Biblical Heritage Center Blog

These terror filled last few weeks in Israel have left many people wondering: (1) What would lead a teenager to walk the streets of Israel looking for anyone Jewish to stab to death? (2) How are such children produced? (3) What is the cause? The answer is very straightforward – incitement in Palestinian schools . Read the complete article by Rabbi Dov Lipman, who served as a member of the 19th Knesset -- http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/palestinian-incitement-exposed/

One of the things I love to do is, offer an alternative Bar\Bat experience not only for children with special needs, but also for children (and their parents) who truly want to be part of a meaningful Rite of Passage. For so many children and their families, this has become a Riteless Passage and Passageless Rite exiting the Bar\Bat Mitzvah Mill. Large numbers of these post-Bar\Bat mitzvah vets will not set foot in a synagogue again until necessary. The best way to understand this rite is that it is not just the day -- it's all the choices and consequences which come after that day . Read Rabbi Leynor’s blog at -- http://tovcenter.blogspot.com/2015/10/a-barbat-mitzvah-is-not-day-its-life.html

The Bible opens with the famous creation accounts, but few probably realize that these are also the Bible’s first lessons about love – the love of the Creator. These are lessons that are well worth learning and sharing with others, because if there is one thing our lives and world urgently need now – it’s the presence of the Creator’s love. See if you recognize the Creator’s in the real salvation message of Jesus (you won’t hear it at a church). Click on this article at -- http://www.myerscommunications.us/biblical-heritage-center-resources-page.html

If there is one thing in the Bible that Christians and Jews agree on, it is the story of the Ten Commandments and the words that were written on the two stone tablets. Many readers picture someone like Charlton Heston holding two stone tablets in a movie. And then they read the words on the stone tablets, words that are found in Exodus 20. Would you be surprised to discover that those words were not written on the stone tablets? Discover what was written on the stone tablets by clicking on this article at -- http://www.myerscommunications.us/biblical-heritage-center-resources-page.html

Clashes over the Jerusalem holy site can tip a political battle between Israelis and Palestinians into a religious battle between Jews and Muslims. The Old City of Jerusalem is that fortunate one-third of a square mile in the world where holy sites of the three major monotheistic religions are intimately contained. In its four quarters are the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Via Dolorosa, the Western Wall, and the Temple Mount, upon which sit the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, an Islamic shrine and one of the Middle East's most recognizable buildings. It certainly doesn't help that the holy places in Jerusalem also play an integral part in the Armageddon narrative among evangelical Christians. I'd say that's another story altogether, but it's really not. Should the centerpiece of the conflict continue to zero in on the supernatural, a political reconciliation naturally gets harder to manage. As Ibish explained: The danger is that these narratives s...

The reasons to choose a community bank or credit union range from getting the same services at a lower cost to supporting productive investment instead of speculative trading. But while it’s one thing to think about the qualities that are important in our banks, it’s another to find particular local banks that are enacting them. A new tool, called Bank Local, aims to make that process easier. Bank Local maps every banking institution in the U.S., and uses data from three federal agencies, plus its own algorithm, to assign them a Local Impact Rating. Users can type their address into a bar on the site’s homepage, and find a map and list of how nearby financial institutions compare. Read the complete article and find the link to the “Bank Local” tool at -- https://ilsr.org/a-tool-to-find-banks-that-invest-in-the-local-economy/

Despite Netanyahu's declaration, as detailed in this update last week, that: "Israel is waging an all-out war on Palestinian terrorism", and despite the enhanced measures against terrorists that have been put in place, we are seeing a substantial and dramatic increase in fatal attacks by young Palestinian terrorists against Israelis. This does not seem to be an organized or planned operation. In almost all the incidents so far the terrorists were "lone wolf" attackers with no apparent terror group affiliation, and the targets were mostly random "soft" targets: a family walking home in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, a child on a bike, people waiting in a bus stop or riding a bus, or just walking in the street. Read Gil Elan’s latest blog at -- http://swjcdallas.blogspot.com/2015/10/will-knife-and-dgger-morph-into-gun-and.html

I was scrolling through FB the other day and I came upon a wonderful video I had to share. The story takes place in Thailand. Briefly, a mother who is a fruit vender with a cart, with no education appears to be scratching out a living. Her little daughter sees other children enjoying ice cream, but there is no money for her to do the same. Her mother shows her how to cut a pineapple and to make a pop which is put on ice. Her daughter suggests selling them. She takes her pops to the market, but no one buys. Read Rabbi Leynor’s complete blog at -- http://tovcenter.blogspot.com/2015/10/parents-teach-your-children-tov.html

