Author: Steven R. Bruck

Parashah Pekudey 2022 (Accounts) Exodus 38:21 – 40

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These final chapters of the Book of Exodus relate the details of the Tabernacle, how everything was done exactly as Moses had directed, which God had shown him, and when it was all done, Moses blessed the people.

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God tells Moses to erect the Tabernacle (also known as the Tent of Meeting) on the first day of the first month, which was in the second year after leaving Egypt and 9 months after coming to Mount Sinai. The work on the tent took 4 months.

The High Priest, Aaron, is anointed and so are his sons, and after the work was all done and the Ark of the Covenant placed in the Holy of Holies, the shekinah glory of the LORD filled the tent, so much so that Moses was not able to enter it.

As we always say at the end of a book of the Torah:

Chazak, Chazak, v’nit Chazek!!

(Be strong, be strong, and let us be strengthened).

There is much in this book to wonder about.

Did the Jews really see the glory of God on Sinai, or was it just a meteorological event?

Did Moses’ face really shine?

Did the Red Sea really split open or did the tide just go out?

Were the Jewish people really ever enslaved in Egypt?

Many people can look to the events in Exodus- in fact, throughout the Bible- and doubt that they occurred as stated. It is very easy to view the Torah miracles with modern “eyes”, now that we are all knowledgeable in science. So, using science to explain events, people may be able to say, in a scholarly manner, that the Nile turned to blood because of a silt deposit issue that happened upstream. That then caused the fish to die, causing the frogs to leave the water, causing the flies and other insects to gather, and those insects would bite the people and cattle causing the boils and sores, etc.

It is easy to discard the miracles that God performed by explaining them away with scientific reasoning.

But does explaining how a miracle could have happened make it any less of a miracle? After all, even if we know why the Nile turned red, didn’t something, somewhere have to happen first?

If the Nile turned red because of something that happened upstream, such as an abundance of silt being dislodged and travelling downstream changing the color of the water, or some fungus or algae growth turning the waters red, didn’t something have to send the silt or put the algae there?

Where did the algae come from, in the first place?

This is the problem with science- it explains how things happen, but it doesn’t explain how the thing happening started.

The Big Bang Theory about the universe was proven by the discovery of radio waves coming from space, which represented an extreme release of radioactivity (as from a gigantic explosion) after billions of years of half-life decomposition. So, does that mean God didn’t create the universe? I mean, someone had to light that fuse for the explosion, right?

Look at life on earth. We have fossil proof that there have been lower forms of life that have gradually, over millions of years become more advanced. Science calls it evolution, which in plain English means accidental mutations that have increased the survivability of the species.

But why not Intelligent Design? My belief is that God created different life forms, at different times, and has allowed some to die out and others to remain. In order to make the remaining species capable of living in a changing environment, he “tweaked” their DNA a bit.

Doesn’t that better explain how so many different life-forms have succeeded in surviving? How many times have you heard of a mutation, other than the X-Men, that actually made the mutated animal stronger? How many mutations that we have seen in modern times have been beneficial?

None that I know of.

Anyone can argue against the Bible, and make it sound reasonable. The issue really isn’t about whether or not everything stated in the Bible is absolutely accurate, although the Bible has been proven to be an accurate historical document, with much of its narrative being verified by archaeological evidence.

No. The issue is not biblical accuracy or definitive proof of the events that are related in the Bible. The issue always comes down to one of faith.

James says that faith is believing in things that are unseen and unproven (Hebrews 11:1), and I have often stated that faith is a choice.

I was unsure for most of my life- the first 40 years or so, and when I finally decided I was going to make up my mind about God, his messiah, and all that stuff, after listening to people and reading a Messianic New Covenant, I chose to believe that what I read is true. I chose to believe in God; I chose to believe that Yeshua is my Messiah; and I have since chosen to remain faithful to my Jewish upbringing by remaining obedient to God’s instructions in the Torah, rejecting much of what traditional Christianity has taught about the Torah being only for Jews and not for those who are Born Again. .

And I choose to be this way, despite the fact that my fellow Jews say I can’t be Jewish if I believe in Jesus and Christians tell me I can’t be saved if I still do all that “Jewish” stuff.

