One of the double-edged swords God gave us when he created us was an insatiable curiosity. We just HAVE to know why things are as they are.

I call it a double-edged sword because while it helps us to increase our knowledge of ourselves and the world we live in, it also leads us down a path that we really shouldn’t be walking.

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

That path we shouldn’t be on is the one where we want to know why God does what he does, or why he doesn’t seem to be doing anything.

I just posted about the lesson we learn from Job is that we don’t have the need to know why, but rather that we do need to accept whatever God does, he can do.

It is uncomfortable, I agree, to feel totally helpless, with no chance to change or even avoid whatever it is that God decides he wants to do. We humans like to think that we are in control of our lives, but the truth is while we do have some control, God is always able to change things around to be whatever he wants it to be.

There is a way to have pretty much total control over yourself, without God interfering, but it is not recommended because the way to do that is to reject God.

Truthfully, you would have to be an idiot to purposefully reject God’s protection, but then again, if you really want to have your life go the way you want it to go, you can make that choice.

I might normally say, “Good luck with that- let me know how it goes for you.” but I don’t have to because I know how it will go for you: it won’t go well. Oh, yeah, you may become rich and have all the toys, but in the end you will be in torment for all eternity.

Not really the best choice to make.

We are told that faith is how we are saved, but how many realize that part of being faithful is trusting, and trusting means not needing to ask “Why?” I know, sometimes you just want answers, and if God feels like it he may actually let you know, but there is a difference between asking God why and demanding to know why.

God is compassionate, loving, and understanding. He is also God, the Almighty, the Creator, Judge, Jury, and Executioner, and he doesn’t have to do anything we want him to do.

That’s the start and end of it. And, if I may say, the sooner you accept that, the sooner you will feel less frustrated.

There are things we need to know and there are things we will never know; the happiest people are those who faithfully accept that fact and live their lives trusting God to direct them as he sees best.

That’s really what it comes down to. Based on my experience throughout my 7+ decades, I have come to realize that we can do what we think best but God will direct us as he knows best. Even when we have tsouris (Yiddish for troubles/curses) in our life, as all people have to have, if we trust in God to get us through, without needing to know why, we will live much happier lives.

Let me leave you with this bit of sekhel (Yiddish for “understanding”) from Proverbs 14:12:

There can be a way which seems right to a person,
but at its end are the ways of death.

Thank you for being here, and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

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

I have to confess that when I come to the Book of Job, I hesitate because it is somewhat boring.

But it demonstrates- at least, to me- why so many people have a problem with God.

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

To review, Job was a righteous man who had everything: devoted children, a loving wife, cattle, herds, and wealth. He was also respected and admired by all.

One day God asked Satan if he noticed how righteous Job was, and Satan said that it didn’t matter because if someone has everything, of course they will be grateful and worshipful. Satan said take all that away, and even Job would curse God for all the tsouris (troubles) he had in his life.

God took that challenge, betting on Job’s righteousness, and eventually Satan destroyed everything Job had- children were killed, cattle and sheep stolen, and even his health was taken away. Job’s wife turned against him, people ignored and ridiculed him, and even his best friends told him to repent because they know God is punishing him for all the sins he must have committed, saying they know that this is what God does.

Job kept his humility, and despite his claims of never having ever done anything wrong, his friends kept accusing him of being a sinner. At the end, God had enough of both Job and his friends telling each other all about why God does what God does, as if they were drinking buddies with the Almighty.

God set them all straight, speaking to them from out of a whirlwind.

Now, I started off saying that this story teaches why so many people have a problem with God, and this is why I say that:

We want God to do what we want him to do,
and can’t stand the idea that he doesn’t have to.

That’s right.

Why do you think there are so many different Christian religions? According to Google, there are some 64,000 different Christians religions in the world! How can there be so many different ways to follow the one, same God?

The answer is simple: people don’t want God to be who he is, they want him to be who they think he should be, so when one religion doesn’t fit your bill, you start another one.

