Weekly Bracha Futures: Mockups

The Weekly Bracha is a series of posts highlighting the good blog posts in the Messianic blogosphere each week. It’s been going strong for a year now.

A few months back I mentioned that I wanted improve the Weekly Bracha: move it to its own website, build a community around it.

To that end, I’ve been busy!

I’ve been doing a few mockups of what I want the new website to look like. Been doing a bit of coding as well to play out some ideas on the web. Here’s my current thinking:

In the picture above you see 2 of 5 categories:

• Popular: top clicked from any category, ordered by date. Blogs with many comments on them are granted more points, rising higher on the popularity scale. Users can up- or down-vote items; up-voted items will increase the popularity as well.
• Fresh: new posts from any category. The idea here is to have fresh items here every time you visit the site. To that end, I’ll seed it with the RSS feeds of the 200 some Messianic blogs I’m aware of.
• News: items from any category tagged with “news”. The items here are biblical archeology and news items from the Jewish and Christian worlds.
• Podcasts: items from any category tagged with podcast. If mp3, we provide an inline player.
• Video: items from any category pointing to YouTube. Inline player. Considering seeding this with some of the well-known Messianic YouTube channels out there.

The purpose of the site is to quickly see what’s happening in the Messianic world: blogs, news, podcasts, videos. And I don’t want to dump a boatload of links on the person, information overload; I don’t want a cluttered, hard-to-navigate site. So I’m experimenting now with the oversized, clean design: few links, only the essentials.

That’s my current thinking! So keep an eye out for the new bracha site. Should be fun! And hopefully useful!

Weekly Bracha 54

The weekly bracha: bringing you the good good goodies from the Messianic blogosphere, plus relevant news items from the Jewish and Christian worlds. Only the essentials for only the finest of Messianic internet lurkers.

Oh, and happy new year! Yes, with Passover just weeks away, today marks the beginning of the Biblical year according to Exodus 12, which states, “This month [in which Passover falls] is the beginning of months for you, the first month of your year.”

Without further introduction, ladies and gentleman, I give you the fantabulous bracha:

News and Archaeology

• Newly Found Lead Codices – Christian or Kabbalistic? – A cache of lead codices from a cave near Jordan containing mysterious symbols, including the symbol of the cross, as well as Paleo-Hebrew lettering, has been receiving much attention lately.
  
  
  • The Lead Codices Aren't...They Just Aren't – Sifting through the hyperbole about the lead codices.
  • Lead Codices and the Discovery of Atlantis – Analyzing the sensationalism about the lead codices, links to authorities who believe they are fakes.
• Organized religion will be driven toward extinction in 9 western nations, experts predict – Looking at trends in public data for several western nations, and seeing “unaffiliated” as the fastest growing trend, and further suggesting that the majority tends to attract more followers, experts suggest organized religion will be going down the tubes.
• Jerusalem UFO video: case closed, they’re fake - Remember the videos about a strange ball of light flying over Jerusalem? Experts are now saying this was a hoax. 
• Yad L’achim Exposed – Israel's Channel 1 News aired a special investigative report on the anti-missionary organization, Yad L'Achim. The group is responsible for regular acts of harassment and violence against religious minorities in Israel, especially Messianic Jews.

Blogs

• What’s the Good News? – Is the gospel “good news” for Jews? Schiffman relates,

  When I first began following Yeshua, we talked about the “good news,” and what a wonderful thing it is. But the more time i spent around Yeshua followers, I found that I didn’t hear much good news. People were always telling me what was wrong with “other” people, or the government, or politics.
  
  Even when they talked about other people who followed Yeshua, they told me how their theology was all wrong, and how we couldn’t trust them because they would use every opportunity to spread their errant doctrines. They would point out people’s flaws, and say I’d be better off not hanging around people like that. The problem with that was if I avoided everyone who was “bad,” I’d only get to hang out with a small group who was warning me to avoid everyone else.

• Chronicling the Formation of the Gospels – Citing 1st century and early 2nd century works, particularly that of church father Papias, postulating about the formation of the 4 gospels.

  If by chance anyone who had been in attendance on the elders should come my way, I inquired about the words of the elders — that is, what Andrew or Peter said, or Philip, or Thomas, or James, or John, or Matthew, or any other of the Lord’s disciples, and whatever Aristion and the elder John, the Lord’s disciples, were saying. For I did not think that information from books would profit me as much as information from a living and surviving voice.

  -Papias (sometime between 80-130 CE)

• Rabbi Jacob Emden on Jewish Believers in Yeshua – 18th century rabbi and talmudist Jacob Emden commented on the gospels and Christianity, saying,

  ‎The Nazarene brought about a double kindness in the world. On the one hand, he strengthened the Torah of Moses majestically, as mentioned earlier, and not one of our Sages spoke out more emphatically concerning the immutability of the Torah. And on the other hand, he did much good for the Gentiles.

  He then goes on to make an argument that Yeshua wanted Jews to be left as-is (that is, not convert to any religion), but did create a new religion for gentiles.

• Jewish Jesus – Was Jesus a Jew who practiced Judaism? Or is it the all-too-common rhetoric that makes us wince, where it’s Pharisees-as-Judaism-and-everything-wrong-with-religion and Jesus-as-the-first-Christian?
• The Torah before Noah – A Refutation of Noachide Theology – There is a growing movement in Judaism that says gentiles only need to keep the 7 Laws of Noah in order to be granted a place in the world to come. In this apologetics post, Messianic organization Jerusalem Council offers a refutation of this harmful theology. 
• Messiah: Son of David, the Conquering King – Messianic blogger Lisa comments on Messiah-as-conquering-king, why Yeshua didn’t restore Israel at his first coming, and why we have to re-evaluate our expectations of what Messiah will be when he shows up a second time.
• The Consequences of Theology – Christian theologian Walt Kaiser refutes the idea that “the Mosaic law is not a direct or immediate source of guidance to the new covenant believer.” He points to problems in a “New Testament-only” guide of ethics, and suggests those who reject the Torah as a source of guidance inevitably end up with Marcion-like theology.
• Why Is Passover So Christianly-Popular? – Why is it that Passover is popular among Christians? “The reason Passover has become so Christian-ly popular is simple: Christians in many churches either lack a symbolic world to fill in the meaning of redemption and atonement or, if they are in denominations with a richer liturgy, they lack connection to the root, the Jewish root, which is the basis of redemption theology.”
• Who To Believe? – Reading books from modern religious experts, both pro- and anti-New Testament, Messianic blogger James Pyles asks, “How do people seem so completely sure of what they believe?”
• Is the Bible Just a Book of Parables? – Bible Answer Man (cue superhero music) and Christian apologist Hank Hanegraaf answers anti-religionist media spin doctor Bill Maher’s assertion that the Bible is “not meant to be history; it was not meant to be literal. They were parables; people read it back then and read into it something that was not literal; we’re the dummies who read it literally.”
• Comfort My People Japan – Messianic blogger David Lazarus counters the notion that the tragedies in Japan are the result of sin. Sometimes, David writes, suffering is not the result of sin.

