Blog

Perhaps you might have noticed all of the television commercials showing happy families gathering together to celebrate Christmas over a meal. When you think about the religious practices of most religions, families gathering with food is a common theme. The meal at the end of each day of fasting during Ramadan is one where families gather together. Most of the Jewish observances of festivals...Read more...

‘Tis the season for gift giving. You might be amazed to learn that Chanukah was never a gift-giving holiday, but that we do have a holiday where gift-giving is part of the celebration. That holiday is: Purim. We read in Chapter 9:22 of Megillat Esther: They were to observe them as days of feasting and merrymaking, and as an occasion for sending gifts to one another and presents to the poor...Read more...

The proximity of Thanksgiving and Chanukah this year gave me pause to reflect upon the commonality of both. Some scholars suggest that Thanksgiving was modeled after the holiday of Sukkot, the fall harvest festival, as a way for the pilgrims to express their gratitude to God. Research has shown that the origins of Chanukah have little to do with the miraculous cruse of oil that lasted for...Read more...

While much has circulated over the past few years regarding the authentic origins of Thanksgiving, the concept of a Fall harvest festival with a meal to celebrate and offer thanks to God is ancient. In fact, it is called the holiday of Sukkot. There are some who claim that the early pilgrims copied this from the Hebrew Bible. It is easy to get caught up in other matters and forget about the...Read more...

The stories of the progenitors of Judaism in the book of Genesis are very open and honest. Their faults and mistakes are not covered up, but spoken of openly, so that we might learn from them. Unlike Dr. Spock’s book on how to raise children that was popular in the 1950’s, the book of Genesis shows us how not to raise children. Certainly favoring one child over siblings is a feature, be it Cain’s jealousy of...Read more...