Book Discussion: Introduction to Messianic Judaism, Part 7
The fifth chapter in David Rudolph and Joel Willitts, eds., Introduction to Messianic Judaism (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2013) is about Messianic Jews and Jewish tradition, by my mentor and friend, Carl Kinbar. Before discussing the contents of this chapter, there…
Leading in the Tent of David
Boaz Michael chose one of the most beautiful images in the prophets as the picture for his latest book, The Tent of David: “In that day I will raise up the tent of David that is fallen and repair its…
Holiness Swallows Up Death, Part 1
The Tabernacle, and later the Temple, was ideally a bit of heaven on earth, a conduit between the earthly and heavenly sanctuary. The sanctuary below was to teach Israel some things about the one above. The pattern was revealed to…
Clean and Unclean Meat: Toward Understanding Leviticus 11
There is a widespread idea that the purpose of the laws about clean and unclean meat (part of the kosher laws) has to do with health and hygiene. The internet is full of posts about how much healthier kosher eating…
Mussar and Goals
There are two kinds of goals in Mussar. (Don’t know what “Mussar” is? Click Here.) In the same way there are two kinds of goals in many endeavors of improvement. In Weight Watchers, for example, the second you sign up…
The Sabbath is Between God and the Jewish People
I am going to attempt to defend the title of this post from Exodus 31:12-17 and to explain the beauty of Sabbath according to Torah. If this is a topic you care deeply about, please read the entire article. I…
Messianic Judaism and Torah
For most of the centuries from Yeshua until now, Jewish people drawn to faith in him laid down their Jewish identity in order to follow him. It was Jesus without Jewish continuity or no Jesus at all. The gospel of…
Can One Law Messianics Own Slaves?
Yes, the title is deliberately provocative and satirical. I am not seriously asking this question. Nor do I for a second think that people who subscribe to the One Law philosophy (or Two House or Hebrew Roots) would entertain the…
When did Sabbath begin in history?
I have heard many times the idea that Sabbath (Shabbat) began at Creation. After all, didn’t God institute Shabbat in Genesis 2:2-3? Let me argue that no, he did not.
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Noah and the Clean and Unclean Animals Issue
In Genesis 7:2, God commanded Noah to differentiate between clean and unclean animals, taking seven pairs each of the clean species and only one each of the unclean. Any alert reader should ask, “How does Noah know about clean versus…