Sid Roth - Yeshua Visited Me on My Honeymoon in Israel
Sid Roth: Welcome, Holy Spirit. Go and flow. My guest, Rabbi Greg Hershberg, was raised by two Jewish parents in the Projects in Bronx, New York. What was your childhood like?
Rabbi Greg Hershberg: I was in the Projects, low income housing Projects, Gun Hill Projects, one of the most dangerous places in the United States to live. My dad never made any money, so we stayed in the Bronx. So sadly enough, I didn't really grow up with Jewish friends. All my friends were either Irish Catholic or Roman Catholic.
Sid Roth: But when you poked your head in the Catholic Church, you saw a man hanging on a crucifix.
Rabbi Greg Hershberg: When I saw that, I kind of asked a few of my so-called friends, and they were pretty anti-Sematic. And they told me, "Yeah, that's Jesus on the cross. He was crucified". And they said, "Your people did that".
Sid Roth: Hmm.
Rabbi Greg Hershberg: And I was so overwhelmed and overcome, my people did that. Then if that's their King, if that's their Lord and Savior, they're going to hate me. And kind of hate me, they did. I went to Anshei Emes, it was called "The People of Truth". It was an orthodox synagogue, we were orthodox. There was no real reform synagogue like there is today.
Sid Roth: Right.
Rabbi Greg Hershberg: It was hard-core, my mother sat behind a curtain, I sat with my father. The synagogue service was three, four hours, it was always in Hebrew. It was very austere.
Sid Roth: Okay. Then when you were 15, tragedy hit. Your dad died. How did that affect you?
Rabbi Greg Hershberg: He was my security. When he was around, I wasn't afraid of anybody. And when he died, I felt like I lost my right arm. And I couldn't deal with it. So what I did was, I made believe I never had a dad.
Sid Roth: Hmm.
Rabbi Greg Hershberg: I just didn't know how to, you know, there was no counselor, there was nobody to talk to. My mother was a basket case. My three sisters already married and left the house. So I just, that was the only way I can cope.
Sid Roth: Well, you also coped with it through getting into drugs and trouble. But you did well enough to get scholarships and go to college.
Rabbi Greg Hershberg: Yeah, you know, my dad never went to college, and he was somewhat of a loner. He believed in me. He lived vicariously through me. I was going to be Jim Thorpe of sports. So knew that it meant so much to him. So even though in my craziness, I still studied. I kept up with my homework, and I graduated at the top of my class in high school, and I got a scholastic scholarship to a university to study accounting. And I was just trying to make my dad proud. I graduated top of my class. I got recruited by one of the big eight accounting firms back then, there were eight top firms in the world, Arthur Andersen. And I went to work for them, and yeah, I just did pretty well, all things considered.
Sid Roth: You wandered, and I did this too, you wandered into Eastern philosophy, which involved meditation and lowering your consciousness. And then you got into martial arts. But this teacher taught you something besides martial arts.
Rabbi Greg Hershberg: Yeah. Martial arts that we have today that you see, like these Taekwondo studios, and parents are sitting there watching, that was not the martial arts I experienced.
Sid Roth: Oh, what was it?
Rabbi Greg Hershberg: The martial arts I experienced in the Bronx is, I had pimps in my class, and I had bouncers in my class. It was crazy. But the next teacher I pursued, he was very secretive. And you can only study with him after he interviewed you deeply. It was very mystical. So I got to be in his class. Today he's a Messianic Jew. But he was an out-and-out cult leader. And I looked up to him, because I was always looking for a father figure. But one day, he started talking about the Bible. And that's when I checked out. And I left. But I kind of tried to dabble back with him. And the next thing I know, I'm in Israel on my honeymoon.
Sid Roth: But even before that, you came across a place in the New Testament, the Mount of Transfiguration, and something happened inside of you.
Rabbi Greg Hershberg: You know, I went to Matthew 17, where I found out where it was. I didn't know where it was. I never opened up the New Testament. But I looked at the story, I just thought it was cool. I was, like, I don't know who Jesus is, but He shows up. And He's different, and He's glowing. And then my guys show up, Moses and Elijah. Those are my guys.
Sid Roth: Okay. You're in Israel on your honeymoon on Yom Kippur.
Rabbi Greg Hershberg: We took a flight to Eilat. And we went down there, and I was, like...
