HaKadosh Baruch Hu loves us so very much that he’ll do anything to wake us up to do what’s right and return to Him.

As I write this there are Jews walking aroundBrooklynwearing black velvet yarmulkes and tzitzis who neither believe nor practice the things Jews believe and do. They’re going in and out of a gleaming new four-million-dollar 14 000-square-foot center that in just two weeks from now will open in Flatbush with a goal of ensnaring Jews including religious ones in the net of “Messianic Judaism.”

Led by an apostate Jew and his mostly Jewish staff the center will be targeting the usual victims i.e. Russians the elderly the unaffiliated. But they’ve set their sights higher as these words from the center’s leader to his followers make clear:

 Our new Messianic Center is in the heart of Orthodox Jewish Brooklyn surrounded by synagoguesYeshivas(Jewish parochial schools) kosher restaurants Jewish bookstores…. It reminds me of the neighborhood where I grew up in…Queens New York. I had many friends at that time who were ultra-Orthodox Jews and did not go to public school instead attended the nearby Yeshivas. We played sports together met on the streets and went to the same Jewish summer camps!

I learned very early that just because someone is raised religious and wears the clothing of a religious Jew it does not mean that they are not searching and open to new ideas - even to J himself! I cannot tell you exactly how we hope to reach this intensely religious group which is so fully shaped by tradition but I know the lord will lead us to ways to show our Jewish people his love and the truth of the Gospel.

I attended a meeting last week called to address this viper’s nest on Coney Island Avenue which was convened by and held at the Brooklyn Jewish Xperience (BJX) a dynamic new kiruv center in Flatbush under the vibrant leadership of Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer. Why there? Because one of the things that makes BJX unique is that its classes and events — and above all its pervasive spirit of understanding and acceptance — attract not only a broad array of college students young professionals and others with little or no background in Judaism but also many young people who grew up religious. And these are the people the Messianic center has their sights on.

But they’re not even these missionaries’ greatest “prize.” That distinction belongs to those whom these predators consider to be Orthodoxy’s “low hanging fruit”: The kids in our schools who are falling through the cracks who have few friends are disaffected or ostracized or abused who are a little different or a lot struggling with learning problems with difficulties at home with growing up; the families that are on the fringes that aren’t part of the “in-crowd” and so are lost in the crowd who are in the neighborhood but somehow invisible — struggling with their parnassah with their kids with illness with divorce with their Yiddishkeit; and finally the not-insignificant number of frum Jews who are “adults-at-risk ” who wear yarmulkes and tzitzis but aren’t sure what they believe and don’t quite practice all that Jews do.…

At the meeting there was much worthwhile discussion about the need to embrace all our kids to give them an open heart a listening ear a taste of joyful Yiddishkeit and answers to their questions. Very painful topics were raised too like that of “The Unaccepted ” the countless children who are simply sitting at home as the school year begins because no school has accepted them and how these soul-snatchers would relish finding such kids.

And as I sat there listening I kept thinking about the lengths to which our loving Eibeshter will go to arouse us to do that which we ought to be doing anyway but until now somehow haven’t mustered the courage the resolve the time the resources to do. That meshumad onConey Island Avenue is nothing but a little pawn in His hands. The One Above is sending out bears and crocodiles to go after our young so that at long last we’ll scoop them up and hold them tight and love and care for them.

And maybe just maybe He has decided to bring us face-to-face with yarmulke-and-tzitzis-wearing Jews whose hearts and minds have been poisoned by Southern Baptist Christianity so that we too will ask ourselves: Who and what underneath our yarmulkes and tzitzis are we?

TIME TO WAKE UP The Rambam (Hilchos Teshuva 3:3) writes that during the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah as the fate of the beinoni whose fate was not decided on Rosh HaShanah hangs in the balance only one thing can tip the scales in his favor and that is teshuvah. Rav Itzel Peterburger (Kochvei Ohr 5) explains that even were the beinoni to perform a great many good deeds during these ten days this would not tip those scales so long as the beinoni resists doing teshuvah. The very fact of his refusal to embark on the path of escape from sin and its effects that lies open before him is an offense against Hashem of such magnitude that it outweighs whatever mitzvos and good deeds he may do during this period of time.

Based on Rav Itzel’s words I once sought to explain the Rambam’s reference (Hilchos Teshuva 5:2) to Yeravam ben Nevat as the paradigmatic sinner. True he was a chotei and machtee like few others were in Jewish history but on a list that includes troublemakers such as Korach Doeg Ha’adomi Achav and Menashe was he indeed peerless in his villainy?

In truth however Yeravam was unique among this ignominious group in that he alone was offered a way out of his wickedness by none other than the Creator Himself. The Gemara (Sanhedrin 102a) relates that Hashem grabbed Yeravam by his garment and urged him “Return!” promising that if he did Hashem would stroll together with Yeravam and David HaMelech in Gan Eden. In response Yeravam asked ‘Who will be in the lead me or David?’ When Hashem replied that David would walk ahead of Yeravam the latter begged off.

If as Rav Itzel wrote the failure to seize the opportunity one is given during Aseres Yemei Teshuvah to repent is really a sin of such gargantuan proportions that it outweighs innumerable mitzvos one has done during that same time can we begin to assess the enormity of what Yeravam did in spurning Hashem’s personal entreaty for him to repent? That rejection of the chance for teshuvah surely in a class of its own is what put Yeravam already a sinner of epic proportions in a class of his own.

Rav Itzel’s reading of the Rambam which makes the beinoni’s entire fate dependent purely on his engaging in teshuvah between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur might seem greatly daunting. But it must be balanced with that which the Rambam writes about the very uniqueness of teshuvah during these days when Hashem’s closeness to us is like that of no other time: “Even though teshuvah and tz’akah — crying out to Hashem — are always effective during these ten days they are unusually so and are immediately accepted.” Every resolve to change every twinge of regret and guilt every turn toward Hashem however slight is — says the Rambam — immediately accepted.

The Rambam goes on to explain that the level of acceptance of teshuvah and tz’aka that an individual Jew experiences during these ten days is that which a congregation of Jews merits throughout the year. In the days preceding Yom Kippur then each one of us packs the power of an entire minyan.

Although the call of the hour may be to engage in teshuvah the Rambam (Hilchos Teshuva 3:4) also cites approvingly the minhag of all Jews to increase their performance of tzedakah good deeds and mitzvos during these days over that of any other time of the year. While as Rav Itzel explained only teshuvah will tip the scales for the beinoni this acceleration of mitzvah activity is itself a form of teshuvah spurred by the shofar blasts of Rosh HaShanah (see Lechem Mishneh). Those long clear notes the Rambam tells us are intended as a bracing wake-up call rousing those who “forget the truth amidst the trivialities of life” to take stock of their deeds remember their Creator and return to His embrace.

So may it be for us all in this new year one filled with brachah hatzlachah v’chol tuv.