Recently Netanyahu used reference to Amalak in the Bible as the basis for the war against Hamas. Often, I have heard “this is just Isaac and Ismael over and over again.” These are two deeply unhelpful ways of talking about a tragic situation. One demonizes an entire people. The other makes it seem as though […]
Sandmel responding the 19-20th century portrayals of 1st Century Judaism quips, “it is always called ‘arid and dry’ never one or the other, always both ‘arid and dry’. Bible scholarship has tended to lean on the words of Jesus and the words of Paul to develop a picture of 1st Century Judaism. The resulting portrayal […]
The complaint is often made that religion causes wars. It divides people, we are told, and they fight over whose God is right. As many wars as I have seen and read about, in the end, few of them appear to be over who is the true prophet, or which is the true God. We […]
For about two thousand years, the cultural narrative about the Jewish people was that they were rejected by God and could do no right. For the past two hundred years, the Christian church has begun, in some quarters, to promote the idea that Israel is God’s chosen people and can do no wrong. While this […]
This morning I read from the Book of Ezra: 3 When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their towns, the people assembled together as one in Jerusalem. 2 Then Joshua son of Jozadak and his fellow priests and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his associates began to build the altar of the God of Israel to sacrifice burnt offerings […]
In the last week as I have watched and prayed and cried regarding things in Israel, I could not help but think of John’s closing vision in Revelation. Here are two sections of that vision: “And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride […]
There is a meme going around that shows a Bible page with a highlight of Deuteronomy 28:43-44, which reads: “43 The stranger who is among you will rise above you higher and higher, and you will go down lower and lower. 44 He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him; he will be the head, […]
Most of these songs have waited 30 years to be recorded. Now, with full orchestration and a large sound, they are about to land on all the major streaming platforms. You can get a preview here. The first song up is the one I finished over the weekend. It is called, I’ll Know. Sometimes the […]
all we contribute- good or bad has wider impact than we imagine. The stone we throw could sink a steamer or scrap a rowboat, cause sea levels to rise, and wash back up to us. Beyond this, the stones we throw, will outlive us.
This weekend I recorded a song I wrote about 35 years ago. It is a near word for word account of a conversation with a woman who immigrated from Europe to small town New England, where she grew old but never felt accepted. It is the sort of conversation I have had many times since. […]
