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Monthly Archives: December 2010
PODCAST: Yeshua in Context – Sabbath Grain
Mark 2:23-28 is a riddle wrapped in a riddle smothered by an enigma. The questions it raises get deeper the closer we look. Yeshua is a master of confounding his critics and implying something just beyond the edges of comprehension. … Continue reading
Posted in Sabbath, Torah, Yeshua, Yeshua In Context
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MJPassages 12-31-10
Fish in the Israeli desert? Jim Davila comments on Simcha Jacobovici (the Naked Archaeologist). Synagogues in the Middle Ages using the Greek Bible? Free eBook versions of the Siddur? The Economist says PhD’s are not worthwhile?
Posted in Archaeology, Bible, Prayer
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Rabbi Kinbar on Why MJ’s Should Learn Hebrew
Not just the rabbis and rabbis-in-training, but you! Even a little Hebrew is better than none. Take the challenge in 2011. He provides a link to some great self-learning or group learning materials. Read it here.
Miracles (C.S. Lewis), #3
I’m slowly eking out a parallel series on C.S. Lewis and Abraham Joshua Heschel. You can find the earlier installments by using Categories on the right sidebar and looking under their names. Here are two contemporaries who epitomize good Christian … Continue reading
Posted in C.S. Lewis, Christian, Philosophy
1 Comment
Middle Ground: How to Irritate Both Sides
You know you’re in that annoying middle ground that seemingly satisfies no one when you manage to evoke disagreement and irritation from both sides of an issue. I mean, on the one hand, Judah is satirizing me here and Gene … Continue reading
Posted in Derek's Writings, messianic, Messianic Jewish, Messianic Judaism
2 Comments
Bible & Archaeology News 12-29
Will the Russians find Sodom beneath the Dead Sea? . . . A humorous rejoinder (with pictures) to mythicists (they say Yeshua is a myth). . . . A scholar commends caring about both TEXT and ARTIFACT.
Posted in Archaeology, Bible
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Not Jewish Yet Drawn to Torah, Part 6
This post should not be read in isolation from previous ones in this series. If you are short on time, at least read “Part 5” here. We have now come to the part of this series which some readers have … Continue reading
Posted in Christian, Gentiles, Judaism, Judeo-Christian, messianic, Messianic Jewish, Messianic Judaism, Torah
28 Comments
A Very Non-Expert Introduction to Mussar
I spent the later part of the afternoon yesterday meeting with a friend and congregant to compare notes and discuss Mussar. Mussar is a movement coming out of Lithuania in the 19th century. Mussar is about working on the improvement … Continue reading
Posted in ethics, Judaism, messianic, Messianic Jewish, Messianic Judaism, Spirituality
2 Comments
Complaining, With Permission, to God
At the end of Exodus 2, we read that after a long time, Pharaoh died. Israel groaned under bondage. They cried out and their cry came up to God in heaven. God heard their groaning and remembered his covenant. Most … Continue reading
Posted in Bible, Judaism, messianic, Messianic Jewish, Messianic Judaism, Theology
Tagged Lament, Molinism
4 Comments
PODCAST: Yeshua in Context – Disciples, 2 Versions
There are two very different versions of the story of the call of the initial disciples. They perfectly illustrate the difference storytelling makes in the gospels and how storytelling forms a message. The two versions actually tell us a lot … Continue reading
Testimonies from the Hebrew Bible
Certain verses from the Hebrew Bible get used over and over in the gospels as testimonies about Yeshua. It is a modernist assumption that the prophets “saw” Yeshua and “spoke” about him. First century Jewish ideas about God’s hand in … Continue reading
Posted in Bible, Yeshua, Yeshua In Context
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Newer, Better, Leaner, but not Meaner
MJ Passages gets a new purpose and a facelift. Earthquake coming to Israel? Dead Sea Scrolls coming to Google? Yeshua speaks about consumerism and we need to hear it as Christmas approaches?
