Last time, we spoke about one of the greatest quandaries of the New Testament: the Messianic Secret—the fact that Jesus continuously discouraged and avoided use of the title “Messiah” throughout the length of his public ministry. Before we continue any further, I need to ensure that we distinguish between two different audiences: the audience of […]
Some of my readers may remember the series about Hidden Messiah that I presented on this blog some time ago. At that time I was working on a book about the Hidden Messiah, and therefore it was only natural that I would write on this topic. However, there were things that I didn’t write about […]
The Prophetic Clock Maybe, some of my readers remember my post from the previous New Year: ENTERING 2017 FROM JERUSALEM. I wrote about the “prophecy” of Rabbi Judah Ben Samuel (Hebrew name is Yehudah Hachassid – Judah the Pious) and numerous English-speaking websites that “prophesied” the coming of Messiah in 2017. I showed that we […]
As Christmas draws near, I would like to say a few words about this wonderful time of a year. Yes, we all know that the origins of Christmas cannot be traced back to either the teachings or the practices of the first believers, and yes, we also know that Christmas was not observed until about […]
WHERE IS THE MIRACLE? Today we continue our Hanukkah reflections. Last time, we followed the narrative of the First book of Maccabees, which recounts the events that Hanukkah commemorates. We saw that, after a series of battles, the Maccabees miraculously recaptured the Temple. They began to cleanse and restore it and were finally able to […]
Last year, Christmas and Hanukkah fell on the same day and therefore we didn’t have a chance to discuss Hanukkah at length and separately: last year, my Hanukkah post on this blog was called “Hanukkah reflections for Christmas” (https://israelbiblicalstudies.com/jewish-studies/hanukkah-reflections-christmas/ ). This year, Hanukkah starts almost two weeks earlier (December 12th), so will discuss, in a couple […]
My dear readers, every time I use the PARDES technique, applying it to a particular Scripture text, I always tremble in excitement and anticipation when I reach the final level – SOD, secret or mystery. So far, I have never been disappointed: the things that are revealed on this level, for me, indeed have been […]
REMEZ Last time, we started to analyze the very controversial story of Abram’s going down to Egypt, in Genesis 12. We began to apply to this episode, four levels of Jewish Biblical exegesis, PARDES, and we spoke about the first level – PESHAT – the plain, literal meaning of the text. Today we will be […]
SHOULD ABRAHAM HAVE GONE TO EGYPT? Last time, we began discussing the Torah portion Lech Lecha – God’s call to Abraham and Abraham’s extraordinary obedience. However, as we all know, right after this incredible act of unreserved and complete obedience, just after he arrives in the Land, Abraham goes down to Egypt to escape famine. […]
TIKKUN OLAM BEGINS When we enter Torah Portion Lech-Lecha, an entirely new period begins. So far, we have seen God’s intervention in judgment: both in the flood and in the story of the tower of Babel, God punished man for his sin and rebellion. But when God called Abram, He personally and actively intervened in […]
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