I am Rabbi Ezra Goldstein and the story I'm about to share will challenge everything you thought you knew about the afterlife and the Messiah for 51 years I lived my life devoted to the Torah serving my congregation in Brooklyn with unwavering dedication but one winter night changed everything a night when I died for exactly 14 minutes and 16 seconds before I tell you about my death and what followed you need to understand who I was born into a respected orthodox Jewish Family in Crown Heights Brooklyn my path seemed predetermined from the start my father Rabbi
Solomon Goldstein was a renowned talmudic scholar who had escaped Europe just before the Holocaust my mother Sarah came from a long line of rabbis stretching back to the 18th century Lithuania from my earliest memories the weight of this Legacy pressed upon my shoulders like a tallet heavy with tradition I excelled in my studies from a young age showing an unusual aptitude for Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic by 13 I could recite entire books of Torah from memory earning the nickname The Living scroll among my teachers my bar mitzvah speech on the Messianic prophecies in Isaiah Drew
Scholars from across New York and by 18 I was already being groomed for leadership my years at Yeshiva were marked by an almost obsessive dedication to understanding every Nuance of Jewish law and tradition I spent countless hours debating the finest points of halaka with my fellow students often staying up until dawn pouring over ancient commentaries it was during these years that I met Rabbi menam cavod the man who would become my most influential teacher and Mentor Rabbi kavad was different from my other instructors while they focused on the letter of the law he encouraged us
to seek its Spirit the Torah is not just a set of rules he would say it's a living conversation with the Divine his words shaped my approach to religious leaders ership though I would later understand them in a way he never intended at 25 I married Rebecca the daughter of another prominent Rabbi our match was considered perfect within our community two strong religious lineages joining together Rebecca shared my passion for Torah study and together we built what everyone saw as an ideal Jewish Home over the years we were blessed with three children David now 24
and studying to become a rabbi himself Sarah 21 pursuing her master's degree in Jewish studies and young Benjamin 16 who shows the same love for Torah that I had at his age my appointment as head Rabbi of congregation Beth Shalom at 32 made me one of the youngest senior rabbis in Brooklyn under my leadership the congregation Grew From 300 families to over a thousand I became known for my careful methodical approach to Jewish law and my ability to apply ancient wisdom to Modern Problems my weekly Shabbat sermons regularly Drew visitors from other synagogues and my
articles on Jewish law were published in respected religious journals but beneath this successful exterior questions occasionally nagged at me during my private study sessions I would sometimes encounter passages in the prophets that seem to point in directions I wasn't prepared to follow Isaiah 53 in particular troubled me the traditional explanations for this suffering servant passage felt increasingly inadequate though I pushed these doubts aside burying them under layers of scholarly interpretation I remember one specific incident about 5 years ago that should have been a warning sign a young man from our congregation a recent graduate of
Columbia University came to my office with questions about Messianic prophecies he had been studying them independently and had reached some disturbing conclusions rather than engaging with his questions honestly I dismissed them with well rehearsed arguments sending him away with a stack of apologetic literature the look of disappointment in his eyes haunted me for weeks my life followed a predictable pattern morning prayers study sessions counseling congregants teaching classes writing sermons attending community events I was respected comfortable and absolutely certain of my place in the world even when confronted with challenging questions or alternative viewpoints I had
an arsenal of responses ready to defend my theological position I was in every way way a successful Rabbi living exactly the life I had been groomed for that's what made the events of January 12th 20124 so extraordinary it wasn't just that I died though that itself was remarkable enough it was that everything I had built my life upon every certainty I had cultivated every argument I had perfected was about to be challenged in ways I could never have imagined the day had begun normally enough I had led morning prayers taught my regular talmud class and
spent the afternoon counseling a couple preparing for marriage during dinner my wife Rebecca accidentally spilled water on our toaster while reaching for the salt it was such a mundane incident the kind of small domestic accident that happens in homes every day when she suggested we simply buy a new one I insisted on trying to fix it myself it's just water I had said confidently once it dries completely it should work fine looking back now I can see how God uses the ordinary to accomplish the extraordinary a simple kitchen accident became the gateway to a revelation
that would shake the foundations of everything I believed but at the time at 11:47 p.m. on that winter night I was simply a tired Rabbi trying to fix a toaster the kitchen was quiet except for the soft hum of our refrigerator and the occasional car passing outside our window the house had that peculiar Stillness that comes late at night in a city that never truly sleeps Rebecca had gone to bed hours ago after making me promise not to stay up too late our youngest Benjamin was sleeping over at a friend's house preparing for a debate
competition the next day the only sound was the gentle tick of the clock on our kitchen wall counting down the minutes to an encounter that would change everything I had unplugged the toaster hours ago letting it dry naturally but now I wanted to check if there was any remaining moisture in inside before plugging it back in this was something I had done countless times before with other appliances a simple task that shouldn't have led to what happened next but God I would learn often Works through the unexpected as I tilted the toaster to examine its
