Christian Doctrine Doesn't Check Out
I didn't grow up in the church or practice Christianity but my family were Christians,even though they didn't go to church either. They still believed that God incarnated as Jesus (God forbid).
I believed this for a time too, merely because that's what I grew up believing but I didn't start actually reading the Bible until the fall of 2018. That was when my life started changing and I felt the need to cling to God.
I read the Bible for once, without any Christian indoctrination and what I read came to be more "pure" from what I've seen others teach. So part 1 of my journey was dispelling the myth that Jesus was against the Torah. I saw differences between his teachings and Paul's, which naturally made me question Paul's writings.
After spending a couple of years learning history, I learned of Jesus' original followers and how they were opposed to Paul. But one missing ingredient remained. The teachings of Judaism.
So in 2023 I decided to study Judaism and drop my prejudices that I learned in my days of Christianity. We were decieved into rejecting the wisdom of the Sages, and that the "Bible alone" was good enough. Suffice it to say, I had enough of this belief myself. As I started going through another rough patch in life, I prayed to God for guidance, to lead me to the right path. To learn more about the prophets and their mystical ascent, to learn how they achieved prophecy. Because if I couldn't find proof of this, I was ready to give up on religion as a whole.
And so, I came across teachings of R. Aryeh Kaplan and learned authentic Kabbalah Innuyit, from Orthodox Rabbis. This made me want to learn more about Judaism and the traditions as well. Then, I found out last year that I have Jewish ancestry from my father's side, and he kept it hidden because he rejects his ancestry.
So it is true as to what they say, if you're attracted to the Torah and Judaism, chances are that you might have Jewish ancestors somewhere in your family tree.
This about sums up my journey. And I'm grateful for the Rabbis who have made themselves available to non-Jews, to teach us the Torah.
ברך השם
Definitely agree that if you are drawn to Judaism you probably have one of those lost tribes in your background somewhere and/or someone is hiding something. My mom was adopted so I never knew my maternal biological side and my father’s genealogy has a great (5 x great) grandmother who had a child out of wedlock and I came off of that line. I found out that my husband also comes from this same grandmother but not from the bastard line. Apparently she eventually married and had 10 more children and he comes from one of those children. Anyway I always wondered who the mysterious man was that fathered the child I came from. I too am fascinated by R. Aryah Kaplan but have not read any of his works. The teacher on YouTube Efraim Palvanov mentions him in his latest documentary on “The Cosmic Jubilee” … absolutely fascinating.