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
In the early part of the 15th Century, if you asked a scientist about the world, he would have told you it was flat. In the 18th Century if you asked a doctor how to cure diseases he would have told you to bleed the patient. In the 19th Century,
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