Biblical Heritage Center Blog

An article I read about an interview with Noam Chomsky inspired me to write this blog. It brought back some old memories for me. I grew up in a town that did not have a synagogue and I did not personally know any Jewish people until I began my research on the Jewish Jesus in my mid-30s . Keep what Chomsky said about Judaism in mind when you read about the life and teachings of the Real Yeshua. Read the complete blog at -- http://therealyesua.blogspot.com/2016/12/judaism-is-fundamentally-religion-of.html

The discovery of the oldest-known pre-Islamic Arabic writing in Saudi Arabia, from ca. 470 CE, evidently caused some consternation, given its Christian and Jewish context. According to the report, the Arabic text, scrawled on a large rectangular stone, is simply of a name,  “Thawban (son of) Malik,” followed by the date. Further consternation may have arisen when realizing that these texts are not only the legacy of a once-numerous Christian community, but are also linked to the story of an ancient Jewish kingdom that once ruled over much of what is today Yemen and Saudi Arabia. Read the complete article at -- http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/archaeology/.premium-1.709010

Nowhere in the New Testament does Jesus or Paul say he is rejecting Judaism and starting a new religion. In fact, the term “Christian” doesn’t appear at all in the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), which chronicle Jesus’ spiritual mission; and only later, three times in the rest of the New Testament. If Jesus conceived of a new church, why did he spend his life religiously celebrating the major Jewish holidays in the Temple in Jerusalem? And we must remember that throughout the years Jesus prayed, preached, and read from the Torah in a synagogue on the Sabbath. Read the complete blog at -- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bernard-starr/who-founded-christianity_b_13821370.html

The theme of JUSTICE remains central to the understanding of TZEDAQAH ( righteousness ). Support for the poor is understood as an obligation and as a means of restoring justice to the world, and not as an altruistic or voluntary gesture. If the poor are entitled to the same dignity and quality of life as the wealthy, and if the fortunes of the wealthy and the poor are understood to be interconnected, then it stands to reason that the better off would be expected to care for the needs of the less well-off. Read the complete Real Yeshua Blog at -- http://therealyesua.blogspot.com/2016/12/do-tzedaqah-righteousness-yeshuas.html

Without a secure home, normal social relations fall apart, and happiness becomes impossible. Homelessness brings with it fear, depression, and a loss of grounding. Read more about this primary TOV value at -- http://bit.ly/2hMzz1m http://tovcenter.org

Is understanding Yeshua as a rabbi more important than "believing in Jesus"? The role of Yeshua as a messianic figure gets much more attention than his role as a rabbi. The Synoptic Gospels , however, provide a wealth of information and highlights his activities as a rabbi. Interestingly, and as surprising as it may seem, we have a record of more of the sayings and the deeds of Yeshua than any other 1st century rabbi. Learn more about Yeshua the Rabbi at --  http://www.biblicalheritage.org/rabbi-yeshua.html

Over the past 2000 years there have been many opinions about Yeshua, but I believe almost everyone will agree that he was a good teacher. His followers were known as “ disciples ,” which Dr. Ike Tennison likes to call “ learners .” “ Go and learn what this means ” has to be a clue about something that was very important to Yeshua, and something he wanted his disciples to learn. What did he want them to learn? Was it the meaning of this – “ I desire mercy and not sacrifice?” Click here to find out -- http://www.biblicalheritage.org/go_and_learn_01.html

Remember my story about the supermarket grocery bagger who loudly proclaimed, “ I am too blessed to be stressed! ” If that is his authentic state of being, effervescent happiness, that’s great for him. My response, “ I’m Jewish, I’m blessed and I’m stressed! ” Well, that has a lot to do with my point. Read the Rabbi Leynor’s complete blog at -- http://tovcenter.blogspot.com/2016/12/some-things-i-learned-trying-to-be.html

Some passages suggest that Jesus may have been influenced in a positive fashion by the Essenes. The very first beatitude in the Sermon on the Mount is “ Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven ” (Mt 5:3). The meaning is now supplied in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Read what scholars discovered at -- http://therealyesua.blogspot.com/2016/12/who-were-poor-in-spirit.html

