David Bernstein Washington Post One can be a secular Zionist, or a religious Zionist. There are Christian Zionists, and even a few Muslim Zionists. But the only feasible alternatives to Zionism are themselves illiberal. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/08/22/two-reasons-the-i-cant-be-a-zionist-because-im-a-liberal-meme-is-false/ Read more

Dear Gerry! A month and a half have passed since the beginning of the Gaza conflict, but the end is not seen yet. We are happy that our daughter finally decided to go to  school after the Gaza war ordeal. She was really struggling. We are also thankful that many people responded to our son’s letter and this week he and Gil will start to distribute the bags for the reservists. Hamas broke another ceasefire last Tuesday. (more…) Read more

The “theologian of beauty” muses on why we find God’s creation so pleasing. http://www.christianitytoday.com/behemoth/2014/issue-3/spiritual-music-of-beautiful-world-jonathan-edwards.html Read more

[Friends, this is a speech from the 2011 Durban Conference in New York.  But like other great speeches, it is worth re-reading.  And the situation it reports from three years ago is no less true today.] I was only nine years old when an Arab neighbour named Abdullahi tricked me into following him to a boat. The boat wound up in Northern Sudan where he gave me as a gift to his family. For three and a half years I... Read more

The Joy of Sex was first published in 1972. There are chapters on all things sexual with one rather glaring omission. There’s no chapter on pregnancy and childbirth. Yet babies (how quickly we forget—assuming we ever knew) are the primary point of sex, which engages our “reproductive organs.” http://juicyecumenism.com/2014/08/16/jim-tonkowich-the-joy-of-sex/?utm_source=flocknote&utm_medium=email&utm_term=10&utm_content=jim-tonkowich-the-joy-of-sex&utm_campaign=Weekly%20Wrap%20Up%208-22-14 Read more

Gerald McDermott Themelios Edwards writes  that “in some sense, [there is] a multiplication” of “the infinite fullness of all possible good in God.” This “external stream” flowing from God is “an increase of good.” God “as it were enlarges himself in a more excellent and divine manner”than can be imagined. God is like a fountain, whose emanation is “as it were an increase, repetition or multiplication of ” that fountain of good. http://tgc-documents.s3.amazonaws.com/themelios/Themelios39.2.pdf#page=29 Read more

A large part of an observant Jew’s day consists of performing mitzvos, fulfilling religious commandments. How often do we stop to ask ourselves why we do this? Why do we expend so much time and effort in the pursuit of mitzvos? I see three general answers to, or approaches to answering, this question. Two of them revolve around the four sons in the Haggadah. http://www.torahmusings.com/2014/08/why-we-do-mitzvos/ Read more

Richard Elliott Friedman I tell my students that if you’re on a desert island and can have only one chapter of the Bible with you, make it Leviticus 19. And its laws all come mixed in between each other. No line can be judged by what comes before it or after it. And, remember, there are no verse numbers or periods or commas in the original. http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/bible-interpretation/love-your-neighbor-only-israelites-or-everyone/ Read more

WHY is the world silent while Christians are being slaughtered in the Middle East and Africa? In Europe and in the United States, we have witnessed demonstrations over the tragic deaths of Palestinians who have been used as human shields by Hamas, the terrorist organization that controls Gaza. The United Nations has held inquiries and focuses its anger on Israel for defending itself against that same terrorist organization. But the barbarous slaughter of thousands upon thousands of Christians is met... Read more

We may be watching the deliberate destruction of Aramaic, unfolding in real time. http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/08/14/islamic_state_aramaic_language_jesus_bible_destruction_yazidi_iraq Read more