  “These conclusions are based on a false assumption that suffering is always the result of sin. It is the same misunderstanding and false teaching that Job’s friends had when they accused Job.”

Enjoy the tasty, satisfying bracha bits, fine Kineti blog readers! Till next time; salute!

Weekly Bracha 53

The weekly bracha, a blessing of bounty highlighting last week’s gems in the Messianic blogosphere, plus relevant news items from the Jewish and Christian worlds.

• Murder of Israeli Family Stuns Nation – An Israeli family in Samaria was murdered this week, stabbed to death in their home by Palestinians. Included among the dead was the father Udi Fogel, his wife Ruth, their 11 year old son Yoav, their 4 year old son Elad, and their 3 month old daughter Hadas. Hat tip to Rosh Pina for the following video coverage (warning, graphic):
  
  

  Additional coverage:

  • Baby Killers: BBC Butchers the Real Story
  • Jewish Family Massacred? Not Big News for World
• Yad L'achim compares Messianic Jews to Hitler – Anti-messianic organization Yad L’achim juxtaposes Jews being led to Nazi gas chambers with images of Jews being baptized in the Jordan. Of course, YL is no stranger to obscene, ridiculous claims. (Related: Yediot HaDarom Israeli newspaper poll on Hitler/Messianic Jews comparision.)
• Jews Laud Pope’s Insistence Jews Did Not Kill Jesus – Pope Benedict XVI declares Jewish people are not responsible for Yeshua’s death. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, as well as the World Jewish Congress and the Anti-Defamation League, applauded the declaration.

  My fervent hope is that your clarity and courage will strengthen the relations between Jews and Christians throughout the world and help promote peace and reconciliation for generations to come.

  -Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

  Catholic declarations aside, Rabbi Schiffman is none too swayed by the showing of goodwill, pointing to the Church’s recent anti-Israel statements.

• Birth Issues – Messianic theologian Derek Leman highlights problems in the gospels’ accounts of Yeshua’s birth. Can they be harmonized?
• Think Before You Speak – Rebbetzin Michelle Schiffman says some Messianic Jews are too overt in their faith; suggesting our best witness isn’t our words, but our lives.
• Murex trunculus confirmed as Biblical Tekhelet – Darren points to new research based on a discovery of an existing fragment of a Jewish garment from Masada, where scientists have resolved the debate that the biblical blue (tekhelet) of the priestly garments and the ritual fringes (tzitzit) worn by every Israelite was made from the Murex trunculus, a sea snail living off the coast of Israel.
• A Reasonable Argument for God’s Existence – Manhattan rabbi Adam Jacobs combats the atheist theme that religious systems rely solely on unsubstantiated faith to support their beliefs. Is belief in God blind faith?
• We Are Living Torahs – Messianic blogger James argues that it’s not enough to mechanically obey the commandments, but more important is that the intention is correct. He suggests that Paul’s anti-Torah statements in Galatians may be more against the Galatian community’s malformed intentions, e.g. “You who want to be justified by the law have cut yourselves off from Christ.”
• Israel My Servant – How the Tenakh and the New Testament prove Israel’s ongoing chosenness; God’s commitment to his chosen people Israel.
• End-Times Fever – Rabbi Resnik looks back to when he was young and inflicted with “End Times Fever”. Though he’s since matured, he now wonders why there’s so much complacency about the end times today.

  For my first few years as a follower of Yeshua, [shortly after 1967] I suffered from what one of my colleagues later diagnosed as end-times fever. And I wasn’t alone. Friends, mentors, the voices on the radio or cassette tapes—we were all convinced that Messiah’s return was so near that we should devote all our energies to being ready and helping everyone we knew to get ready too, before it was too late.

  Now the end-time fever has broken and I’m doing things that I would have thought unimaginable back then—hanging out with the grandchildren and wondering how we’re going to make it through retirement. The irony is that signs of the end are far more abundant now then they were thirty or forty years ago.

  The odd thing is, amidst all this action, we’re not really seeing a return of end-times fever. And I’m not sure that’s a good thing. We’re not calm; we’re complacent.

  On related note, in Messiah Is Coming, one Messianic leader suggests all these wars and rumors of wars in the Middle East, combined with the recent natural disasters, may be a sign of the times and the coming return of Moshiach.

• To Each His Own – The Sacred Sandwich comments on modern church specialization:
   

I hope you’ve enjoyed the tasty weekly bracha bits, fine Kineti readers. Salute!

Weekly Bracha 52

Welcome to the 52nd Weekly Bracha, shining the light on gems in the Messianic blogosphere over the last week or two, plus relevant news items from Israel.

• My Saddest Night In Israel – Anti-Messianic groups organize a protest against Messianic Jews in Ashdod, Israel. One Messianic Jewish resident relates:

  Before I realized what was happening I had between 50-100 people surrounding me, calling me a missionary and asking me what I was doing in Israel.  Boys as young as 6-7 years old were hissing at me, making hateful faces.  The group closed in more and more trying to intimidate and I'll be honest it worked.

  As my heart pounded more and more, I kept repeating to myself 'I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Yeshua the Messiah'.  I suddenly had a glimpse like never before of what it must have been like for Peter or Stephen to suddenly find themselves surrounded by a hate-filled mob.

  It wasn't just that there was a group of people surrounding me.  I've lived in some of the most dangerous cities in the world and encountered all sorts of 'seedy' elements.  No, this was something entirely different. These were people who had been bred from the the womb to hate Yeshua and anyone who identifies themselves with Him.  They didn't even see me as a human being.  They just saw me as a vessel of everything they loathe.

  More coverage of the harassment on Rosh Pina:
  

  • Hate fest against Messianic Jews in Ashdod
  • Hate fest against Messianic Jews moves back to Arad
  • The rabbis behind the Ashdod protests: Chaim Pinto
  • The rabbis behind the Ashdod protests: The Baba Brothers
• Testimony of survivor of Nazi liquidation of Jews in Belarus – Holocaust survivor Rivka Yosselevska recounts the day the Nazis came for her and the rest of the Jews in Zagrodski, Belarus.

  Then my second sister was shot and then my turn came.

  We turned towards the grave and then he turned around and asked, `Whom shall I shoot first?’ We were already facing the grave. The German asked, `Whom do you want me to shoot first?’ I did not answer. I felt him take the child from my arms. The child cried out and was shot immediately.
  