Today, almost everyone agrees that Jesus was a Jew and an increasing number of people understand that his name was actually “Yeshua.” People often describe him as an “observant Jew.” When asked what that means, people usually reply by describing what it means to be an observant Jew today as a member of Rabbinic Judaism in American democracy. There are three very big problems with that understanding of Yeshua. Read the complete blog at -- http://therealyesua.blogspot.com/2016/12/what-kind-of-jew-was-yeshua.html

Amidst increasing ISIS activity on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, Israeli soldiers stationed there reported that over the weekend a literal pillar of cloud descended on the border. The bizarre storm completely engulfed the Syrian side of the border, but stopped just at the boundary and did not enter Israel. See video at -- http://www.israeltoday.co.il/Default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=30652

Just south of Haifa, Israeli divers and archaeologists have discovered a statue base bearing an inscription from the 2nd-century CE. It mentions a previously unknown Roman governor of Judea. It is only the second known mention of the province of Judea in Roman inscription. The other is the "Pontius Pilate stone" dating to around 100 years earlier. See pictures and read the complete article at -- http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/archaeology/1.756193

Oxford Dictionaries declared that its international word of the year in 2016 is " post-truth ", citing a 2,000% increase in usage compared to 2015. It is a political culture in which politics (public opinion and media narratives) have become almost entirely disconnected from policy (the substance of legislation). Read complete blog at -- http://tovcenter.blogspot.com/2016/12/post-truth-named-2016-word-of-year-by.html

Think about the   Ten Commandments.  How many sermons have been preached, books have been written, movies have been made, monuments have been constructed and court cases tried in which the focus was on the Ten Commandments. Now what would you say if I told you they weren’t about the actual Ten Commandments. Are you ready for a surprise? What they called the Ten Commandments in the examples above were not the commandments written on the two stone tablets Moses received at the top of Mount Sinai and brought down to the Israelites! If you are willing to follow Moses up and down Mt Sinai, you will discover when he received the stone tablets and what was written on them. The journey begins by going to – http://www.biblicalheritage.org/ten_commandments_p1.html

Combators against the Spirit Christians ( Pneumatomachians ) were fourth-century Christians who denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit . Fifth-century writers, such as Sozomen, Socrates, Jerome, and Rufinus, identify them as Macedonians, claiming that Macedonius, a Semiarian bishop of Constantinople (ca. 342-360), was the founder of the sect. In the 360s, the sect held its own councils. In the next decade, they became fragmented. One group not only rejected the Holy Spirit’s divinity, it also rejected the divinity of the Son. Read complete blog at -- http://fromonejesus.blogspot.com/2016/11/combators-against-spirit-christians.html

There is a great deal of debate about what Judaism looked like in that post-Temple period of the first centuries of the Common Era, and I vacillate on whether I should even call it Judaism or, perhaps better: Judaisms . It took quite a few more centuries for Judaism to find a singular expression as “ rabbinic Judaism .” Read the complete article at -- http://fromonejesus.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-origin-of-rabbinic-judaism.html  

The Sermon on the Mount is one of the most important blocks of the teachings of Yeshua (the real name of Jesus) to have survived the 2000 year journey of being passed down from one generation to the next by non-Jews from a variety of non-Jewish cultures. The problem is that people who did not understand the Jewish culture or the Hebrew Scriptures of Yeshua have copied the manuscripts that have been used to make English translations of his teachings and created the Belief Systems through which over 2 billion Christian view and understand Yeshua's life and teachings. This toxic mix has produced crusades, inquisitions, indulgences, the holocaust, an immunity to the suffering of others, and an estimated 40,000 Christian denominations and paradenominations in America today! Are the above things   Yeshua had in mind for his followers to be actively involved in as he taught his disciples on the mountain that day? This is the   Christians today must answer. The bottom line i...

