Celebrating a True Simcha!

So now comes Simchat Torah which means Joy of the Torah. It is a time which marks the completion of the synagogue reading of the 5 books of Moses within a one-year span. Each week a particular parashat or portion of the Torah is read. And on the last Saturday when the annual cycle is completed, the final chapter of Deuteronomy is read…

The Fall Feasts of Israel

After declaring that the coming of the Messiah is likened to a new beginning, like the dawn of a new era, Mark brings us to two crucial passages from the Hebrew Scriptures which also speak of a new beginning in the history of messianic prophecies.

The Coming Holy Spirit

In the Targum on Ezekiel, that is, in the Aramaic Bible which they used to read in the first century, for the words “put a new spirit within you”, they wrote, “And the Holy Spirit will I put deep inside of you.” I find it so interesting that they use the words Holy Spirit, like John does here. The term Holy Spirit is only mentioned three times in the whole of the Hebrew Scriptures.