Was Paul in disguise? Paul says, "I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some." Did he adopt hypocritical pretenses in order to win people with the Gospel, acting like Jew around Jews and like a Gentile around Gentiles? This teaching on Galatians 4:12-20 considers Paul's evangelism strategies and the real meaning behind 1 Corinthians 9:19-23.

Forty days in the wilderness! The season of repentance is often referred to as the Jewish version of Lent, but which came first? This teaching from 2010 makes the case that the Christian season of Lent was originally based on the Jewish season of Teshuvah. This teaching calls upon us to employ asceticism and meseret nefesh in a forty-day face-off with the devil as we train for Yom Kippur.

Your soul's purpose in this world is to serve God. That's why it was given a body. This purpose implies that there is a foundational commandment in the Torah that many of us may be neglecting. The soul is like an astronaut in a spacesuit. Is an astronaut concerned with maintaining his spacesuit?

In the interest of proper credit, some inspiration for this teaching came from this page. Beth Immanuel does not necessarily endorse everything on that site (which appears to be from a Breslov perspective).

Enhance your prayer life, enhance your spiritual growth, develop self-discipline, and improve your health, all at the same time! This teaching about fasting gears us up for the Forty Days of Repentance. Based on a text in parashat Ekev, we take a look at fasting not only as a spiritual discipline but also at as a source of physical benefits for health and longevity. 

Here are some useful links about the health benfits of Intermittent Fasting and OMAD (One Meal a Day).

Does Paul rebuke Gentiles for observing the biblical calendar? If not, how do we understand Galatians 4:9-10?

The Spirit of Messiah cries out from within the inner being of the believer, "Abba! Father!" Both Jewish and Gentile believers have received the adoption as sons, not just sons of Abraham, but as the sons of God. In this teaching from Galatians, Paul warns the God-fearers not to be enslaved again by the pagan elementary principles of the world thorugh observing days, months, season, and years. 

"Every generation in which the Temple is not rebuilt, is considered guilty of its destruction." Our Master knew that baseless hatred was the sin which was going to cause his generation to forfeit the redemption and go into exile. Therefore he called upon his generation to repent, and by repent, he meant, "Love God," and "Love one another." Love is at the center of his Gospel message.

In Messiah, "there is neither Jew nor Greek," so that makes us all the same? Wrong! When Paul declares that there is no difference between Jew and Gentile in Messiah, he does not mean to imply that Jews and Gentiles forfeit their unique roles and identities. This important teaching compares "One New Man Theology" and "One Law Theology," revealing them to be two sides of the same coin of replacement theology.

"We were held captive under the law ... imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed ... but now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian" (Galatians 3:23-26). This difficult saying is understood to mean, "The Torah was only a guardian until faith in Messiah came, but now that the Messiah is here, we are no longer under the Torah's authority, therefore the Torah has been done away with." This teaching takes a look at Paul's analogy in which the Torah and Jewish status is compared to a paidagogos, a guardian-slave entrusted with the care and supervision of a child. 

How long were the children of Israel in Egypt? Was it 430years? If so, how do we account for 430 years over only three generations? In Galatians 3, Paul employs a rabbinic tradition about the duration of Israel's sojourn in Egypt, interprets the "seed of Abraham" as a reference to Messiah, and compares the Torah to a competing inheritance document.