A jug from the Middle Bronze Age, featuring a human sculpture, was recently unearthed during an excavation in the city of Yehud, near Tel Aviv, with the assistance of area students. In addition to the unique pottery vessel, other vessels and metal items were found, including several daggers, arrowheads, an ax head, sheep bones, and what are likely the bones of a donkey. See pictures and read article at -- http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Rare-3800-year-old-pottery-vessel-with-human-sculpture-discovered-in-Yehuda-473441

In 1517 Martin Luther (1483-1546), an Augustinian friar, nailed his famous ninety-five theses on the castle church door in Wittenberg and set in motion the process known as the Reformation. His attack on the church’s sale of indulgences resonated with discontented townsfolk, who were sick of clerics extorting money from gullible people on dubious pretexts. The ecclesiastical establishment treated Luther’s protest with lofty disdain, but young clerics took his ideas to the people in the towns, who initiated local reforms that effectively liberated their congregations from the control of Rome. The more intellectually vigorous clergy spread Luther’s ideas in their own books, which thanks to the new technology of printing, circulated with unprecedented speed, launching one of the first modern mass movements. Like other heretics in the past, Luther had created an antichurch. Luther and the other great reformers — Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531) and John Calvin (1509-64) — were addres...

The new Evangelicals were New Light or Separate Baptists from New England, whose leaders began to sift into North Carolina and Virginia in the 1750s, and who soon began to establish their own churches and create new ones. Baptists had appeared in the South earlier in the century – Charleston had had a Baptist congregation since 1695 – but they were quiet, well-mannered folk who were not active proselytizers . The New Lights, however, were neither quiet nor well-behaved even by Evangelical Presbyterian standards, for they openly attacked the Anglican clergy, ordained semiliterate men as ministers, stubbornly refused to apply for licenses to preach, and valued emotional outbursts in their meetings as a sign of God’s presence and favor. Through these actions, the Baptists managed to attack most of the underpinnings of colonial order. They denied the authority of the Crown to direct the moral life of the community through the Church of England, as well as the right of the Crown to...

Controversial claim argues that ancient Israelites turned Egyptian hieroglyphics into letters. The world’s earliest alphabet, inscribed on stone slabs at several Egyptian sites, was an early form of Hebrew, a controversial new analysis concludes. Israelites living in Egypt transformed that civilization’s hieroglyphics into Hebrew 1.0 more than 3,800 years ago, at a time when the Old Testament describes Jews living in Egypt, says archaeologist and epigrapher Douglas Petrovich of Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Canada. Hebrew speakers seeking a way to communicate in writing with other Egyptian Jews simplified the pharaohs’ complex hieroglyphic writing system into 22 alphabetic letters, Petrovich proposed. See pictures and read article at -- https://www.sciencenews.org/article/oldest-alphabet-identified-hebrew?tgt=nr

Yeshua required his disciples to do things, not believe things. What kind of things did Yeshua want his disciples to do? Paul taught a Gospel that he claimed he had been chosen -- before he was born -- to deliver to mankind. He made it clear that Yeshua didn’t teach it and Yeshua’s apostles didn’t know it. Read the complete blog at -- http://therealyesua.blogspot.com/2016/11/yeshuas-values-or-pauls-secret-gospel.html

A new discovery has some archaeologists saying they have uncovered evidence that backs the Old Testament's claims of King Hezekiah destroying idols and high places in ancient Israel. According to the Israel Antiquities Authority, a 2,800-year-old "gate-shrine" — one that the Israel Antiquities Authority called "important and unusual" — from the eighth century B.C. was uncovered in Israel's Tel Lachish National Park. Read complete article at -- http://www.dailyregister.com/news/20161013/bible-and-archaeology-are-matching-experts-say-this-find-could-back-old-testament-story

Rabbi Jeffrey Leynor's video -- What kind of believer are you? -- is a must see for every believer. Why are there so many conflicts between people who claim to be worshipers of the same God? Do you really think Jesus intended to create all of those different denominations of Christians who can't agree on what should be believed, much less work? They do not event teach what Jesus taught about how to enter eternal life?  That old way of thinking -- and controlling Christians lives -- is changing rapidly in the information age. Christians of the future will demand transparency from their church leaders & each other, beginning with the origins of their belief systems. Rabbi Leynor's video addresses this in a way you have never heard at church -- but that is about to change. Churches of the future will make this a top priority -- if they want to grow and survive.  View Rabbi Leynor's short video at --  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm1oaD_PLgA We are i...

