The Jewish Studies Blog

The Hebrew word for Rainbow is קֶשֶׁת – Qeshet .  Interestingly enough Keshet, other than Rainbow, also means a war bow. We can easily see the connection between Rainbow and a bow in English, but since it is one and the same word in Hebrew the connection there cannot be clearer. Why would the ancient Hebrews […]

Various people in the Bible encountered manifestations of God’s Holiness. One key text that always comes to mind is the experience of Isaiah the prophet when he saw the vision of Israel God sitting on the heavenly throne. Remember? It was the year of death of a righteous King of Judah and the people found […]

In Ps.133:1 we read (and often times sing!) – הנה מה טוב ומה נעים שבת אחים גם יחד – (Pronounced: hiney ma tov u’ma-nayim Shevet ach-im gam ya-chad), which translated means “How good and how please it is for brothers to sit (literally)/to dwell together”. The root (י-ח-ד) signifies the basic idea of being “together” […]

The word יְהוּדָה  Yehudah   is usually translated as “Judah” in English Bibles. This name has such rich meaning for both Jewish and Christian traditions. For example, in the Hebrew Bible, God called King David, who came from the tribe of Judah, “the man after My own heart” (1 Sam. 13:14). In the New Testament, Jesus, […]

1Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. The story begins with introducing to us Lazarus (in Hebrew Eliezer, which means God will help) who resides in Bethany (in Hebrew Beit Aniah, which means the House of the Poor). These Hebrew names are not coincidental. Bethany […]

Way before we called the people of Israel “Jews” (which happened long after the Babylonian exile was over), the Bible called them “Hebrews”. The very first “Hebrew” was Abraham – the father of all monotheistic believers. But what does “Hebrew” actually mean in the Hebrew language? What characterized Abraham as such? The word Hebrew comes […]

For better viewing click HERE. (To read the Battle of Israel’s Shepherd’s Part 1 click HERE). 22 At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. It is clear that the feast of Hanukkah is in view here. Hanukkah […]

The Battle of Israel’s Shepherds 1 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The […]

“Most students of Christianity are ignorant of Jewish Studies, while students of classical Judaism are generally clueless of their Christian counterpart. Yet neither can be properly understood when considered only apart. The Jewish Studies for Christians study group, therefore, is a rare find.” (Prof. Ishay Rosen-Zvi , Professor of Talmudic Literature, Tel Aviv University) To […]

For better viewing click HERE.                     BROKEN BODY The broken body not only limps, it stumbles upon itself, tangles in multiple fractures, shrouding the semblance of divine image gone spastic. The ruptured body walks wounded, configures out of control, its unaligned confusion becoming convulsive. Divine life […]