Isaiah 51:4: “I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people.” Yehudah ha-Levi, a medieval Jewish poet, displayed his emotion in a little rhyme: “ein rega beli nega.” “There is no rest without a wound in it.” The word rest (rega’) is a very curious word in the Hebrew. It
Mark 12:30-31, “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than
Isaiah 50:7: “For the Lord God shall help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed,” Practically every translation I read this verse in will translate ‘azar as help or helper. There are no too many options
Isaiah 46:4: “Till you grow old, I will be the same, when you grow gray, it is I who will carry; I was the maker and I will be the bearer. And I will carry and rescue you.” When the Babylonians conquered Judah, they took the best and strongest into captivity. Daniel and his
Psalms 104:4 “Who makes his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire:” Let me just say at the outset that I do believe in angels as we traditional understand angels. I mean I am a big fan of the old TV show Touched by An Angel. Every Christmas I cheer Clarence on as he tries to earn his
Ecclesiastes 5:19: “Every man also to whom God has given riches and wealth and hath given power to eat thereof and to take his portion and to rejoice in his labor, this is the gift of God.” Ecclesiastes 6:2: “A man to whom God has given riches, wealth and honor so that he wants nothing
II Samuel 22:30: For by thee I have run through a troop; by my God have I leaped over a wall.” The Talmud instructs that we are never to lose the pashat, that is, the literal interpretation of a verse. Although Jewish tradition teaches that there are 70 faces to Torah, and we can
II Kings 5:15-16: Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company and he came and stood before him. And he said: ‘Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel; so accept now a blessing from your servant.’ But he said: ‘As the Lord
II Chronicles 7:14: “If my people who are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked way, then will I hear from the heavens and will forgive their sin, and heal their land.” II Chronicles 12:7: “And when the Lord saw that they humbled
I Kings 18:28, “And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them.” This classic story pits God Jehovah against the god Baal worshipped by King Ahab of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The land of Israel has been without rain for