In America, predator lenders target the poor and charge them the highest interest rates of all. Predator merchants charge them the highest prices for their basic needs, including food. What would Yahweh think about this? The answer is found in Leviticus 25:35-38: If one of your brethren becomes poor, and falls into poverty among you, then you shall help him, like a stranger or a sojourner, that he may live with you. (1) Take no usury or interest from him; but fear your God, that your brother may live with you. (2) You shall not lend him your money for usury. (3) You shall not lend him your food at a profit. I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God. Please share this with others. If you find this information useful, please let us know by “Liking” our Facebook page by CLICKING HERE .

One important set of Judaean text betrays no knowledge of a “book of law of Moses” (or other sacred writings, for that matter), the Aramaic documents from Achaemenid Egypt, documenting the Judaean community in Elephantine ( Jeb   in Aramaic). But another characteristic of the religious practice of the Elephantine Judaeans is that they were not monotheists. For instance, oaths sworn in a court reveal that the Elephantine Judaeans recognized deities other than YHW. To what extent other deities were actually worshipped is another question. Yet, the enigmatic “Collection Account” suggests that the Judaean community collected silver not only for YHW but also for the deities Eshembethel and Anathbethel. Further, the epithet “god/lord of heaven” could be used for YHW both in the context of Achaemenid officials and within the context of the Judaean community itself. See pictures and read article at http://asorblog.org/2016/10/05/multi-dimensional-yahwism/

What does Adam represent for us, today? True, his destiny is unique, but that is true for every one of us. Every man must believe that his every deed involves all other men. Whoever kills, kills Adam. Whoever kills, kills Adam’s vision, kills in Adam’s name. Every man should be Adam to all others. That is the lesson learned — or to be learned — from his adventure. Nor is it the only one. Expelled from paradise, Adam and Eve did not give in to resignation. In the face of death they decided to fight by giving life, by conferring a meaning on life. After the fall they began to work, to strive for a future marked by man. Their children would die — never mind! One moment of life contains eternity, one moment of life is worth eternity. Here again Adam differs from most other mythological figures. Though defeated by God, he did not wallow in self-denial. He had the courage to get up and begin anew. He understood that though man is doomed from the start, he can and must act freely whe...

Rosh Hashanah occurs on the first and second days of Tishri. In Hebrew, Rosh Hashanah means, literally, "head of the year" or "first of the year." Rosh Hashanah is commonly known as the Jewish New Year. This name is somewhat deceptive, because there is little similarity between Rosh Hashanah, one of the holiest days of the year, and the American New Year midnight partying and drinking bash followed by a day of football games. Below are two links that will explain much more about this special celebration. L'shanah tovah ("for a good year"). http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday2.htm http://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/rosh-hashanah-101/

(Sunday at sundown, October 2, 2016, is the beginning of Rosh Ha'Shanah – the beginning of the new year of 5777.) Well, Here I am. My kids are grown and moving out and on with their lives. (Thank you Lord!) The home for the last 16 years is being readied to go on the market. We just don't realize how much "stuff" we accumulate over the years, PLUS, all the "important things" we've shlepped around with us from before! This period of my life was at once one of the happiest and saddest, highest and lowest. Everything accumulated here had a special meaning. This was Karen's home, I moved in when we married. This was "HOME!" Read Rabbi Leynor’s blog at -- http://tovcenter.blogspot.com/2016/09/rosh-hashanah-and-yom-kippur-5777.html

A human foot and 86 tortoise shells were just some of the extraordinary finds discovered in the prehistoric grave of a female shaman in the Galilee, in northern Israel, dating back some 12,000 years. Also found in what archaeologists suspect was the burial site of a female shaman, who was living in a hunter-gatherer society, were an eagle’s wing, a leopard’s pelvic bone, the leg of a pig, and tailbone from a cow, and much more. The elaborate rituals revealed by the excavation at Hilazon Tachtit were unexpected in such a presumably primitive culture. See pictures and read complete article at -- http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/archaeology/1.728880

A palatial building discovered in Gezer, Israel, has been named ‘Solomon’s Palace’ by the team who unearthed it. Intriguingly, the discovery could indicate that certain passages from the Bible were based on actual historical events. The spectacular building was constructed over 3,000 years ago, in the tenth century BCE, according to the archaeologists behind the discovery. Although no indication of which king, if any, lived in the palace has yet been found; the excavators believe it was likely built during the reign of King Solomon due to examples of Philistine pottery discovered at the site. According to the Bible, Philistines lived in Gezer until the city was vanquished by Solomon’s father, King David. Read complete article at -- http://www.newhistorian.com/solomons-palace-discovered-gezer-israel/7154/