Sid Roth: Eilat's the beach. It's a nice place.
Rabbi Greg Hershberg: It's the party place.
Sid Roth: Yeah!
Rabbi Greg Hershberg: It's on the Red Sea. And I like Eilat, a lot. I thought, "This is my kind of place". So we went water skiing. I'm scuba diving in Egypt, we're partying at night. We're dancing, we're going out to great restaurants. But then after that was over, we went over to Jerusalem, and I did not like Jerusalem. And I didn't know about spiritual warfare, but that is the hotbed. That is the hotbed for all spiritual warfare. So we stayed. We made the best of it. We didn't do any tours, we just went around, still found good restaurants. And I said to Bernadette, the last day, I said, "Let's get a car and go up North. I would like to go see this Transfiguration Mountain". A lot of people were hitchhiking back in 1989.
Sid Roth: Mm-hmm.
Rabbi Greg Hershberg: You know? And a lot of soldiers. So I was giving them rides. So the last soldier I picked up before I ended up at the mountain, I said, "Where do you need to go"? He said, "Just up the road to Tabor," which is its historical name, right? So I said, "Okay". Dropped them off, looked to the left, I see a mountain. I had to get to the top of that mountain. I became so focused that I didn't even know what was going on around me. I run to this what looked like a church, which was... and I see a plaque, and the plaque says, "The Basilica to the Transfiguration".
Sid Roth: Hmm.
Rabbi Greg Hershberg: And at that point, my knees started to buckle.
Sid Roth: And you heard a voice. Who was it? What did He say?
Rabbi Greg Hershberg: I never heard a voice like that before, but it said, "Come away and pray with Me". I didn't know how to pray. I just didn't know how. Nobody ever taught me. I knew some rote prayers from when I went to Hebrew School. So I closed my eyes, and I did transcendental meditation. I emptied myself up of any consciousness, and all I could say is, I went into a trance-like state. I know people that might be watching this might go, "It wasn't of God, a trance is not of God". Well, you need to tell that to Peter, the apostle, because he went into a trance in Acts 10:10. So the word "trance" in the Greek in the New Testament was "ekstasis," where we get the word "ecstasy". And you're thrown out of your normal state, and you're fixed on things divine. And you think you're hearing with your bodily ears and seeing with your bodily eyes what God is showing you in a vision. The Eastern sky opened up. I saw a figure come down. I couldn't see His face because it shone like the sun, and His body was white as light. And He kept descending. And He pressed His chest against mine. And He said, "I love you". And I've been loved pretty good, but I never felt that love. It was other worldly. And He said, "I'm the One you've been reading about in the Old Testament". He told me who He was. "I'm the Messiah. I'm Jesus. I'm your Messiah. Just believe". And I don't know, but I did. And I began to cry and cry. It wasn't tears of joy, it wasn't tears of sadness, it was a sanctification. Like, the Lord...
Sid Roth: A cleansing.
Rabbi Greg Hershberg: ...cleansing me of all the crap, all the religion, all the nonsense, all the things I brought into my tabernacle. He just cleansed it. And He started to fill me up right away. Right away. It was a 180.
Sid Roth: Then on that same trip, your wife, in Capernaum, saw a vision. What did she see?
Rabbi Greg Hershberg: And as we were driving down from the Transfiguration Mountain, we see this sign, the town of Jesus, Capernaum, or as we know it, K'far Nahum, the Town of Comfort. And the Bible says this is a historical place, not traditional. And this is, we uncovered the synagogue there, so we know that's where He preached. So we went in there later in the day. There's no tour groups, there's just Bernadette and I. And all of a sudden, I hear something hit the ground. And weeping, I turn around and Bernadette's weeping. I'm, like, "What's going on"? And she said, "I saw Him. He laid His hand on me and said, 'Be healed.'"
Sid Roth: Okay. Rabbi Greg almost died very recently, very recently, and was given a word from God. Be right back.
Sid Roth: Greg, what was life like after the honeymoon in Israel? You get back, you're very involved in business. Quickly, what happened?