Every single Christian religion is man-made. That’s the truth- not one of them was created by God, and that’s because God has no religion. God gave Moses instructions for how we are to worship him and how we are to treat each other. He gave them to his nation of priests (that’s us Jews- check it out in Exodus 19:6, so that we could learn them and then teach them to the rest of the world.

But the world didn’t want it, so after Yeshua (Jesus) went back to his father, people ignored the fact that he taught from the Torah, and misused Shaul’s (Paul) letters to form their own religion, which by the end of the First Century was totally different from the way Yeshua lived and worshiped.

But I digress, so let me get back on topic…

The story of Job is so frustrating because despite the fact that Job was exactly and completely what God wants us all to be, i.e., humble, righteous, and caring for others, all those terrible things happened to him while God just sat by and let it all happen!

So why would God ever allow this to happen to anyone so righteous? How could a loving God let the Enemy do so many mean and hurtful things to one who was so worshipful?

That’s the issue, isn’t it? How can anyone understand such a dichotomy? The answer I have to that question is this:

God doesn’t have to do anything we think he should.

God is in charge, and whether or not we understand his reasoning, he does what he wants to do. Hey, look, it’s his game, it’s his arena, and they are his rules. If you don’t want to play by them, then what you do is create your own god with your own rules, and that is called “religion”.

The lesson from Job isn’t as much for us as it was for Satan, which was that the truly righteous will not be turned from God simply because things go bad for them. Yeshua also taught this lesson with his parable about the man who sowed seeds, and some never rooted, some rooted weakly and were easily killed off, but the ones who landed on good soil and rooted deeply yielded a tremendous crop.

Job was one of those seeds that was rooted deeply, and I believe Satan learned that he is wasting his time because he will win only those who really aren’t worth having because their loyalty is weak and easily turned.

In the end, God gave back twice what Job had lost, so no matter how bad things are now, remain faithful and persevere and you will be rewarded.

To conclude, here is a truth which the sooner you accept, the less frustrated you will be:

God doesn’t have to explain anything.

Thank you for being here, and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!

The best way is, of course, to never get into a discussion, but that isn’t really a feasible solution.

The next best thing is to remember what we read in the Book of Proverbs, specifically 29:9.

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

To begin, let’s see what that proverb tells us:

When a wise man argues with a foolish one,
he meets anger and ridicule without relief.

Generally speaking, if you are having a discussion with someone who is wise, meaning they are mature enough to not let pridefulness get in the way of mutual respect, then this proverb isn’t going to be one you will need to remember. A discussion, even a heated one, with someone who is mature and respectful will always be enlightening for both people, even if there is no agreement reached.

There is always something to learn from someone else because the deeper you get into a discussion, the more information they give you which you can use to deflate their argument. For example, when I was in Sales and teaching others how to successfully “close” someone, I would tell them to ask leading questions because when you do that, correctly, they will always tell you what you need to know to close them.

This same methodology works when talking about God and Messiah; or for that matter, anything.

Most people don’t know the Bible and just parrot (meaning repeat without understanding) what they have been told by their religious leaders. So, when you are trying to convince them that what they think is righteous and godly isn’t righteous or godly, you can’t convince them by your argument, alone.

As this proverb tells us, to argue with someone foolish is a waste of time and results in anger and insults.

(For the record, when the Bible uses the term “foolish”, it doesn’t mean someone who is stupid, it refers to someone who lacks understanding, wisdom, or reverence for God’s ways. It can also mean someone who doesn’t believe in God.)

Now, when you are discussing something with someone (and this applies to any discussion, not just a religious one) and they begin to get annoyed and start attacking you instead of the argument you make, you need to back off and ask them questions, such as why do they believe what they say? How do they support their belief? Where did they learn this?

These types of questions will begin to make them realize their arguments aren’t really substantiated. And, if they say the person they heard this from has credentials, you can gently point out that many people who are scholarly, have been to a seminary or graduate school are often just repeating what they heard from someone else.

