If we were to be transported back in time to the first century and were to study "Moses and the Prophets" as Jesus, the disciples, and the two men on the road to Emmaus did (Luke 24:27), what would we learn? What portraits of the Messiah would we find? Come… join our band of believers and study Scripture in the footsteps and pattern of our Lord and Savior.

The foundation of first-century Bible study included an annual reading of the Torah: the books of Genesis through Deuteronomy.  The Scripture that is studied this time of year (mid May) is Numbers chapters 1-4.  The chapter and verse numbers that we use today to identify passages of Scripture did not exist in the days of the Master.  Instead, they identified the weekly passages, known as a parashah (”portion”) by the first word or two of that passage.  This week’s parashah is known as B'midbar (pronounced buh MID bar).  This Hebrew word means “in the wilderness”.  B'midbar is also the Hebrew name for the book of Numbers.  It is known as the book of "In the Wilderness" as it is written in the beginning of this portion:

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for Friday, May 15th was scrupulous.

1 : having moral integrity : acting in strict regard for what is considered right or proper 2 : punctiliously exact : painstaking

Shalom aleichem! :)

Thank you for taking the time to read this.  I just wanted to provide a bit of an update on recent events.

The main focus with Psalm11918.org lately has been on replacing the infrastructure that supports the site.  We found that we were spending quite a bit of time building every web page manually which meant less time available to study Scripture and write the articles that we desire to share.  That has also proven to be time consuming but we believe the investment will pay dividends in the future.

During some recent reading I came across this passage in Paul's first letter to the Corinthians:

However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual.

Recently I replaced my son's bar mitzvah tefillin with a better quality set.  The head tefillin was tied for a small head size and needed to be expanded to fit my son (he's quite a large young man now!).  As I was gently trying to adjust the dalet knot this morning without losing the knot completely... SPROING!  It all came apart.  Imagine my concern about having to tie the knot back together.  This is not a simple knot.

I found this wonderful video on You Tube showing how to tie the dalet knot on the head tefillin and though I would share: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLBm6k8QHqU . I pray it will be as much a blessing to you as it was to me! :)

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for Monday, May 11th was whinge.

to complain fretfully : whine

In their "Did you know?" section, M-W provided the following:

"Whinge" isn't just a spelling variant of "whine." "Whinge" and "whine" are actually entirely different words with separate histories. "Whine" traces to an Old English verb, "hwinan," which means "to make a humming or whirring sound." When "hwinan" became "whinen"in Middle English, it meant "to wail distressfully"; "whine" didn't acquire its "complain" sense until the 16th century. "Whinge," on the other hand, comes from a different Old English verb, "hwinsian," which means "to wail or moan discontentedly." "Whinge" retains that original sense today, though nowadays it puts less emphasis on the sound of the complaining and more on the discontentment behind the complaint.

This brings to mind an admonition from Scripture:

The Merriam-Webster Word of the Day for Sunday, May 10th was fidelity.

1 : the quality or state of being faithful

2 : accuracy

 

This was the etymological information they provided for the word:

"The Program on Public Values" at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn recently published a study that indicated an increasing number of Americans are claiming no religion.  A recent Foxnews.com article about the study revealed some interesting points:

1990- 8.2% of Americans claim they have no religion 2001- 14.2% of Americans claim they have no religion 2008- 15.0% of Americans claim they have no religion

Based upon this information we can see that Americans are becoming increasing secular.

Consider our society (not science, medicine, technology... but our culture, our society) in 1990 as compared to today.

Which is better in your estimation?

The Merriam-Webster's word of the day for February 23rd was exorbitant.  M-W defined the word as follows:

The Merriam-Webster word of the day for February 24th 2009 is onerous.

1 : involving, imposing, or constituting a burden : troublesome

2 : having legal obligations that outweigh the advantages