The charred lump of a 2,000-year-old scroll sat in an Israeli archaeologist’s storeroom for decades, too brittle to open. Now, new imaging technology has revealed what was written inside: the earliest evidence of a biblical text in its standardized form. The biblical scroll examined in the study was first discovered by archaeologists in 1970 at Ein Gedi, the site of an ancient Jewish community near the Dead Sea. Inside the ancient synagogue’s ark, archaeologists found lumps of scroll fragments. The synagogue was destroyed in an ancient fire, charring the scrolls. The dry climate of the area kept them preserved, but when archaeologists touched them, the scrolls would begin to disintegrate. So the charred logs were shelved for nearly half a century, with no one knowing what was written inside. See picture and read article at -- http://www.timesofisrael.com/3d-tech-proves-hebrew-bible-unchanged-for-2000-years/

Archaeologists believe they have found the location of the battle between David and Goliath, narrated in the Book of Samuel, in a mysterious two-gated city from the early 10th century. Known by its modern name, Khirbet Qeiyafa, the site is located in the the Elah Valley, 20 miles southwest of Jerusalem.   The Jewish presence at Khirbet Qeiyafa was corroborated by the presence of thousands of sheep, goat, cow and fish bones, and the absence of non-kosher pig bones, Kaplan said. Evidence of cultic activity was also unearthed, as well as two inscriptions written in the Canaanite script. One was incised on a jar and contains the Hebrew name “Eshbaal [man of Baʿal], son of Beda.” The second was inscribed on a pottery shard with only a few identifiable words, including “king” and “judge.” Many of the letters reflect Hebraic writing, and Garfinkel said he believes this is the earliest written documentation of the Hebrew language discovered to date. Read comp...

Leah comes from litum , the Akkadian word for cow . Laban, an idol-worshipping shepherd whose other daughter was Rachel , which means ewe , clearly named both his daughters after prized animals. Read complete article at -- http://www.aina.org/ata/20160913143638.htm

The answer to the “Son of God” question is the key to understanding the conflict that divided the Jewish followers of the Real Yeshua and the mixed group of followers of Paul called “Christians.” The importance of knowing “when” Yeshua became the “Son of God” is not understood by Christians today. But, I have no doubt that it was at the heart of many debates between the followers of Yeshua and those of Paul well into the second century. Why is this still so important? The validity of Paul’s apostleship, his gospel and many of the salvation messages taught by Christian institutions today are linked to it! Read the complete article at -- http://therealyesua.blogspot.com/2016/09/when-did-real-yeshua-become-son-of-god.html

It is one of the most important words found in the “ The Torah’s Wisdom of the Beginnings ” (Genesis 1 – 11:9). TOV will appear seven times in the first chapter of Genesis. If you're reading any section of the Hebrew Bible and notice a word that comes up a lot, count the number of times. The sevenfold or the tenfold repetition of a word is called a  leitwort -- a recurring word that becomes thematic. 1   These words are important and provide clues that reveal the purpose behind the message of the author . Read the complete article at -- http://www.tovcenter.org/tov.html

Read my responses to questions I received from a person who had read our information about "Ritual Immersion" (baptism) in the time of Yeshua. Thought you might find them of interest. Go to -- http://therealyesua.blogspot.com/2016/08/response-to-questions-about-baptism.html

Women standing up for what's fair has a long history. In the book of Numbers, we encountered the five daughters of Tzelophechad who took the unprecedented stand of coming before Moses and the priests to stake their claim to fairness following their father's death: "Let not our father's name be lost to his clan just because he had no son! Give us a holding among our father's kinsmen!" (Numbers 27:4) Moses consults God who replies, "The plea of Tzelophechad's daughters is just: You should give them a hereditary holding among their father's kinsmen; transfer their father's share to them. Further, speak to the Israelite people as follows: If a man dies without leaving a son, you shall transfer his property to his daughter" (Numbers 27:7-8). Imagine the courage of these women who chose to stand before the entirety of the Israelite leadership -- all of whom were male -- to seek out nothing more than a fair claim on their father's inhe...