History has shown that when someone researches and tests what they have been told, they sometimes find out that what they were told is wrong.

Cigarettes used to be given to people in hospitals, alcohol was not a concern for pregnant women, and more recently the Covid vaccine that we were told by experts is safe has proven to be very dangerous, even fatal, to some young men.

What we know today to be absolutely true may prove to be absolutely false later. The only thing we can count on is what we research and test, ourselves.

This is, I believe, one of the main causes for people to get angry when their argument is challenged; that anger is the result of their frustration that they can neither change your mind nor effectively validate their belief. When they reach that point, instead of opening their minds to the truth they turn against you.

That is a type of foolishness that does indicate stupidity. I am sorry if someone is upset over the use of that word, but it is a very good word, and aptly describes someone who refuses to hear any argument other than their own.

Here is an absolute truth: the truth, the real truth, can stand up to any test.

So, going forward, never hesitate to try to teach someone what you know and are sure of because you have thoroughly researched and validated it for yourself. And always remember to start off by letting them tell you their “why” because you need to know what they think is true, otherwise you won’t be able to show them why it isn’t.

People only believe half of what someone tells them, but 100% of what they say, so you need to get them to doubt what they say or your argument will never make any headway. And if you can at least get them to doubt what they believe, that is a win.

Even if that is as far as you can get, you have begun to break down their wall of ignorance; you’ve planted a seed, and now you need to be spiritually and emotionally mature enough to know when to stop and let that seed germinate at its own pace.

Being able to argue against someone with facts and references for them to research on their own, instead of just saying “This is what I’ve been taught”, will help to break through their wall of confident ignorance.

And, when they start to get nasty, that’s the time to remember Proverbs 29:9.

Thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers, Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

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

Of course, there is always wisdom from all the proverbs in the Bible, but when you take these two, together, and think about the political battles in America, as well as the Middle East situation, you can see how they really describe current events.

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

Let’s take a look at these two proverbs, in reverse order.

Proverbs 18:17 says this:

The first to state his case seems right,
    till the other one comes and cross-examines.

And Proverbs 18:2 says:

A fool takes no pleasure in trying to understand;
    he only wants to express his own opinion.

With regard to politics in the USA, there is one party that constantly blames the current president for almost everything from bad weather to acne. The country has become so polarized, which has been both encouraged and proliferated by the media, that even when someone tries (as I have tried to do, constantly) to find a middle ground, something that we can agree on, it is impossible.

So, people are acting like those referenced in 18:2, not because they are a fool, per se’, but because they refuse to listen to anyone else’s opinion or facts. They just want to express their feelings, which (I believe) are more a reiteration of what they have heard and not what they have researched. In that respect, they also demonstrate the type of people in 18:17, who only want to hear the one side.

We also see this sort of refusal to hear both sides or even consider another side in the Middle East situation, which has been brewing since, oh, what? Maybe around the time when Abraham allowed Sarah to kick Hagar and Ishmael out of their camp?

Yeah, I’d say that’s probably when it all started.

There are so many people who represent both of the above-stated proverbs, going around supporting Hamas and wearing shirts or carrying signs that say, “Free Palestine.”

Now, when we try to explain to them that there is no “Palestine” to free, and that “Palestinian people” don’t really exist, but were created as part of a propaganda campaign by Yasser Arafat back in the 1950’s or so, they refuse to even listen to these historically validated facts.

These so-called “Palestinians” are living in Israel illegally. You can tell which houses are theirs because they all have large, black plastic rain barrels on the roof, since the houses were built without permits or licenses so are not connected to the state-supplied water system.

And as for the terrible living conditions that the media (especially the Arab media) displays to create pity for these innocent people living in poverty, well…that’s because they are there illegally, and their own country doesn’t even want them back.

In the Shechem Valley, there are bleak cinderblock buildings with many, many Syrians living there who aren’t allowed in Israel, but cannot go back to their own country, either because their own country won’t let them in or they don’t want to go there because of the violence and how dangerous it is to live there now.