  And then he aimed at me. First he held onto my hair and turned my head around; I stayed standing; I heard a shot, but I continued to stand and then he turned my head again and he aimed the revolver at me, ordered me to watch, and then turned my head around and shot at me. Then I fell to the ground into the pit amongst the bodies – but I felt nothing.

• Temple Update: Sanhedrin Chamber of Hewn Stones Blueprints Revealed – The Temple Institute recently revealed blueprints for the Lishkat haGazit, the area of the Temple Complex in which the Sanhedrin would convene. See the following 3d flythrough:
  
  
  
• Why was the Second Temple destroyed? – Examining the rabbis of Judaism and the gospels as to why the 2nd Temple was destroyed.
• The New Messianic Jewish Learning – New Messianic blog, as MJTI rabbi Carl Kinbar looks for Messianic Jews wanting to engage in serious study the Scriptures and rabbinic writings.
• Pesach – A Perpetual Rememberance – Passover as an eternal commandment to remember our deliverance from Egypt.
• Passover, Last Supper, Crucifixion Part 1 and Part 2: Popular Messianic blogger Derek Leman seems to be leaning more and more towards a liberal interpretation of Scripture. He is now suggesting the Last Supper wasn’t a Passover Seder, and that there are irreconcilable differences -- and errors -- in the different gospel accounts.

Enjoy the tasty bracha, fine blog readers!

Weekly Bracha 51

Oh yes! Another fine bracha for the even-finer Kineti blog readers. The gems worth reading from this past week (or two) in the Messianic blogosphere:

• The Christ Who Makes Men Whole – A moving sermon from 1948, delivered by Bishop Marvin A. Franklin, grandfather of Messianic scholar J.K. McKee. McKee explains:

  Here is a sermon that my great-grandfather put together that we found as we have been packing for the big move. It was given in 1948 only two weeks after the establishment of the State of Israel, but it is obvious that a major theme on his mind was post-World War II and the impending Cold War.

• In Righteous Memory – Dwight A. Pryor, founder of the excellent Hebrew roots resource Center for Judaic-Christian Studies, passed away last week.

  “My strong conviction is that the Lord is restoring the Hebraic foundations of the Church so that together we all can move forward in greater faithfulness and maturity in the service of the Messiah and the Kingdom of God. Toward that end we should be Father-focused, Christ-centered and Spirit-saturated. We should stand with and pray for Israel. Our teaching should strive to be biblically balanced and theologically sound.”

  -Dwight A. Pryor

• Prayer for the Restoration of Zion – Messianic Jewish pioneer Rabbi Yechiel Tzvi Lichtenstein’s (1831-1912) prayer for Israel’s restoration, some 70 years before Israel became a state again. Quite moving:

  O L-rd, in accordance with all of your acts of righteousness, let your anger and wrath turn away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain. Our Father, our King, lift a banner to the peoples to return Israel to its pasture. Gather us together from the four corners of the earth to our land, and plant us within its borders on the mountain of our inheritance. Bring us to Zion, your city, with singing and to Jerusalem, your holy city, with eternal joy. Build it in your compassion and let it remain perched and inhabited in its place. Establish your Holy Temple in it and gladden us in your House of Prayer. Return your Dwelling Presence to Zion, your city, and send us Yeshua our Messiah a second time. Let him reign upon the throne of David in Jerusalem, your holy city.  Lift up the horn of the salvations of your people Israel in the house of David your servant – salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, just as you have spoken through your prophets. O L-rd, hear!  O L-rd, forgive! O L-rd, listen and act!  Do not delay, for your own sake, our G-d, for your name is called upon your city and upon your people. Hurry, HaShem, to help us! Ransom your people Israel from all its iniquities and from all of its troubles, for the time to be gracious has come, for the appointed time has come. Amen.

• Forced Paganism – With St. Valentine’s Day coming up tomorrow, Messianic rabbi Dr. Michael Schiffman posts his rather amusing thoughts on the holiday.
• Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls – Examining the Melchizedek Scroll from the Dead Sea Scrolls to the book of Hebrews, showing the idea of divine, priestly, sin-forgiving Messiah was an early Jewish concept, not one that developed in later Christian theology.
• Did Christ Abolish the Law? A Review – Looking at Ephesians 2’s, “Christ has broken down the middle wall, the enmity in his flesh, the law of the commands in ordinances, having done away…”
• Circumcision and non-Jews – Looking at Maimonides’ (a prominent medieval Jewish scribe) take on non-Jews receiving circumcision. And was Paul against it? Or just against converting to Judaism?
• Tomb of the Prophet Zechariah Found? Israeli archaeologists unveiled on Wednesday the remnants of a newly discovered Byzantine-era church they suspect is concealing the tomb of the biblical prophet Zechariah.
• Canons of Jewish and Christian Scripture – On the subject of the canon of Scripture and its interpretation,

  Many Jews and Christians are nonetheless at a loss when it comes to articulating a sense of God’s involvement in the life and worship of those who read many of the same texts they do, but within the framework of a religious metanarrative incompatible with their own. It might be admitted by all that the God who speaks in scripture speaks to Jews and Christians of whatever persuasion when Genesis, Deuteronomy, Isaiah, and the Psalms are read in worship. Whether the scriptures are heard rightly, of course, is a separate question.

Hope you’ve enjoyed the bracha. Happy week, fine blog Messianic blog readers!

Weekly Bracha five-oh

Sounds a little more action-y than Weekly Bracha 50.

This past week in the Messianic blogosphere and related news items:

• Mitzvot: Beautiful vs Functional – Excellent post by Dr. Schiffman. Starting out with the question, “Why was the Ark covered in pure gold?”, he answers by relating it to his experience as a father, finishing with a nugget of wisdom on the commandments gleaned from his years of following the Lord.

  I see people drive new cars, have beautiful homes, expensive electronic equipment, but have the cheapest junk when it comes to doing mitzvot. It tells me this is something they don’t place much value upon. It makes me wonder what its worth to them.

• Adopted Heirs – Gentiles as part of the commonwealth of Israel and fellow heirs together with Israel, not in place of Israel. James talks on Ephesians 3, gentiles, noachides, Galatians, Romans, and Messiah’s transformation of gentiles -- phew!
• Pesach – Adjusting Our Vision – Passover as a way of internalizing, personalizing the Exodus from Egypt.

  When we have learned to meditate on the story, place ourselves in the middle of it, experience the events for ourselves, and walk away changed just as the original participants were changed… then we have begun to enter into the story ourselves, and we have taken the step of integrating the events into our lives. This sort of meditation is necessary if one truly wants to appreciate what happened to the fathers. More importantly, it is absolutely mandatory if one expects to allow Scripture to change our hearts, minds, and characters.

