Articles

Why is the Festival called “Shavuot”? Why are we to count the days and weeks between Pesach and Shavuot? What were the historical events which occurred on Shavuot and how do these reveal the lessons we are to learn as we celebrate the Festival? All of the appointed times offer us a special

Sukkot (Festival of Booths) is known by the Sages as וּני ֵתַחְמ ִ שׂ ן ָ מְז, z’man simchateinu, “the time of our rejoicing.” This comes from the commandment to rejoice at Sukkot: ‘Now on the first day you shall take for yourselves the foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches and boughs of leafy

In Deut 23:1–4 [Heb: 23:2–6], those excluded from “the assembly of YHVH” include (1) a male who has crushed testicles or whose male organ has been severed; (2) no one who is of illegitimate birth, which appears to mean “one born of an incestuous or adulterous relationship, (3) a descendant of one

The pages that follow comprise an Excursus found in my Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew (Vol. 2, pp. 463–94, TorahResource, 2008). Apart from these opening comments and a few additional comments added at the end of the Excursus, these pages are identical with the Commentary pages. I have simply

When discussing the Last Supper it is only natural to begin with the debate over the chronology and nature of the meal. Many books and much scholarship has been dedicated to this specific aspect of the Last Supper. So much so that Charles C. Torrey wrote:

Within the New Testament, we see the Apostles observing the festivals. For instance, the events of Acts 2 and the giving of the Holy Spirit take place on the festival of Shavuot, Paul spends Passover in Philippi and then hurries back to Jerusalem so he can celebrate the festival of Shavuot

Recently a lengthy email was forwarded to me in which the author of the email was giving numerous reasons why the name “Yeshua” ( ַע וּ שֵׁי) was a deliberately “shortened” form of the original “Yahshua” (supposedly ַע ֻשׁ ו הָי) by those who wanted to remove any reference to Yah (הָי) in the name of

The role of women in the Messianic Assembly has become a very important topic in our times—and rightly so. After all, this issue involves people. More than that, it involves the Kehilah (Congregation) which belongs to Messiah and therefore enters upon the question of His glory. Further, the Scriptur

Traditionally, in Christian circles, the Ten Words are called the “Ten Commandments.” However, the biblical text uses the expression ‘aseret hadevarim, “Ten Words” when referring to what God inscribed on the two tablets which Moses brought down from Mt. Sinai. In fact, referring to these as Ten Word

In this paper I want to investigate the claim that the the term Rabbi is anachronistic in the Gospels. In The Gospels and Rabbinic Judaism,¹ the authors outline the premise that the term “Rabbi” was not used until after the destruction of the Temple (70 C.E.) and therefore

Purim (םיִרוּפּ), meaning “lots,” celebrates the victory which God gave to the Jews when it appeared that Haman, an evil officer in the Persian court, had gained the authority to attempt their mass destruction. The book of Esther is the biblical account, and lays the basis for the yearly festival.

In the Tanach, the concept of a “month” is usually represented by the word, chodesh, formed on the noun, chadâsh, “to make anew,” “to renew” or on the noun, châdâsh, “to be new.” The new moon (the reappearance of the thin crescent) marked the beginning of the month for the Hebrew calendar

In Exodus 19:1 we read: In the third month after the sons of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on this very day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. What is curious about the wording of this verse is the phrase “on this very day” (bayom hazeh), which seeks to mark a specific day, yet with

What is meant by “zicharon” in Lev 23:24? The word itself is formed on the verb “zachor”, “to remember,” and is usually translated a “memorial,” a “remembrance,” or a “reminder.” Thus, Yom Teruah is a day on which the shofar is to be blown, and the purpose of blowing the shofar is to evoke

As the disciples of Yeshua, each year as we celebrate Pesach we see the remarkable ways in which the themes of the festival are fulfilled in Yeshua’s death and resurrection and why, the divine calendar of the universe, Pesach was chosen as the time when our Savior, our Pesach sacrifice (1Cor 5:7)

Introduction The purpose of this paper is (1) to give a brief overview of what constitutes the Qere/Ketiv in the Masoretic notes of the extant codices, (2) to survey the history of interpretation as to the origins, purpose, and classifications of the Qere/Ketiv and to offer a brief evaluation of the

In the emerging Torah Movements, we rightly desire to distinguish between holy and profane. This desire has become all the more intense since we have realized how much paganism was intertwined with some of the religious rituals in the Christian Church, which, for most of us, was the place of our

The issue of tongues is one which is quite brood in scope. From lexicographical studies one must proceed to exegesis, theology, church history, philosophy of religion, psychology and so cio-psychology. What was once a fairly small and somewhat localized occurrence has now crossed nearly all cultures