So read Exodus and revel in the miraculous ways that God saved his people, giving them the way to live and worship in order to walk the path of righteousness.

Or, read it with a skeptical and cynical mindset, explaining the miracles away with scientific hoo-hah and denying the divine interventions.

As for me, I choose to believe in God, to believe what I read in this book of the Bible to be accurate and true, and to faithfully maintain this position no matter how “sensible” arguments against it may sound.

And I unwaveringly choose to be a Torah observant Jew while proclaiming and accepting that Yeshua is my Messiah.

To me, with Jews on one side denying me my Jewish heritage and Christians on the other side denying me my salvation through Messiah, I must be on a very narrow path leading to a very skinny gate.

And if so, then I am on the right path.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe to my YouTube channel and my ministry website. While on the website, please buy my books. Also, on Facebook like my page and join my discussion group called “Just God’s Word” (please read and accept the rules).

Oh, yes, of course please share these messages with everyone to help this ministry continue to grow.

That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and Shabbat Shalom!

Could Yeshua Have Sinned?

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In the book of Leviticus, the first 7 chapters are the regulations for the sacrificial system, through which we can have our sins forgiven.

And the instructions are quite clear that before the Cohen Hagadol (High Priest) can perform his duties for the people, he must first be cleansed, himself.

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More than that, in Chapter 4 it states that if the anointed Cohen sins, he not only brings guilt on himself, but on the people, too! And the same holds true for when any of the leaders sin.

Whoa!! Hold your horses! Wait a minute! Take a breath! Why should I be guilty if the person in charge sins?

Frankly, I don’t know, and it seems really unfair, doesn’t it? But that’s the way God says it has to happen, so if our leader is in sin, then the people (even the entire country) are also in sin.

That explains why when the kings of Israel (the Northern Kingdom in Shomron) continually sinned, the people were eventually scattered all over the Diaspora.

And when the Judean kings followed suit, the remaining children of Israel were expelled from the land God promised them.

So, before Yeshua was able to submit himself as a sacrifice, being that he is our Cohen HaGadol, he first had to make sure that he was cleansed of sin.

The fact that Yeshua was resurrected, we know his sacrifice was accepted, which proved he was sinless when he died.

I have an interesting question for you, but first we have to review some things:

1. The temple and the sacrificial system existed at the time of Yeshua’s ministry.

2. The Torah guarantees when we repent, bring a sacrifice to the temple and ask for forgiveness, we will be forgiven of our sins.

3. The Bible confirms that when God forgives our sins, it is as if they never existed (read Isaiah 43:25; Jeremiah 31:34; Psalm 103:11, just to name a few places).

So, considering the above, here’s my hypothetical question…could Yeshua have sinned at some point during his lifetime?

If he had committed a sin, but then went to the temple and offered his sacrifice, after that wouldn’t he be sinless? And if he didn’t sin between that time and his crucifixion, then he would still be the sinless Lamb of God, right?

Interesting thought, isn’t it?

The idea that Yeshua did commit a sin or two during his life but, after being cleansed through the sacrificial system, became acceptable as a sacrifice for your life goes against all the rhetoric we have always been told about how Yeshua lived a sinless life.

I’m sorry, but to me, the idea that he never once sinned comes under question when we consider he was just like us (Isaiah 53 says he wasn’t anything special, and well acquainted with pain and illness), so he could have succumbed to temptation at one or more times in his life, yet through the sacrificial system still have presented himself as the sinless Lamb of God prior to his arrest and death.

I believe that Yeshua did offer some sacrifices during his life because he was a human man and well acquainted with illness, so he must have had, at one point or another, at least some sort of emission that he needed to be cleansed of, which required a sacrifice. I can’t see any human being not having done something, at least once in his life, whether on purpose or accidentally, that required a sacrifice in order to be clean, let alone forgiven of a sin.

Yes, even one who is totally filled with the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit).

I can only speak for myself, but even with the Ruach indwelling, which I often hear guide me, I still screw up way too often because I am human. And if Isaiah was correct, and the Messiah is well acquainted with illness and pain, I can see him making mistakes, too.