Today, Rabbi Leynor had the honor and the pleasure of meeting some outstanding people who are clearly doing TOV and wants to tell you about them. Click here to read my blog .

For those who do not know the story of what led to our work on the Real Yeshua, you will find it at this link -- http://www.christiansfortov.org/about.html If you would like to help, go to the “Join” link at the top of the page when you are there.

Some are named for their first word, others for their first significant word. What about the rest? Read the complete article at -- http://mosaicmagazine.com/observation/2016/06/how-the-books-of-the-hebrew-bible-got-their-names/

King Agrippa I resented the great hope that direct Roman control over the Land of Israel would end and a semblance of Jewish sovereignty would be restored. Agrippa was the grandson of despised Herod the Great and his wife Mariamme, a princess from the line of the Maccabees. That Agrippa was alive was a miracle in itself: Herod murdered Mariamme and most of her family. These Maccabees posed a threat to the Idumean descendant of proselytes Herod and, in his paranoia, led to their murder. Caesar Augustus once quipped, “I would rather be Herod’s pig than his son.” But Agrippa managed to survive despite the cruelty of his tyrant grandfather. Despite Agrippa’s dual identity – firmly in the world of Rome and appointed to his monarchy by Emperor Claudius in 41 CE but a proud Jew as well – he was a popular figure among the Jews in Judea.  Read the complete article at -- http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/King-Agrippa-I-The-last-Maccabee-455481

The time has come, Rabbi Kahana explained, to encourage the world to begin to relate to Israel from a spiritual perspective, rather than a political or economic one.  “Disputations” are defined as “public debates on religious subjects between Jews and non-Jews.” Rabbi Kahana believes that the time has come for the spiritual character of Israel to take center stage. “Israel’s present political and financial interaction with the gentile world is a total distortion of why HaShem (God) has placed us in this world!” he wrote in his call for the disputation. Further, he expects that such an event “could create an avalanche of interest among the gentiles,” in a Jewish message. Read Rabbi Nachman Kahana’s complete article at -- http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/68414/rabbi-calls-for-a-public-disputation-about-god-05-16/#lm71hAjXMKqglyDE.97

Yeshua said, “ It was also said, `Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you, `Whoever divorces his wife, except for the matter of fornication causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery. ’” (Matthew 5:31-32) This is probably one of the most discussed and debated teachings of Yeshua in history. The first step in working with any text is to define the context in which it appears. In this case, the context began in verse 27. (Yeshua said,) “You have heard that it was said to those of old, `‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you, `Whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. ‘” (Matthew 5:27-28) The section on divorce is a subsection of his teaching about adultery.  So, let’s begin by defining what adultery was during Yeshua’s time. Sexual intercourse of a married woman with any man other than her husband. Adulter...

“Heaven” was a well-known euphemism, among many others, for the name “Yahweh” in the Jewish culture of Yeshua. Below are comments about what the Kingdom of Heaven meant to Yeshua: (1) It was not only the eschatological (end times) rule of God that would come in the future. (2)  It was already on the earth now. (3) It was a divinely willed movement that will spread among people throughout the earth. (4) It was more than just simply a matter of God’s kingship in Israel. (5) It was also the domain of his rule. (6) It was an expanding realm embracing ever more and more people. (7) It was a realm into which one may enter and find one’s inheritance. (8) It was a realm where there are both great and small. I hope you found this study interesting. Your support is greatly appreciated. To make an online donation – CLICK HERE . If you consider our work valuable, but have never contributed or it has been a long time ago, how about doing it now. We depen...

Rare Artifacts From Jesus' Time Found at Orphanage in Jerusalem Archaeologists in Israel are "astonished and surprised" after finding artifacts dating back to Jesus' time at a local orphanage and military complex in Jerusalem. Near the bathhouse a pit was found - maybe a ritual bath from the Second Temple Period - full of ceramic and glass vessels. Everything is evidence that nearly 2000 years ago the Romans arrived in Jerusalem and after the destruction of the city in 70 CE, the soldiers occupied this house. See pictures and read article at - http://www.christianpost.com/news/archaeology-discovery-rare-artifacts-jesus-orphanage-jerusalem-158919/ Vast 4,200-year Old Prehistoric Necropolis Found by Bethlehem Cemetery with over 100 tombs from 2200-650 BCE shows prehistoric Bethlehem was a rich town situated along important trade routes. A vast prehistoric necropolis some 4,200 years old has been found near the Palestinian city of Bethlehem, proving for the fir...

