Ed 'Sh^әmueil' Gomez

I was born (1953) and raised a Catholic on Long Island, NY. This was the faith of my family going back generations from Spain, to Puerto Rico on my Mother’s side and on my Dad’s side, from Nicaragua and Columbia. Both my parents were the first generation born in the U.S.

Just after high school (1971-’72) I became a “Born Again” Christian. In High School I dated a girl who was born again. Through that relationship I encountered a new group of friends (the church youth group) and for the first time since my Confirmation (being confirmed into the Catholic faith at age12), attended church; her church, the Nazarene Church. After two years of S*nday school, S*nday morning service, S*nday evening service, W*dnesday night Bible study, and Fr*day night youth group (she couldn’t date so church was the only place we could get together), I found myself questioning the lack of “spirituality” in my life. One S*nday evening I felt compelled to respond to an altar call. That night I became a born again Christian (much to my parents chagrin). It was an emotionally charged experience; one of those life-changing events.

I felt refreshed, cleansed and renewed. I was grateful and highly motivated to learn more about what had just happened. Since I had been one of the trouble makers of the youth group and had now made this transition, the pastor took special interest to make sure I had all my questions answered and that I had a NT to study from. I remember, it was, The Layman’s Parallel NT. I consumed it. I read and studied it every chance I had, everyday. I marked it up, cross referenced verses and made notes in it. I took it everywhere. In my excitement, I turned a lot of people off. After things settled down I began to get more grounded, studied deeper and after a year and a half felt the “call” to the ministry.

I enrolled and was accepted to Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy, MA (just outside of Boston). As part of my studies I took Koine (NT) Greek. I wanted the originals, no one’s interpretation, no one’s translation. I took 5 semesters of Greek. During that last semester I became disillusioned by the number of textual errors and inconsistencies, especially those related to passages of major doctrinal significance. One or two issues could be explained away by professors. However, as these issues kept mounting (not only in my Greek class but in other classes as well) I felt duty bound to voice my concerns and challenge the status quo. After a while my Greek professor pulled me aside to meet privately and said, “I’m going to say one thing and then this meeting is over. I wish I were in your shoes right now”. He then got up and left me sitting there in his office. What!? What was that supposed to mean? What was I supposed to do with that?

I left the college before graduation, but continued studying on my own. I was determined to discover what was going on. I decided to make a study of the history of Christianity from present day backwards. I began with what I knew best, the Protestant movement. I went back to Luther, from Luther to the Catholic Church and its origins, right to the doorstep of Paul, back to the A*postles, J*ames, and J*sus himself, which led me to a dead end; Judaism.

I knew that J*sus was Jewish, everyone did, but how Jewish was he really? In order to find out, I had to study up on Judaism. I knew virtually nothing about it. But, I wanted to find out what was going on, why all these inconsistencies, why all the hush, hush at ENC (Eastern Nazarene College). I couldn’t imagine why these professors were so bent on avoiding my questions? “What was the big deal, aren’t we all after the truth?”

I began studying Judaism but felt like I was treading water. I kept running into the same unanswered questions, the same theological diversions, the same illogical circular reasoning. I then realized that perhaps I should study Judaism from Jewish sources instead of Christian sources. Soon afterwards I started getting some traction; some answers. I slowly started making progress, slowly backfilling the gaps of understanding. Gradually I was able to put the puzzle together in a way that not only made sense, but that was in line with my shallow but now workable understanding of the first century.

Eventually, I had studied myself beyond the confines of Christianity. At some point I realized that I held beliefs and understandings that were outside the pale of Christianity. I found myself in a “no-man’s” land, somewhere in between Christianity and Judaism. I had not rejected Christianity per se, it had rejected me. It was around this time that I met Tuvia Teldon, a Lubavitcher Rav in Commack, NY who, after much conversation over several meetings, introduced me to the Noachide precepts (1982).

The timing couldn’t have been better. The Noachide faith (if one could call it that – and I did back then) seemed to reflect exactly where I was. As a Noachide, I devoured everything I could read on it: The Unknown Sanctuary, Aime Palliere; Israel & Humanity, Elijah Benamozegh; The Seven Laws of Noah, Aaron Lichtensteirn; The Image of the Non-Jew in Judaism, David Novak; The Path of the Righteous Gentile, Rabbis Clorfene, Rogalsky.

As time wore on and I became more familiar with Judaism, there seemed to be more for me there than the 7 Laws of Noach. While researching on line, I came across a “Noachide” website called, Schueller House (thanks Ken). I found it to be an excellent resource. It was also a resource of Judaic literature from the N^әtzârim, which I had never heard of before. I followed the link to the N^әtzârim website and was completely blown away. It was like discovering a parallel universe.

I remained a Noachide until 1999 when I petitioned the N^әtzârim Beit-Din to be accepted as a Geir Toshâv. As a geir, I pray three times daily, doing the Shakharit, Minkhâh, and Ma·ariv services. I lay t^әphilin each morning, except on Shabât, I study the weekly sidrâh, keep Shabât and kashrut, the holy days, along with all the other Halâkhâh, non-selectively to the best of my limited ability.

I unequivocally reject Christianity and all of its tenets. I reject the NT as Scripture, I reject the mythical (man-made), pagan, man/g*od idol J*esus, as well as the concept of salvation through his death, etc. completely, without exception. Having said all of that, my personal connection to ha-Sheim is stronger than ever. I stand firm as a N^әtzârim, as I worship and pray as a welcomed affiliate of the local Orthodox Beit ha-K^әnësët.