I grew up in a Yiddish-speaking home in Montreal, Canada where I attended Yiddish and Hebrew day school, participated in Montreal’s Yiddish theater group and also performed in a Yiddish mandolin orchestra. My memories of the High Holidays (Rosh Hashoneh and Yom Kipper is how we pronounced them) included the traditional foods – apples dipped in honey, an unusually large and sweet braided challah loaf, and of course the ubiquitous …Read More
The Gilded Exile
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling…” (Psalm 46:1-3). When natural destructions surge across the face of the planet, the God of Jacob is our refuge (Psalm 46:7, …Read More
Iron and clay, whirlwind and Jews
The leader of the world’s greatest superpower was awakened by a disturbing dream. Nebuchadnezzar’s “spirit was troubled and his sleep left him” (Daniel 2:1). The dream was burning with significance, but its interpretation was hidden from him. The whole matter filled the king with foreboding. Nebuchadnezzar was going through a meltdown with no one to help him. The king gave his advisors a choice – get supernatural revelation about the …Read More
Pickin’ up the pieces on the Temple Mount
Jerusalem’s Temple Mount is once again in the headlines. On July 14 a four-man Islamist terror squad smuggled sub-machine guns and knives onto the Mountain where Solomon’s and Herod’s Temple once stood – a religious site holy to Judaism and Islam. Three of the four then attacked and murdered two Israeli police officers of Arab Druze origin who had been guarding the entrance gates and insuring safe passage for Muslim, …Read More
When the thief meets the Judge
“No reason to get excited,” the thief he kindly spoke. “There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke. But you and I, we’ve been through that and this is not our fate. So let us not talk falsely, now. The hour is getting late.” (Bob Dylan, “All Along The Watchtower”, Dwarf Music © 1968, 1996) In …Read More
Holy Spirit, ‘fake news’ and the heart of Ruth The Feast of Shavuot/Weeks is upon us (Deuteronomy 16:10). Fifty days have now passed between Pesach/Passover and Shavuot (Leviticus 23:16 – the counting of the Omer, a peck measurement and first-fruits prophetic promise of a coming full harvest). The crest of those calculations has been reached, and now the wave of fulfillment crashes down onto this fourth celebration of God’s seven …Read More