The prosecution and hanging of two men and eight women on Pendle Hill in Lancashire in 1612 has long caught the public imagination, the story being retold in puppet shows, pamphlets, plays and novels. In terms of witchcraft as heritage tourism, Pendle Hill has become the Salem of Britain. A century later, the last conviction for witchcraft in England took place in Hertfordshire. The stand-out sorcery case of the pre-witch-trial era was that of Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of Gloucester. In 1441 she stood accused of employing a magician named Roger Bolingbroke and a wise-woman named Margery Jourdemayne to kill Henry VI by sorcery. They were found guilty, and to warn others against such practices, Robert was made to stand upon a stage constructed in the churchyard of old St Paul’s Cathedral while a sermon was preached against magic. His magical paraphernalia was also exhibited, including wax images, a sceptre and swords draped with magical copper talismans. He was convicted of high t...

“The average attention span at present is just 5 seconds long. Ten years ago it was 12 minutes.” (1) How does a decreased attention span affect relationships between people, the quality of life, or the ability of people to acquire knowledge?   (2) Does it make people more frustrated? (3) Is it addicting people to social media? (4) Does it make people easier to control and manipulate? (5) What affect will this have on this generation’s children as they enter adulthood? (6) Is this simply the result of the advancing technology or by design? What do you think? Go to our Facebook Page   and let us know -- click here . 

America's love affair with Christopher Columbus has been a rocky one. Some savor his day to celebrate Italian-American heritage, while others chafe at the impropriety of honoring a man who enslaved and killed thousands of native peoples. But our ubiquitous statues and “Columbias” testify to how passionately most of the nation once embraced Columbus. . . The history behind Columbus the person, neither the humanizing Irving portrayal nor the symbolic Columbus square with the deeds of the man himself. “It's a shock to go back and read the original documents and see that all the mean things they say about Columbus are true,” Bushman says. “He was a terrible figure really, who somehow became an idealized symbol for a nation. It's simply remarkable. Read this great article about Columbus published by The Smithsonian Magazine at -- http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-christopher-columbus-was-perfect-icon-new-nation-looking-hero-180956887/

I just began reading Karen Armstrong’s book Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence (Anchor Books; New York, NY). Her introduction provides a tremendous amount of very important historical insights. Below is an excerpt from pages 4-5. I divided it into additional paragraphs and underlined portions because it is packed with so much. For about fifty years now it has been clear in the academy that there is no universal way to define religion . In the West we see “religion” as a coherent system of obligatory beliefs, institutions, and rituals, centering on a supernatural God, whose          practice is essentially private and hermetically sealed off from all “secular” activities . But words in other languages that we translate as “religion” almost invariably refer to something larger, vaguer, and more encompassing. The Arabic din signifies an entire way of life. The Sanskrit dharma is also “a ‘total’ concept, untranslatable, ...

In 1999, thousands of year’s worth of fragile and irreplaceable Jewish archaeological antiquities were surreptitiously and violently dug up by Arab bulldozers at Judaism’s holiest site, Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, to build an entrance to a subterranean mosque. The resulting thousands of tons of invaluable debris – believed to contain over 1 million artifacts dating back to the First Temple period – were then carted off in dump trunks and discarded like garbage to a nearby landfill in Jerusalem’s Kidron Valley. The Temple Mount Sifting Project, now in its 10th year, has uncovered hundreds of thousands of invaluable antiquities from tons of ancient debris discarded like trash from Judaism’s holiest site. Read the complete article at -- http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Culture/Jewish-historys-greatest-archaeological-crime-419231

A rare stone seal believed to date from the 10th century BCE was recently found in rubble removed from the Temple Mount, archaeologists announced. “The dating of the seal corresponds to the historical period of the Jebusites and the conquest of Jerusalem by King David, as well as the construction of the Temple and the royal official compound by his son, King Solomon,” he said. “What makes this discovery particularly significant is that it originated from upon the Temple Mount itself.” See pictures and read article at -- http://www.timesofisrael.com/tiny-stone-seal-from-king-david-era-found-in-temple-mount-fill/

Please keep the family of MaKayla Dyer in your thoughts and prayers. She is the little eight year old girl that was shot with a 12 gauge shotgun and killed by an eleven year old neighbor because she refused to let him see her puppy. Please consider making a donation to help the family on funeral expenses too. http://www.cooke-campbellmortuary.com/book-of-memories/2262786/Dyer-MaKayla/obituary.php

Words are like spotlights that reveal things to those who know them that are hidden from those who do not. The acquisition of words creates a treasure that cannot be taken from your child. With those treasures your child will be able to more accurately make distinctions between things that exists – as well as between reality and fiction . Read the complete blog at -- http://tovcenter.blogspot.com/2015/10/would-you-like-to-increase-odds-of.html