The festival of Rosh HaShanah, literally the ‘Head of the Year,’ marks the start of the Hebrew calendar year. This year it falls on 29th September and commences the year 5772.  It is the first celebration of the Fall Festival cycle that we refer to as the High Holidays, which includes Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. […]

We are often taught that “serving the Lord” means “leading” strangers “to the Lord” at the checkout counter of our local market—or in line at the DMV. But it really means letting God’s “light” shine forth from our lives. It means walking with the Lord in such a way that we reflect the character of […]

A covenant is a “formal binding agreement defining relationships and responsibilities between two or more parties.” Biblical covenants were often “cut,”—as in the case of the Covenant that God made with Abraham (Gen 15:18). It was facilitated when Abraham took “a heifer, a goat, and a ram … along with a dove and a young […]

Midrash comes from a Hebrew word that means investigation, interpretation or exposition. Most Midrashim (the plural form of midrash) are continuous exegetical1 commentaries on various books of the Bible. An example of midrashic exposition is mentioned in the Book of Nehemiah (8:8), “So they (the priests) read in the book in the law of God […]

The Jewish people are not “saved” by keeping the Law (Torah)! Not only were the Ten Commandments given to the people of Israel after they were redeemed from the land of Egypt, the “tablets” that were written on were broken before Moses delivered them to the people (Exo 32:19).

In the Bible, the first six days of the week are not named. The first day of the week is simply designated yom echad—“day one.” The second day is yom shini—the “second day,” etc. However, in the western world, the days of the week are named—each one in honor of a different god.

The idea of “salvation by works of the Law” was not a theology that characterized 1st-century Judaism (any more than it does 21st-century Judaism). The “Law” was given to the Jewish people after they were redeemed from Egypt! It was designed not only to be a way of life for them in the Promised Land but […]

“… know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in (Yeshua the Messiah). So we, too, have put our faith in (Messiah Yeshua) that we may be justified by faith in (Messiah) and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified” (Gal […]

Why do we refer to Jesus as Yeshua? Because, Yeshua is the masculine form of the Hebrew word “salvation.” Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) is the proper Hebrew name of Jesus. “Jesus” is derived from the Greek Iêsous (!Ihsou'”). Iêsous is a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew name Y’ho-shua or Joshua (יְהוֹשֻׁעַ) and means “the Lord is salvation.”

The connection that Jews have with one another is not based on shared doctrinal views—their connection is organic. It is a “living” connection based on a shared history, a shared culture, a shared language, a shared struggle and perhaps more importantly, a shared covenantal “calling.” But, you may say, “The Jewish people have been scattered […]