Archives For Judaism

Neat passage.  Let me know your thoughts on the text … and on the Apocrypha.

A bushel of wind

2 Esdras 4:3-11

…The angel continued, “I have been sent to ask you to solve three riddles about what happens in this world. If you can explain even one of them to me, I will answer your questions about God’s ways and teach you why the human race has an evil impulse.”

“I agree, sir,” I said.

Then he said to me, “Good! How do you weigh out a pound of fire? How do you measure a bushel of wind? How do you bring back a day that has passed?”

I answered, “Why do you ask me such questions? No human being could answer them.”

Then he said, “What if I had asked you how many dwelling places there are at the bottom of the sea? How many rivers flow into the waters beneath the earth? How many rivers are there above the dome of the sky? Where are the exits from the world of the dead? Where are the entrances to Paradise? If I had asked you these questions, you might have answered, “I have never gone down into the waters beneath the earth, and I have not yet entered the world of the dead. I have never gone up to heaven.’ But all I have asked you about is fire, wind, and the day that has just passed – things that you have experienced. Yet you have given me no answer. You can’t even understand things that you have been familiar with since you were a child.

How then can your little mind understand the ways of God Most High? Can someone already worn down by this corrupt world understand the ways of the incorruptible God?…”

Interesting article discussing the belief in Christ of an Israeli, and the difficulties it has led to with her business:

In its verdict, the court ruled that the 51-year-old Yemenite baker’s belief that Jesus was the Messiah did not make her baked goods unkosher.

The owner, Pnina Conforty, who became a believer while working in Ohio for an evangelical Christian family, enjoyed impressive business success after returning to Israel and opening the bakery in 2002. Conforty, however, quickly saw a sharp decline in sales after her faith was publicized in an article in a Messianic Jewish magazine.

She suffered from demonstrations outside her bakery and posters with her picture distributed throughout the city warning that she was a missionary.

“Finally I won. This is my baby,” said Conforty after giving credit to the Ohio family that led her to Christ. “God arranged it that I arrived at a place where there were Christians who love Israel more than most Jews do. Their love and faith were so different from the religion I learned at home that was based on fear. I was never taught to serve God out of love until then.”

From Charisma Mag

Here’s a very interesting video that talks about some of the theological differences between Christianity and Judaism that have arisen over the last 2,000 years. Judaism, over that time, has changed considerably since the destruction of the temple in 70AD:

A retired farmer in England has spent 30 years building a model of Herod’s Temple, complete with thousands of miniature people.

Model of the Herods Temple

Model of Herod's Temple

Royal Porch

Royal Porch

Click here to see all 19 images, well worth it.