In
the 1990s, Rabbi Simcha Pearlmutter and I became close friends. You might not
read about him in any books describing the history of Messianic Judaism.
However, he began the first modern genuine American Messianic Jewish assembly
in the early 1960s in Miami, Florida. There were Hebrew-Christian churches,
most of which came together on Sundays. Most of the attendees were what I would
call Jewish Protestants. However, Rabbi Pearlmutter’s little congregation was
entirely Judaic, meeting on Shabbat and Holy Days, and Torah-observant.
Simcha Pearlmutter came to faith in Yeshua in 1962 without ever reading the Newer Testament, entirely through reading various Messianic texts “hidden” in religious Jewish literature such as the siddurim and machzorim. In 1966, Simcha, his family, a few members of his little congregation made aliyah to Israel.
Rabbi Simcha never called himself a Messianic Jew. Instead, he called himself an Orthodox rabbi who believes in Yeshua. Unlike modern-day “prophets,” he did not drive around in expensive automobiles, or live in luxury. He lived in a humble trailer home, which is called a caravan in most countries.
He wrote letters and contributed articles to Petah Tikvah Magazine throughout the 1990s. Our first time actually meeting him was in January 1994. Petah Tikvah would host tours to Israel. At the end of each tour, we would stay on and travel Israel separately, and always would stay over in one of the caravans at Ir Ovot, a minuscule settlement south of the Dead Sea near the border with Jordan.
We became very close friends. I loved him as a brother, perhaps even a spiritual father. He genuinely lived his faith, despite the many obstacles he faced. Sadly, he passed away on 26 December 1999, when he was about 62 years old from pancreatic cancer. I wept as if losing a father.
Simcha was one of the closest things to a modern-day prophet that I have ever met. As you read through the interview below, you might come to the same conclusion. I conducted this interview using a camcorder in January 1994. RAC
Petah Tikvah: How did you first become a believer in Yeshua?
Simcha: I’m an Orthodox rabbi, an observant Jew. The title Jew is a small word, but a very heavy title that I wear as a badge of pride. How did I come to believe in Yeshua? In some sense, that sounds like I’m out into the wilderness of Judaism. That’s not true. I’m not alone. For the past 2,000 years, since the appearance of this controversial rabbi, this Torah-observant Rabbi Yeshua has become something strange and foreign to most Jewish eyes and Jewish minds and hearts.
My studies as a Jew led me to study the Messianic signs. When we (the Jews) were sent out into the worldwide Galut (Exile), it was for the express purpose to be a witness to the Gentiles, to be a witness for HaShem. We are now coming back into the Land. With this comes an invitation, even a stressful demand, that you (the Jews) come back to the Land. Do something. Don’t just listen.
I began a search, a Messianic search, for about three years, and I came before a rabbi, a good friend, and asked him to explain some passages in the Tanakh (O.T.), which contained some terrifying information.
The rabbi I spoke to was a Chabadnik. I sympathize with the Lubavitchers, a good bunch of people. I told him, “I’m in search of the Mashiach.” He told me, “What makes you think you want to be in search of the Mashiach?” I told him that I didn’t think I had control over the matter. I told him that I was obsessed with it. I told him, “As I searched our holy books, I discovered some rather shocking information, and I would rather discuss them with you than with anybody else.” The rabbi told me, “My son, you have apparently stumbled across our hidden treasure.” I didn’t know what he was speaking about.
I opened up the machzor, the prayer book for Rosh HaShanah at the place where it speaks about the blowing of the shofar, where the name of Yeshua is clearly mentioned. The Shulchan Aruch, our code book for behavior, instructs us that certain communities can evoke that name, but that other communities can skip over that name altogether. The given reason is that some communities are in agreement and can recite the name. Other communities might be chetzi-chetzi (half and half), and could say the name under their breath, almost silently. Other communities might be negative to the entire passage and leave it out altogether.
I told the rabbi that I would like to know what this passage is about, this and numerous other passages, many that mention the name of Yeshua in very considerate tones. There is in every good Jewish lexicon a ceremony called pidyon ha-ben (פדיון הבן) or “redemption of the first-born son.” The parents are required to go to a kohen (descendant of Aaron) and buy back their son within the first 30 days after his birth. They must give the kohen what amounts to 30 pieces of silver. The secret name of this ceremony was called Yeshua ha-ben.
This was interesting because you have the concept of buying back your son by invoking the name of Yeshua as a first-born son who is the substitute for your own son. It tells us quite a bit; it’s also a shocking revelation. It’s not something that I wrote or “put into” the Talmudic or Midrashic texts. Rabbis before me did it, far heavier and of weightier standards than I. They put it in, and I don’t have the authority to take it out. I also don’t have the right to overlook it. I must deal with it and other passages of similar weight. In so dealing with it, I came to this rabbi.
