Slot-machines from a previous generation had a large metal handle on their right side. When this lever was pulled down, the one-armed bandit either swallowed your silver dollars or coughed up a trifling jackpot. For the rare winner, victory bells would ring on the machine and three cherries would line up on the glass-covered panel. […]
Over 2,400 years ago the Spirit of prophecy fell on Zechariah as he declared “the burden of the word of YHVH concerning Israel – It will come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem an overly hard-to-lift stone for all the peoples. All who lift it will be severely injured” (Zechariah 12:3). Since that day many nations […]
Yuletide is upon us. Dark evergreen trees are bejeweled with winking lights. Manger scenes and crèches (where still legal) remind us of Jesus, Joseph and Mary – as well as of the pot of overflowing presents at the end of the Christmas rainbow. As we deck the halls with boughs of holly and peppermint sticks, […]
The Jewish Feast of Lights arrives this year on the eve of December 2 (according to the Gregorian calendar). The Hebrew name for Hanukkah (‘Dedication’) refers to the cleansing and re-dedication of the Second Temple by Jewish special forces on the 25th of Kislev 165 BC. In the Western world Hanukkah is often overshadowed and […]
The Sabbath murder of eleven Jewish men and women in Pittsburgh caught many by surprise. Robert Bowers, a 46 year old neo-Nazi racist who posted anti-Jewish and anti-Trump conspiracy theories on the web, walked in to the Tree of Life-Or L’simcha synagogue in the Squirrel Hill district and unloaded clips from a semi-automatic rifle and […]
Without question, the predominantly Gentile body of Messiah has much to learn from the Messianic Jewish movement. It is said that “a text without a context is a pretext.” The Jewish foundations of the Messianic faith are the fundamental floor on which the Christian world stands. To sidestep the existence of this floor leads to […]