• Do We Talk Too Much About Torah and Commandments? Don’t we have better things to do than talk about the Torah all the time? Heck no! Gene says. And for that matter, so does the Word.
• New Text of Ben Sira Found Among Cairo Geniza Fragments – An interesting archaeological find, discovery of Hebrew fragments of Ben Sira (“Ecclesiasticus”):

  The significance of Hebrew Ben Sira texts such as this is that we had not seen their Hebrew version for nearly a thousand years prior to their discovery in the late 19th and early 20th century. Finding these Hebrew manuscripts has been a remarkable watershed in the significance of Hebrew in Jewish religious texts. It was proof (once again) of a Hebrew original behind a beloved sacred text.

• Bilateral Ecclesiology: Infrequently Answered Questions – Gene Shlomovich issues a post explaining his positive take on Bilateral Ecclesiology.
• Israel Police Arrest 3 Suspects in Murder of Kristine Luken – A few weeks ago, an Israeli Messianic and a Christian woman were attacked and stabbed in a forest just outside Jerusalem. Now, Israeli police have arrested several Palestinian men in connection with the attack.

Enjoy the bracha, fine blog readers.

Weekly Bracha 49

Salute! Knowledge-hungry Messianic internet lurkers!

The weekly bracha – highlighting the gems this past week (or three!) in the Messianic blogosphere, has plenty of bits to satisfy, albeit temporarily, your otherwise insatiable appetite for wisdom.

• Haaretz journalist: Israel Will Crucify Moshiach – A rather scathing article in Haaretz, calling out the Israeli religious right. Lots of non-kosher stuff here, but an interesting read nonetheless:
  

  When the Messiah comes, rabbis will treat him like Jesus.

  They will brand him disloyal, diseased, Reform.

  In wall posters, Sabbath sermons, ritual decrees and signed petitions, careful not to use his title, chief rabbis of cities and towns will warn of an existential threat to the essential Jewish character of the state. Under no circumstances are Jews to sell or rent homes or lots to someone like this. The rabbis’ wives will vilify him as a carnal threat to Jewish girls.

  The rabbis’ declarations will divide the Jewish people and bring wrath and dishonor upon Israel. The rabbis will continue to draw large civil service salaries, as well as generous tips, in cash, goods and services under the table and off the books.

  When the Messiah comes, the Right will crucify him. Im Tirzu will roll out ads and billboards showing him with a tail to go along with his horns. A blogger from Commentary will call him a whiny, petulant boob. In Maariv and the Jerusalem Post, seven columnists will all have at him in the same three day period.

• Unrecognized Messiah – If Yeshua really was the Messiah, wouldn’t it have been unavoidable for Jews to recognize his messiahship? Messianic Jewish rabbi Russ Resnik answers,

  Not only do I not think that it would be unavoidable for Jews to recognize Yeshua, but I believe our corporate (but not permanent) Jewish non-recognition is an essential part of the story. It’s consistent with Jewish understandings of the Messiah to see him as hidden and rejected before he is fully revealed.

• The End of “Just Jewish” – Ovadia, a young gentile guy who converted to Judaism and was a voice for Bilateral Ecclesiology on the web, is calling it quits on Yeshua, saying, “Succinctly put, Judaism is more important to me than Jesus is.”
• A Far, Far Better Thing – James, a gentile who helps run a One Law congregation in Idaho, is calling it quits on his congregation after several months of questioning his beliefs.
• As Many As Touched Him Were Healed – A Messianic leader explains his exhaustion, and how he nearly lost his first love:

  There have been times in my faith walk when it became more of an intellectual exercise. Although I am still committed to learning, the never-ending learning created in me a creature not of spirit but of routine; as Paul wrote, "always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

  All of this will wear one out. At a point I was worn out entirely. I was not being refreshed or renewed and then a Scripture caught my eye which scared me, nearly to death. Messiah said in Revelation 2:4, "But I hold this against you, that you have lost your first love." I am not implying that theologians, scholars, one law groups, two house people, Messianic Jews or Gentiles, Hebrew roots Christians or any other group who may read this have lost their first love; but I nearly did from exhaustion and I should have known better.

• Hebrew Background to the Lord’s Prayer – A glimpse at the Hebrew characteristics of the the Lord’s Prayer.
• Not Jewish Yet Drawn To Torah, part 8 – Derek Leman offers new and better ways to divide up Jews and gentiles in Messianic congregations.
• Torah and Non-Jews – How did the Jewish sages handle gentile Torah observance?
• Is Sabbath a Ceremonial Law? – Christians, and many Messianic Jews, claim the sabbath is a ritual law, not a moral law, and as such, it can be safely ignored. But the author draws attention to passages and scholarship that suggests the sabbath is really a moral law.

Enjoy the tasty bracha bits, fine blog readers, and be filled.

Weekly Bracha 48

The Weekly Bracha: highlighting this past week’s gems from the Messianic blogosphere, plus relevant news items from the Jewish and Christian worlds.

• Christian murdered, Messianic Jew injured in Israel – A female Christian missionary, and her Messianic Jewish friend, were attacked and stabbed in the hills west of Jerusalem this past week. It’s believed their attackers were politically motivated Arabs.
  • Church’s Ministry To Jews worker murdered in Israel – More first-hand information about the attack.
  • Prayers in British shul said for Messianic Jew – Maidenhead Synagogue, a Reform synagogue, offers prayers for the attacked Messianic Jew.
• Dead Sea Scrolls to be made available online – This is very cool: Google is going to digitize the Dead Sea Scrolls and make the entire collection available to the public online. Go Google! Hat tip: Leman
• Fox News Accidentally Labels Elie Wiesel 'Holocaust Winner' – Fail:
  
• World's Jews Celebrate Christmas With Ceremonial Re-Murdering Of Christ – The Onion has the true story:

  "I love devouring Christians' young almost as much as corrupting maidens," said Benjamin Levy, 89. "It's a magical time for all."

  I love the Onion.
• Separation and Connection – Rabbi Resnik on separating one’s self from the world in this perverted culture:

  Can we deny that today’s visual bombardment of sexual imagery fuels adultery of the heart? Tearing out the eye today means turning off the TV, blocking the website, closing the book or magazine, ruthlessly if necessary. Film, in particular, often employs explicit sexual images within a compelling art form that draws us into it. But Messiah’s standards require us to forgo experiences that may have a positive side for the sake of wholeness before God.

• Simple Gnosticism – Analyzing the Christian tendency to create a dichotomy between spiritual and physical, flesh and spirit, particularly with commandments. He then counters the notion that a gentile believer in Yeshua has no relationship with Israel:

  Most people confuse “living by the Spirit” as being somehow at odds with “living according to God’s instructions”. This reflects a Gnostic influence. They think that something is “spiritual” only if there is no physical evidence of it. “Prayer” is good. “Bible study” is good (as long as there is no set section of Scripture to study each week).

