Torah describes the laws of shemitah, the laws of the sabbatical year, and also yovel, a Jubilee year. This was a time when Israel was challenged to let the land have its Shabbat, a complete rest from agriculture. And yet this rest was not going to bring economic suffering upon...
I recently released a new book, so in my efforts to promote it, I wanted to share some videos and let people experience the texts that captivated my attention for a while. The First Book of Enoch (Ethiopian Enoch), also known as "The Book of Watchers," is a...
In modern Shavuot celebrations, it is customary to stay up late and to study Torah into the morning hours. Why? Many rabbis would say that we follow this custom because when Hashem decided to give Israel the mitzvot (commandments), they were asleep at the foot of Sinai. They were not...
This part of the teaching on the prophets focuses on Trei Asar, "The Scroll of the Twelve." The videos in Part 2 are just over 2 hours long and are broken up into multiple segments covering Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. This is a multi-part seminar...
Has anyone ever complained to you that you are a difficult person? Have you been described as “rough around the edges”? Don’t despair. It just means you are human, and you do not hide it very well. I will tell you, though, that life may throw you around a...
We live in a world full of people who think they know how everything works. The audacity of science and investigative thought is often revealed in claiming to have figured it all out, as mere theories are too often presented as facts. This is sadly true with all human knowledge...
What makes one a prophet? How can their words be validated? How can their calling from above be verified? In this socio-cultural study of ancient Israelite prophets, it would not be proper to only discuss the lives of those who left us books named after them, such as Isaiah, Amos,...