The rabbi said to me, “Simcha, you have discovered the gem.” I said, “What gem?” He said, “The gem that we have hidden for all these years so that the pagan world will not take it, destroy it, and desecrate it. And we have to use every device to show the Gentile world that we don’t know anything about this, that we don’t believe it, that this name is foreign to us, that this personality is not part of us, that we totally disclaim any relationship with him. It’s all been a ruse, a very wise one, one that has worked. The whole world thinks we have no relationship with this one, and we want it this way, because if they thought that we did, they would destroy us to a greater degree than they have already done. The Gentile world is not ready for that.”
I looked at the learned rabbi and said, “What should I do?” The rabbi said that we should not yet reveal the Messiah until we return to Israel. He said, “When you return to Israel, you will be a ba’al shem tov, a master of the good name. Then you will speak from a protected place. You will undergo much hardship.”
No one had ever shown me a New Testament. I had never looked at one. I had found more than sufficient evidence from the Orthodox writings to justify Yeshua as the one hoped for in the Jewish framework. There is no doubt in my mind. Now that I am back in Israel, I can take this gem and reveal it. We continue to be visited by rabbis on a continuous weekly basis, including Rabbi Lau, the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, who was here a few weeks ago. He saw the name of Yeshua around this place. He saw the excavations. The city of Tamar is coming up out of the desert after 3,000 years, here at Ir Ovot. I received from him encouragement and blessings. We were seen together on TV, although our conversations were private.
I have a different definition of the term ‘believer.’ I think of that as an observant Jew who obeys Torah. It is not based on the thought process.
Rabbi Simcha Pearlmutter
Petah Tikvah: Simcha, if I can get a little political now, I would like to know your views about this Land-for-Peace Accord signed by Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat in 1993.
Simcha: Let me see if I can speak to you as a rational human being on the subject, because my political views are a little to the right of Attila the Hun and Genghis Khan.
The land of Israel is clearly defined in the Torah as the land given to Avraham, and reconfirmed to Yitzhak (Isaac) and to Ya’akov (Jacob).[1] We who are their sons inherit it in order that we can turn it back to them. We have no right to give it away, to barter it away, to make a covenant, especially with murderers. I cannot sell your house in Rochester NY, Rick. I don’t have the right to sell your house, because it is yours. And I have no right to give away portions of this land which don’t belong to me, but belong to Jews yet to come, Jews who are not yet home from the Diaspora. I’m speaking to Jews who are in the Diaspora, and your land is being given away, being taken from you, and it’s yours. No one has the right to do that. I don’t have the right to sell your
home in America, and I surely don’t have the right to sell the land that HaShem has promised to you in Israel. It belongs to you. Shimon Peres doesn’t have the right; Yossi Beilin does not have the right; and Yitzhak Rabin doesn’t have the right. It doesn’t make any difference what their title is. They have no right.
The majority of the people of Israel feels the same way. In recent polls, 80% or higher believe that the land should not be given to our murderers. And HaShem has traditionally never listened to the voices of our leaders, even when they were righteous leaders like Moshe, Aharon, Yehoshua,[2] or Calev. When the people cried, “We don’t want to go into the Land,” HaShem punished us because the people said, “No.” He didn’t listen to them when they changed their mind and said, “Let’s go into the Land.” Today, the voice of the people says “Yes,” and our leaders say, “No.” HaShem is not bound to listen to the voices of our leaders, this time to our benefit.
We have no right to sell out our Land. I am not advocating that we should go into Jordan to make war with them, unless they launch a war against us. I am not saying that we should go into Iraq to take the land near the Euphrates River. I am saying that we must honor and keep what HaShem has put into our hands as a holy inheritance.
Our Arab neighbors have land as large as the United States of America. The Arabs have 22 states. We, the Jews, have one. HaShem promised our Arab neighbors wealth and prosperity, and they have it. I don’t begrudge Ishmael one notch of what HaShem has promised them, but I do begrudge giving them even one centimeter of the Land that HaShem has promised us. HaShem promised Jacob that we would have our Land. What I say is, “Let the Arabs prosper and be blessed as HaShem has blessed them, but let us be blessed with what HaShem has given to us.”
I’m not asking for their oil. Let them enjoy it. I’ll take what HaShem has given to us. He has given us water from the depths. He has given us beautiful green land. He has given us the mountains of Israel, the beauty of the Galil, and the dryness of the desert. I’m happy to take what HaShem has given to us.
To every Arab in this Land who wants to murder Jews or to throw them into the sea, I say, “Let him go and fulfill his own Biblical destiny in his own land, the land that G-d has promised him.” But not this Land. This is our land. I don’t want to throw the Arabs into the sea. I don’t want to kill them. I want to give them who G-d promised them. But I also want to inherit what G-d promised us. And it belongs to you. I’m here, and my boys are fighting for you. Ari, one of my boys, is in Lebanon, right now, as I am speaking to you, in a paratrooper unit with the IDF (Israel Defense Forces), and he is fighting for you, so that you can come home, so that I can live safely. (Editor’s Note: On April 13, 1994, Ari Pearlmutter was murdered by a bomb planted by a terrorist at a bus stop in Hadera, Israel.)
