Interview With the Late Rabbi Simcha Pearlmutter
by Christine Egbert
Rabbi Simcha Pearlmutter, of blessed memory, died in December of 1999. I gleaned the inspiring content found in this article on the Internet, in an MP3 recording of an interview he gave in the early 1990s.
How It All Started
Rabbi Simcha Pearlmutter spent three years of his life in Miami, FL trying to defeat the name of Jesus (Yeshua), but in the end, that name defeated him. “But I shouldn’t use the word defeat,” he said, “because it was really a victory. Only the victory I set out to achieve turns out not to be the victory I won. In the end, after studying all the prophecies fulfilled in Yeshua, I discovered that the Orthodox Jewish world, especially the ultra-orthodox Jewish world, the rabbinical world, knows the secret of Yeshua. They know him! They know His name! They know He is the Messiah! They know He is the only bridge between the Jewish Nation and God. They know that since the Temple no longer stands—since God’s presence no longer inhabits the Holy House—and since the third Holy House is not yet standing, every Jew who keeps the commandments knows that he must look to the Messiah.
According to Rabbi Pearlmutter, by 70 CE there were between 75,000 to 125,000 Jewish believers in Jerusalem alone. These figures are verified by the First Century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus and by Professor David Flusser from Hebrew University, who passed away in 2000.
According to Rabbi Pearlmutter, First Century Rabbis wrote Jesus’ (Yeshua’s) name and His atoning acts of healing into Israel’s Orthodox Jewish Daily Prayerbook and the Prayerbook for Rosh Hashana.
“We find these prayers,” Pearlmutter said, “between the first set of shofar sounds and the second set of sounds.” According to Rabbi Pearlmutter, the English translation of the prayer reads: “May it be the desire before You that the blowing of the Toshvat we are sounding will be interwoven into the fabric of heaven by the hand of the monitor Takiel—one of the angelic hosts—as the name which You received by the hand of Elijah, of blessed memory, and Yeshua (spelled yod, shin, vav, ayin), Sar Ha Panim, the Prince of the Faces of the LORD God. Blessed are You, the possessor of the universe.”
The rabbi went on to say: “The prayer, after blowing the third set of shofar sounds, tells us what Yeshua’s function is. It says that the name Yeshua should ascend before Your throne of glory, that His name should recommend good on our behalf and atone for all our sins. In other words, at the time of the blowing of the shofars, the name of Yeshua is invoked to atone for all our sins.”
Rabbi Pearlmutter, then went on to assure his interviewer that while he had provided her with only one example, there are dozens like it in the Orthodox Jewish Prayerbook. These prayers were put there, not by Gentile Christians, but by Orthodox Jewish Rabbis some two thousand years ago. “And they remain in our prayerbooks for our benefit,” he said, “so that we might invoke Yeshua’s name.”
It was this very prayer that brought Rabbi Simcha Pearlmutter to Jesus (Yeshua) in 1962. “When I was finally by myself in my office in Miami, I cried out to Yeshua, ‘Lord, I can’t fight you anymore. I must either throw out my entire Orthodox Jewish faith that I was born into or accept You as given to me by our ancient Jewish rabbis and as confirmed by our Holy Scriptures.’”
Once Rabbi Pearlmutter realized that there was no other atoner for his sins except Jesus (Yeshua) and he cried out to God, he said that a tremendously important thing happened. “No Christian had witnessed to me about Jesus,” he said. “I had never opened even one page of the Brit Hadasha (New Testament). I had spoken only to Orthodox rabbis who gently guided me to passages that made it so clear. ‘We all see and know the name of the Messiah,’ they said. ‘The question is this: Is this the right time to bring out His name?’ Their answer was no! And they were right!”
Rabbi Pearlmutter then went on to explain why he did not think it was the right time. “We can know it is the right time to bring out His name only when the prophecies about His return begin happening, or we run the risk of a great danger. Yeshua’s name could be grabbed up by the Gentile world and used to kill us just as the name Jesus has been used against us for 2,000 years. Now, is the day of our return to the Land. When God filled me with His joy, I spontaneously began to praise Him like never before. ‘How can I thank you enough?’ I told Him. ‘How can I do something for You?’ Then I heard Yeshua answer, ‘I have made you clean before My Father in heaven, now please make Me clean before My people.’”
“I will,” Rabbi Pearlmutter promised, “but I need Your help if I am to take You out of this prison You are bound in, out of this paganism that holds You back, out of the diaspora and into the synagogue, into Your Land.”
Aliyah
Rabbi Pearlmutter went on to explain that four years later, in 1966, he and his family packed up and moved to Jerusalem. There they remained for one year. Then the Lord sent Rabbi Pearlmutter into the desert where he was to call out, “Prepare ye the way of the LORD!” So, the rabbi and his family packed up their belongings and left Jerusalem.
