Biblical Heritage Center Blog

I was teaching someone who is in the process of conversion about the Jewish calendar and I mentioned that in a number of ways, the calendar reflects the seasons of our lives. It is an all-encompassing journey which includes birth, life, death and rebirth. Read Rabbi Leynor’s blog at -- http://tovcenter.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-calendar-reflects-seasons-of-our.html

Imperfect people with issues and imperfect relationships choose to have sex. . .  Click here to read more .  

The world lost a great man today -- Mike Jacobs, a Holocaust survivor who recounted his life and near-death story to generations of Dallasites, died Monday morning of complications related to prostate cancer. He was 88. The Dallas Holocaust Museum said of Jacobs, “Without his tireless work, none of this would have happened.” Mary Pat Higgins added this Monday afternoon: “Over the past 30 years, Mike Jacobs shared his testimony with tens of thousands of students and visitors and was literally the face of the Museum. He had a profound impact on the lives of all he met and was a shining example of strength, resilience, and generosity of spirit. Mike greeted every visitor with the same advice: ‘Have Hope, Believe, and think Positive!’ That’s the way he lived his life. Some of you may have gone with us to visit the Dallas Holocaust Museum in the past, when we were blessed to have Mike Jacobs guide us through the exhibits and tell us about his experiences. No one will ever forget standi...

Mosab Hassan Yousef, son of Hamas founder, gave a short interview to CNN in which he discussed the true intentions of Hamas – complete domination not peaceful coexistence – and he said that while the destruction of Israel is certainly one of their goals, that a worldwide caliphate is their ultimate goal. This two and one-half minute interview is well worth watching. -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KakxXN5Z-XI

What US Secretary of State John Kerry ultimately put forward after consulting with Hamas allies Qatar and Turkey was a complete departure from the Egyptian proposal and a “prize for terror,” according to Israeli officials. Israeli government ministers who on Friday unanimously rejected Kerry’s Gaza ceasefire proposal said a day later that the entire affair had clearly demonstrated either the incompetence or the anti-Israel bias of America’s top diplomat. “Kerry took the terms put forth by [Hamas leader Khaled] Mashal and then presented them as an American [ceasefire] proposal,” one Israeli government official was quoted as saying by   Israel Hayom . Read the complete article at -- http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/24786/Default.aspx#.U9W1zWdM8d0.twitter

Hamas had been preparing a murderous massive assault on Israeli civilian targets during the upcoming Jewish New Year holiday, Rosh Hashanah – according to anonymous sources in the Israeli security services cited by the Israeli daily Maariv. Hamas had been planning a surprise attack where 200 fighters would have been dispatched through the dozens of tunnels dug by Hamas under the border from Gaza to Israel. Read complete article at -- http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/hamas-planned-rosh-hashana-tunnel-surprise/2014/07/27/

Anti-Semitic attacks are on the rise in Britain amid a growing chorus of criticism at Israel’s assault on Gaza. There have been bomb threats, bricks have been thrown at synagogues, a rabbi attacked and a #HitlerDidNothingWrong hashtag circulated on Twitter. According to the   Sunday Times , more than 100 incidents have been recorded by community organizations and police this month, well above what is normally experienced. Four teenagers have been charged with racially aggravated common assault after a rabbi was reportedly attacked near a Jewish boarding school in Gateshead on 18 July, while in Belfast, on the same day, bricks were hurled through a synagogue’s window. On 12 July, following a pro-Palestine rally, a group of men piled into four or five cars and drove through a Jewish area of Greater Manchester crying “Heil Hitler,” while also pelting pedestrians with eggs and drinks cans. Read complete article at -- http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/israelgaza-conflict-bu...

Chapter and verse markers act like stop and yield signs for Bible readers. They play major roles in creating the contexts in which readers view the words of their Bibles. As we have pointed out before, if they are inserted in the wrong place they can literally destroy a context and change the way the words are understood. Who decided to insert chapter and verse dividers in the biblical texts? Read complete article at -- http://bhcbiblestudies.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-insertion-of-chapter-and-verse.html

Despite the constant rocket fire into Israel, the Kerem Shalom crossing remains open during Operation Protective Edge, providing food and essential supplies for the residents of the Gaza Strip. PM Netanyahu: "We opened a humanitarian field hospital on the edge of Gaza and Hamas doesn't let the people come there. They're hiding rockets in hospitals; they're hiding arms in hospitals; they're shooting from hospitals. So they just don't care." The flow of goods and fuel into the Gaza Strip continues. In the last three days a total of 300 trucks loaded with humanitarian supply entered the Gaza Strip, maintaining an average of 100 trucks per day carrying food and fuel to Gaza.   There is no shortage of food or fuel in Gaza and there are no signs of a humanitarian crisis. Medicines and medical equipment have passed continuously as well through the two crossings.   Read complete article at -- http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/ForeignPolicy/Peace/Humanitarian/Pages/I...