interior with a small flashlight I noticed a few droplets still clinging to the heating elements without thinking I reached for a cloth to dry them forgetting in my tired state that some water might have settled in the electrical components the moment my hand made contact with the metal interior a violent surge of electricity coursed through my body the shock threw me backward my head striking the corner of our granite countertop as I fell in that instant everything went black not the kind of Darkness you experience when you close your eyes at night but an absolute
void that seemed to swallow all existence the kitchen my home my very sense of being all vanished in less than a heartbeat over my decades as a rabbi I had spoken many times about death had counseled countless families through their grief and had performed numerous funerals but nothing in my years of religious training had prepared me for what I was about to experience the transition from life to death was not gradual one moment I was in my kitchen and the next I found myself in a place that defied all Earthly description the air if you
could call it that felt thick and heavy pressing against my soul with an oppressive weight that made every moment feel like an eternity the darkness here was different from the initial void it was alive pulsating with a malevolent presence that seemed to feed on fear and despair in all my years of studying the Torah and talmud nothing had prepared me for this reality we had debated the afterlife countless times in the Yeshiva discussing the concepts of shol and Gan Eden but our intellectual discussions paled in comparison to the Stark reality I now faced this was
not the peaceful sleep awaiting resurrection that many of my colleagues had preached about this was something far more immediate and terrifying as my awareness expanded I began to hear sounds that no human ears should ever have to endure voices crying out in anguish not from physical pain but from the torment of realized truth these weren't the Hollywood screams of the Damned they were the heartbreaking sobs of souls who finally understood what what they had rejected in life each cry carried a story a lifetime of choices that had led them to this place of Eternal regret
the most haunting aspect was how these voices seemed to speak in languages I knew Hebrew Yiddish English yet they all conveyed the same message of profound loss I recognized prayers in them fragments of the shama and other sacred texts but they were no longer recited in devotion instead they were wailed in Desperate recognition of opportunity ities forever lost I found myself moving through this realm though I couldn't tell if I was walking floating or being Guided by some unseen Force the darkness began to take shape around me forming into what appeared to be massive Caverns
carved from living Shadow the walls themselves seemed to breathe and as I looked closer I realized with horror that faces were emerging from them countless faces Frozen in expressions of absolute anguish then came the moment that shattered my theological framework completely among these faces I began to recognize people I had known in life respected rabbis who had taught me in Yeshiva Scholars whose works I had studied devotedly and even some of my own contemporaries their presence here shook me to my core these were men who had dedicated their lives to understanding and teaching Torah who
had lived by the strictest interpretation of God's law how could they be here in this place of Torment the first face I recognized clearly was that of Rabbi menim kavod my most influential teacher from my years in Yeshiva his face emerged from the shadowy wall the features I had known so well now Twisted with an Agony that went beyond physical pain his eyes once bright with the joy of Torah study now held the terrible weight of Eternal understanding Ezra he called out his voice echoing through the cavern we were wrong all of us we studied
the prophecies we knew the signs but in our pride we refused to see his words carried the authority I remembered from my years of study with him but now that Authority was turned to warning rather than instruction another voice joined in this one belonging to Rabbi schlomo EMT a scholar whose commentaries I had studied for decades his face appeared near Rabbi kavod equally transformed by the knowledge that seemed to torment all the in this place we made the law our Idol he lamented and missed the very Messiah we claimed to be waiting for the prophecies
were fulfilled before our eyes but we chose blindness over truth as they spoke memories of my own studies flooded back to me I remembered the hours spent debating the meaning of Isaiah 53 the complex arguments we had constructed to explain away its clear descriptions I recalled the careful theological Frameworks we had built to justify our our rejection of the possibility that the Messiah had already come in this place of ultimate truth those arguments seemed as substantial as smoke more faces began to appear in the walls around me each one a teacher or colleague I had
known Rabbi yitzchak Stern who had written extensive treatises against Christian interpretations of Messianic prophecies Rabbi David LaVine who had dedicated his life to protecting young Jews from missionary influences each one now bore witness to the terrible cost of their misguided Zeal the air grew thicker with each Revelation and I felt myself being pulled deeper into this realm of Shadow and regret the weight of Truth pressed in from all sides and with it came understanding that these Souls weren't being punished by some external force their torment Came From Within from the full realization of what they
had rejected in life I wanted to turn away to close my eyes to this terrible reality but in this place there was no escape from truth every argument I had ever made against the messiahship of Jesus every sermon I had preached reinforcing our traditional interpretations every time I had counseled someone away from questioning our received wisdom all of it rose up before me in Stark relief the faces in the walls began to speak in unison their voices blending into a chorus of warning and regret they recited passages from the prophets but now with the terrible
