Rebooting Beth Immanuel after the Covid-19 shutdown, we come back together on Shabbat Korach and learn a lesson about our inner Moses and our inner Korah while working through the implications of Distinction theology in the synagogue service. 

The story of Korah's rebellion helps us understand a passage from Paul's epistle to Titus about "worthless and unprofitable arguments about the Torah." 

"Love is patient, love is kind." 1 Corinthians 13 wasn't written for the sake of flowery ornamental text inside a Hallmark wedding card. The original meaning of the passage within the context of Paul's discussion of spiritual gifts and revelations reveals new insights into the meaning of the famous love passge.  

An international pandemic, riots in American cities, Chinse brinkmanship, rivers in Russia turn blood red, canibal rats in the streets, the American flag torn assunder, the Washington Monument struck by lightning--it's all in another week of the signs of the times during the birth pangs of Messiah.

Why do we eat dairy on Shavuot and stay up all night studying Torah? What's the connection between Pentecost and Shavuot? Here's a quick overview of the festival in the form of excerpts from an unpublished manuscript of the forthcoming First Fruits of Zion book The Holy Days.

A forgotten apostolic tradition about "the three camps" of Israel puts us on the trail of an ancient teaching about New Jerusalem and the World to Come. This teaching from just before Shavuot 2014 was the basis of the article that later appeared in Messiah Journal under the title "What No Eye Has Seen."

Coronavirus changes the way we celebrate Shavuot this year. Here's a teaching about the significance of Shavuot in Messianci Judaism and the importance of keeing it on the map. 

Some thoughts on Ascension Day during Covid-19 and the significance of the ascension of Yeshua and his second coming. This teaching includes material from C. S. Lewis' book Miracles pertaining to the physicalisty of the resurrection, ascension, and return of Yeshua.  

For what sin was Yeshua put to death? With what transgression was he charged? The answer is in the story of the blasphemer of Leviticus 24. This teaching takes a deep dive into the subject of blasphemy and, along the way, untangles the confusing passage about the unforgivable sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit. 

The nineteenth-century Jewish convert to Christianity, Adolph (Aharon) Saphir, a man mighty in the scriptures, was a powerful preacher and prolific writer possessed with extraodinary depth of spiritual insight. His book The Hidden Life consists a series of sermons based on James 4:8, "Draw night to God, and He will draw nigh to you." Saphir's powerful and almost lyrical teachings take the reader on a journey through the pracitical aspects of experiencing the "life hidden with Messian in God" (Colossians 3:3). Read by D. Thomas Lancaster.

Read the full text of the original book on here Internet Archive.