From Mexican Priest to Rabbi...

The following is the captivating story of Rabbi Yehudah Peretz Shlita, a former priest from Mexico...

It's not that I'm a Tzaddik (righteous person) that I merited to convert to Judaism; it's more that in my previous life I ruined so much. After my conversion to Judaism, it led me to the autistic Ben Golding. After meeting with Ben, I asked Rav Kanievsky Shlita if he approves of the facilitated communication with the autistic and if I'm permitted to distribute my story and the Rav answered, "Yes, distribute it and know that it's a Mitzvah".

When my wife, Roni (an Israel-born Jew), and I went to Ben for the first time, he told us extraordinary things. Roni asked Ben why she needed to marry a convert and not a regular Jew and Ben answered her that it was her that requested and pleaded for it. Not understanding Ben's answer, Roni asked Ben to explain. Ben told us that we were a married couple in our previous lives, right before the Holocaust.

When Roni met her future husband, Rav Yehudah, for the first time, she was not religious and was not looking to marry a convert. On their first date, she felt she knew this person from someplace but she did not know from where. She was certain that she never met him before since he grew up in Mexico and their worlds were as different as day and night. She was an Israeli born Jewess and he was a Mexican priest. As time when by and Roni got to know me better, we both felt very emotionally involved deep in our souls.

Ben revealed to the couple they were a married couple in their previous lives and lived in Europe. They both came from Orthodox families and when they married, they completely abandoned Judaism. Together they joined the university and with their many friends, went to the opera and continuously searching materialistic contentment. Both caused much pain to their parents to a point where both of the parents sat Shiva (mourning) for them. Ben said that it was Roni whom influenced her husband and others to seek worldly pleasures.

When World War II began, both were murdered in the holocaust. Before dying, Roni had many misgivings for all the sins she committed and at the last minute before her death she did Teshuva. But Rav Yehudah did not have the time to do Teshuva before dying.

Ben also told them what happened in the Heavenly court...

Because of their sins, the Heavenly court decided that Rav Yehudah's punishment was to reincarnate as a non-Jew and will need to make efforts to return to Judaism. For Roni it was ruled that she will return to earth to correct her past sins but because she did Teshuva at the last second, Roni was permitted to return as a Jewess. When Roni heard her husband's strict punishment, she begged and cried to the Heavenly court that they grant her permission to meet with her reincarnated husband in order to help him convert into a Jew.

When Ben revealed all this, Roni began crying excitedly because she felt he was saying the truth.

Both my wife and I feel very connected to what Ben revealed to us. I never had inner peace as a non-Jew and my wife Roni, never felt connected to her family. She has more of Ashkenazi mentality though she was born into a Moroccan family. When I met her, she was a student in Bar Ilan University and not religious. Today we b'h both did Teshuva and we have 6 children and live in Kiryat Sefer.