This is one of the happiest festivals we have. Fairs, games, reading the book of Esther (Hadassah) with groggers and shouting. For those that don’t know the way we read this book in the Synagogue, groggers (noisemakers) are handed out to everyone, adults and children. When we read the book (it’s
Do you recall what happened when Joshua first attacked Ai? They had just come from a great triumph at Jericho, defeating the fortified town and destroying all the people and all the booty, just as God commanded. Oh, but wait! Someone didn’t destroy all the booty, did he? Achan kept
There are 5 Covenants that God made with us. The first was the Noahide Covenant, then the Abrahamic, Mosaic and Davidic. Finally, there is the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31). The usual Christian teaching is that the New Covenant did away with most of the previous 4 covenants, leaving only what
In the Seventies, the big spiritual saying was, “I found it!”, meaning (of course) Jesus. There was also at that time a big resurrection (no pun intended) of Messianic Judaism, which has continued to grow. At that time, being Jewish, not caring, but still having been brought up being taught
What are the two taboos? Never discuss religion and politics, right? That’s what we are told, and it’s good advice. The reason I say they are two too many is because when God created everything, His original plan was that there would be only one, non-taboo discussion: Him. The governmental
Sometimes I am both blessed and trusted by my Pastor and asked to deliver a Shabbat message. I am sure there are others out there who are not the congregational leader but also are asked to deliver a message now and then. Or maybe you are a congregational leader and
The Kingdom of God was preached to us by Yeshua. Even if you don’t believe He was/is the Messiah God promised, He did preach about God’s kingdom. He never created a new religion. So if Yeshua was Jewish, preached about Jewish law and customs, stuck totally to what the Torah
When Yeshua was asked what is the most important commandment of all, His answer was simple- Love the Lord and love each other; on these two commandments pivot all the writings and the Prophets. Notice He didn’t say , “…and all the other stuff that will be added later.” The
I thought we’d take a different path this morning and talk about the mechanics of Torah interpretation. I am constantly telling people to read the Manual, yet I haven’t really helped anyone in understanding how to read the Torah. The following suggestions are from a Bible study class I used to
Do you recall where, in the Bible, we are told that just believing in Yeshua as the Messiah and Son of God isn’t enough? It is followed by the fact that even the demons believe He is the Son of God (I’ll give you a hint- look for it in
Ooh- what a nasty title, Steve! How dare you say I am not doing what Jesus did! You don’t even know me. That’s right- I don’t know how you worship, but (as the title says) from my experience watching and hearing about “Christian” service, you are probably not doing what
What do you think would have happened if Joseph was not a Godly person? Who would have interpreted the dream Pharaoh had? And if Daniel wasn’t a real man of God? Would good old’ Nebbie-what’s-his-name ever have found out about the different kingdoms that would follow his? Or his dementia
It seems that every parasha I read has more than I could ever write or speak about in less than a tome. On Fridays I always go through the readings: first I read, then I glance through, and finally (if I still need to) I scan. I read comments in my
Have you heard the one where two guys are talking about their ex-wives. The first one says, “My Ex isn’t too bad to me. She is still mad at me but she is getting over it.” The other guys says, “My Ex is the kind to forgive and forget- only
Why does who hate us? There is so much hatred in the world, who are you talking about, Steve? I am talking about the Jewish people, and anyone else who believes in God and is faithful. The world is the one hating, and Jews and Believers are the ones it
Some mornings I am just blank. Nothing has happened in the past day or so to give me an inspiration, nothing in my prayers comes up that I feel is a message worth sharing, and worse than all that: this morning the comics section (with the crossword) was missing and
There is always, when we refer to the Word of God, just so much in here. We could talk about God’s repetition of His covenant: first to Abraham, then to Yitzchak, and now this third time to Jacob. This was the last time (that I can recall) God repeated this covenant directly
Sounds like a silly question, doesn’t it? I mean, really? Why shouldn’t I be happy that God loves me? What’s it matter why I am happy? Maybe it doesn’t matter, in the long run. Maybe I am on a personal bent here, but I think it is important that we
I am that guy you call when you don’t know why your computer isn’t doing what you expect it to do. One of my personal peeves is that people work with their computers all day, and it’s almost impossible to find a job, other than manual labor, that doesn’t require
We begin this parashah with the death of Sarah. She is mourned by Abraham, and buried in the Cave of Machpelah, which Abraham buys from Ephron, a Hittite. As he is also old and close to death, Abraham makes Eleazar, his servant, swear to him not to bring Isaac back
