Absolutely! How else are we to successfully defend ourselves against Jews For (Yushke)? These missionaries are smart. They know our religion better than we do, and so are able to distort Torah and Talmud passages to say what they want without us being aware of it.If you've come across the conspiracy sites, you'll see how anti-Semites use the most outrageous and vile lies to link Zionism to THE NEW WORLD ORDER. Many of these conspiracy nuts are good people who, not being missionaries, are unable to distinguish true from false. Sadly, we're just as bad.
We're lucky, though. There's a website called outreachjudaism. org which is dedicated to combating these assaults. Rabbi Tovia Singer knows his bible---and theirs as well. He is a wonderful speaker whose lectures are fun to listen to, and many of them are free to download! I've downloaded all of them and I find myself fascinated by his wealth of knowledge and his wit. Even Christians come to his lectures, and sometimes become "Noachides"----not converting to Judaism because we don't seek converts, but following the Torah's instructions as applied to gentiles. The righteous gentile who has entered the "gate" and is assured a portion in Olam HaBa. There are only seven laws,(I think) that are required for a Noachide; believing in God, renouncing idolatry, setting up courts for justice, etc. However, one need not even "enter the gate", so to speak, because "The righteous of all the nations have a share in the World To Come".
I'm not qualified to poskin, of course; so I'll not say more about this for fear I'll accidentally get it wrong and cause confusion among you. Nevertheless, this rabbi knows it all! Protestant ministers/Catholic priests/ you name it have been unable to refute him, but he never insults anyone and frequently teaches them a thing or two about their religion as well. As a former Catholic who went to parochial school and was drilled in Catechism every day, I can attest to his knowledge of the Christian bible and theology. While I'm hardly an expert on the bible and Christianity, I've read the Confraternity and King James versions of the bible very extensively before I decided on Judaism. Also, I had the good fortune to have gotten an English translation of the famous Kairite treatise "Faith Strengthened", in which Isaac of Troki refuted every Christian proof text so brilliantly that, to this day, his arguments still stand unrefuted by Christian scholars. I lost it in moving, however, and I miss it.
Rabbi Singer, thank God, more than makes up for that unfortunate loss. Please go to outreachjudaism.org and see for yourself. I wish I knew how to make an url "clickable", but I don't and I'm sorry. Just type in the url as given, though, and you'll get there. You won't be disappointed, I promise you. ( I suppose I should add bli neder to that) Oh well, just go.