Clarity of those who see too late Isaiah's words about the suffering servant zechariah's Prophecy of the pierced one Daniel's precise timeline of the messiah's coming all of these took on new meaning in this place of ultimate Revelation just when the weight of these truths threatened to overwhelm me completely something extraordinary happened in the midst of this absolute Darkness a pinpoint of light appeared in the distance at first it seemed no larger than a distant star but it began to grow piercing Through The Dark dark Ness with increasing intensity this wasn't the harsh artificial light of
the physical world this was Pure Living light that seemed to carry within it the very essence of Truth and Love The Light brought with it a change in the very atmosphere of this realm the oppressive weight began to lift replaced by something else a presence that was awesome yet comforting powerful yet gentle as the light grew stronger I noticed the souls around me reacting to its presence some turned away as if its Brilliance caused them pain while others reached out toward it with desperate longing the faces in the walls began to recede though their expressions
of regret remained the chorus of laments faded to a distant murmur and in its place came a silence that felt alive with possibility the light continued to grow not just in brightness but in presence until it seemed to fill every corner of this dimensional space then from within this light a figure emerged I couldn't make out specific features at first the radiance was too intense but I felt a presence so powerful so holy that I immediately fell to my knees this wasn't just an angel or a messenger this was something far more significant every fiber
of my being recognized an authority greater than anything I had ever encountered in all my years of religious study as the figure Drew closer I began to perceive more details he wore what appeared to be simple white garments but they seemed to be woven from light itself his face I could barely look at it directly but when I did I saw features that Were Somehow both Jewish and Universal both ancient and Timeless but it was his eyes that captured me completely eyes that held within them all the love of the universe alongside a wisdom that
penetrated to the very depths of my soul in his presence all my years of religious training all my carefully constructed theological arguments all my certainties about God and Truth seemed to melt away I found myself stripped of everything except the most basic awareness of my own existence and his overwhelming reality the same light that emanated from him seemed to penetrate my very being Illuminating every dark corner of my soul every hidden motivation every unconscious bias the faces that had been manifesting in the walls now seemed dim and distant like fading photographs compared to this living
reality the voices of my former teachers fell silent in the presence of the one true teacher even the oppressive atmosphere that had seemed so overwhelming just moments before dissipated like Morning Mist before the Rising Sun as I knelt there unable to speak or move I became aware of something extraordinary happening within me it was as if scales were falling from my spiritual eyes and for the first time I could see clearly passages of scripture I had studied thousands of times began flooding through my mind but now They Carried new meaning prophecies I had interpreted one
way all my life suddenly revealed their true significance the words of Isaiah danced before my mind's eye for unto us a child is born unto us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name Shall be Called wonderful counselor the Mighty God the Everlasting father father the Prince of Peace how had I read these words so many times without seeing their true meaning Micah's prophecy echoed in my Consciousness but thou Bethlehem ephr though thou be little among the thousands of Judah yet out of thee shall he come forth unto
me that is to be ruler in Israel whose goings forth have been from of old from Everlasting the pieces were falling into place with devastating Clarity zariah's words took on new significance and I will pour upon the House of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of Grace and of supplications and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced the weight of these prophecies now seen in their true light was almost overwhelming In This Moment of clarity I understood that my entire life had been a preparation for this encounter every hour spent
studying Torah every debate over scripture every sermon preached all of it had led me to this moment of truth but unlike the souls trapped in the walls of Darkness I was being given something they had not received a chance to return and share what I had learned the figure before me raised his hands and I saw in them the marks that would forever change my understanding of everything I had ever believed these weren't just scars they were the Fulfillment of Prophecy the evidence of a love so profound it had willingly embraced death for the sake
of others for my sake In This Moment suspended between life and death between Darkness and Light Between old understanding and new revelation I felt myself being transformed the rabbi Ezra Goldstein who had lived his life in careful adherence to tradition and law was being undone and remade by this encounter with Living Truth the light continued to grow in intensity and with it came a sense of urgency I knew somehow that my time in this place was limited that I would be sent back with a message and a mission the darkness that had first greeted me
now seemed like a distant memory though its reality and its warning remained etched in my soul as I knelt there bathed in this Supernatural light I understood that everything was about to change my life my Ministry my understanding of scripture nothing would ever be the same after this encounter the only question that remained was whether I would have the courage to embrace this new reality when I returned to the world of the living this was not the end of my experience but rather the pivot point that would lead to the most extraordinary conversation of my
