Weekly Torah Commentaries

By UMJC - Union Of Messianic Jewish CongregationsReligion & Spirituality Christianity Judaism

Weekly Torah Commentaries episodes

March 30, 2023 A Season of Fruitfulness
This weekend is Shabbat HaGadol, the final Shabbat before Pesach. In the
midst of a frenzy of last-minute house cleaning, we gather this week to
read the closing words of the prophet Malachi.
11 min
March 23, 2023 God Calls Across the Divide
God does a lot of speaking in the Torah, both in visions and dreams and in an audible voice. He speaks so often that we might miss some revealing distinctions in how he speaks. And these distinctions have a lesson for us, as we seek to hear God amidst the noisy and chaotic days we’re living in.
10 min
March 16, 2023 God's Reputation Is at Stake
God is a specific God. He loves details. He shares these details with his
servants. His children hear his voice and they obey. This week’s parashah
deals with many details of the building of the mishkan (tabernacle). It
reminds me of building Legos as a kid.
7 min
March 08, 2023 The Perfect Fall
The story of the Golden Calf is really the story of each of us. It is no
accident that Aaron fashions the idol and Israel falls to it at the very
moment God gives Israel the tablets of the covenant. In this respect it is
the perfect fall.
9 min
March 02, 2023 Three Ways from Shushan
This year, as I read Esther, I find myself asking the text what it has to say to us today. While it may be ancient, the problems it deals with are tragically current. What can Esther teach us about Jewish survival? How does its text point us toward the future?
11 min
February 24, 2023 A Willing Heart and the Willing Creator
This is a characteristic of the Almighty. Present everywhere, he yet deigns
to make his Presence known in our time and space. Whereas we cannot reach,
and certainly cannot comprehend, his exalted mind, his infinite space, his
timeless space, he has chosen to enter ours.
10 min
February 16, 2023 What the World Needs Now is Hope
We need hope today more than ever. But in what do we hope? Some think of
our hope as going to “heaven" when we die. But this is not the biblical
hope. The biblical hope, in short, is the future establishment of God’s
Dwelling Place, God’s “tent,” on earth, on his holy mountain in Jerusalem.
11 min
February 07, 2023 The Upside-down Tent
Then that night, something crazy happened. The campsite was on a hill. My
fellow campers and I had placed our tent on that hill, and we figured it
was okay not to put our tent stakes in the ground because we were going to
be inside it.
6 min
February 01, 2023 Faith on a Stretcher
Healing is a deep and universal human need, and praying for the sick and
afflicted has always been part of my ministry as a rabbi and teacher—never
more so than in recent years, with the Covid pandemic and a good number of
friends and colleagues beginning to decline in health and vitality.
11 min
January 26, 2023 Where is Your Heart?
On May 14, 1948, before signing Israel’s Declaration of Independence, David
Ben Gurion looked back over 2000 years of our history and declared how the
Jewish people had returned in a second exodus, “undaunted by difficulties,
restrictions and dangers.”
9 min

About Weekly Torah Commentaries

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Reflections on the weekly Torah portions from a diverse group of Messianic Jewish rabbis, scholars, and lay people. Our contributors bring fresh insights to familiar texts, drawing connections to…