Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Mar 3, 2008
All men commanded to appear 3 times a year there, but the Rabbis found a way to reinterpret this; at the time of Jesus, a man was considered especially devout if he went once a year, and some went once in a lifetime or every 4 or 5 years! (see "Pilgrimage at the Time of Jesus" by Shmuel Safrai,
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Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Feb 25, 2008
Russ Perman tells this story: "Working as a secretary at an international airport, my sister had an office adjacent to the room where security temporarily holds suspects. One day security officers were questioning a man when they were suddenly called away on another emergency. To the horror of my
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Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Feb 25, 2008
There is virtually no connection between the Temple and modern church buildings. As we will see later in the series, it really isn’t right to call a church building "the House of the Lord." It is okay in a figurative sense, just as our praise is not an offering in the sense of killing and animal
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Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Feb 25, 2008
It’s every airplane passenger’s nightmare -- getting stuck near a crying baby. I was manning the ticket counter at a busy airport when the sound of a sobbing infant filled the air. As the next passenger stepped up to the desk, he glanced at the tot and rolled his eyes. "Don’t worry," I said to him
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Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Feb 25, 2008
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My friend Agnes is an accomplished harpist who frequently plays for weddings, receptions, parties and other such events. She is also blond and has an appropriately cherubic face. She was on her way to an engagement at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, and stepped into an elevator with her large golden
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Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Feb 25, 2008
My wife and I were watching the gorillas at the zoo when several of them charged at the enclosure fence, scattering the crowd, except for one elderly man. Later, my wife asked him how he had kept his composure. "I used
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Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Feb 11, 2008
Affectionate Writing Can Reduce Cholesterol
According to new research, writing down affectionate thoughts about close friends and family can reduce your cholesterol levels. Floyd et al. (2007) randomly assigned participants to one of two groups: one experimental and one control. The experimental
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Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Feb 11, 2008
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Recent studies in psychology suggest that the pursuit of self-interest may not be the
clearest path to the greater good or personal happiness, as so widely assumed. When
researchers study what makes us happy, they find that it is not personal wealth, the
strength of the stock market, inflation,
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Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Feb 11, 2008
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Love was the highest motivation, even among the Jews. We read in the Talmud:
"What difference is there between one who acts from love and one who acts from fear? — The difference is that indicated in this teaching: R. Simeon b. Eleazar says: Greater is he who
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Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Feb 4, 2008
Wall Street Journal
Banned From Church
Reviving an ancient practice, churches are exposing sinners and shunning those who won’t repent.
By ALEXANDRA ALTER
January 18, 2008; Page W1
On a quiet Sunday morning in June, as worshippers settled into the pews at Allen Baptist Church in southwestern
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Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Jan 28, 2008
"You Attract the People Your System Invites
It’s no secret that healthy environments attract healthy people. Healthy people leave environments that are not or more often than not, get pulled down by them. Yet, it is something we tend to forget. When we find a system or environment that is wrong,
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Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Jan 28, 2008
Our Code of Jewish Law states that a person should work for a living, but he should "work to live," and not "live to work." After morning Torah study, a person "should go to work, for all Torah which is not accompanied by work is destined to be nullified and in danger of causing transgression,
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Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Jan 21, 2008
Is Islam the Fastest-Growing Religion? Guess Again
by Dinesh D’Souza
Many people think Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the world. Not true. Islam is growing fast, but Christianity is growing faster. Indeed there are twice as many Christians as Muslims in the world today and the gap is
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Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Jan 21, 2008
The Rabbis were concerned that people directed their hearts toward God in the sense of praying towards the Temple:
"Our Rabbis taught: A blind man or one who cannot tell the cardinal points should direct his heart towards his Father in Heaven, as it says, And they pray unto the Lord. If one is
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Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Dec 31, 2007
According to the Talmud, "Michael [reaches his goal] in one [flight], Gabriel in two, Elijah in four, and the Angel of Death in eight. In the time of plague, however, [the Angel
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Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Dec 31, 2007
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Lin Smalec writes, "I read recently about a children’s Sunday School class that heard the Christmas story and sang the beloved Christmas carol, “Silent Night”. They were then asked to draw what they thought the nativity scene might have looked like. One little fellow did a good likeness of Joseph,
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Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Dec 31, 2007
Here is an ancient Jewish understanding of the Star, 21. Trumah : 86. The stars
Verse 860. "Then the seventh window will be opened to the whole world, and its star is the star of Jacob. This is what Bila’am said, "There shall come a star out of Jacob" (Bemidbar 24:17), and this star will
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Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Dec 12, 2007
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According to the Jewish Encyclopedia: "Even the names of Antichrist in this passage are of Jewish origin; the "lawless one" (II Thess. ii. 8, R. V.) is none other than Belial—whom Paul mentions in another place as the opponent of the Messiah (II Cor. vi. 15)—a name interpreted by the rabbis as
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Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Dec 3, 2007
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We have many jokes about the subject of hell.
Consider the supposed story of the Illinois man who left the snow-filled streets of Chicago for a vacation in Florida. His wife was on a business trip and was planning to meet him there the next day. When he reached his hotel, he decided to send his
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Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Dec 3, 2007
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But when we discuss the subject of Hell in seriousness, we realize that it is a subject in which opinions abound: From an article on Judaism found at Wikipedia:
"Daniel 12:2 proclaims "And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, Some to everlasting life, Some to shame and
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