  At the same time, commandments that are part of daily living—kosher diet, trimming of the beard, agricultural mandates—are relegated to the “not moral, and therefore not necessary” category.

• Not Jewish Yet Drawn To Torah, Part 5 – Derek Leman, who is involved in the part of Messianic Judaism that does not care much for gentile participation, does not wish to have non-Jewish Messianic congregations be named “Messianic”. He hopes to call such groups “Judeo-Christian”.
  • Summary On Part 5 – Scratch that. Derek no longer thinks “Judeo-Christian” is a good name. But he still doesn’t want gentiles using the term “Messianic”. Sigh.
• Cataloging the New Testament's Hebraisms, Part 6 – Offering evidence of a possible Hebrew or Aramaic original of the New Testament, the author looks at antithetical parallelisms: balancing couplets, each of which is the antithesis of the other. He gives examples from the Tenakh and New Testament.
• Lying About Prayer – In this amusing post, Dr. Schiffman ponders,

  I wonder how many people lie about praying for other people or about situations they hear about. I’ve known many people over the years, who upon hearing about someone who was sick, dying, or had an accident, or were losing their house or a loved one, or their job, or spouse, or there was some other serious need, responded by saying they will pray for whatever it was that was needed, only to not pray about it, forgetting it completely.

• New Blog: Paul Wilbur – Famed Messianic music pioneer Paul Wilbur has started a blog.

Shavua Tov, fine blog readers!

Weekly Bracha 47

Salute, fine knowledge-thirsty Kineti reader! We have some tasty goodness in the bracha this week, as we highlight gems from the Messianic blogosphere, plus related items in the Jewish and Christian worlds.

• The Man Who Mocked the KGB – Chabad.org published a fascinating story on the brother of Messianic pioneer Paul Phillip Levertoff. A detailed, riveting read on his family’s survival through poverty, Soviet suppression of Judaism, Communist state-sanctioned atheism, and the Nazi invasion.

  Father had incredible courage to keep us out of school. According to Soviet law, every child was required to attend public school. Parents who disobeyed faced severe penalties, including arrest, imprisonment, and placement of their children in government orphanages. Faced by such a threat, many fine observant Jews felt they had no choice but to let their children attend school.
  The government schools gave compulsory lessons on Marxist ideology. Teachers indoctrinated their young students with atheism, teaching them that Comrade Stalin was their father, and the Communist Party their mother...

• Pagan Roots of Christianity – Messianic organization First Fruits of Zion (FFOZ) published “What About Paganism?”: materials that temper some of the pagan characterizations of Christian holidays. They receive a flurry of angry letters from Messianics who reject pagan parts of Christianity. And in this post, the president of FFOZ responds,

  It seems that a good deal of the Hebrew-Roots-of-Christianity movement justifies its existence based upon the perceived Pagan-Roots-of-Christianity. Now if someone comes along and reveals that some of those Pagan Roots of Christianity are actually based upon misinformation, junk-scholarship, and just plain deceitful sensationalism, that's going to be a problem. First order of business would be to start hurling condemnation at anyone who would dare to look at the question impartially and honestly.

• A Review of 'What About Paganism?' – Messianic blogger James Pyles offers an independent take on the apparently inflammatory materials.
• Why Christian Anti-Judaism Must Be Challenged – A review on a Christian book that points out the ugly fruit of Christian replacement theology, with about 60 comments between Jews, Christians, and Messianics following.
• Near Collision – Comparing Yeshua’s teachings to that of first-century rabbi Hillel.
• Empowering Jewish Identity In Yeshua – Follow Yeshua has often meant weakening Jewish identity, but Derek argues it can strengthen this identity.
• American Rabbinical Statement On Gentiles Renting Property In Israel – Israeli rabbis recently voted to oppose non-Jews renting land in Israel. Now, the American Rabbinic Council issued a statement opposing the Israel rabbis. I wonder, how do Messianics view gentiles renting land in Israel? 
• Mussar: Calmness – Messianic Rabbi Russ Resnik on the virtue of calmness in one’s life, with an example from the Tenakh.
• Intermarriage Stats on Jews in the US – Messianic Jewish author and intellectual David Rudolph summarizes some interesting demographics among Jews and Messianic Jews in the US.
• Reasons for the Season – A Messianic rabbi giving a teaching on Christmas to a church group? See what he has to say, it might surprise you.

Savor the tasty bracha morsels! May you have a shavua tov, my fine blog readers.

Weekly Bracha 46

Fine Messiah-loving peoples of the interwebs, welcome! Enjoy the weekly bracha, summarizing this past week (or two!) in the Messianic blogosphere. Only the important stuff. Plus relevant news items from the Jewish and Christian worlds.

• The Scoop About Paganism – Messianic organization First Fruits of Zion has published materials that are already causing a stir: In What About Paganism?, Toby Janicki attempts to sort through the crazy “paganoia” and junk scholarship to get to the bottom of holidays like Christmas and Easter, and in doing so, refutes Easter’s links to the Babylonian goddess Ishtar. 40 comments on this blog, many more on their Facebook page. This is bound to shake some things up.
• WikiLeaks and Israel – Love ‘em or hate ‘em, WikiLeaks’ public dump of thousands of classified documents has some interesting world intelligence on Israel. Maoz Israel summarizes.
• New Messianic music album – A friend of mine, Troy Mitchell, has published his first Messianic album, Yoke of the King. Check it out! As a Messianic music lover, it’s one of the best albums I’ve heard in years.
• Amish come to Israel, ask for forgiveness – Repenting from their long history of anti-Semitism and Replacement Theology, the Amish said publicly,
  

  God reminded me that this is not who He is. We no longer want to reject you or look at you as not being God’s people. You were God’s people long before we were.

• Intermarriage among Messianics – blogger James Pyles and I have a series of posts on Jew-gentile intermarriage:
  • Unequal Yoke
  • Sweet Forbiddent Jew-Gentile Lovin'
  • But Will the Children be Jewish?
• Donate money to supply families devastated by Israel fires – The Messianic Jewish Alliance of America is supplying furniture and supplies to Israeli families devastated by the recent Israeli fires. Can you spare a few dollars to donate? 
• All That The Lord Hath Spoken – James on Torah observance for gentiles, with comments getting into the Didache, the state of Messianic Judaism, and more.

Weekly Bracha 45

Welcome to this week in the Messianic blogosphere, Super Fine Kineti reader.