In any event, whether he lived a totally sinless life, or did sin but had been cleansed of his sin through the same sacrificial system that made it possible for him to be our sacrifice for sin, all that really matters is that his resurrection proved his sacrifice was accepted, and through that sacrifice we can have our sins forgiven and receive salvation.

One last thing: if you are in a position of leadership, either in government, corporately, religiously, or just within your family, you need to remember that those who trust you for guidance will suffer the consequences of whatever sins you commit. James 3:1 warns us that those who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

In the first Spiderman movie, Uncle Ben tells Peter Parker (Spiderman) that with great strength comes great responsibility. This warning was to teach Peter the future of others depend on his usage of that gift.

Uncle Ben knew his Bible!

Thank you for being here and please share these messages to help this ministry grow. Subscribe to my website and YouTube channel, join my Facebook discussion group called “Just God’s Word” (please read and accept the rules), buy my books, and remember that I always welcome your comments.

I’m done for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

Why is John’s Gospel So Different?

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If you look on the Internet for an answer to this question, you will find many different viewpoints. I have often read that the other three gospels are synoptic, while John’s is spiritual; this seems to be the main explanation for the significant differences between John and the other three gospels. .

But is that really an explanation?

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One person said that we need to look at the audience, and I think that is somewhat on the right track, in that John is written so differently, with a subtle anti-Semitic tone to it, that I do not believe it was written by the Apostle John, at all. And neither do I believe it was written to Jews.

In fact, I don’t even think it was written by a Jew!

“WHOA!! Hold your horses, Steve! How can you even think that?”

I’ll tell you why.

Here are some of the differences I noted in John that do not appear in the other gospels, are exactly the opposite of the other three, or appear (to me, being a Jew) to not have been written by a Jewish person at that time:

  • When talking to the Pharisees, Yeshua often uses the term “your Torah”. Now, for a Jewish person living then, which is no different than for a Jewish person living now, we do not say “your Torah” when discussing the Torah. We say “the Torah” or just, “Torah”. By emphasizing that the Torah is “theirs”, Yeshua implies that it is not his. Now, if John starts out by saying the Word became flesh, and we have to assume the Word is the Torah (since there was no other “Word” then), how can the living Torah separate himself from the written Torah? The sense one gets from this dichotomy is that Yeshua is teaching something different than the Torah, which is wrong. By using the term “your Torah”, the writer is separating Yeshua from the Torah. No Jewish disciple of Yeshua would ever state or even imply that Yeshua taught anything other than what is in the Torah.
  • The writer often refers to the people who were against Yeshua as “the Judeans”. Sometimes we read the writer differentiate the Judeans from the Jerusalemites, but overall the implication is that all Jews were against Yeshua. Of course, this is not true, and not implied in the other gospels, which indicate that it was the Pharisees and Scribes (also called Torah teachers) who were the main impetus behind having Yeshua arrested. They were also the ones who threatened the people with excommunication if they followed him. This subtle anti-Semitic tone leads one to believe that all the Jews rejected Yeshua, when the truth is that thousands accepted him.
  • One of my major complaints about the gospel of John is that of all the New Covenant writings, this gospel is the only one with any indication that Yeshua is God. Whether you are a Unitarian or a Trinitarian, the fact remains that nowhere else in the entire New Covenant does Yeshua even imply he is God; yet, in just this gospel, his language is so overly spiritual, way too metaphorical, and containing confusing double-talk that leads one to think Yeshua says he is God. For example, there are many instances where Yeshua says something to the effect of he knows the Father and the Father knows him, and if they knew the Father they would know him, but they don’t know the Father, so they don’t know him, but he and the Father are one, so when they reject him they reject the Father, who will reject them because…yadda…yadda…yadda! Too much metaphorical mishigas! Throughout history, these types of statements (which we find only in John) have been used to justify that God and Yeshua are one and the same entity. This is one of the major reasons that Jews cannot accept Yeshua as their Messiah– we Jews have one God, and just one God, and he is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He promised to send a Messiah to bring us back into communion with God, gather us back to our homeland, Israel, and re-establish the Temple service. The Messiah, for Jews, is a man with supernatural powers that come from God, but he is not God, himself. The gospel of John is written in such a way as to make it impossible for any Jew to accept Yeshua, and no Jewish disciple of Yeshua would ever write anything like that.
  • Thomas says “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28) when he sees Yeshua after being resurrected. This is not stated in any of the other three gospels.
  • Yeshua gives his disciples the gift of the Ruach HaKodesh by breathing it on them (John 20:22). This happens when he is with them after his resurrection. According to the other three gospels, not only does this not happen, but the complete opposite thing- Yeshua tells them to wait for the Holy Spirit, which will come from God. And in Acts Chapter 2, we are told that the Ruach didn’t come upon the disciples until they were celebrating Shavuot, which was some 50 days after Pesach (Passover).
  • In the other three gospels, Yeshua never clearly states he is the Messiah or the son of God, referring to himself instead as the “Son of Man”. But in John’s gospel, he claims to be the son of God and the Messiah a number of times (John 4:25; 10:36; 18:36).
  • In the other three gospels, Yeshua refuses to help anyone other than the lost tribes of Israel, but in John 4:25 he not only tells the Samaritan woman at the well that he is the Messiah, but stays for two days teaching the people in Samaria!
  • The only gospel that mentions the Apostles going to the grave is Luke, and he says only Kefa (Peter) went. In John’s gospel, it says John and Peter went, and that he got there before Peter (when the writer of John refers to the “talmid that Yeshua loved”, this is a clear reference to John).
  • Finally, we have to remember one of the most important and necessary tools to use in biblical exegesis, which is hermeneutics, and when we review the gospel of John hermeneutically to the other three gospels, the many differences between John’s gospel and the other three MUST indicate that the gospel of John is – at the very least- questionable with regards to its accuracy and trustworthiness.