Egyptian Statues Revealed in Ancient Shrines . Six rock cut statues have been discovered within 18th Dynasty shrines in Egypt. The 3,400-year-old statues were found at Gebel el Sisila, a site north of Aswan known for its stone quarries on both sides of the Nile. Blocks used in building almost all of ancient Egypt's great temples were cut from there. The statues were carved within two of the 32 shrines erected by the officials who were in charge of quarrying the stone. See picture and read complete article at -- http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/egyptian-statues-revealed-in-ancient-shrines-151228.htm 3,400-year-old Canaanite Fort to Be Incorporated Into High-rise. Ancient Canaanite citadel discovered in the middle of the Nahariya, which had been burned down four times, will be incorporated into the basement. See picture and read complete article at -- http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/archaeology/1.695784 Archaeologists uncover 4,500-year-old 59-foot boat at a...

Michael J. Sandel is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government at Harvard University, where he has taught political philosophy since 1980. His book Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? should be required reading for all citizens today. Below are excerpts that provide a much better path for finding solutions that have the power to bring Americans together – instead of widening the gap even more. Today most of our political arguments revolve around welfare and freedom — increasing economic output and respecting people’s rights . For many people, talk of virtue in politics brings to mind religious conservatives telling people how to live. But this is not the only way that conceptions of virtue and the common good can inform politics. The challenge is to imagine a politics that takes moral and spiritual questions seriously, but brings them to bear on broad economic and civic concerns, not only on sex and abortion. . . What might a new politics of the common good look ...

A rare amulet Egyptian amulet over 3,200 years old was discovered in earth discarded from Jerusalem's Temple Mount by 12-year old Jerusalem girl. Read article and see pictures at -- http://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/society/110329-160419-ancient-egyptian-amulet-bearing-pharaoh-s-name-discovered-in-temple-mount-earth Beautifully-preserved ancient scarab seal discovered near Haifa from 17-18th Centuries BCE. It was owned by a senior Egyptian official of equivalent rank to Joseph in the Bible. Read article and see pictures at -- http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/211349#.Vz50dvkrK00 Analysis of military records on pottery shows widespread literacy in the ancient Kingdom of Judah 2,500 years ago: Not only elites could read. Parts of Bible Were Written in First Temple Period, Say Archaeologists. Read article and see pictures at -- http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/archaeology/1.713885 Oldest Surviving Copy of Hebrew Bible Recognized as UNESCO World...

Recently, I posted a quote on FB which received a big response. It read, "Do the right thing, even when no one is looking. It's called INTEGRITY!" Doing the Right Thing is many things. It's brave, inconvenient, requires effort, requires character and conscience, can be personally difficult, even dangerous. It is also uplifting, esteem building and meaningful, and so much more. Read Rabbi Leynor’s complete blog at -- http://tovcenter.blogspot.com/2016/05/who-are-you-when-no-one-is-looking.html

What happens if a three legged stool loses a leg? Yeshua’s movement and message were built on Three Foundational Values -- TESHUVAH ( repentance ), MISHPAT ( justice ) and TZEDAQAH ( righteousness ).  Knowing what these meant to Yeshua and his first century Jewish audience is essential for Christians today – who base their beliefs on Jesus. One fact is very clear, one cannot believe in the Jesus who lived and taught in Galilee and Judea without clearly understanding what he taught. Today, the Christian message alludes to his teachings on TESHUVAH and TZEDAQAH , but the cornerstone of his message – MISHPAT -- is completely missing. This would be incomprehensible to him, his apostles, members of his movement and the rest of the Jewish nation of that time. Below are overviews of those three foundational Values. (1) TE SHUV AH ( repentance ) -- The root word, SHUV , simply means “ turn around” -- if someone is going the wrong way they must turn around and go the rig...