Have you ever felt as you read the Bible that it makes no sense? You understand the words but not the meaning or the point the text is trying to make. The truth is - you are not alone. I have just published a new book entitled "Missing Ingredients:...
One of the main features of the Jewish Passover celebration is Matzah (מַצָּה), the unleavened bread. In fact, there is no Passover without this basic ingredient. Its tale is central in the ritual of remembering the Exodus deliverance. So, each year, just prior to Passover, Jews clean out...
Everyone knows that translations from one language to another can be misleading, and sometimes important ideas and concepts get lost in translation. When it comes to the Bible, that is true as well. As hard as translators work, the readers can still misconstrue the meaning of the text. The context...
In October of 2016 Israel Antiquities Authority unveiled a papyrus that is believed to be 2,700 years old. Israeli archaeologists have discovered an ancient wine ledger that they believe contains the earliest written reference to Jerusalem outside the Bible. This makes a very short text a remarkable and rare...
It is hard to speak of trust in a world filled with deception. It is very hard to trust, especially if you have been misled and taken advantage of in the past. Life experiences often drive us to put up walls and to hold back our trust. Every day we...
You may have heard that Jesus was a Rabbi. So what? Knowing this fact has no value if one does not know much about ancient Rabbis. Merely stating that Jesus is Jewish or that he was a Rabbi means absolutely nothing unless one understands what stands behind such identity. What...
In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus said to his disciple Peter, “I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matt 16:19). A couple of...
A “Torah expert” (νομικός; nomikos) once asked Yeshua, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (Lk 10:25). Like a good rabbi, Jesus answered with a question: “What is written in the Torah?” (10:26). The learned man replied that, of all the Torah commands, it is most important...
The piercing note of a shofar – a ram’s horn used in Jewish religious ceremonies – cuts through the mountain air of the Galilee. Here in northern Israel, shepherdess Jenna Lewinsky is raising a flock of “Jacob Sheep” as a religious calling. With anything up to six horns on each animal,...