Messianic Jewish Musings

            Isn’t the beginning of the year great? If you’re like me, you’ve been doing some goal-setting and strategic planning. Aside from all the personal stuff, a lot of my goal-setting and planning has been about writing and blogging and studying.

            Most of you read Messianic Jewish Musings because you have caught the disease, the blessed disease. You can’t get enough Bible, theology, spiritual and intellectual stimulation. So you stop here and a dozen other places regularly. You want to be challenged, to grow, to become immersed in the world of sacred text and pleasure in the divine.

            As one place you come to for challenge, I want to be sufficiently challenging for you. We’re on this journey of discovery together and we learn from each other.On Monday I posted some ethics for discussions online and in any community. Part of the reason I posted it is that I’d like to generate more discussion this year. I’d like to not simply write theory and research and musings here, but also hear your theory and musings and research. (Of course, that means you need to do more than read blogs — but to research and think and make reading the Bible and literature about the Bible a habit).

            I know many people spend so much time reading things online they leave little time for books and even the Bible itself. I hope I can be one voice encouraging you to put paper in your hands and turn the precious leaves while savoring the learning. It’s a good year to learn Hebrew (see mountolivepress.com for the Torah and Hebrew Learning Materials by Jeff Feinberg). It’s a good year to read through Rashi (I recommend the Artscroll Sapirstein Edition Rashi which will help you understand him). It’s a good year to read a solid commentary or theological work.

              I want to talk about books, books worth reading, and I will feel as if I have done something great if I get a few hundred people reading a book who might not have read that book otherwise. One category of book that I’d like to see Messianic Jews reading, and Christians as well, is good Jewish books. I just got a used copy of Barry Holtz’s 1992 The Schocken Guide to Jewish Books. My Jewish library continues to grow and the recommendations by various scholars in the Schocken Guide are helping me find some gems (some out of print, but thank God for used books on Amazon).