Rabbi Greg Hershberg: I gave my company away to my partner. He said, "We have good will, we have to see attorneys". I said, "Gary, I don't want anything. I'm done". We kind of... things started to fall apart, Sid, for me. I had no job. I lost my job, my wife and I were struggling the first year. I was losing her. I lost my hair. I mean, it was bad. It was bad. And I couldn't understand it, I said, "God, when I was like a dirt bag, a bum, I had a great life. I give my life over to You, and everything's being taken apart". What I didn't realize is, Biblical principles, that the line of Judah came at me and tore apart every floor I built, until He brought my tabernacle to the foundation of Jesus. And then like the lamb of God, He built it back up in a way that I've never dreamed possible. So one day, I'm at my Messianic synagogue in Florida. Sadly enough, the Rabbi fell, and I call them the Kosher Nostra, these Jewish elders come to me and say, "We'd like you to consider taking over". I'm, like, "I can't. I don't know what I'm doing. I can't take over". But they had nobody else. So I decided to talk to God, and God said, "It's your time". I felt He said, "It's your time". So I went. That same week, my first son, Jeremy, who we were incredibly close with, we wore the same clothes, we did the same things. And whenever I came home from work, I was working in the gym, he would run in the driveway and yell, "Daddy's home! Daddy's home," and dance. That's how in love we were with each other. Little did I know he was somewhat of an idol. Well, one day, he didn't run at me. And you know when you feel something's wrong, you touch the doorknob and you know something's wrong? And he kind of stumbled to me. And I said, "Jer, what's going on"? He said, "Daddy, I can't walk". And he had these red dots all over his legs. So we never took him to the hospital or a doctor, so Bernadette took him. And I said, "Whatever it is, call me afterward at the gym, call me". And it was a 9:00 appointment, 10:00, 11:00 and she didn't call. So I called the doctor. The doctor said, "Are you sitting down"? I said, "I don't want to sit down. What's going on"? He said, "Your son has anaphylactoid purpura". And he said, "His capillaries break for no known reason. There's no research on it. But sometimes it moves up, and if it starts breaking in his body, it can go to his brain, and it'll be fatal". I dropped the phone, Sid. I dropped it. I got on my knees, I said, "God, I'm not Abraham. I can't lay eyes on God". I said, "Here's the deal. If Jeremy doesn't survive, I'm afraid I'm not going to like You. And if I don't like You and I lose my relationship with You, there's no reason to live. So I'm begging you, do something here". And so I called up a couple of friends and said, "I need you to pray". And one friend was pretty charismatic, and he said, "Let's go out tomorrow night". This was a Friday, Saturday night. "And let's celebrate his healing". So we went out, and Jeremy didn't say a word. He was in pain. And I looked at my friend, Scott, and I said, "I can't do this. Sorry. I've got to go home". So I grabbed Jeremy, and he screams, and I lift up his shirt, and now there's red dots all over his body. So we went home. And Bernadette took him in our room, and I went in his room. And I said, "God, I know You know everything, but there's something you don't know. You must not know the pain I'm in, because you're Almighty, and you can do this. This is easy for You. I need you to do this, please". And I heard a voice again like I did back in 1989. And I heard, "You know, I had a Son, too". And all of a sudden I felt so guilty, like some spoiled brat. And I felt like I didn't deserve anything. And He said, "I'm going to heal him". And I said, "Don't. I don't deserve it". And He said, "No, I'm going to heal him, because before you go into any pulpit and talk about Me, you have to know how much I love people". And the next day the dots were gone. And I went to Arnold Palmer Hospital, I have it documented. And the doctor said, "Your son doesn't have anaphylactoid purpura". I got real sick recently, and the same thing kind of happened. I was in St. Louis with Bernadette. We were kind of winding down ministry. We were going to St. Louis to celebrate a little bit. And I collapsed in the airport. I wake up and I see EMTs over me. And I said, "What's going on"? They said, "Listen, you collapsed. Your vitals are all off, we've got to take you to the hospital". I said, "Oh, please let me go back to Macon. I have friends there, real good friends that are doctors". So they let me go back. I needed a wheelchair, I couldn't stand. Got back and my friend, who's an ER doctor, Dr. Rios, and I said, "Listen this is what's going on". He says, "Come here right away, I'm on tonight. Come in". And I went, they tested me for this, that, and the other. And then he said, "You have blood staph infection. Twenty percent of people die from blood staph. I have to admit you". I was in shock. I was, like, "Admit me"? I got admitted. They started to administer vancomycin, which is the strongest antibiotic there is. Well, my kidneys didn't like the vancomycin, so they decided to shut down. So I went into renal failure. So I'm swelling up. I'm in renal failure. I've got this blood staph. Now I'm on dialysis. And I'm thinking, could it get any worse? And worse it did.
