arthritis.
We asked his name. He answered that he has every name, so I said: "Which name do you want us to call you?" He said: "I have every name but if you want, call me "Thumper". (This is the name of a Walt Disney character, a rabbit, I think.)

We had dinner, and many people came to visit that evening. During dinner, he gave me from the same small bag a very nice piece of amethyst stone about five inches long and said, holding the stone in his fingers: "This is a small piece from the big piece". This was amazing because, that very morning, I saw a huge amethyst stone in a store and mentioned to my husband how much I would love to have such a stone in the house, that it was a sight of God himself.

During dinner, "Thumper" gave very profound esoteric teachings. We did not comprehend all of it, however. He seems to know each one of us very personally and gave perfect advice to each one of us, with small gifts for everyone. He told us that all the banks and airports belonged to him, not to fear.

He stayed with us for three days, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. On Friday night, I was lighting Sabbath candles, without knowing the prayer in Hebrew. Suddenly, "Thumper" made all the prayers in Hebrew, perfectly, and that was beautiful. He served us the dinner, some he gave a lot, some very little. We were astonished and with a twinkle in his eyes he said: "My name is Daniel Levy."

He said many things and a lot happened during those three days; a feeling of Holiness was in the house and one message stayed very strongly: "Pick up five pieces of garbage each day", and "Listen to the trees and the birds".

He decided to go and I asked his permission to kiss his feet, as I felt I was in the presence of a Holy Being. We will never forget "Thumper".

The same writers have a further remarkable encounter in London:

Dear Editors,

Last February (1996), visiting a friend in England, we had a special experience with the taxi driver who came to pick us up.

As he took two pieces of luggage, my friend said that it was too heavy. He said no, that two was for balance. We had suddenly the feeling of expectancy.

Entering the taxi by the right side door, a book called Prayer took my attention and we engaged in conversation on prayer. He started telling us about doing prayers from the heart, and I started pinching my husband. I had an inner feeling that this was a special meeting with Wisdom. I asked our taxi driver his name. He said: "Peter." Then he said: "Surrender more and more. God is a good God."

When we told him we were on our way back to Israel, where we live, he said: "Go to the Wailing Wall and pray for the Peace of Jerusalem and the Peace of all the world. Jerusalem is definitely the City of Peace. Praise the Lord."

I asked him what we have to do. He answered: "To love."

He told me that with my Joy (my name is Chedva, which means "Joy with God") to be prepared to face the enemy and to laugh at it.

"Prayer. Prayer. Prayer. Things are going very, very fast, very soon." We exchanged blessings and felt very uplifted for our journey.

Hedva and Shmishon Stahl, Safed, Israel.

The Taxi Driver resurfaces :

Dear Editors,
On 18 June 1996, I ordered a mini-cab to take me for treatment at an eye-clinic in London.

I half-recognized the driver who came to pick me up, and when he sat in the driver's seat, after letting me in, he turned to me and said: "You remember, I took your friends from Israel to Waterloo Station, my name is Peter ÷ give them my Love."

At that moment I knew who he was. As I was sitting on the back seat I could only see the back of his head, so I leaned forward and put my hands on the front seat, and remained like that, gazing at his face all the time. From time to time he would turn his head and smile.

I was determined not to stay silent, feeling that he would not say much, so I had to carry on some sort of a conversation, however broken and trivial. I really did not know what to say.

My first question to him was: "Have you got any special message for my friends in Israel?" He answered: "Steadfastness."

"Any message for me? I asked. Very slowly and deliberately he said: "NOT to worry." "Where am I going?" I asked. "Oh, to some clinic ..." he answered. Then I said: "I am speechless." He replied: "You are not doing too badly."

At one point he picked up the car phone and reported to the mini-cab company which street we were in. He put on dark spectacles so that I could not see his eyes clearly when he turned full-face to me. I paid for the journey, thanked him for everything and left the car waving my hand to him.

In the clinic there was a lady waiting for the same laser treatment as myself. She was petrified and could not stop talking about her fears. I tried to calm her down. Suddenly she said: "Oh, I feel so much better ÷ I am so glad I spoke to you."

It was nothing to do with me. I felt that we both benefited from his loving and calming energy.

D.Carr, London, England.
( all three letters were published in the December 1996 issue )