Hamas claimed it captured an Israeli soldier Sunday on the deadliest day yet in the battle between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza. Ron Prosor, Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, denied the report. "There's no kidnapped Israeli soldier, and those rumors are untrue," he said.

The Copper Scroll is part of the extraordinary cache of 1st Century documents first discovered in caves at Qumran, popularly known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. As Professor Richard Freund stated, the copper scroll is “probably the most unique, the most important, and the least understood.” The corroded metal could not be unrolled by conventional means, so in 1955, the scroll was cut into 23 strips and then pieced back together.   It was no ordinary list, rather it contained directions to 64 locations where staggering quantities of treasure could be found. Sixty-three of the locations refer to treasures of gold and silver, which have been estimated in the tons. Tithing vessels are also listed among the entries, along with other vessels, and three locations featured scrolls. One entry apparently mentions priestly vestments. In total, over 4,600 talents of precious metal are listed on the scroll, making the total haul worth in excess of a billion dollars. See picture and read article at ...

Listening to mainstream market commentary on television and reading the financial press leaves one with the impression that the economic recovery is gaining strength and that stock market indices, at or near all-time highs, will go higher still. But, the facts show that the fundamentals of the U.S. economy are awful and getting worse.  Read blog at -- http://thecountrycogitator.blogspot.com/2014/07/economic-facts-instead-of-political.html

The emir of a Philadelphia mosque was thrown in jail after police said he and the mosque’s imam tried to cut off a man’s hand with a 2-foot machete, according to the Philadelphia Daily News. The imam accused the 46-year-old man of stealing jars of money from the mosque. Read complete article at -- http://bit.ly/1qqnNsO

Islamist insurgents have issued an ultimatum to northern Iraq's dwindling Christian population to either convert to Islam, pay a religious levy or face death, according to a statement distributed in the militant-controlled city of Mosul. . . It said Christians who wanted to remain in the "caliphate" that the Islamic State declared this month in parts of Iraq and Syria must agree to abide by terms of a "dhimma" contract - a historic practice under which non-Muslims were protected in Muslim lands in return for a special levy known as "jizya". "We offer them three choices: Islam; the dhimma contract - involving payment of jizya; if they refuse this they will have nothing but the sword," the announcement said. Read the complete article at -- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/19/islamic-state-christians-_n_5601839.html

Israel just announced that ground operations into Gaza have begun and all aspects of the military will be involved. One report is now online at --  http://www.timesofisrael.com/on-day-10-of-operation-protective-edge-truce-efforts-gather-pace-but-hamas-israel-fight-on/ 

Investors led by BlackRock , the world’s largest asset manager, and PIMCO , the world’s largest bond-fund manager, have sued some of the world’s largest banks. Beyond the legal issues are the implications for the solvency of the banking system itself. For more information go to -- http://thecountrycogitator.blogspot.com/2014/07/has-wall-streets-day-of-judgment-come.html

The basic necessities in life just keep getting more expensive. According to the latest data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, year-over-year gains in some food products at the producer level have been truly spectacular. ● Eggs for fresh use are up 33.9%. ● Pork is up 28%. ● Processed turkeys are up 20.4%. ● Dairy products are up 10.7%. ● Fresh and dry vegetables are up 8.4%. ● Fresh fruits and melons are up 7.5%. So why is all of this happening? Read complete article at -- http://tovcenter.blogspot.com/2014/07/will-they-have-to-start-putting-armed.html

New Pew poll reveals some very interesting results. Jews, Catholics and evangelical Christians are viewed warmly by the American public.   Buddhists, Hindus and Mormons receive neutral ratings on average. The public views atheists and Muslims more coldly. Religious groups are rated more positively by their own members than by people from other religious backgrounds.   Christian groups and Jews receive higher ratings from older Americans (those ages 65 and older) than from younger Americans.  Be sure to notice how members of each group view their religions too. Read the complete poll at -- http://www.pewforum.org/2014/07/16/how-americans-feel-about-religious-groups/

A wall painting, dating back over 4,300 years, has been discovered in a tomb located just east of the Great Pyramid of Giza. The painting shows vivid scenes of life, including boats sailing south on the Nile River, a bird hunting trip in a marsh and a man named Perseneb, a priest, who's shown with his wife and dog. While Giza is famous for its pyramids, the site also contains fields of tombs that sprawl to the east and west of the Great Pyramid. These tombs were created for private individuals who held varying degrees of rank and power during the Old Kingdom (2649-2150 B.C.), the age when the Giza pyramids were built.  The tomb is just 1,000 feet from the Great Pyramid at Giza in Egypt. See pictures & read complete article at -- http://www.livescience.com/46806-tomb-painting-discovered-near-great-pyramid.html