• San Francisco to Propose Circumcision Ban – California, the left-wing experiment of the US, proposes anti-Jewish legislation designed to render illegal the biblical commandment of circumcision.
• Is Circumcision Really Important? – Dr. Schiffman responds to the news with a sharp reality check:

  Banning Jewish circumcision on infants violates the separation of Church and State, which people are quick to quote when they don’t want religion to weigh in on social and moral issues, but conveniently forget when they want to impose their opinions on a four thousand-year old religion.

  The bottom line is that no law imposed by the city of San Francisco will keep Jews from circumcising their sons. In the time of the Maccabees, the Syrians outlawed circumcision. Jews did it anyway, and they overthrew the Syrians and took back the Temple. That’s why we celebrate Chanukah. San Francisco can enact their laws, and who knows… it might yet fall into the sea.

• Cataloging the New Testament's Hebraisms: Part 5 (Parallelisms) – In investigating the possibility of a Hebrew or Aramaic original New Testament, David Bivin looks at synonymous parallelisms: repetition of a thought in different but synonymous, or equivalent, words, with examples from the Tenakh and New Testament.
• A Messianic Christmas Story – James encourages Messianics to treat Christians and Christmas kindly.
• Oh Tannenbaum Oh Hanukkah Bush – Dr. Schiffman looks at the Christmas tree, the Hanukkah bush, and the non-religious trees used in various cultures. He concludes that trees are neither here nor there, and that “Rather than worrying about trees and decorations, we would do better to do the things the Torah actually commands us to do, whether or not a tree is in the house.”
• MJ Passages – Man-who-does-nothing-but-blog Derek Leman announces yet another Messianic website, MJ Passages, with the intent to be “the intersection of good things Jewish, Christian, Messianic Jewish, Judeo-Christian, biblical, archaeological, and theological”.

  Hrmmm, sounds a bit like the Weekly Bracha! Maybe Derek is trying to steal you fine blog readers from my cold, iron death grip. Whatever his eeeeeevil intentions, the only Messianic blogs it links to are those 3 or 4 blogs that agree with most everything Derek says. That said, perhaps it will be a catalyst to get my Bracha Futures idea off the ground.

• Josephus on the Messiah Concept – Was there a strong 1st-century concept of a single Messiah figure who would save Israel and rule the world, or is this just a Christian invention? The author points to Josephus’ 2nd century writings, citing Israel’s desire to go to war with Rome,

  But their chief inducement to go to war was an equivocal oracle also found in their sacred writings, announcing that at that time a man from their country would become the ruler of the world.

  Savor the bracha bits, fine Kineti readers! And stay away from the bracha competition, even if it exists only in my imagination!

Weekly Bracha 44

Rejoice, Messianic sons & daughters of Abraham! The weekly bracha may be a day late, but it’s back with powerful punditry, bearing fine, fine, fine items from the Messianic blogosphere over the last week-ish, plus related news bits from the Jewish world.

• Non-Jews as the Saviors of Judaism – Famed Orthodox rabbi Shmuley Boteach writes an opinion piece in the Jerusalem Post suggests Judaism will be saved by non-Jews doing a kind of Judaism. A gentile can become a Judaizer (his term), and thus save Judaism, by doing 7 things:
• Having a family night on Friday night
• Eating kosher
• Celebrating the biblical feasts
• Studying the Torah, Talmud, Zohar, and other Jewish texts
• Observing niddah (marital purity laws)
• Acts of kindness
• Boteach's Non-Divine, Non-Messianic Jesus? – In response to the above article, Derek Leman responds to Shmuley’s take on Yeshua, whom Shmuley labeled thus:

  For the past six years I have been working on a book, to be published shortly, on a new understanding of Jesus as prophet rather than deity, based exclusively on the New Testament. The real story of Jesus as teacher of traditional Jewish spirituality to his disciples lies explicitly in the text. I have lectured Christian audiences about rediscovering the uniquely Jewish Jesus as a way of deepening their spiritual understanding of Christianity and stripping it of any acquired pagan coating.

  Derek responds powerfully:

  Shmuley’s upcoming book is about Jesus. Jesus the prophet, he says. But not Jesus the divine man or Messiah. Problems? You bet:

  If Jesus is a prophet (I certainly think so) then his words are from God. There is no way Shmuley can believe this. I predict some sort of game-playing will ensure so that many of Jesus’ words will be ignored through either denial of authenticity or clever reinterpretation.

  Derek ends with some Scriptures where Yeshua, in his own words, claims status as the bread of life, the unique son of man with authority to forgive sins, the Messiah, sitting at the right hand of power, having been handed all power in heaven and earth by God himself. Oh, yes! Go, Derek, go!

• Seven Steps to Jewish Living for Non-Jews – James was the first Messianic blog to comment on Boteach’s article, with some interesting comments from James’ readers.
• Boteach's Judaism for Non-Jews – Another reactionary post, Rabbi Brumbach wrestles with another aspect of Boteach’s controversial post: how do gentiles fit into Judaism? This question is particularly relevant to those in Messianic Judaism with its massive influx of gentiles.
• US State Department's 2010 Religious Freedom Report – Prominent in the report is the Jewish terrorist anti-missionary group Yad L’achim, detailing its vigilante acts against Yeshua’s followers (e.g. the firebombings, explosive packages, intimidation, expulsion, etc.). It further links the terrorist group’s activities with government support from the Israeli Ministry of Interior.
• Israeli Army Radio refuses to air Yad L'achim advertisement – Perhaps recognizing the futility of fighting terrorism in Israel while promoting terrorism on its own airwaves, the Israeli Army does the right thing (hooray!) and rejected Yad L’achim terrorist organization’s advertisement. Good on them!
• Good News of Messiah – A new Messianic blog! Well, not really, he’s been blogging for over a year now, but it’s new to me, and probably new to most of you.
• Do You Obey All The Commandments – James writes,

  No, even the best of you don’t obey all of the commandments listed in the Torah; not even the Ultra-Orthodox Jews obey all 613 commandments for the simple reason that they (and you…and we) can’t obey them all. Cool your jets. It’s OK.

• What Is Grassroots? – Yahnatan talks about a conference non-conference for young Messianic believers, and how,

  One year, a dozen or so people who grew up in the UMJC sat down with a dozen MJAA people and basically said, "Here's what we (learned to) think about you."  The conversation led to a lot of repentance--changing minds and hearts about our fellow believers.

  That’s rather encouraging to hear. I think if folks in the various factions of the Messianic movement got together like this, there would be less fighting.

• One Torah To Rule Them All – First Fruits of Zion’s new issue of Messiah Journal has an article on gentiles keeping Torah. James reviews the article, offers his views, and some FFOZ folks respond in the comments. Interesting discussion.

Enjoy the tasty day-old Bracha bits, fine Kineti readers!

