Rabbi Gershom Baraza: How a Christian Spanish Missionary Became an Orthodox Rabbi

Inspiration for the Nation with Yaakov Langer

Living Lchaim

Judaism, Religion & Spirituality

4.9 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 2 May 2026

⏱️ 125 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How does a Christian missionary, fully devoted to spreading his faith across the world, end up becoming an Orthodox Jewish rabbi?
Meet Rabbi Gershom Baraza, who grew up in Spain and went all in on his mission, even learning Chinese to teach Christianity. But along the way, something didn’t sit right. What began as small questions turned into a relentless search for truth, forcing him to reevaluate everything he believed. His journey is a powerful reminder of what it means to truly seek the emes, no matter where it leads.

More from Rabbi GershomPhone: https://keyphone.tech/?utm_source=ll&utm_medium=ll_podcast&utm_campaign=llHechsher: https://www.koshercertification.cn/en/pages/our-rabbisShul: https://www.brightonshule.org.au/about-usYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@israelthebible

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✬ IN MEMORY OF ✬
This episode is in memory of:
• Miriam Sarah bas Yaakov Moshe
• Shimon Dovid ben Yaakov Shloima

#iftn

Lchaim.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I, for the first time in my life, I felt I'm home.
0:03.4	All the time, I'm a Christian and I have friends and this and that.
0:07.5	And I'm in the missionary home.
0:09.4	And like, I'm at the highest level that you could be as a Christian.
0:12.7	And I feel there's something missing.
0:14.5	I was in Israel and I don't speak really much Hebrew with just a few words and that.
0:18.6	Felt, I'm home for the first time.
0:20.5	Very strange feeling. And I found some kind of peace like.
0:25.3	How does a Christian missionary who is preaching to the world to follow in the ways of Yashka, Jesus,
0:31.2	end up becoming an Orthodox Jewish rabbi?
0:33.6	And this isn't any convert story.
0:35.4	Ravgarshan Barraza grew up in Spain and literally learned Chinese to teach Christianity.
0:52.6	He was all in. But what made him change course? We explored it all in this week's episode of Inspiration for the Nation. This episode is in loving memory of Shimon David bin Yakov Shleima and Miriam Sarkabas Yaakov-Mosha. And thanks to this week's sponsors,
0:55.7	Weils Lees-Hu-Lashem, Bipping, and Hiring for Less.
0:57.0	If you haven't yet subscribe,
1:28.6	please do some of our best work is on its way. Now, before you jump in, personal favor, as you can hear, I lost my voice, and I literally sound like RFK, and I have a huge interview coming up next week. If you can let me know in the comments, your best remedy to help me get my voice back, I'd greatly appreciate your advice. Okay, here we go. Ravikershum Barraza, thank you so much for being here. Thank you. There's a lot to cover about your story. Can you take us back to when you're growing up? Where did you grow up? What was your childhood like? Well, so I was born in Barcelona in the north of Spain, a special region called Catalonia. While I was born in that area,
1:36.7	actually, I didn't grow up there. My parents, when I was five years old, they moved to some beautiful islands of the coast of Africa that belong to Spain.
1:48.7	They are the Canary Islands.
1:50.8	And we moved to the main island called Tenerife.
1:53.5	And they grew up in an island, middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
1:59.4	And in general, I had a happy infancy.
2:05.5	Simple life in a town.
	...

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