Your Prayers and Donations Empowered Us to Provide Meals for God’s Ancient People! Purim (Book of Esther) Courage, Faith, Petitions Every Purim in late winter, early spring, the Jewish people remember the story of Esther. Esther was the Jewish Queen in ancient Persia (Iran) whose courage, faith and petitions delivered the Jews from certain destruction.…

The Enemy In 168 B.C., the Syrian emperor Antiochus came from the north and defeated Egypt.  During the process of celebrating his victory he was pressured by Rome to withdraw. In his anger at this reversal, he directed his resentment towards, and made a swath through, the land of the Jews.  He set out to…

The Church is the “New Israel.” The Abrahamic Covenant blessings are for the Church. Supersessionism (super-session-ism) “Supersessionism” is the belief that the New Testament covenant supersedes the Mosaic covenant of the Hebrew Bible, and that the Christian Church has displaced Israel as God’s chosen people,  en.oxforddictionaries.com.  Radical forms of supersessionism are manifested in militant antisemitism,…

“You shall make tassels (Heb. gadil, twisted thread, or tassel) on the four corners (Heb. kanaf, plural ? kanafot) of the garment with which you cover yourself” (Deut. 22:12). This is the command to wear a prayer shawl (Heb. tallit).  Immediately following the commandment of the tallit, the Torah states, “I the LORD am your…

First Chronicles 1-9 is punctuated by four clear narratives: a.   4:9, 10:  Jabez asking God to enlarge his borders. b.  4:39, 43: Simeonites seized Meunite and Amalekite territory and exterminated the population. c & d.  5: 9,10 & 5:18-22:  These two stories are separated by a brief Gadite genealogy listing, but together connects a…

Tones of a Mother The crescent moon glistened high above the Mediterranean Sea, a warship was patrolling the coastline, and within ear range I heard the tender tones of a mother telling the story of her days as a youth to her teenage daughter.  The mother ended up chatting with me explaining her conversation. She…

Rose Shoshanna (Rose), 94 years old,  shared her story with us as she showed us her number that the Nazis tattooed on her arm. During World War II, Shoshanna, then 21 years old, was taken to the concentration camp in Auschwitz, Germany.   She ended up weighing 50 pounds. Evil Things The SS Nazi soldiers beat…

Optimism is not hope.  Optimism is a mental positive attitude towards life in general.  Hope is more mysterious and more deep. Hope is like a tether anchored to the rock while your vessel is adrift in the sea of life.  You pull the tether until you reach the shore. It is there that you find…

“Israel is your home” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that at a time of rising anti-Semitism in Europe, Israel is the only place where Jews can truly feel safe. “This wave of attacks is expected to continue,” Netanyahu told his Cabinet. “Jews deserve security in every country, but we say to our Jewish…

(Lev. 23:34-43; Deut. 16:13-15; Num. 29:12-40) The Feast of Tabernacles (Booths, or Sukkot), begins at sunset.  It is the third major feast in which the men of Israel were required to go up to Jerusalem. Hallel Sukkot, is an eight-day festival recalling the wilderness wanderings in which Israel dwelt in temporary tents (Tabernacles, Booths). Today,…