Tomorrow night is Erev Yom Kippur- the evening that begins the Holy Day of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. This is one of the holiest days of the Jewish year. It is a commanded day of gathering together (although this is not one of the “Big Three” where you
L’Shonah Tovah! Happy New Year! Although it isn’t really the beginning of the year, biblically, it is still a celebratory day and a mandated Holy Day (see Leviticus 23.) The Rabbi’s have made this a civil new year (the beginning of the year for Jews is Pesach/Passover, see Exodus 12:2)
I have always heard that Judaism is passed down through the mother’s bloodlines, but the bible lineages are always patriarchal. I have heard that if you are born with Jewish parents you are Jewish, but there are so many people I know who call themselves Jewish just because they found
According to Shakespeare, nothing. He asked that question, and justified the answer by having Juliet tell herself that a rose would still smell as sweet even if it was called something else. That’s all good for Juliet, but we should be a little more careful with the names we use
One of the hardest things for a Jewish person to do, especially one who practices the religion (they say practice makes perfect but after a lifetime of practicing we still don’t get it right), is to accept that Jesus is the Messiah. In fact, you can barely even get anyone
I’m no psychiatrist (although my going to one has been suggested) but I think I know, from personal experience, why so many people just refuse to accept the truth about salvation. I think it’s from fear of loss. And what they fear losing is their freedom to sin. No one
Whoa!! Slow down there, son! Of course Jesus took away the sins of the world- why, that’s what John the Baptist told us about him in John 1:29; he said, “Behold! The Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!” Not. If Yeshua took away the sins
The answer is found in Ezekiel 33. This chapter, similar to Ezekiel 18, is where God tells Ezekiel that he, Ezekiel, is like a watchman on a tower. When God tells Ezekiel of upcoming doom for the sinful, like a watchman blowing the shofar to warn people when the enemy
What is the worst sin of all of them? The Torah has 613 commandments, regulations and ordinances, so with all of those rules there would be (at least) 613 sins we can commit. Of course, being the inventive and ambitious species we are, I am certain that humanity has found
Chag Semeach to all my friends out there. That is the Hebrew greeting that translates, roughly, to Joyous Festival. We just celebrated Shavuot, the giving of the law on Mt. Sinai. This is one of the three Big Ones, the festivals that God commanded us to celebrate only at the
What can these two things possibly have in common? Our social media, that’s what. Look at television, Twitter, FaceBook, movies, radio, Youtube, TV sitcoms…art imitates life, and the media is full of sexually sinful activities acceptable as normal (fornication, adultery, homosexuality, even necrophilia if we include dead people in love,
Yeshua, called Jesus by most of the world, is recognized pretty much as the Messiah by the Christian world, although He is also called the Lord, to the exclusion of THE Lord, and God in the Flesh, although there is only one God, and the son of God, which He
In the Manual we read about God’s presence. There was the time He decided to go down and see what was happening in Sodom and Gomorrah, He also went down to see what the humans were doing at Babel, His presence filled the Tabernacle and the Temple, and how many times
A rose. by any other name, would smell as sweet. So said Juliet in the play “Romeo and Juliet.” She was making a point: just because Romeo’s last name was that of the family’s enemy, Romeo, himself, was okay. His name was irrelevant. Is that the same with Yeshua, mostly known
Every time I read this parashah I do not understand the answer Aaron gives to Moses after Nadab and Abihu are destroyed for offering incense that was done in a disrespectful and unauthorized manner. I suppose it has to do with God accepting the sacrifice but since Aaron lost his
Although the definition of these words is very similar, meaning to give someone the ability to do something, the connotation (general usage) is that to empower is to help someone do something beneficial for themselves, and to enable is when we allow someone or support them in doing things harmful
I once knew someone who saw the “If:Then” statement not as a conditional event, but as a threat. If you promised something good, that was always nice, but if the promise was conditional, then it was a threat. If I said I will do this if you do that, doing
Weren’t we in the book of Leviticus last week? How’d we get back to Exodus? Today, actually tonight, begins Passover (‘Pesach’, in Hebrew.) As such, this being one of the most important and happiest of all the Holy Days God gave us, we read this portion of the Torah and
This week I seem to be on a pathway leading to somewhere; where, I don’t know. Monday I felt led to write about building our belief system in something (hopefully God), and yesterday it was about telling people what our beliefs are without forcing it down their throat because, ultimately, it
This book is also known as the Torat Kohanim, or Laws of the Priests. It is all about the Priesthood, regulations for how they are to act, how they get paid and also how to identify clean from unclean. The 7th Sabbatical year known as the Jubilee Year, as well
