Pope Francis Heading to Holy Land With Rabbi and Imam as Interfaith Wing Men

This might be worth keeping an eye on….

This article from the Jewish Daily Forward begins:

(JTA) — With a rabbi and a Muslim sheik as his travel companions, Pope Francis is heading to the Middle East with what he hopes will be a powerful message of interfaith respect.

It will be the first time that leaders of other faiths are part of an official papal delegation. The aim is to send “an extremely strong and explicit signal” about interfaith dialogue and the “normality” of having friends of other religions, chief Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi told reporters.

Starting Saturday, the three-day pilgrimage will take the 77-year-old pontiff to Jordan, the West Bank and Israel. The packed agenda includes courtesy calls on government leaders; open-air Masses; meetings with Christian, Muslim and Jewish religious authorities; and visits to holy sites of the three religions.

The two men joining Francis are friends with whom the pope frequently collaborated when he was the archbishop of Buenos Aires: Rabbi Abraham Skorka, former rector of the Latin American Rabbinical Seminary in Buenos Aires, and Sheik Omar Abboud, a former secretary-general of the Islamic Center of Argentina.

“I don’t expect Francis to wave a magic wand and bring together Jews and Palestinians,” Skorka told the Italian Catholic newspaper Avvenire. “But his charisma and his great humility can give a powerful message of peace for the whole Middle East.”

Since being elected to the papacy in February 2013 Continue reading “Pope Francis Heading to Holy Land With Rabbi and Imam as Interfaith Wing Men”

Tales from the Bus. Parenting.

Thursday was an icky day. No two ways about it!

I drove a field trip to Columbia and may as well have been at the helm of a submarine… so much so that a teacher had to use an umbrella IN the bus to stay dry! That bad! But I’ll save that story.

As I was making my afternoon run, I was dropping one little girl whose parents always meet her at the stop. In fact, one is with her every morning as well, physically picking her up and putting her on the first step of the bus, or lifting her from the bottom step. As yesterday would have it, in the fading light rain, we arrived at her stop with nobody waiting, so she hops off the bus and begins running toward the house and I thought, ‘Good for her! Standing on her own two feet.’

Just as I began to pull away I saw dad sprint from the house with a jacket, throw it over the little girls head, presumably so she wouldn’t melt, and scoop her up to carry her the remaining ten yards to the porch.

I thought, ‘They are so going to make her into a prima dona. Continue reading “Tales from the Bus. Parenting.”

Jubilee, Yom Kippur and Isaiah 61

This week’s Torah Portion, Behar (‘on the Mount’), is primarily about the seventh year Sabbaths and the year of Jubilee. Leviticus 25 gives us many details of this joyous event of freedom that was commanded to occur every

From Wiki:Shofar... Old Jerusalem Yochanan ben Zakkai synagogue - A flask of oil and a shofar for the anointing of the eagerly-awaited Mashiach.[1] — From Wiki:Shofar… Old Jerusalem Yochanan ben Zakkai synagogue – A flask of oil and a shofar for the anointing of the eagerly-awaited Mashiach.[1]

50 years in Israel’s calendar. On this date that began a Sabbatical year, slaves received freedom, debts were cancelled and land was returned to families who might have lost it during difficult circumstances. What joy!

In our Torah study today at Davar Chaim, I pondered aloud the juxtaposition of this first day of Jubilees occurring on Yom Kippur, traditionally a day of mourning, of ashes, and of weakness induced by fasting. Here is the verse,

⁸‘You are also to count off seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years, so that you have the time of the seven sabbaths of years, namely, forty-nine years. ⁹You shall then sound a ram’s horn abroad on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the day of atonement Continue reading “Jubilee, Yom Kippur and Isaiah 61”

eHow to pray for the (errant) Messianic

Do you have an errant Messianic or Hebrew roots person in your life that you pray for? Well, here is exactly how you can pray for them!! I think I can promise you, with full assurance, that God will answer this prayer!!

First, a little background.

I am one of those who Christendom perceives to be errant, so, feel free to pray this very prayer for me as well… I try to the best of my abilities and by the leading of the Spirit to be obedient to God’s ways as expressed in the Torah. I also firmly hold to my faith in Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah. By traditional Christendom I am at best, confused and at worst, LOST! So, if you pray this for me, I will not be offended! In fact, I will thank you!