In 1967, there was only one road into the Arava, the Hebrew word for desert. After the Six-Day War, which the rabbi and his family lived through in the Arava, a main highway was finally completed. Today, that highway runs from Israel’s northern border to its southernmost point in Alot—from Egypt all the way to Syria.
In 1967, when the two trucks that Rabbi Pearlmutter hired suddenly stopped, the drivers tossed out all of the rabbi’s possessions refusing to drive one inch further, and they declared that Pearlmutter was crazy. This began what the rabbi refers to as ‘his twenty-five-year odyssey in the desert.’
Dumped in the middle of a no-man’s-land, the rabbi and his family did the only thing they could. They pitched tents, then went to find a water supply. And the Lord led them to a crack in a rock. From that rock, water—sweet water that they could drink—flowed continuously. Rabbi Pearlmutter said it brought to mind a Messianic prophecy about water bursting forth from the ground.
Odyssey In The Desert
For years everyone thought Rabbi Pearlmutter was insane. He became known as the crazy rabbi in the Arava. “But today,” he said in his interview, “Orthodox rabbis have been coming down to me by multiplied numbers on a regular basis to be reconciled with Yeshua. In the desert they come to learn about Yeshua … and they speak of Him openly. Many have said to me, ‘Simcha, take me to the waters that have broken loose. Let me go into them that I might be healed. Bless me in the name of Yeshua!’”
Then Rabbi Pearlmutter said something that my pastor, Matthew Miller, frequently points out. He said, “Unless you act at the time the Lord tells you to, you will miss the opportunity.” Had the rabbi not moved when the Lord told him to, the 35,000-acre land lease he later acquired, would not have been made available.
How The Miracle Happened
The day after Rabbi Pearlmutter and his family were dumped in the desert, an Israeli military helicopter landed close by their encampment. General Shayke Gavich, the officer in charge of Israel’s Southern Command, and General Ezra Weizmann of the Airforce approached them.
“What are you doing here with all of these people?” General Gavich asked.
“We have come home,” Pearlmutter said. “We have come from the diaspora. We are Jews who believe in Yeshua Ha Mashiach and the holy Torah of the LORD. We have come to settle this land and to never be plucked out of it again.”
General Gavich scratched his head. But after an hour and a half of listening to Rabbi Pearlmutter explain, he began to take the rabbi seriously. “Well, this is a military zone you are camping in. I control this area. Do you know that?”
“I do now,” Pearlmutter said.
“Then let me tell you this. If you are crazy enough, and if your belief in Yeshua is strong enough to make you come to this godforsaken desert, this long Jordanian border, the longest in Israel, to be my eyes and ears, then I will be as crazy as you are. I’ll support you. I’ll back you! Even though I do not believe in Yeshua as you do, I will honor your belief and support your right to settle here as good Jews.”
Rabbi Pearlmutter was amazed.
“You know,” General Weizmann said, “Shayke is very generous. I am not. But if you are still here in ten years—and not just some fly-by-night—I will help you. But remember, ten years must pass.”
After relating this amazing conversation, Rabbi Pearlmutter went on to explain that when one makes a statement in Israel, one vows before God, whether one intends to or not. On that day in 1967, General Ezra Weizmann made a vow before God. And exactly ten years later, when the Labor Party left power and the Likud Party, under Menachem Begin, took over, Ezra Weizmann became a minister in the new government. And in May of 1977, one day after the election, Weizmann sent a car, a big black limousine, into the desert.
When the driver got out, he asked, “Where is Simcha Pearlmutter?”
“Here I am,” the rabbi said.
“Do you remember Ezra Weizmann?”
“Yes, sir. I do!”
“Well, he hasn’t forgotten you either. Nor has he forgotten the promise he made. If you will go to see him tomorrow, he will arrange a full recognition from the new government for your settlement.”
When Simcha Pearlmutter went to see Weizmann that next day, he was sent to General Ariel Sharon, who headed up the Inter-Ministerial Settlement Committee.
“Yes,” Sharon said, “you will have the settlement. It’s official.”
In the interview, reflecting on this amazing bit of personal history, Pearlmutter said, “Sharon officially pronounced it. And now we have the settlement. Why? Because when you walk in faith (and obedience) even heads of governments will come to you.”
In Blessed Memory of Rabbi Simcha Pearlmutter
Rabbi Simcha Pearlmutter came to know and love Israel’s Messiah, Jesus (Yeshua), through prayers he found in his Jewish prayerbook, prayers composed some two thousand years before by Jewish sages. This obedient disciple passed away in December of 1999, but death holds no sting for Rabbi Pearlmutter. When that last shofar sounds and Israel’s Messiah, Jesus (Yeshua), returns, Rabbi Simcha Pearlmutter will be among those that Scripture assures us will rise first in a glorified body to enter the Kingdom.
