Barry & Batya Segal

Sid: My guest by way of telephone is my friend Batya Segal and I’m speaking to her at her home in Jerusalem, Israel. We found out yesterday that Batya comes from a very interesting people group Yemen, the Yemenites. And they’ve got the most distinctive music and they have such a zeal for life and a zeal for God. She was raised in this wonderful loving family atmosphere in Israel. She was just getting out of elementary school and there was the news on the radio that people were hugging and jumping and what had happened, tell me about that news?

Batya: The exciting moment was that as we were sitting in the shelter there were the adults of course listening to the news their ears were just connected like a magnet to the radio. All of a sudden I head them jumping with joy and they were lifting up their hands and shouting. And what I could gather is that Jerusalem is reunited finally; we were just so excited and couldn’t wait for the moment we could get out and of course visit the Wailing Wall and see it with our own eyes. So that was definitely historical moment I think in my life at least.

Sid: When you went to the Wailing Wall, I know that you were younger, but when you went to the Wailing Wall for the first time in Jerusalem and all of these centuries 2000 years it’s in Jewish possession what did you see with your eyes?

Batya: First of all I saw something that I was longing to see because as a child I could only go to the Mt. Zion; I couldn’t see further than that. So for me it was great; we are now I the place that we were dreaming for years to come and see and God made it possible for us. We knew that it was a miracle that Israel won the war; and for me that was the greatest thing always to know that God has performed another miracle and stood and protected His people again.

Sid: Why did you feel that it was a miracle that Israel won the war?

Batya: Because we were such a minority and we had all of our enemies were surrounded by so many enemies; so many of them wanted to destroy us. So for me of course it was the oddest thing it was a miracle.

Sid: Did you believe and your family believe that this was actually answered to Bible prophecy?

Batya: Yes, definitely. I think even the secular Jews did. (Laughing) I think people that don’t have any faith you know the agnostic ones they all believed that definitely it was in fulfillment of prophecies in the Bible.

Sid: Now at age 12, you talk about secular Jews you’re in almost sheltered cocoon type of environment but at age 12 you decided to be your own person; you wanted to go to public school and your parents let you. What was your biggest shock when you went to secular school rather than religious school?

Batya: Yeah, I think really honestly the main subject that really caused so much trouble for me of course was the Bible. Because I believed in the word even though I did not believe in Yeshua then but I believe in the word and I believed that it was true. And when I went to secular school of course I had to face different teachers that taught the Bible from a totally different perspective. It was very difficult for me to study the Bible just as a historical book and maybe have a little bit of mocking spirit there concerning people that did believe its accuracy and the reality of the word.

Sid: But I’ll take you now and jump you now to 1973 the Yom Kippur War; what was it like to see your friends your relatives in a war situation dying being wounded, what is that like?

Batya: It was of course very painful experience to get the news first of all to find out that the war has been taking place of course during the holiest day in the Jewish calendar and of course to find out that many of my friends are already in the army and were caught really unguarded and were not ready for the war. We suffered many causalities and among the people they were killed were friends of mine and some of them were wounded and that really brought a whole different dimension looking at eternity and what is life after death. It brought a lot of questions into my heart and into my mind.

Sid: You actually served in the Israeli military in the Navy, you got married pretty young. You find yourself 20 years old, married, pregnant and your husband in a horrible car accident. And so you have to go out and work to support the family; that must have been a horrible time in your life.

Batya: It’s been really difficult and that time I was seeking God in many ways; I was really searching I was turning to different directions and then finally God has taken me into this printing place and I got an offer of a job to do typesetting of the New Testament. Actually I got to do typesetting I didn’t know that it would be the New Testament, but that the first job that they presented to me.

Sid: You got that Mishpochah; she gets a job her whole like is a big challenge and they say “We want you to typeset a book” and she didn’t know what it was. What happened when you realized what they asked you to typeset?

Batya:   Of course, it was a very Jewish reaction especially Jewish coming from an Orthodox background I didn’t want to do it I said “This is a book of the Christians and there’s nothing for me to be involved in that.”

Sid: Why didn’t you just quit your job?

Batya:   Oh, I was considering that believe me. (Laughing)

Sid: (Laughing)

Batya: But something kind of told me like an inner voice that “Do not be fearful you’re here to do a job so do it and that’s it; you don’t have to worry about it.” And I think that it was really the Lord that…

Sid: Batya, I don’t mean to interrupt you but we’ll pick here on tomorrow’s broadcast but I want to play a little bit more of your brand new CD that you do with your husband “Go Through the Gates.” What are you trying to accomplish with this CD?

Batya: I’m trying to reach, touch and basically for me touching people’s lives and making an impact in their life is the most important thing. Basically to the people in the nations to bring Israel to them in a new way in a fresh way and something that can touch them and uplift their spirit; bring them joy; bring the scriptures to them. Basically just to bring something that can enlighten them.

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