Here is the deal. A couple weeks ago, someone wrote me asking for help with a passage from 2 Corinthians 3 about the veil of Moses and the hardening of hearts and minds. Continue reading “eHow to pray for the (errant) Messianic”

Why don’t you eat skunk?

Seriously. Why don’t you eat skunk?

Well, because anybody with half of a brain knows that skunk is not food!

In the discussion of food, many want to run to Mark 7:19 and errantly declare that ‘Jesus made all foods clean.’

Well, a simple reading of the context of the passage reveals that the topic is not even about food. The topic is TRADITIONS of men that are used to override clear Scripture.

IF Yeshua/Jesus declared skunk (or pork) to be clean, then He was teaching against the Torah and the Pharisees had a legitimate reason to kill Him (Deuteronomy 13:1-5) and did not need false witnesses (Mark 14:55-59)! The very fact that nobody lifted a finger or voice of dissent in Mark 7 indicates that everyone in the crowd knew that when He said ‘food’ He was, by definition, speaking of ‘clean’ food… that which the Torah already defined! They knew, without any question that skunk was still NOT food… Neither was pork, hamster, cockroach, lobster, shrimp, alligator, armadillo, buzzard, etc…

Put yourself in the shoes of the listeners that day and ask yourself, Continue reading “Why don’t you eat skunk?”

And His name shall be called…

Recently, I have been pondering Isaiah 9:6-7, a couple verses often quoted by Christendom about the Messiah. What has struck me is the seeming incongruity it has with several theological tenets often postulated by those who quote it.

Isaiah 9:⁶For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;
And the government will ^[a]rest on His shoulders;
And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
⁷There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace,
On the throne of David and over his kingdom,
To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness
From then on and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.

Read that slowly and carefully a couple times.

It is the verses that we have heard so many times that we can rattle them off without thinking that are hardest to understand mostly because we get set in a particular paradigm and then never see past that lens/filter. Continue reading “And His name shall be called…”

‘IF,’ and ‘AND.’ Three perspectives….

Ever noticed some verses can have totally different meanings, depending on whose perspective or lens you read it through?

⁵Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My ^[a]own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; Exodus 19:5

Christendom sees,

⁵Now ~~then, if you will indeed~~ obey My voice ~~and keep My covenant,~~ then you shall be My ^[a]own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine;

They have and speak of the ‘Spirit.’

Judaism sees, Continue reading “‘IF,’ and ‘AND.’ Three perspectives….”

Sabbath and Marriage. Interesting thought.

Pope John Paul II crucifix crushes pilgrim 3 days before canonization

I have covered a few things related to the Vatican, mostly because they seem to have prophetic significance to me. We saw the Ukrainian children release doves that were attacked by a sea gull and then killed by a raven… You see what is happening there now.

We looked at tomorrow’s global broadcast in 3D by the current Pope for some purpose, later revealed to be the canonization (declaring sainthood) of two deceased Popes. The actual result remains to be seen, but there is an interesting related development…

BBC News reports:

John Paul II crucifix crushes man in northern Italy

A visitor described hearing “a loud rumble” as the structure collapsed

Continue reading “Pope John Paul II crucifix crushes pilgrim 3 days before canonization”

A Matter of the Heart!!

Lately, I have been marking instances of ‘heart’ in the Tanakh, or ‘old’ Testament. My specific reason is that on so many occasions, in conversations with others regarding the importance of Torah in our day, I am told that it is written on our hearts by the New Covenant, therefore, we do not have to worry about or try to keep it.

The very root of that thought is contrary to the New Covenant, so we need to demonstrate briefly that the New Covenant is not yet fulfilled before addressing the ‘heart’ of the matter. The New Covenant says,

³¹“The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
    “when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
    and with the people of Judah.
³²It will not be like the covenant
    I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
    to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
    though I was a husband to^[a] them,^[b]”
declares the Lord.
³³“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
    after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law (Torah) in their minds
    and write it on their hearts. Continue reading “A Matter of the Heart!!”