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Assumptions about the Assumption
It’s time to redeem Miriam the mother of our Master and give her the honor and respect that she deserves and is in fact given in the Gospels themselves. The best way to do that in Messianic Judaism is to look at how holy figures are honored in Jewish tradition.
7-minute read
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Comforting Words
When something traumatic or emotionally painful happens to someone we care about, we try to comfort the person, offering words of consolation and sympathy. We try to point out the bright side, and we try to lift the person’s spirits by invoking future hopes. That’s what the Sabbath of Consolation tries to do for Israel.
4-minute read
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Praying for the Ingathering
We must not confuse the Didache’s fervent petitions for the imminent inauguration of the Messianic Age as endorsing the idea of an escapism eschatology. The Didache firmly lays out the Way of Life with a call to all followers of Messiah to walk in the Torah daily.
8-minute read
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Tisha B’Av and the Physician’s Advice
On the ninth day of the month of Av (Tisha B’Av), 70 CE, the world lost the Holy Temple, which was meant to be the house of prayer for all nations. Now not one stone of it rests upon another, as our Master predicted. What destroyed it? It wasn’t Rome.
9-minute read
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The Sabbath of Vision
To see the final redemption, we must begin by recognizing what we are missing without it. Shabbat Chazon is an opportunity to glimpse the world as it once was and as it one day can be. Then we must heed the words of Isaiah and reflect the beauty of Torah in our lives.
7-minute read
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Judgment and Mercy: The Hands of God
A simple person might think that God is confined to the realm of heaven. This of course would be heresy. One may likewise be tempted to think that the one place that he wouldn’t be is in hell. But this isn’t what the Bible teaches.
9-minute read
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Job, Gentiles, and the Ninth of the Month of Av
Many non-Jewish disciples of Yeshua with whom I come into contact express a lack of interest and disconnect with these fast days and the traditions that surround them. They dismiss them as “traditions of men” that are “not biblical, just Jewish” as if somehow just because they are Jewish they are not for us or, worse yet, are not important.
6-minute read
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Sacred Dining: Pre-Meal Blessings for Community Gatherings
Although the blessings in the Didache are extensive, they do not contain any of the themes that we would expect to be present in a Eucharist ceremony. Namely, the text does not mention the suffering, death, or resurrection of Yeshua; sin, sacrifice, atonement, or forgiveness; the final Passover meal; or Yeshua’s blood, Yeshua’s body, the new covenant, or the phrase “in remembrance of me.”
7-minute read
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From Despair to Hope: The Month of Av
Even at the beginning of exile and the destruction of the Temple, God promises that one day the Messiah will come and redeem Israel. The story is not so much about predicting when the Messiah will be born but to point out that even in total darkness there is light in the distance.
7-minute read
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Thy Kingdom Come: A Summer of Unforgettable Memories
It was inspiring to hear the kids talk about ways they were already implementing the kingdom and new ideas they had during the discussion. Our goal was for the campers to not only be inspired but also take home their inspiration.
7-minute read
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Remembering Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles
The date the the death of the Apostle Paul has been preserved in the Syriac Church tradition. The source is called “The Book of the Bee.” It was compiled in the twelfth century by Solomon, the Bishop of Bassora and preserves a lot of very Semitic-sounding material, which may indeed go back to the early Jewish believers.
6-minute read
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Pray as the Lord Commanded
The Master’s rulings on prayer are much the same as they are for fasting. We are not to make an ostentatious show of our prayer life. Furthermore, the hypocrites that Yeshua criticized as those who “heap up empty words” were Gentiles, not Jews. It is hypocrisy and showmanship that the Didache urges us to avoid, not traditional Jewish prayer, worship, or liturgy.
7-minute read