In fact, the Complete Jewish Bible even points out that many biblical scholars believe one part of this gospel, John 7:53 – 8:11, wasn’t even written by John but possibly by a talmid (student) of his. I say, if the scholars believe that part of this gospel was written by someone else, why stop there?

I think the gospel of John wasn’t written by John, or even by a Jew, because everything about it screams traditional Christian anti-Torah teaching to me!

I don’t think it should even be in the New Covenant.

If it is so wrong, why is it there? I believe it is there because by the time the New Covenant was being canonized, the Christian religion had mutated into a totally anti-Torah religion and the Gentiles putting this “Bible” together needed something to really support their doctrines. The gospel of John does this very well, what with the many references to Yeshua saying that he and God are the same, to “your Torah”, to “the Judeans”, filled with overly spiritual and metaphorically intense sentences designed to confuse the masses, and with a writing style that is so very different from the other Jewish writings that it would appeal to those who are easily fooled into thinking that something sounding spiritual must be true.

I realize that many Christians swear by the gospel of John, and consider it to be the best of the four gospels. When I was first learning about Yeshua, a very spiritually mature Christian I worked with helped me to come to salvation through Messiah Yeshua. However, of all he did to help me, the one thing he did that was not helpful, at all, was to tell me that I should begin my introduction to the New Covenant by reading John’s gospel.

Today, if I wanted to help a Jewish brother or sister know their Messiah, I would direct them to Matthew, Mark, Luke, Acts, Hebrews, James, and Revelation. I would tell them not to even look at any other writings until they were sure they knew what Yeshua was teaching and only after I was able to prepare them for the true meaning of the Epistles.

And I would tell them to ignore the gospel of John, altogether.

What I am about to say might stun and possibly offend or upset many Christians, but I fully believe the gospel of John was written by someone who was not Jewish, and whose aim in writing it was to support Christian separation from Judaism.

Christianity seems to just brush off the significant differences between John’s gospel and the other gospels, and ignores the fact that these differences are not just “off” a little, but are totally in opposition to what we read in the other gospels and in the book of Acts.

I’m sorry, but I can’t ignore this! John’s gospel is not trustworthy and I believe it should be ignored, completely, because it is not the true representation of Yeshua’s ministry, but rather a propaganda gospel designed to direct Gentiles away from the Torah, and Jews away from their Messiah.

