Courses

Even an absolutely perfect, spotless lamb, flawless in every way, can be rejected as a blood offering if the offerer is not first righteous. In the Jerusalem Temple, the blood of a sacrifice was the divinely ordained means of atonement (Lev 17:11), but its efficacy depended on the offerer’s prior righteousness, both ritual and moral.…

For Torah obedient adherents who enjoy recreational cannabis, the notion that it was an ingredient in the Temple’s Shemen Mishchah (holy anointing oil) or Ketores (incense) can hold a certain allure as a nod from Heaven toward its personal use. Some suggest that keneh bosem, listed in Exodus 30:23 as part of Shemen Mishchah, might…

In my teens, I joined maybe 150-200 worshippers at a Catholic charismatic meeting in a Christian bookstore. Drawn to the altar during fervent worship, I closed my eyes, unaware of the Torah’s prohibition against images I was imagining in my mind (Exodus 20:4). Healings erupted: the sick rose, crutches discarded, restored by faith. Returning to…