Cheeseburgers To Cholent, A Minister’s Journey To Judaism

On Tuesday, July 16, Tuesday Torah Talks, hosted by Chazaq, featured a virtual interview with Rabbi Gavriel Sanders, author and speaker. Rabbi Yaniv Meirov, CEO of Chazaq and Rav of Congregation Charm Circle, welcomed everyone and introduced Rabbi Sanders, who shared his story of finding Judaism and becoming a convert.

Rabbi Sanders currently resides in Yerushalayim. He shared how amazing it is to be there. You don’t have to be afraid to walk around with a kipah. He stated, “I am a Jew. I am an Israeli Jew. I am a Yerushalmi Jew. There is wonder and magic living here. There is so much hashgachah pratit here.”

He emphasized that “Hashem is here in a powerful way. I see it every day.”

He grew up in a difficult situation. His parents were divorced at a time when that was unusual. He attended a different elementary school every year. He dropped out of high school when he was in tenth grade. His siblings were all half siblings. He was from a very fractured family. He grew up with instability and poverty. He was born in Georgia, and he grew up in Florida. He spent time surfing. He didn’t have much discipline academically or morally. He shared that he didn’t respect his parents. His father was a shadowy figure on the other side of the world.

Age 15 was a tumultuous year for him. He hitchhiked from Dallas to California with a trucker. He went to Huntington Beach to surf. He didn’t know anyone. He met street people, and they told him to live by dealers. He got a place with six people in a tiny apartment. He stayed two weeks. They told him to go to the Christian missionary place and if he listened to a Bible rap they would give him food. He was influenced there. At that age, he didn’t know anything about the Bible or theology. He shared that he began changing because one becomes like those he associates with.

He became a youth evangelist. He finished high school and attended college. His pastor in Eugene, Oregon, advised him to attend Bible college. Eventually, he joined the staff in the church in California in 1968. He became its pastor and he wanted to bring the End of Days. In the mid-70s there was a messianic movement to bring the Jews to JC.

At that time, he decided to travel to Israel to study a Hebrew course for five months. He was eventually kicked out of the kibbutz where he was living and blacklisted for proselytizing.

He shared how the Hebrew language became like a new set of glasses for him. “I saw how quotes from the Christian Bible were twisted or totally mistranslated. I saw passages with a disconnect.”

He was asked by the church to attend an anti-missionary rally at Chabad in Los Angeles. He heard rabbis speak and he realized that everything he was doing was sheker. He saw things from a Jewish perspective and eventually he left the church. He lost everything. For eight years he wandered. He lost his faith. He didn’t know what to do or what job to do.

He was offered a job to teach English to Bedouins in Saudi Arabia. So, he spent the next two and a half years doing that. He shared that “The Saudis helped me find my Jewish soul.”

He returned to California and started thinking seriously about Judaism. He read a book that was pivotal for him, titled Jewish Meditation by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan. The book taught him that Judaism is really a spiritual Eastern religion, and meditation was common during the period of the Tana’im. The book taught him how to connect to G-d. He had thought Judaism was just a bunch of tired traditions. “This book opened my eyes.”

He went to a Reform temple, looking to study Judaism. Then someone invited him to a Discovery Seminar. “I discovered things I didn’t know, like why the Torah was given by G-d and why it couldn’t be a product of man. I learned why mitzvot are commitments that lead to connections. I discovered that there are commandments between me and G-d and between me and fellow Jews. The actual Hebrew letters in the word mitzvah mean to connect.

When someone asked him to explain Judaism in one word, he responded “elevator.” An elevator takes you up and down. Judaism brings brachah down into the world and it lifts routine things up, like eating an apple and saying a brachah – that lifts the act of eating up to holiness.

He worked for ArtScroll Publications for ten years when he lived in New York. He worked with Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis a”h and with Rabbi Paysach Krohn. He has had the opportunity to connect with so many special people.

He concluded, “Ashreinu! How fortunate we are to be Jews!”

 By Susie Garber