On June 23 of this year, Rev. Charles Moore stepped out of his car in a shopping mall parking lot in Grand Saline, Texas and   set himself on fire. The retired United Methodist pastor was 79 years old and was a life long advocate for social justice. He died later that night at Parkland Hospital in Dallas -- leaving behind a trail of notes and a lifetime of activism to offer an explanation for his dramatic act. As social justice advocate Reverend Jeff Hood told The Huffington Post, Rev. Moore was trying to send a message with his dramatic act -- both to the United Methodist Church and to the country at large. "Reverend Moore thought this was going to be a whole lot bigger of a deal than it turned out to be," Hood told HuffPost. "He expected it to make national news." Read complete article at -- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/15/rev-charles-moore-self-immolation_n_5584506.html

The robot's quill runs across the paper scroll, from right to left, scribbling down ancient Hebrew letters with black ink. It is penning down the Torah, the Jews' holy scripture, and it is doing it much faster than a rabbi could because it doesn't need to take breaks. The Torah-writing robot was developed by the German artists' group robotlab and was presented for the first time Thursday at Berlin's Jewish Museum. While it takes the machine about three months to complete the 80-meter (260-foot) -long scroll, a rabbi or a sofer — a Jewish scribe — needs nearly a year. But unlike the rabbi's work, the robot's Torah can't be used in a synagogue. "In order for the Torah to be holy, it has to be written with a goose feather on parchment, the process has to be filled with meaning and I'm saying prayers while I'm writing it," said Rabbi Reuven Yaacobov.   See pictures and read the complete article at -- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014...

Southwest Jewish Congress Update by Gil Elan How did the Middle East get so screwed up? That is a question that I’m asked more and more these days.  In just the past few weeks  we've  seen the murders of three Israeli teens by Palestinian terrorists from Hamas and the murder of a Palestinian teenager by young Israeli terrorists, while rockets and mortars are again hitting Israel from Gaza as the IDF destroys Hamas military infrastructures both in Gaza and the West Bank. We’re watching as large parts of Syria and Iraq morph into an Islamic jihadist caliphate, led by a man nicknamed “the butcher from Baghdad “, who heads ISIS, the biggest and most dangerous terrorist organization in the world that is now marching on Jordan. At the same time Iran is building nuclear weapons, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria are disintegrating…and Hezbollah is watching the World Cup soccer matches from Israeli broadcasts. Now that’s screwed up. How did it happen? How did the crad...

Last night Israel underwent another night in which millions of citizens were under the threat of Hamas rocket fire. For over a week now, mothers, with children in their arms, can't sleep because of the fear of another siren. Israeli families have been forced into shelters, their kids kept from summer camps, schools, and even the beaches as far North as Haifa. In the three days of Operation Protective Edge, more than 450 rockets have been fired at Israeli cities threatening the lives of more than 6 million Israelis. Read complete report at --  http://hosted-p0.vresp.com/1825091/739bdec642/ARCHIVE

More than 52,000 unaccompanied children have crossed the U.S. border since October 2013, a 92 percent increase from the same time period last year .   [i] I am sure you have noticed the media blast about the “kids crossing the border.” Do you believe that all of this attention is really about those kids? Pay close attention to what the spin doctors are cranking out about them: (1) physical dangers to their lives (2) hunger (3) homelessness (4) need of healthcare (5) lack of opportunities I do not want to imply that these kids should not be helped, but I have no doubt that the needs of children are why the media is being flooded with hours and hours of coverage every day – and most of it is coming from interviews with politicians . What happened? All of the sudden did every politician become zealously consumed with meeting the needs of children? You might want to consider a few questions: (1) Why now? (2) Why just children coming across the southern...