Posted in Messianic Jewish
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Summary and Perspectives on Part 5
This is a summary and a statement of perspective on “Not Jewish Yet Drawn to Torah, Part 5.” We had a lively discussion. Commenters have varying concerns including: (1) Leaders of congregations who do not want to marginalize any person … Continue reading
Posted in Gentiles, Torah
21 Comments
News: The Life and Sayings of Yeshua, a Jewish book
The Mishnah was compiled in 200 CE. The midrashim, the early ones, may have been compiled in the fifth century. The four books of the life and sayings of Yeshua called the gospels were compiled between 67 and 90 CE. … Continue reading
Posted in FFOZ, Franz Delitzsch, Vine of David, Yeshua, Yeshua In Context
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Not Jewish Yet Drawn to Torah, Part 5
I have a friend who led a Messianic congregation with few Jews. In the early days, he assumed that non-Jewish followers of Yeshua could and should take on a life of Torah and even specifically Jewish ways of keeping the … Continue reading
Posted in Bible, Christian, Gentiles, Judaism, Judeo-Christian, messianic, Messianic Jewish, Messianic Judaism
31 Comments
Three Pillar Stories in Mark
Mark’s gospel is organized as a series of short scenes in a style similar to the chreia of Greek rhetoric, descriptive scenes that show something about the character. Scene after scene, Mark’s chreia serve the purpose introduced in Mark 1:1, … Continue reading
Posted in Bible, Yeshua, Yeshua In Context
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Mount Sinai and Mount Zion
I wrote something for a Christian audience explaining Hebrews 12:18-29. It is a passage, like many in Hebrews, which can be misunderstood as anti-Jewish or anti-Torah. Actually, it is a pro-Torah message of considerable genius, as I try to show … Continue reading
Not Jewish Yet Drawn to Torah, Part 4
I’ve had many emails asking me to resume this series. Sometimes I start something and fail to complete it. The series has been my thinking, as a rabbi with plenty of non-Jewish members in my synagogue, about the phenomenon of … Continue reading
Posted in Gentiles, Judaism, Judeo-Christian, messianic, Messianic Jewish, Messianic Judaism, Torah
25 Comments
PODCAST: Yeshua in Context – Women as Eyewitnesses
At the end of each of the four gospels, in the scenes at the cross, the burial, and the empty tomb of Yeshua, we find something different: the sudden presence of women who are listed by name. The concentration of … Continue reading
Pagan Christianity?
Boaz Michael says it well. Christianity-despisers need to do some historical homework and quit throwing stones. Judeo-Christian and Messianic Jewish belief is neither anti-Christianity nor anti-Judaism. Boaz gets very honest and a touch angry here. It makes for great reading. … Continue reading
Posted in FFOZ
2 Comments
God in Search of Man, #3
This is all part of a parallel series on Heschel’s God in Search of Man and Lewis’s Miracles. If Messianic Judaism is a sort of Christian-Jewish hybrid, why not study two the greatest modern thinkers, one from each? And the … Continue reading
Posted in Abraham Joshua Heschel, Bible, C.S. Lewis, Judaism, Philosophy
3 Comments
The Date of Christmas and the Pagan Question
A well-balanced article. It contains surprises for people of varying opinions about Christmas and December 25. http://www.bib-arch.org/e-features/christmas.asp
Empowered Experience: Laying Tefillin
Life with God isn’t purely intellectual. It isn’t purely emotional. And emotional-rationality doesn’t explain it all either. I am not alone, in the vast see of Jews and Christians, who feel we have connected in reality with God through experience. … Continue reading
Empowering Jewish Identity in Yeshua
Being Jewish has long been growing less and less meaningful to Jews. A few symbols of the covenant are clung to. I think of the popularity of the Passover Seder and High Holidays and Hanukkah. But when Adam Sandler has … Continue reading
Posted in Judaism, Judeo-Christian, messianic, Messianic Jewish, Messianic Judaism
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Messianic Jewish Musings 
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