Weekly Bracha 43

Hope you’ve had a shavua tov, fine blog readers. This week in the Messianic blogosphere feature a number of Yeshua-centered items from around the web, with items of particular interest from the new YeshuaInContext blog:

• Answering “Yeshua is just another religious figure” – Derek expounds why Yeshua is unique from among religious figures (Buddha, Krishna, Mohammed, etc.) and points to Yeshua’s observable impact on the world.
• Cataloging the New Testament’s Hebraisms: Part 4 – Looking at the Hebraism of parallelisms, that is, repeating the meaning of a statement in a reworded form for additional emphasis, David Bivin gives examples from the Tenakh and the New Testament, suggesting, 
  

  A prophet [in the Hebrew Bible] could scarcely open his or her mouth without parallelisms popping out. Likewise, parallelisms are everywhere in the synoptic Gospels, especially in the sayings of Jesus, an indication that the Greek of these Gospels is derived from a Greek source translated from Hebrew.

• FaceGod not Facebook – Boaz writes on the difficulty of studying in the modern world,
  

  In the modern world, many of us live under the tyranny of too many activities, too many responsibilities, too many options, and not enough time. We run from stress to stress. Life was not always like this, nor is it supposed to be like this. The great rabbi Hillel once said, “Do not say that you will study Torah when you have more time; perhaps, you will never have more time."

• Muslim followers of Jesus? – The author recounts the story of his best friend from 1979 who, as a Jew, became a Messianic Jew, keeping Judaism’s practices while following Jesus as Messiah, as did many in the Jesus Movement of the 1970s. In the 1980s, the same thing happened to Muslims, with Muslims becoming followers of Jesus, but not considering themselves converts to Christianity, but rather, Jesus-following Muslims. Are “Messianic Muslims” a legitimate group to God?
• 100% Yisrael and 100% You – Ken Lane laments that so many of the folks he’s met on this Torah path are seemingly without personality. He writes,

  Am I saying that Torah observance leads to a boring personality? Heaven forbid. But some of these individuals are under the false impression that with this extreme and radical teshuvah (repentance/change of lifestyle) they have subjected themselves to, they also needed to perform some kind of personality-lobotomy on themselves in order to become this more palatable individual to the rest of the observant community.

• Reasons For Faith In Yeshua – Suppose a person starts with the premise that the New Testament is not authoritative, what are reasons to believe it? Derek answers concisely.
• Essentials for discipleship – Looking at what Yeshua’s disciples had to change in order to become disciples, we can derive principles from those changes and apply them ourselves. The first 3 principles:
  
  
  • Replacement at the level of ideas: truths to replace falsehood and subtle errors.
  • Replacement at the level of desires: the proper desires which replace envy, lust, and pride.
  • Replacing wicked and unhealthy habits with good ones.
  Now that’s a replacement theology I can get behind.
• In The Margins – Being Messianic may mean forever having to explain faith, Silverman suggests “we are exactly in the right place. We should not be on the defensive or  lamenting our position but rather rejoicing in the Lord!  We have always been a nation of aliens and sojourners.”
• Mussar: Decisiveness – Going along with my post earlier this week about contributing to the kingdom instead of just talking about it, Rabbi Resnik writes,

  The greatest impediment to ethical growth may not be ignorance, but immobility. We might have a sense of right, and a conviction about some excellent course of action, but fail to pursue it through indecisiveness, endlessly weighing the pros and cons, or the difficulties and complications and never getting around to doing the right thing. Modern life conspires against decisiveness. We are taught to avoid absolutes, to keep our options open, to be tolerant, inclusive, always a bit skeptical . . . and often immobilized.

• MJAA supplies furniture to Jewish orphanage – While on the topic of building the kingdom, the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America continues its humanitarian work in Israel.

Enjoy the tasty brachot this week, my knowledge- and wisdom-hungry Kineti readers of fine variety. And thanks to DL for the great posts over the last few weeks. I nominate him MVP of the 43rd Weekly Bracha.

Weekly Bracha 42

Attention, fine Messiah-loving people of the Messianic blogosphere! This bracha is the answer to life, the universe and everything. I hope you enjoy this week in the Messianic blogosphere.

• Did the church really try to change the sabbath? – Yahnatan asks with skepticism:

  I wonder about the accuracy of that statement I hear: "the Catholic Church changed the Sabbath" or "the Constantinian Church tried to change the Sabbath."  I think these statements are inaccurate or misleading.  I'd like to know whether I'm right!

  Follow along in the comments where several folks cite evidence suggesting that yes, the church did change it.
• Is Anything Wrong With Sunday Church? – Derek argues no, noting that sabbath is about rest, not fellowship. This post spurred response posts from Yahnatan (above) and Cliff (below). 
  

  If you are a Judaically informed Christian or a Messianic Jew and you wish to use language indicating your frustration with churches where replacement theology is routinely expressed, or where the teaching is light on the Bible and uninformed about God’s covenants and the origins of Christian faith, please don’t call them “Sunday churches.” Call them Supersessionist churches, if that is the main thing that bothers you.

• Little Meaning For Gentiles? – Having read the above post, Cliff writes a reactionary blog post arguing in favor of gentile Sabbath keeping.
• Cataloging the New Testament’s Hebraisms, Part 3 – David Bivin continues his scholarly study of bits of the gospels that suggest a possible Hebrew original. In this post, Bivin points out Hebrew grammatical structures, looking at “3rd-person plural active forms of verbs that have no apparent preceding subject” [whew], complete with examples from the Tenakh, rabbinic writings, and the New Testament.
• One Down, One To Go – Ovadia declares, “After a long and interesting weekend spent immersed in a Jewish setting, I can declare with confidence that I have no idea why I believe that Yeshua is the Messiah as a Jew, and that I’m highly skeptical that such a thing is possible”, then asks commenters to explain why they believe Yeshua is the Messiah. I add my thoughts in the comments.
• Hebrew Gospels Update – Messianic organization First Fruits of Zion gives an update on their project of publishing a new English translation of the gospels, based on a translation from Christian talmudist Franz Delitzsch. The Delitzsch translation is unique in that it attempts capture the original language of Yeshua by paraphrasing the Greek text with Hebrew idioms.
• Yeshua’s Attitude Towards the Pharisee’s Law-keeping – Modern Christianity tends to picture Jesus in opposition to the Pharisees due to their rigid law-keeping. However, Yeshua has more to say about Pharisees being lax in law-keeping than rigid.

Here's to hoping you found all the answers you were looking for, fine Kineti readers. Cheers.

Weekly Bracha 41

This week in the Messianic blogosphere, plus news from Israel. A few particularly shiny gems this week.