Most of the Israeli population is currently living under the threat of rocket fire. Life between sirens, in and out of bomb shelters, has become the daily reality for millions of Israelis. Hamas terrorists have fired more than 360 rockets at Israel since Operation Protective Edge began on Monday, July 7 – and over 650 rockets since the beginning of 2014. See pictures, short videos and read complete article at -- http://www.idfblog.com/blog/2014/07/09/israel-fire-life-comes-halt/

The ISIS militant group is further advancing its extreme religious agenda by destroying Shiite mosques and Islamic shrines around the ancient Iraqi city of Mosul, which they captured last month.   Al-Arabiya   reported that the damage extends to at least four shrines to Sunni or Sufi figures, and six Shiite mosques in the northern province of Nineveh. See pictures & read complete article at – http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/07/isis-destroys-shiite-mosque_n_5564373.html

Despite denials by Hamas, there is growing evidence that the terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS] -- also known as "The Islamic State" -- has begun operating in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian Authority [PA] and Israeli security sources are convinced that followers of ISIS in the Gaza Strip are responsible for some of the recent rocket attacks on Israel. Hamas, they say, seems to be losing control over the dozens of terror cells belonging to ISIS and other jihadi groups. Hamas prevented local journalists from covering the ISIS rally in the Gaza Strip last month as part of its effort to deny the existence of ISIS in the Gaza Strip. The Gaza Strip is no longer only a threat to Israel, but also to Egypt. The only way to confront this threat is through security cooperation between Israel and Egypt. Read the complete story at -- http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4392/isis-gaza

Poverty, disease and broken hearts -- can religion be the answer to these and other problems in today's world? According to a   recent Gallup poll, 57% of Americans believe that religion can solve all or most of today's problems. While still a majority belief, the number is down from 82% who believed this in the 1950s, while the number of Americans who believe religion is old fashioned and out of date has grown to 30% from less than 10%. Read complete article at -- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/06/religion-answer-problems_n_5537783.html

The recent Supreme Court’s decision has brought a great deal of attention to Hobby Lobby, but very little attention has been given to the other Christian company involved: Conestoga Wood Specialties. The two companies have been grouped together as though their executives hold the same beliefs, but they don’t. The Greens of Hobby Lobby are evangelical Protestants, while the Hahns of Conestoga Wood are Mennonite Anabaptists. The reason the owners of Conestoga Wood filed their suit has a very different and interesting twist. Read this very interesting article at -- http://www.faithstreet.com/onfaith/2014/07/02/mennonites-v-obamacare/32861

TOV Values are the cherished values defined in the first creation account of Genesis of what the Creator judges to be TOV (good) and what people are to be committed to doing, guarding and protecting for all humans. Read blog at --  http://tovcenter.blogspot.com/2014/07/entrepreneurship-focused-on-values-that.html 

The Aleppo Codex, a bound book of approximately 500 parchment pages, was compiled in Tiberias around the year 930 C.E., making it the oldest known copy of the complete Bible. Go to --   http://bhcbiblestudies.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-continuing-mysteries-of-aleppo-codex.html 

Moravian settlers in NC were the first Americans to officially celebrate the 4th of July. But they weren’t partying in honor of military victory. They were thanking God for peace . At the nation’s first official Independence Day celebration, there were no fireworks, no sparklers, and no rowdy parties. The parade was solemn, with reverent music and the call-and-response singing of two choirs. Songs were sung in German. Those marking the nation’s hard-won independence at that first celebration had not participated in the long and bloody war, and they were not celebrating the newly free nation’s victory over the British oppressors at Yorktown. They were thanking God for peace. That subdued celebration was on July 4, 1783, in the Moravian village of Salem, now part of the hyphenated city of Winston-Salem in Piedmont North Carolina. Read the complete article at -- http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/04/the-first-americans-to-observe-the-4th-were-moravian-pacifists.html

ISIS stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) aka Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). ISIS is marching through city after city in Iraq, and they are doing it with American weapons.  Thanks to a series of stunning victories in recent months, ISIS has captured a vast array of U.S. military equipment including trucks, Humvees, rockets, artillery pieces and Stinger missiles. When the U.S. was pulling out of Iraq, we were extremely generous to the new Iraqi army. We basically armed them to the teeth with equipment that U.S. taxpayers paid for. But now that the new Iraqi army is folding like a 20 dollar suit in the face of ISIS jihadists, vast quantities of that military equipment are falling into the hands of some of the most radical jihadists the world has ever seen. And considering the fact that ISIS also recently seized the equivalent of nearly $500 million in cash from a bank in Mosul, the leadership of ISIS won't be having much problem buying anything else th...

A baby in a photo chosen by Nazis as the perfect Aryan baby has been revealed to in fact be Jewish, not German. Hessy Taft, who was 6 months old when the picture was taken, found out about the photograph after an aunt recognized her on a postcard,   the Telegraph reports. But apparently the Nazis had no idea that the precious baby they deemed the “perfect Aryan” was actually a descendant of the House of David. Taft lived with her parents, Jacob and Pauline Levinsons, in Berlin during the height of the Nazis’ takeover in 1935. Read the complete article, see picture & be sure to watch short videos at -- http://nypost.com/2014/07/02/baby-chosen-as-perfect-aryan-by-nazis-was-jewish/