We always should remember that Shabbat is not just about not doing certain things, or the other way round, just doing special things, or having special food or bringing sacrifices.
Tag: Jewish community
Difficulty in getting new young members
As a small faith community, getting new young members is not easy. We all must do an effort to bring in the younger generation and to get them enthusiastically to share their knowledge and gifts with the older generations.
Fish vs. Pond Size – Jewish Community Edition
For a community that is already small in normal times, there has been a time of more loneliness during the lockdown periods due to the impact of the Coronavirus.
In some countries, things are allowed to return to normal, while in others, such as Belgium, we are still very cautious and foresee Zoom meetings.We can imagine that in several countries the communities are still a shadow of what they once were. Getting all the congregants turning up again will also not be so simple, because often people have to travel some kilometres to come to service, and as such shall lose again some time by travelling to and fro.
For many, it will be a matter of readjustment and of having healthy fresh water in the fishbowl again. For many, it is also not so evident to get back in form and in confidence to share some tasks. Some prefer to stay in the shadow, whilst others would not mind being lions leading the troup.
We may question how far we as a community want to feel the collective experience. For months, many of us became accustomed to the private enclosure, and prayer time on our own at home.
Now going to yeshivah demands again some effort people have to bring up after work or daily duties.After the Covid pandemic, we need retaining walls to carry out our daily work and bring life back to the brewery. For this, big fish are welcome to pull the procession of little fish along in an adventure of reading and study, but also of reflection and argumentation.
Now it may well be that people have come to a point where they want to look further afield and go to places where the sea is deeper but where the fauna is also wider and more abundant.
Do not mind exploring other Jewish communities, even when they may be much further or even out of state.
Who would not love to look for a Jewish or a Jeshuaist community that not only is vibrant and fully egalitarian, but also a Jewish community that is still a moderate-big pond post-pandemic with an existing coral infrastructure?Those who are able to such larger communities are the lucky ones.
I want to be a smaller fish in this pond. I’d like to grow into a big star Torah-reading fish again. And I’m willing to take on some of those thankless coral jobs for the right community. But mostly, I really just want to feel like a fish again.
But do not be discouraged by the lack of large communities. We must be fully aware that, as Children of God, we will only be part of small communities. It is up to us to bring life into our very small communities. Each of us must bring new oxygen and even though the Covid period is not yet over, we must bring back the taste for more. Sometimes we have to do the digging ourselves to make the pond bigger.
Now is the time to bring out the picks and shovels and build a stage on which we can sing and dance together.
I thought I’d offer a somewhat different take on Fandango’s Provocative Question, as it got me thinking about my preferences and priorities for the Jewish community I want to be a part of, and how they have changed.
I’ve written before about my love for the singing, dancing, energy and celebration of “Big Party Judaism“. I guess this would be a small fish in a big pond model. Even aside from the fun social aspect, I enjoy the spiritual energy of Judaism in a large group of people.
That said, when it comes to having a congregational home, I found myself more at home in the big fish in a small pond model. I gravitated towards communities where I’d play a bigger more active role, say, as a regular Torah/Haftarah reader, vs. a more passive one…
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Welcoming Interfaith Families, Maintaining Tradition – Eqev 5781
Throughout the ages, interfaith has always been a matter of discussion and for sure did not make matters of life easier.
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Preceding
Intermarriage and Protecting the state of the Jewish and/or Jeshuaist family
I recently completed my fourteenth year as a rabbi, since I was ordained at the Conservative movement’s Jewish Theological Seminary in New York in 2007. As many of you know, I have been affiliated with the Conservative movement for my entire life.
But you may not know that in 1994, when I was finishing my Master’s degree in chemical engineering at Texas A&M University, I applied to the rabbinical school at the Reform movement’s Hebrew Union College, at the urging of the Reform rabbi at the Texas A&M Hillel. When HUC rejected me, Rabbi Tarlow was incensed, and he called the chair of the admissions committee to find out why. He was told that the committee felt that I had difficulty seeing multiple sides to an issue.
Now, it may be that what they saw about me during the interview was engineering clarity: trying…
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A Letter to the Ekklesia
From the onset, there have been real followers of the Nazarene master teacher. Centuries past and many false teachings entered Christendom, but in Christianity, several people kept to the True Biblical Words and kept worshipping only the One true God. Also in the Jewish community, there were people who came to see that Jeshua was the way to God and that he was the promised Messiah.
Today it has even become more important that those Jews who follow Jeshua as their Messiah should unit and feel strengthened by their unity all over the world.
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To remember
- A mass exodus from man-made religions happening over the last few years, specifically since the fulfillment of the Revelation 12 prophecy in 2017, but much more frequently over the last few months, even weeks.
- once avid believers subsequently led astray by various new age deceptions or have abandoned their faith all together.
- More and more things being taught at church started to contradict Scripture,
- pastors & religions avoided answering any questions that challenged their doctrines
- False teachings + inherited generations old lies became like flashing neon signs.
- Works without faith = as dead as faith without works. (James 2:18)
- constantly called Judaizers, heretics, false teachers, mocked, & persecuted for speaking of the joy found in turning back to Torah,
- early believers > followers of “The Way”, also known as the “Natsarim”. + called “Torah Observant Christians”, or Messianic Jews” = followers of Jesus existed in Acts before Westernization of the church largely made by the Emperor Constantine.
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Preceding
Certain Messianic groups betraying the Elohim
Biblical Yeshua/ Jesus or Another European Greco- Roman Jesus ??
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Additional reading
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Related
With love from your Torah Observant Brothers and Sisters
My dearest brothers and sisters in Christ,
A mass exodus from man-made religions has been happening over the last few years, specifically since the fulfillment of the Revelation 12 prophecy in 2017, but much more frequently over the last few months, even weeks. Unfortunately, many of these once avid believers were subsequently led astray by various new age deceptions or have abandoned their faith all together. However, an ever-growing number of us took a different route- we all have a very similar testimony, in fact. More and more things that we were being taught at church started to contradict Scripture, and our pastors and religions avoided answering any questions that challenged their doctrines like the plague. Everyone online started constantly bickering over different doctrines and clashing over theologies. We all claim to serve the same God and love Jesus, but that’s…
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Jewish community in Iceland
The first observant Jew settled in Iceland in 1906, according to records. Fritz Heymann Nathan started one of Iceland’s most successful businesses at the time, Nathan & Olsen, a food distributor, after arriving from Denmark. He stayed for 11 years before returning there. It wasn’t until 1940 that the first Jewish congregation was established on… Lees verder Jewish community in Iceland
2017 Undergraduate Judaic Studies Conference
The second annual Undergraduate Judaic Studies Conference presented the research of three Yeshiva College students on medieval Kabbalistic views of people with physical disabilities, social, political and religious institutions in the Spanish Portuguese Jewish community in early 17th-century Amsterdam, and gender descriptions in Jewish philosophy.
Ambassadors for our faith in Jeshua
We have come in a time where it is urgent to be an ambassador for our faith, which means we also do have to be an ambassador for Jeshua making his name known.
Jeshuaisten / Jeshuaists 