existence a dialogue that would redefine everything I thought I knew about God about the Messiah and about the purpose of my own life but that conversation and its profound implications belongs to the next part of my testimony Ezra my son his voice resonated not just in my ears but in the very depths of my soul every word carried weight and Authority I had never encountered in all my years of religious study this was the voice that had spoken creation into existence the voice that had thundered from siai the voice that had called to prophets Through
the Ages and now incredibly it was speaking to me I remained on my knees overwhelmed by his presence the light that emanated from him was both blinding and somehow perfectly clear as if it revealed the true nature of everything it touched touched at that moment I understood what Isaiah meant when he wrote woe is me for I am undone Isaiah 65 you have sought me all your life he continued his words carrying centuries of patience waiting within them reading the scriptures teaching others searching for truth but you looked for me where I was not and
rejected me where I was each word struck my heart with the force of absolute truth memories flooded through my mind the countless sermons I had preached against him the students I had steered away from considering his claims the arguments I had crafted to deny his fulfillment of Prophecy yet in his voice I heard no condemnation only love and an invitation to understanding Lord I managed to whisper my voice trembling with the weight of Revelation are you I am he replied and in those two words I heard echoes of the burning bush of sin of every
Divine encounter recorded in our sacred texts I am the one your people have waited for the one your prophets spoke about the one you yourself have longed to see as he spoke the space around us transformed we were no longer in The Realm of Darkness I had first encountered but neither were we in any Earthly place instead we seem to exist in a dimension where Time and Eternity intersected where truth became visible rather than merely intellectual show me I pleaded my scholarly instincts still active even in this Supernatural encounter help me understand what I've missed
all these years he smiled and in that smile I saw both patience and joy let us reason together he said echoing the words from Isaiah 1:18 suddenly the air around us filled with what I can only describe as living scripture texts in Hebrew and Aramaic that I had studied all my life but now they seem to pul with new meaning begin with Moses he said gesturing to the text that floated around us what did he write about me I watched in amazement as passages from the Torah began to Glow with special intensity Genesis 3:15 the
first Messianic prophecy speaking of the seed of the woman who would crush the Serpent's head Genesis 22 The Binding of Isaac which I now saw with stunning clarity as a prophetic picture duu to omy 18:15 Moses's Prophecy of a prophet like himself who would arise but Lord I said my mind racing with questions we've always interpreted these passages differently we've built our entire theological framework around around expectations of your own making he completed my thought tell me Ezra when Daniel spoke of the Messiah being cut off after 69 weeks what date did your calculations yield
I felt a shock of recognition the Daniel 9h prophecy had always been problematic for traditional Jewish interpretation because its timeline pointed to the Messiah arriving and being cut off in the first century CE we had developed various explanations to work around this but now it pointed to your time I whispered to your death yes he replied and Isaiah 53 how did you explain the suffering servant this was perhaps the most challenging text of all for traditional Jewish interpretation we had argued that it referred to Israel as a nation but even as I thought this I
saw the passage floating before me with new Clarity the individual nature of the suffering servant was unmistakable one who was wounded for our transgressions bruised for our iniquities we deliberately misinterpreted it I admitted the truth heavy in my heart we couldn't accept a suffering Messiah because it didn't fit our expectations of glory and National restoration yet David himself wrote of my suffering he said and Psalm 22 appeared before us I read its words with new understanding the pierced hands and feet The Divided garments the crying out to God how had we missed such clear prophecies
your people still wait for what has already come he continued his voice filled with compassion they search the Scriptures Daily but fail to see that they testify of me you have been brought here not just for your your own sake but for theirs as he spoke these words I felt something breaking within me not a physical sensation but a spiritual one it was as if every argument I had ever made against his messiahship every rational explanation I had constructed to maintain my previous beliefs was being gently but irrefutably dismantled but Lord I protested thinking of
my congregation my family my position in the community they won't listen to me they'll say I've lost my mind that this was just a hallucination from the accident he smiled again and in that smile I saw both understanding and Authority some will reject your testimony just as they rejected mine but others will hear and believe remember I am not sending you alone my spirit will go with you and I will give you the words to speak what about the law I asked thinking of the countless regulations that had governed my life what happens to Torah
I did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it he replied quoting his own words from Matthew 5:17 the Torah points to me testifies of me its purpose was always to lead you to this moment of recognition the law is Holy but it was never meant to be an end in itself it was always meant to be a tutor leading to me as he spoke I began to understand how the entire system of biblical law the sacrifices the festivals the priesthood all of it had been pointing to him the Passover Lamb the day