If any of you now want to leave my ministry or block me, that is your decision, and I am sorry to see you go, but I calls ’em as I sees ’em, and this one is so very clear to me I cannot hold back, any more.

The truth is what sets us free, and more often than not, gaining that freedom can be so uncomfortable as to be painful.

Thank you for being here, and especially now if you’ve decided to stay. Please share these messages, subscribe to my website and YouTube channel, buy my books, and remember that I always welcome your comments.

That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

Parashah V’Yakhel 2022 (And he assembled) Exodus 35 – 38:20

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By the way, in case anyone noticed that my usual Thursday message wasn’t posted yesterday, it’s because when you are retired, every day is a weekend. If it wasn’t for the letter on the top of my pill holder that I see when having my coffee, I wouldn’t know what day of the week it is. So, yesterday, somehow I thought it was Friday when I started to do my message and by the time I finished the message and realized it was Thursday, well, I figured I had done enough for one day.

This parashah brings us to the final part of the Book of Exodus, which is a detailed description (and I mean, DETAILED!) of the work done building the Tabernacle, also called the Tent of Meeting.

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

We are told that Bezalel and Oholiab have been divinely gifted with all the knowledge necessary for the manufacturing of the articles needed, as well as the tent coverings, embroidery work, bronze work, engraving, and they can make the incense, as well.

The first thing we are told, before the details about the construction work, is that when Moses asked the people to give the materials needed for the building of the Tabernacle, they gave so much that the workers had to tell Moses to have them stop, because not only was there enough to do the work, there was way too much!

The next chapters describe the actual work being done, including the number of loops on each curtain, what the curtains are made of, the length and breadth of the supporting timbers, and just about any detail of the Tabernacle construction you can imagine.

This parashah is one of the more boring things to go through when reading the Bible.

Yes, I said boring, and I mean it!

This isn’t the only boring part: in Ezekiel 41-43:17, we are told about every square inch of the Temple being measured by the angel. I also find going through the diatribe in much of Job to be somewhat of a drag to read.

There is also the repetition of the gifts brought to the Tabernacle by the tribes, each tribe giving the exact same thing, but still, we have to read about every item, from each tribe (Numbers 7).

Oh, let’s not forget the first 7 chapters of 1 Chronicle, which tells the lineage of each and every tribe of Israel, starting with the sons of Jacob.

Yet, as boring and difficult as these (and other passages) are to go through, I still read every word. Why? Because I never know what God will reveal to me through his word.

How many times have you read something, over and over and over- then one day you read it and BAM!!! – something wonderful is revealed to you? You suddenly see a relationship to another part of the Bible you never noticed, or maybe you recognize a message that is appropriate to your life right now that never really was so appropriate before, but now makes a significant difference in how you see things.

One of the most wonderful things about reading the Bible, and I mean the entire Bible (Genesis through Revelation), is that one day, out of the blue, you read something that makes perfect sense to you and you think to yourself, “Why didn’t I ever see this before?”

So today’s message is simple: don’t shortcut the Bible.

Don’t get one of those “Passage-a-Day” calendars because all you ever get, really, when taking a sentence or passage out of context (which is what those daily devotional things do) is most likely going to be a misunderstanding of what God meant. But, if you really, really have to have one of those daily devotional ditties, PLEASE! -open your Bible and read the entire paragraph to make sure that you understand what that passage really means.

Read the Bible every day, and if you find it difficult to find the time, do what I do- leave it in the bathroom. That is the one place I know that every day I will be spending a few minutes all alone, and no one will even want to be there with me, so I can read a chapter or two in complete silence and privacy.

I think of it this way: God is always on his throne, and by reading my Bible in the bathroom, I read about God on his throne while I am on mine.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know. Subscribe to my website (messianicmoment.com) and to my YouTube channel, as well. And, while you are on my website, please consider buying my books.

That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Shabbat Shalom!

Mark 2:22- New Vs. Old

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If you aren’t familiar with this particular passage in the B’rit Chadashah, it is where Yeshua (Jesus) is telling people that new wine cannot go into old wineskins, and a new patch (unshrunk cloth) should not be sewn onto old clothes. Instead, new wine must go into new wineskins.