In the summer, my other son will be going into the IDF also, in a combat unit. For what? To defend the Land of Israel and the people of Israel, so that you can make aliyah, so that I can live safely, so that HaShem’s promise can be fulfilled in our lifetime, and you can benefit by it. That’s what my political stance is. I want peace, but I want what the Arabs call a just peace. I want a just and comprehensive and lasting peace. In Biblical terms, I want what HaShem has promised Israel, and I want the Arabs to have what HaShem has promised Ishmael. And those are two different places, with two different promises. May each one be blessed in what G-d promised them, nothing less, nothing more.
Petah Tikvah: Amein! I like the way you put that, Simcha. What do you think would be the result of any land for peace agreement?
Simcha: I so hate to think of what the results could be. We have at least 150,000 residents in the area we call Yesha,[3] which in Hebrew is an acronym for Yehuda (Judea), Shomron (Samaria), and Aza (Gaza). There is evidence that if the Jews of this area have their backs against the wall, they will form another state. I don’t want to see that happen. I don’t want to ever see Israeli soldiers reaching out to uproot Jewish settlers. It must never happen.[4]
The terrorists of yesterday will not stop being terrorists tomorrow because you put a uniform on them and give them guns. The new Palestinian police force is being comprised of terrorists who were in jail for terrorism and even murder! These terrorists are being released from prison and given clean uniforms and AK-47 assault rifles, armored vehicles, and helicopters – to do what? Policemen wouldn’t be walking around New York with an AK-47 and drive around in an armored vehicle with a helicopter flying overhead.[5] Would you stand for that?
We must stop being so blind. I did not come home from the Exile to be suicidal. I want peace, but I won’t get peace by being a blind fool. If I invite a murderer into my living rooms and make it easer for him to kill me, he will not become my friend. It doesn’t work that way. These murderers of Jews have dedicated their lives to eliminating what they call the “Zionist entity.” They haven’t changed, and Prime Minister Rabin hasn’t demanded that they stop the Intifada[6] or the murders before we negotiate. Even in Britain, the government demanded that the IRA end the murders and violence before they would enter negotiations. All killings have to stop. That’s the first thing.
The Oslo Peace Accord of 1993 is not a “peace” agreement. It’s a war agreement. It’s going to put us with our backs against the wall. When war breaks out, the old men of Rabin and Peres will be resting comfortably in their graves, and their children and grandchildren are going to suffer. Their blood will be shed because of what Rabin and Peres are doing to us now. It must not happen. The people of Israel must stand up, and you people in the Diaspora should not be silent dummies. We are partners. Your obligation is to come home. If you feel any kind of empathy with what I am saying, return! If you think I’m wrong, even better, come back home to Israel anyway.
Petah Tikvah: Simcha, you obviously feel that land for peace is wrong. What would you offer for peace?
Simcha: I’d offer peace for peace, never land for peace. Don’t you see? Israel is strong. Baruch HaShem! Israel can call the terms. Israel has the promise of HaShem, and we have the military might to back it up. Israel only needs to say, “We will give you peace, and everything that goes with it. We’ll give you the security arrangements, and all the economic increments that go with it. We’ll have cooperation. We’ll do everything together. We’ll live in peace. We’ll live as brothers. We’re not interested in the lands of Syria, Jordan, or Lebanon. We would like you to have your secure borders. We’ll do anything you want, but we will offer you peace for peace – our good will for your good will. That’s what negotiating on an equal level is.
We don’t give up our Biblical homeland for peace! That’s not peace; that’s surrender. If someone threatened you, and said, “Get out of your house. I want it.” For the sake of peace, would you do it? I don’t know about you, but I would fight before I left my house, before I let my children suffer for lack of housing. I would offer peace for peace to the Arabs, and I would do it with all my heart, and with all my soul. I would embrace by brothers in the Arab world as brothers. I would bless them in their own land, and that G-d would increase their prosperity, and increase their health, and give them what they need. But not my land.
Editor’s Note: This interview was conducted at Ir Ovot, Israel, in January 1994, and published in Petah Tikvah later that year.
Rabbi Pearlmutter made aliyah with family and a few congregants in 1966. They stayed in Jerusalem for one year. Then HaShem sent them into the Arava, to the desert region south of the Dead Sea in 1967. The two trucks that Rabbi Pearlmutter had hired suddenly stopped in this wilderness and tossed out all the possessions, refusing to go any further. The drivers declared that Simcha was crazy.
Simcha and his crew pitched their tents and went to hopefully find a water supply. Adonai led them to a crack in a rock, and discovered drinkable water that flowed continuously. The next day General Shayke Gavich (general of the Southern Command) arrived at their encampment and told him, “If you are crazy enough to come to this godforsaken desert, I will support you… I will honor your belief and support your right to settle here as good Jews.” Ten years later, General Ezra Weizmann made it official, with full recognition of the settlement from the government, confirmed by General Ariel Sharron. Eventually Ir Ovot became the location an important archeological development called Blossoming Rose, caretaker of the Biblical Tamar Park.