Articles

Once again we celebrate the Feast of Dedication or Hanukkah (as it is usually called in more modern times). This year, however, the first day of Hanukkah coincides with the US holiday of Thanksgiving! While we usually find Hanukkah occurring near the time of Christmas, this year the Feast of...

Shabbat Parah, or Sabbath of the (Red) Heifer, is an important reminder of the upcoming festival of Pesach. In ancient times, the slaughter of the Red Heifer and the mixing of its ashes with water for purification, was done in advance of the Pesach, of all the pilgrimage festivals the one drawing...

One can only imagine what the soul’s outlook was for the talmidim of Yeshua as they entered into the Shabbat that week of Chag HaMatzot (Feast of Unleavened Bread) that had seen the death of Yeshua. Dead, and now secured in the tomb for two days, the confusion and despair of His followers was...

In the synagogue traditions that have been developed since the post-destruction era, the Festival of Sukkot, concluding as it does with the celebration of Shemini Atzeret (the “eighth day”), gives way to Simchat Torah, “Rejoicing in the Torah.” Since the yearly cycle (widely adopted by the Jewish...

This Shabbat, the one immediately preceding Purim, is designated as Shabbat Zachor, the Shabbat of Remembering. This is taken from the additional Torah reading (Deut 25:17-19) in which the command is given to remember Amalek and what he did to us as we came out of Egypt. The fact that the earlier...

The name Shemini Atzeret is taken from Num 29:35, “On the eighth day [shemini atzeret] you shall have a solemn assembly, you shall do no laborious work.” Yet the word atzeret does not mean “day” but “concluding meal” or “festival.” Thus, the Rabbis understood this language to indicate that this...

On Shabbat I worship at Beit Hallel, a messianic congregation in Tacoma. As one of the teachers in this congregation, I field questions and concerns, especially from those who regularly visit our services or festival celebrations. Usually the questions of on-lookers have to do with Judaism in...

In the opening chapter of Hebrews, the author goes to great lengths to show that Yeshua is the exalted divine Messiah, the very one spoken of by Daniel the prophet, Who is seated on the throne of God, worshipped even by the angels. It was necessary for the author of this great epistle to begin in...

The study of calendars from the Ancient Near East is fraught with difficulties. Not only are there wide divergencies between calendars, but we often lack sufficient data that plainly describe how various calendars were constructed and put into practice. Even when we narrow our study to calendrical...

Discussions on the place of Torah in the believer’s life often surface other, significant issues. One of these is the question of spirituality. Specifically, since the coming of Messiah Yeshua and the giving of the Spirit at Shavuot (Acts 2), have we moved to an era of greater understanding and...

Certainly all of us relish the story in Mark 12 of the scribe who approaches Yeshua, asking for the “first commandment in the Torah.” The first commandment – ha-mitzvah ha-rishonah. Matthew 22 reads, “the first and great commandment.” There are other differences here as well, but I’m not now going...

We all have to admit that our understanding of what the Bible says, and what it means, has been greatly affected by the English translations we read. Since most of us are not able to read the Scriptures in their original languages, it stands to reason that our understanding of the Bible’s message...