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

In some cases, this passage is used to justify that there is no longer need for Gentile Believers to obey the laws of Moses, in that the Torah is the “old wine” and the “old clothes”. Yeshua’s teachings are the new wine that must go into new wineskins, indicating that any Jew (those are the only people Yeshua was talking to in those days) who still abided with the traditions and commandments as taught by the Pharisees would not be able to accept this new understanding.

But this passage has nothing to do with the law itself because Yeshua wasn’t talking about the performance of the commandments: he was talking about having an open mind to the deeper meaning of the commandments.

There is a Jewish form of exegesis called PaRDeS. The “P stands for P’shat, which is the literal meaning of the laws (i.e., plain language- what you hear is what it is); the “R” is for Remes, a deeper, more spiritual meaning. The “D” is for Drash, a story (or parable, if you will) that has a moral meaning, and the “S” is for Sud, an almost mystical understanding of the law.

Yeshua taught the Remes, which is not what the Pharisees had been teaching. That is why people said that no one ever taught as he did. We see this especially in the Sermon on the Mount when Yeshua said we have been told do not murder (P’shat), but he says do not even hate in your heart (Remes). He also said we have been told do not commit adultery (P’shat), but we should not even lust with our eyes (Remes).

And he taught the people using parables (Drash).

So, when Yeshua talked about not using an unshrunk patch (someone who doesn’t know the existing traditions) on an old cloth (someone who has been indoctrinated into the old ways of understanding) he meant that a new Believer who tried to work within the old traditions would become confused and not be able to maintain his new faith.

I believe this statement was not meant for that time but was a prophecy regarding newly Believing Gentiles who would one day be confused by Jewish Believers who wanted these neophyte Gentile Believers to make a total conversion to both the Torah and the traditions of Judaism overnight (the letter Shaul wrote to the Galatians confirms this problem existed).

The reason you don’t place new wine in old wineskins is that the new wine will continue to ferment, releasing gases that will expand the wineskin. If an old wineskin (one that has been stretched out already) is used for new wine, the expanding gases will burst it and the wine will be lost.

The Jews who knew the Torah only as a set of rules to be followed to the letter (P’shat) are the old wineskins, and what Yeshua was teaching was new wine (the Remes). He never taught anything against the laws of Moses, only the deeper meaning of them- that is the new wine.

What Yeshua was teaching would eventually expand a person’s understanding of the Torah, so if someone was not open to learning this newer, deeper meaning of the law (being a new wineskin), then what will happen is that being an old wineskin (their minds incapable of accepting this newer meaning) they will “burst”, i.e. reject Yeshua and what he taught and revert to their comfort zone of just doing what the Pharisees taught, what is today the Rabbinic rules in the Talmud called Halacha.

If you are wondering why it is so important to know the Remes, read Jeremiah 31:31, which is the New Covenant God promised to make with us: we are to have the Torah written on our hearts, meaning that it isn’t just doing what the Torah says that matters (P’shat), it is wanting to do it (Remes)!

I think we can all agree that when you really want to do something, it is much easier to do, even if it is difficult or requires sacrifice.

When God gave the Torah to Moses to teach to the children of Israel, he knew this would be hard for them. That is why he allowed us to deal only with the P’shat- we were only able to drink milk.

After a few thousand years with the P’shat, God sent Yeshua to teach us the Remes, the real meat of the law, giving us the opportunity to come closer to God and better understand what he meant. This was necessary for us to complete God’s plan of salvation, which is to be his nation of priests (Exodus 19:6) by bringing the full understanding of the Torah to the Gentiles.

The next time Yeshua comes will be to bring to final completion God’s plan of salvation for the world. That is when those who were able to be new wineskins, Jew and Gentile, will be united with God forever.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know, Believer or not, in order to help this ministry grow. Subscribe (if you haven’t already) to both my website and my YouTube channel, and don’t forget to set notifications so you know when I post.

I have written 4 books, and if you like what you get here you will like my books, as well. They are available on Amazon Books or use the link on my website.

That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!