This book captures many ancient voices, a collection of literary excerpts from ancient Jewish books: Jubilees, Josephus, 4 Ezra, Qumran Scrolls, Talmud, Enoch, Baruch, Maccabees, Mishna, Judith, Apocalypse of Moses, Philo, Mishna, Ben Sira, and many others, fifty passages to be exact. The excerpts are mostly short, sometimes even intentionally
Apostle Paul was a first-century religious Jew, trained at the feet of the best rabbis of his time. Though he addresses primarily non-Jewish audiences, Shaul often writes as a rabbi, resorting to midrash and employing metaphors to illustrate his ideas. Sadly, his readers are not used to this
I wanted to share with you a Morning Prayer and, more specifically, a musical piece I created based on it. The words of this song are inspired by the words of the traditional morning blessings found in the Siddur (Jewish Prayer Book). The person who is praying in the early
What is this Sign of Jonah? The traditional thinking is that it's Jesus' resurrection, three days and three nights... But the passage may not be so simple as it appears on the surface. Interested in taking a closer look and discovering another way to read the text?
Over the years of teaching, I have often referred my students to the books of Enoch. But most of the time, I did so with some reservations. I knew that the broadly distributed copies they would likely come across would be littered with archaic and hard-to-digest language. Finally,
This book by Prof. Daniel Boyarin explores the popular topic of the parting of ways between Christianity and Judaism. Only instead of tracing the historical circumstances of how the Synagogue and Church slowly drifted apart, he proposes a completely different
The passage called Mishpatim in Torah begins with laws about slaves and slavery. It’s not an easy topic to discuss in America. Colonial slavery most people are familiar with in America, was truly brutal, unjust, and inhumane. The mistreatment
Are you familiar with the Jewish calendar? The National Library of Israel presents an educational video that delves into the intriguing history of this calendar. By exploring their extensive collection of old and rare texts, the video offers a unique
Strack (1848-1922) was a Professor of the Old Testament at the University of Berlin. His classic introduction to Rabbinic literature was revised and updated by Gunter Stemberger, an established expert on Rabbinic history and literature. This book is the
This is a shiur, a recording of short thematic live and interactive teaching (broken up into 3 segments, about 50 minutes long in total). The lesson surveys the commandments and customs of the Festival of Tabernacles and examines some ancient
In Numbers 17:7, Torah says that a cloud of God’s glory appeared all around them. God spoke to them, hiramu mitoch haedah “Get away from the midst of the assembly.” And God continued, va’akhaleh otam ke’raga
Delve into the profound significance of how we misuse our speech with this video series of interactive devotional discussions. Join me and the live audience as we embark on a journey through the Jewish practice of Heshbon Nefesh (searching one&
You may have heard it said that “God tests but does not tempt.” Such conviction is usually based on a well-known verse: “No one, when tempted, should say, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted
Geroge M. Lamsa was a native Aramaic speaker born in the Middle East. He translated the Aramaic Peshitta Bible, which means "simple" or "straight," into English. Without going into arguments of manuscript primacy, Aramaic was indeed
Sometimes people genuinely lack humility, and they are totally unaware of it. People can be very proud and self-important, conceited, pumped up about themselves, and have an inflated view of themselves. Sometimes people are arrogant and stubborn, overconfident, snobbish,
Dear PSHIR.COM readers, thanks to you, my e-zine has really grown! In September of 2022, my new e-zine had only a couple of hundred subscribers, and now, a year later, my digital publication is quickly zooming towards
One of the best-known verses from the Gospels is John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world..." But just before that, Jesus said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so, must the
