How healthy people made decisions to leave safety and comfort and go into lack and danger on frontiers in order to raise up things they believed to the core of their souls were so necessary, their "normal" and "comfy" lives among "their peeps" were acceptable risks or casualties.

On Shavuot, we recite the Torah-commanded trope, "My ancestor was a perishing Aremean." Yet – that description of his current state was not the final word on it. We see Ruth, a woman excluded from Israel by law – with her widowed and child-bereaved Jewish mother in law, Naomi, declaring "all hope for me is past." Yet – while these both seemed accurate at the moment, they was not close to the final word on either woman's existence. Let us truly learn Shavuot's lessons this year, in a way letting us live them genuinely in the year to come!

Right use of our words in quantity and quality has been, in our present era, moved from the Biblical standards "where many words are, error is unavoidable" and "a harsh word stirs up anger," and "a slandering tongue hates the one it crushes" – into admiration of fast and hurtful speech, using humor to devastate others and using quantity to word-swamp rather than listen. Are values like, "Let your words be few" and "be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger" still valid in the present age?

This is audio of the 8 April 2023 Passover Service segment in our synagogue when we observe the commandments Yeshua our Messiah gave us to remember Him in two key elements of the Pesach Seder, and do them forever "in remembrance of Me" – the 3rd cup of the Seder (after dinner) called "The Cup of Redemption," and the breaking/eating of the "Afikomen" – which does not mean "dessert," but is Greek for "I have arrived." We close by singing "the" Passover hymn, "Adir Hu" (He Is Mighty).

Ps 119 gives us an intimate portrait of King David's love, not only for God's "Torah" (teaching) - but the individual laws and statutes (chuk'eem and meeshpat'eem): he "meditated" on them in a way that "made (him) wiser than (his) enemies." How? We explore that dynamic to rescue Leviticus from being the book everyone skips on their treks through the Bible, seeking stories and songs that hold one's attention. We hope this two-sermon series will rescue Leviticus from Devotional Oblivion in your Scripture-learning life. :-) On the weekly portion, "Tzav" – Enjoy!

There is hot discussion in religious leadership over, "What is the future of 'congregating?'" Are people of faith going to cease gathering together IN PERSON as humans have done for the millennia of our existence - and segue into watching a "virtual" world, and attend virtual gatherings through screens as small as those on an iPhone. What is the essence of "being gathered" by God, for God-focused purposes ... and what does cost to "forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as is the habit of some?" (Hebrews 10:25) We explore this together.

God's contract with us. God told Moses, "Write down THESE words, because THESE words are my covenant with YOU and with ISRAEL." Yeshua the Messiah echoed this concept: "My words which I speak to you, they are 'spirit' and they are 'life.'" Given the level of priority God assigns – how vital is it that we define what we expect from God according to "these words," and not some other defining source?

In this week's parasha "Terumah" (Freewill Offering), the Scriptures explore how people's responses to what is requested rather than commanded reveals the nature of their hearts. And oddly oxymoronic pairing of values: materials required are requested to be volunteered: they are not demanded. God put His entire Nation-Building project into the hands of people willing to do more than just the minimum.

How could the Elders of Israel be in the very presence of God on Mt. Sinai, and "see God" as they are described in this week's portion to have done --- and still later have Aaron sink into repeated rebellions and his sons Nadav and Avihu treat God so profanely that God ended their lives over it? Shouldn't having "seen" God carried them forward with ironclad focus? Why is seeing NOT necessarily believing? And what can we learn from this section of Torah history to benefit from it?

Isn't it great when "the fix" to a problem or need is simple, straightforward, and easy? That is what Messiah taught us about a balanced diet in spiritual life, the way Yitro advised his son-in-law, Moses. "Here is the problem; and here is the solution ... which, by the way, you are not doing. Want to start today?" May God grant us the grace to walk in so simple a path to robustly healthy spirituality.