Yeshua is the Messiah

Freyda then said something that took everyone by surprise, “Rebekah, who do you say Jesus is?”

It took a few moments for the silence to reconfigure itself into an audience and a speaker. Rebekah was caught off guard, but she knew what to say: “I suspect that your father and my father shared this in common: the belief that Jesus, or Yeshua in Hebrew, is the Jewish Messiah. As you probably know, believing such a thing puts one at odds with almost everyone. My father came to this realization after much study and meeting with a prominent rabbi in Warsaw who came to faith by studying the Tanakh. I was younger then and it took a while before he shared what he was learning with our family. I was quite skeptical at first since anything to do with the Christian God is anathema to Jews. My father saw that Yeshua appeared throughout the Tanakh and was indeed the Messiah who came in a way that the Jews were not prepared for. The irony is that He came in a way that the Gentiles were not prepared for as well. Unfortunately, sharing the Good News cost him his life; I’ll say more about that later. Though Yeshua is a controversial figure, I came to believe that He is indeed my Savior and Messiah.” 

This melted everyone’s hearts. Freyda said, “Amen. That is wonderful and we totally agree with you. I’m sure we all have many questions, but I’m aware of the time and we better move on to the search."

Freyda knew where to begin looking so she sent Heinrich up to the attic to bring down his father’s trunk. He brought it to the kitchen and set it next to the table.  With everyone gathered around, Freyda opened the lid and took out the first item. She looked and thought about what these items meant to her; they brought recollections that spanned sadness, grief, and joy. With a sigh and a clearing of her throat, she picked up the first item and said, “this is a quill set Hans used for writing letters,” and then passed it to Rebekah, who was sitting next to her. The children understood in part what this meant to her, for they had their own versions of identification with these things. Each took their turn at inspecting the items. Most were either mundane or sentimental and were put aside at the end of the line as not relevant. When Freyda picked up a small book, that was about 4 by 6 inches in size, she looked at it enough to understand its importance and immediately gave it to Rebekah, with the comment,  “I think you’ll find this of interest.”  Rebekah took the book and leafed through it slowly. It had written comments about the types of things that an iron shop would need, such as iron, wood, and tools. But then, towards the middle of the book, she came to a page that made her stop and gasp, “I’ve seen this before.” Everyone stopped what they were doing and watched as Rebekah retrieved her own little book. She leafed through its pages until she found what she was looking for and set it down next to the opened page of Hans’ book. Both had what looked to be the same page. It had a collection of handwritten letters arranged in a square shape in the middle of the page. It was clear that Heinrich’s father and Rebekah’s father had communicated with each other in some way. But what was it and what was its purpose?

Rebekah explained, “This is a type of code that requires a cipher wheel to understand it. I have one that I got from my father’s things - that is how I found your father’s name. I wonder if any other members of the network have one too?  The danger is that the inquisitors of the Catholic Church could use it to find you and others; innocence is not a defense at that point. That is why I undertook this somewhat dangerous mission to find you and the potential evidence.  Whatever purpose this network of scholars had is overruled by the need to protect the families involved. We can take the knowledge they gained while we hide the tracks that connect each party to the other. Perhaps I’m being overly cautious or paranoid, but I don’t want this list of names around for anyone else to see.” As Rebekah panned her gaze to everyone at the table she asked, “Do you understand?”