Thousands of years ago, ancient Hebrews believed that their God was not tied to a specific place. They called his throne Merkavah (chariot). A throne with wheels and floating Keruvim moved to where He needed to be. The Bible depicted this reality in the visions seen by prophets of old,...
Exodus 28:29 says, Venasa Aharon et shemot benei Israel “and Aaron shall carry the names of the sons of Israel” bachoshen hamishpat, al libo - “on the breastplate of decision, over his heart.” Aaron’s vestments had a breastplate with 12 precious stones, and the names of the 12...
Pinchas Shir joins us to continue the exploration of his course, The Stories of Jewish Church. We keep in mind the conversation in the previous episode about the initial believers being Jewish. Today we talk about Peter's use of the Psalms, the added cultural memory of the timing...
Professor Pinchas Shir joins me to talk about his course The Stories of Jewish Church. This is a wildly popular course at IBC because it takes familiar stories and brings to life new ideas. This week we talk about how Jewish the original church was, why we know they were...
Taking a break from cultivating the land for the whole year sounds good in theory, but it can impact people economically in a major way. Most of us are not farmers today, but it is not hard to imagine the implications of such a step of faith. Taking a break...
In our weekly reading, Pharaoh was not counting sheep. Instead, he saw disturbing dreams about sets of cows and stocks of grain. The dreams troubled him. He knew they were important but could not make sense of the message they carried. He realized that he himself did not have answers....
Every time I go on vacation I need to go somewhere. I can't stay at home. If I stay at home, I will end up doing things around the house. It will not be a vacation. I can't look at things that need to be done...
Sticky situations. Standing in front of pivotal decisions is something we all do. Many stories in the Torah inspire us about these very scenarios. This is one of those stories. Some of us face hard decisions quite often, and some of us are facing them right now. We face doubt....
Why does Torah give fathers and husbands such power over promises their daughters and wives make? It’s unfair. Are women not capable of making good promises? Are they prone to overpromise? Of course, the answer to all these questions is NO. Women are just as capable of making good,...