Sid Roth: Hmm.
Rabbi Greg Hershberg: I started writhing in pain. They sent me to Emory. But I have some kind of arterial disease where my arteries just can burst, I get aneurysms. So I've had seven aneurysms and seven stents. The blood staph likes to seed itself in the stents. So I said, "Well, what do we have to do here"? They said, "If the stents are infected, we're going to have to remove your arteries". How do you remove arteries?
Sid Roth: How could you live?
Rabbi Greg Hershberg: That's what I was thinking. We're in agreement. You need your arteries to live! So the doctor's going to come in the night before he's going to do the surgery, and they're going to have to open me up, remove my intestines, and find out what's going on. And this guy's a very well-trained guy, one of the best surgeons around the country. And he came in to see me, and he said, "Rabbi Greg, this is going to be rough on you. I don't even know what I'm getting myself into. And I don't even know if I can help you. And if you're with the best surgeon and you're in the best hospital in the world, you have a very small chance to survive this". So tongue-in-check, I said, "Should I say goodbye to my kids"? And he said, "Absolutely". Man, what a night that was, Sid. After the surgery, I came to after three days. And he said, "Rabbi Greg, three times you lost all your blood. Do you understand what I'm saying to you"? And three times I looked up at the Philips screen expecting to see a flatline, because your heart doesn't pump without blood no more than your car drives without gas. And I said to myself, "how am I going to explain this to his wife? How am I going to explain this to the kids, because they were all in the waiting room". And he said, "Three times, and your heart kept pumping without blood! My other friend, who was with me every day, Dr. Robitshek, he's not just a run-of-the-mill doctor, he's the chief of Kaiser Permanente in the whole State of Georgia". And I said, "Tell me what's going on. Tell me what happened". He said, "You could have died from any one of those things. You should have died from it all". He said, "You're either the luckiest guy in the universe, or you have a God that adores you". And it gets kind of a little wacky, Sid. I begged the doctors to let me go home. And they did. I went home, sitting on the couch, just happy not to have all these things in me. And the next thing I know, I'm kind of waking up, and Bernadette's over me. And she said, "Do you know where you are"? And I couldn't speak. So I went, and she said, "Greg, you're in the hospital". And she said, "Greg, let me tell you what happened. You came home. Remember sitting on the couch? You were sitting on the couch with Shaina"? I said, "Yeah". Shook my head. She said, "You began to throw up blood. And I called the ER, and Dr. Rios just happened to be there. And I explained what's going on. And he said, 'Bernadette, you have minutes to save Greg's life. His lungs are filling up with blood. He's drowning. He's dying. You have to get him here. I'll have life support waiting.' Everything had to be just right". She got me there, they put me on life support, and that's when I was coming off seven days, I was intubated seven days. And I was incapacitated. I couldn't walk, I couldn't move. I couldn't go to the bathroom by myself. And all of a sudden, I just said to God, I'm not proud of this, but I said, "You know, I kind of devoted my life to You. I'm not asking for nothing big. I'm not even asking for You to heal me. But I feel like You're nowhere to be found," which, by the way, is Satan's number one weapon, divine betrayal. And I said, "Could you just whisper my name? Could you just say, 'Greg,' then leave so I know I didn't waste my time, that You're real? Forgive me for thinking this, but I'm thinking this. Help me out"! And that's when God said to me, "Every CT scan, every ultrasound, every procedure, every surgery, I was right next to you. I never left you. I was watching over you. And you are going to get out of this hospital". And here I am.
Sid Roth: Well, Greg weeps for people to know Messiah. I want Greg to pray for you, to have this gift of compassion, to weep for souls. Will you pray this right now for the people?
Rabbi Greg Hershberg: So Father, I ask that you bring back this beautiful gift of compassion and empathy where we could feel people's pain. When we're praying for a woman, an elderly woman, it's like we're praying for our mom. Or when we're praying for a young lady, it's like we're praying for our life. Or when we're praying for the young people, we're praying for our children. Help us to feel what they feel, Lord. Before we can be winners of souls, we have to be weepers of souls. Give us that gift, Lord, in the Name of Yeshua, I pray. Amen.
Sid Roth: Amen.