• What Did Jesus Teach the Gentiles to Obey? – In his final post, a conclusion of conclusions, on what Jesus taught the gentiles to obey, James reaches conclusions about what Jesus taught regarding leadership, servanthood, Torah, the whole bit. His conclusions may surprise both One Law Messianics and Bilateral Ecclesiology Messianics.
• Why Orthodox Jews Should Believe In Yeshua – Addressing whether the divinity of Yeshua is Jewishly impossible. Good discussion in the comments, as one non-Messianic Jewish commenter asserts that a Jew can legitimately believe Jesus is the Messiah, but cannot believe Messiah is divine. No surprise there, I've long been saying the Jewish world won't accept Messianic Judaism as long as Yeshua is Lord.
• How Should We Be Observant – On how Messianics ought to keep the Torah, Jonathan Roush advocates a pragmatic, rather than a stringent, approach:

  This, to me, is the heart of our observance. The love of people should guide us not to separate ourselves from other peoples' journeys. To put it differently, our love for God and His law should guide us to interact and interface with people. I believe this puts us in a position to converse with and (perhaps, G-d willing) to instruct those who we would otherwise have shut out due to our practice.

• Ken Of Zion – New Messianic blog! My eclectic buddy Ken Lane has started blogging on Bearded People For Torah, Yeshua’s name, PMS Judaism, and more. Sit back, be amused, and learn.
• The Big Fat Mess, the Controversy of Messianic Judaism – A look at Messianic Judaism from a liberal Jewish Christian’s point of view.
• Anatomy of a Hit & Run – Compare the recent news report of an Israeli driving over a Palestinian boy with the video of what actually happened. Great example of Palestinian propaganda and western media bias.
• Happy 10,000th anniversary, Jericho – Palestinians celebrated 10/10/2010 as the symbolic 10,000 year anniversary of the ancient city.

Enjoy the short-but-tasty bracha, fine Kineti readers.

Weekly Bracha 40

Enjoy these tasty bits from this week in the Messianic blogosphere, fine information-munching blog readers:

• Cleopas, Why You Should Know Him – Why the largely unknown disciple Cleopas points to an historical Yeshua.
• Anti-missionary logic – Excellent video detailing how Jewish anti-missionaries use unequal weights when trying to disprove Yeshua as Messiah. For example, they often are quick to quote liberal theologians’ critical views of the New Testament, but would never consider those same theologians’ textual criticism of the Tenakh, or how they point out inconsistencies in the gospels, but ignore or explain away similar inconsistencies in the Tenakh.
  
  
  
• What did Jesus teach in the Beatitudes? – The beatitudes as a sad reality check that this life sucks?
• The Messianic Liturgy: Why Bother? – While suggesting that the model of Messianic services could be re-examined (unspoken: more traditional liturgy, less music), Ovadia takes some shots at Messianic praise music, which he defines as an “exercise in emotional manipulation”. Don’t worry, I straighten him out in the comments.
• Conversations about Law and Grace – A Messianic Jew and a Christian order a pizza…
• Not to defend Islam, but… – Jewzilla suggests we’re ignorant in our criticisms of Islam, after all, Islam’s God is Allah, a term derived from the Hebrew Eloah, a generic title for God. Also, Islam at least remains eastern, whereas Judaism and Christianity have lost their way into western moral principles, such as equality and loving all people.
• Genesis in Context – With the yearly Torah reading cycle having just reset into Genesis, the blogosphere is filled with explanations how Genesis cannot be literal. Here, Rabbi Brumbach suggests we cannot read the creation story too literally. (Unspoken: thus leaving the door opened for old earth creationism or theistic evolution.) Good discussion in the comments.

Podcasts

• Would Jesus Do That? Sacrifices and Yeshua – Would Yeshua sacrifice animals in the Temple? If so, why is there no record of it in the New Testament?
Eat the tasty bracha bits, relax, and enjoy the new week, fine blog readers.

Weekly Bracha 39

A light, fluffy bracha this week, light on the count, high on the content. This week’s bracha is like Snickers: you don’t have to eat too many to get some fine nourishment.

Before we hop in, I want to let you all know we have made some progress on the Bracha Futures idea. In case you forgot, the goal there is to move the Weekly Bracha onto its own website (e.g. bracha.com), democratize it, let users vote up stories, submit their own, etc. It’ll be kind of like Digg or Reddit, but for Messianic items.

As of some late nite coding over the weekend, I now have a barebones skeleton of the site running locally.

So keep an eye out for that, it’ll be great!

Until then, here’s the bracha bits from the past week.

• Is Messianic Judaism in Crisis? – UMJC rabbi Joshua Brumbach cites statistics showing the growth of Messianic Judaism is not sustainable:

  Much of the energy which has propelled our Movement forward is based on events in the past out of which the modern Messianic Jewish phenomenon was birthed. Although lip service has been given toward the future, until very recently, very little has actually been done to practically prepare for the future and set a vision for what will happen after the current pioneers are gone. Add to this the huge influx of non-Jews, the higher numbers of intermarriage among Messianic Jews, and the very small numbers of young people currently being raised-up into leadership - the numbers can no longer keep up.

• Back To the Future – Gev writes on the contribution of Messianics to the church, and, hinting at assimilation into the church, asks, “Where are all the descendants of these great Messianic Jews?”
• What Did Jesus Teach About the Torah? – 11 posts deep into exploring what Yeshua commanded his Jewish disciples to teach gentile believers, James reaches some conclusions on Acts 15: it cannot contain the totality of the expected gentile behavioral compliance to God.
• Calev Myers: The Red Cross must visit Gilad Shalit – Calev Myers, the Israeli human rights advocate, one who’s fought for Messianics in Israel, gives an excellent speech calling out the the backwards morality of the world today, the evil of Palestinian terrorist leadership Hamas, and calls on the Red Cross to visit and help free Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier kidnapped by Hamas and held now for over 4 years.
  
• Cataloging the New Testament’s Hebraisms, Part 2 – Looking at densities of Hebraisms within complete stories in the gospels.

  Relatively few of the Greek NT’s Hebrew (or Aramaic) idioms suggested by scholars constitute clear-cut proof for a Hebrew undertext, but a high density of Hebraisms in a given passage increases the probability that it is “translation Greek,” perhaps a descendant of a Greek translation of a Hebrew source, and raises the chances that any purposed Hebraism in such a passage was translated from a Hebrew source at some point in the transmission process rather than having been originally composed in Greek.

• A’La Carte Observance – Schiffman argues that for people not born into a life of total observance, becoming more observant is a process.
• Riverton Mussar – Rabbi Kinbar points us to a new Messianic Jewish blog/website on mussar, Jewish ethics. Multiple contributors including some big names in the Messianic movement. Here’s a sample: Finding Equilibrium.

Enjoy the tasty bracha bits, fine blog readers.