of atonement the Feast of Tabernacles each one was a prophetic picture of his work of redemption your people celebrate these festivals he continued but they've forgotten their prophetic significance they keep Passover but don't recognize the Lamb of God they observe yam kipur but don't see that the final atonement has already been made they build sukot but don't understand that I came to the Tabernacle among you each word he spoke seemed to illuminate another area of understanding centuries of Jewish tradition and interpretation were being transformed before my eyes not abolished but fulfilled in ways I had
never imagined possible what would you have me do I asked knowing that my life could never return to what it had been before tell them what you have seen and heard he replied replied share the truth that has been revealed to you some will reject it as they rejected me some will persecute you as they persecuted me but others are waiting searching questioning for their sake you must speak as he spoke about persecution I saw visions of what awaited me the rejection by my congregation the pain in my family's eyes the accusations of betrayal from
my colleagues but somehow these images didn't frighten me as they would have before his presence filled me with a peace that transcended all Earthly concerns remember Ezra he continued you're not alone in this journey throughout history many of your people have recognized me as their Messiah even now there are thousands of Jewish believers who have maintained their Jewish identity while acknowledging me as their savior this was something I had never considered before the possibility of being Jewish and accepting Jesus as the Messiah in my previous understanding the two were mutually exclusive but now I began
to see how one could lead to the other how accepting Jesus as the Messiah was the most Jewish decision one could make the time is short he said his voice taking on an urgency I hadn't heard before my return is Drawing Near your people must be prepared they must understand that their Messiah has come and is coming again as he spoke these words I began to feel a pulling sensation as if something was drawing me back toward the physical world the brilliant light that surrounded us started to fade but before it disappeared completely he spoke
one final time remember Ezra what you have seen and heard tell them that their Messiah has come and is coming again tell them that the god of Abraham Isaac and Jacob keeps his promises and that the greatest promise of all has been fulfilled in me the next thing I knew I was gasping for air on my kitchen floor my wife kneeling beside me in tears as paramedics worked frantically to stabilize me I later learned that I had been clinically dead for exactly 14 minutes and 16 seconds before they managed to revive me the doctors called
it a miracle that I survived without any brain damage they were right about it being a miracle but they didn't understand the full extent of what had happened I had died that night yes but I had also been Reborn the rabbi Ezra Goldstein who had tried to fix a toaster was gone and in his place was a new man with a new purpose the weeks that followed were both challenging and transformative as expected my Revelation was met with resistance from many in my community my position as Rabbi was immediately called into question some of my
closest friends refused to speak to me my older children struggled to understand what had happened to their father only Rebecca my wife seemed to sense that something profound and genuine had occurred though she too wrestled with it implications but even as I faced rejection and misunderstanding I found strength in the truth that had been revealed to me the scriptures I had studied all my life suddenly came alive with new meaning the prophecies I had struggled to explain fell into perfect alignment the god I had served from a distance became personally present in ways I had
never imagined possible most surprisingly I discovered that accepting Jesus as the Messiah didn't make me less Jewish it made made me more completely Jewish than I had ever been before I began to understand our festivals our prayers and our traditions in their full prophetic significance everything pointed to him everything found its fulfillment in him I also discovered that I wasn't alone other Jewish Believers in Jesus reached out to me sharing their own stories of Discovery and transformation through them I learned that there was a growing movement of Messianic Jews who maintained their Jewish identity while
acknowledging ing Jesus as the promised Messiah now as I share this testimony I do so with full awareness of its implications I know that many will dismiss it as the ravings of a man who suffered oxygen deprivation to his brain others will see it as a betrayal of everything they hold dear but I cannot deny what I have seen and heard I cannot remain silent about the truth that has transformed my life to my Jewish brothers and sisters who might hear this testimony I understand your skepticism for most of my life I shared it but
I implore you to examine the scriptures again this time with open eyes and an open heart the Messiah we have been waiting for has already come and he is coming again the time I spent in that place of Darkness showed me the Eternal consequences of rejecting this truth but more powerful than that Darkness was the light of his presence the love in his eyes and the truth of his words the same Messiah who revealed himself to me is calling out to you now the question is will you listen this is not just another near-death experience
story this is a warning a wakeup call and most importantly an invitation the same love that reached out to me that night reaches out to you now the same truth that Set Me Free is available to you the same Messiah who saved me waits to be discovered by you in the pages of our own scriptures the choice Now lies before you just as it lay before me in that moment between Darkness and Light Choose Wisely for as I learned that night eternity hangs in the balance
