Hebrew Nation Online

News and commentary for Monday, 18 August, 2025.

Love and Torah – what’s love got to do with it? This study series is based on the “Two Great Commands” – love Yahweh and love your neighbor.

Continuing in Psalm 119, the question Rabbi Steve Berkson asks of you is, as you read the writings of King David can you feel and think the same way he did? The reason King David has been referred to as a man after Yahweh’s own heart is that King David let the same mind as Yahweh be in him, as the apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Philippians – “let this mind be in you that was also in Messiah Yeshua.”

Rabbi Berkson once again dissects the words in these passages so that you will have a deeper understanding of what Yah expects of you, so that you can do it and receive the blessings.

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Parsha “Ekev” (for “Because,” or “it follows,” Deuteronomy 7:11-11:25) is, first, a set of promises that follows BECAUSE, or as a result, of the fact that we are to hear and obey His commandments. And as such, it’s also a contrast with what we see taught today.

The Erev Shabbat reading includes that, and more:

During the Sabbath Day midrash, Mark Call of Shabbat Shalom Mesa muses about the ‘giants’ (Rephaim, Anakim, Zamzuzim, et al) that Moses warned the mixed multitude they would deal with in the land. And HOW, since they were promised to prevail.

They were big and scary, but just how intelligent were they? Arguably, perhaps more so than we might think.

The theme again has idolatry at heart, and His hatred of it. “Do not even bring an abomination into your house,” lest you be accursed like it.

Could it be that He is also talking about the newly created AI gods, made of a different form of stone — silicon? But the lesson is the same, although the threat is greater.

The combined two-part reading and Sabbath midrash:

News, commentary, and an extended summary from host Mark Call of some of most important events for the week ending 16 August, 2025.

Trump and Putin are meeting today in Alaska. Will the theater include putting the Zelenski doll out of the playhouse?

Meanwhile, the President has put the National Guard in the DC Swamp. Some are calling it a ‘police state,’ having failed to recognize what we’ve been watching for years now. And they can’t read the Constitution, either.

So are these examples of things that MIGHT “clue AmeriKans in” to what has happened? And what MUST happen if the Republic has any chance of survival?

David Justice is characteristically optimistic, while Mark Call cautions against the “Q-phoria” that we have sadly seen before, and been ‘gravely disappointed’ by.

Who is the woman in Revelations 12?

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On today’s show, Episode 182, this is PART 1 of a Hebrew Scripture discussion that I had with Jeff Benner, who has authored over twenty books related to biblical studies. His works include The Ancient Hebrew Lexicon of the Bible and His Name is One. Jeff Benner founded the Ancient Hebrew Research Center in 1999. The stated objective is to help serious Bible readers break free from a surface-level understanding of scripture and to begin reading the Bible through the lens of its original language, culture, and context. Join me now for my discussion with Jeff Benner as we explore the rich nuances of the biblical texts. On today’s program, we will study the Hebrew language from the perspective of its two-letter (parental) Hebrew root system. We will study words like Shalom, Faith, King, Abstract versus Concrete Thought, Righteousness, and many more concepts.

News and commentary for Thursday, 14 August, 2025.

News and commentary for Wednesday, 13 August, 2025.

News and commentary for Tuesday, 12 August, 2025.