So You’ve Never Been to a Bat Mitzvah
As you may know, I’m not Jewish. My wife and kids are. From a spiritual perspective, I’m a Gentile living in the land of Messiah. And I’m satisfied that that’s where I belong, at least for now. But none of the unusualness of this increasingly common situation is going to keep my girls from becoming […]
And Which Part of the Bar Mitzvah Is That?
This morning, I napped while my daughters attended their bat mitzvah lessons. I’ve been exhausted after watching just about every bar-mitzvah themed TV episode ever produced (though some of them at 4x speed, just because the shows themselves were so stupid). Nonetheless, this exercise has revealed to me one important fact: the bar mitzvah is […]
The Day My Daughter Becomes a Man
Sometimes so many things get going on, it’s hard to keep track. One big project coming up is my girls’ bnot mitzvah. For those of you not in the know (which included myself up until recently), that’s “bnot mitzvah,” which is more than one bat mitzvah. So each of my girls is having a bat […]
Living a Life of Balanced Thoughts
I think my theme for this week is: life is getting better. If you’re a Gilmore Girls fan, you might remember the episode after Rory and Dean had their affair, the one in which Dean’s wife Lindsay discovers Rory’s “heinous letter in Dean’s jacket.” Oy f***in’ vey! See, this is what happens when children grow […]
Bits & Pieces 2012-07-26
Links and things that I’ve run across recently. Independence Day at the Point Catching up on some of my subscribed RSS feeds, I was enamored of a photo post by smilla4 on her Independence Day in Maine at Ardor Point— er, I mean Merepoint. Charity Versus Deeds of Lovingkindness Heard this phrase at a recent […]
Don’t Sell the Harlot Short
“I’m not a traitor. I just want to live.” I wrote those words about two years ago. Around this time each year, in synagogue, we read from Joshua chapter 2, the story of Rahab the harlot. It inspired a short-short story, “The Confidant of Jericho,” which concluded with the line above. The story of Rahab […]
Redefining Marriage?
My father over at his blog posted a two-part series on gay marriage. It started as an initial post called “Redefining Marriage,” which proved controversial enough among his theological colleagues that he felt a need to post part 2 to clarify. What follows is in reply to part 1. Same-sex marriage is now a fact […]
How I Ended Up in a Messianic Jewish Synagogue
On Friday, I usually post an attempt at humor. (Some times more effective than others.) Today, however, I thought I’d tell the story of how a Gentile pastor’s kid from western Pennsylvania ended up identifying with a Messianic Jewish synagogue. Firstly, I’m not Jewish. When I was a boy, my father, a pastor, passed on […]
Stranger in a Strange Land
This past week, the Little One and I watched “First Contact,” the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode. Not the Star Trek movie by the same name, but the series episode, which originally aired exactly 21 years ago this past Saturday. Also this past Saturday, we read as part of our Torah Parsha: “Do not […]
On the First Day of Hanukkah…
In our house, we light the traditional Hanukkah candles, as we did last night, lighting the first candle and singing the blessings of the first night of Hanukkah. And we give gifts for the kids each night; not expensive presents like they’re likely to get from their grandparents on Christmas, but small, fun gifts to […]