The truth is this: almost every Arab living outside of Israel wants to live IN Israel!

Israel is the only free country in the entire Middle East, and the gentiles (meaning non-Jews) legally living there receive all the same rights and protections that a free country offers. They are given the same job opportunities, the same pay, and the same healthcare as the Israelis receive.

The land was given to us in 1948 by those who “owned” it, and even if you choose to reject our biblical rights, the fact is that there have constantly been Jews living there since the 5th century B.C.

Those non-Jewish people there have no claim to the land, at all. We have been there for nearly 7,000 years, and anyone who is there now who is not Jewish has no claim to the land. Even when the Jewish population was very small, and the Arabs surrounding Israel could settle there, they never did anything to improve the land or create permanent settlements.

These supposedly mistreated people don’t want the land- they just want the Jews gone, preferably through genocide. History has proven that no Arab nation wants to have the land of Israel, except for the area with the Dome of the Rock and Eastern Jerusalem.

So, the point of this message is that if you come across someone who represents either of these two proverbs, remember this proverb before you throw your pearls before swine (not a proverb, but it makes sense):

Proverbs 26:4-5:

Don’t answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself. But answer a fool according to his folly, so that he won’t think he is wise.

And the way I suggest to answer those who refuse to listen is to say this (smiling all the time you say it):

I know we don’t agree on this, and we each have a right to our opinion: yours is based on what you have heard and mine is based on facts, and I guess we’ll just have to leave it at that.

Thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers, Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

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

You know how people say they get their best ideas in the shower? Well, I get my best ideas when riding my bicycle.

The problem today is that because of home remodeling projects and a lot of rain, I haven’t ridden my bike for over a week, and so I don’t have anything scheduled to say today.

So, instead of a message, I just wanna say “Todah Rabah” (thank you very much) for just being here, and especially to those who have subscribed, and especially especially to those who have subscribed to both my YouTube and Messianic Moment Facebook page, and a really big THANK YOU to anyone who has also bought any or my books.

And especially, especially, ESPECIALLY to anyone out there who has done all three!

Besides thanking you, I would also like to take a moment to ask anyone who likes the messages on this ministry, but hasn’t yet subscribed, to please consider hitting that little red button on both the website and YouTube. Also, please “Like” my Facebook page.

It doesn’t cost you anything, and if you do not configure your phone or computer to notify you when I have posted something, the subscription is, essentially, invisible to you. But that subscription is very visible to Facebook and YouTube, being noticed by their algorithms and allowing this ministry to be more visible to others.

Also, as I say all the time, if you like what you get here, you will love my books, and I am not just saying that because I have had all good responses from those who have read any one of my books. Well, almost everyone…there was this one Messianic Rabbi who told me I was no Michener.

I agree, and after listening to a few of his sermons, I would have to say he was no Oral Roberts.

Again, thank you for being here and please share the news of this ministry with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

That’s it for now, so L’hitraot and let me wish you an early Shabbat Shalom!

I have often said that pride is the mother of all sins, and that still stands.

But pride often leads to pridefulness, and that leads to being disappointed when others don’t do what you think they should. And that is almost always the case.

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

As I have said in the past, there is nothing wrong with being proud of something you have accomplished, so long as you always remember that whatever skill you used to accomplish that something, whatever it is, you did not create that skill- God gave it to you. So, be proud of how you used that skill, but remember to give credit to the one who really made it possible- the Lord, God.

One of my favorite expressions when I am congratulated on doing something well is this:

Whatever I do that is good, it is God working through me; when I totally screw something up, then I can take full credit.

The problem starts when we begin to think that because of our past accomplishments (or perceived accomplishments) we know better than someone else. This is a form of pridefulness, and the other side of that coin is judgementalism. Both are bad.

The reason we feel frustrated, leading (almost all the time) to anger is when someone doesn’t listen to us, i.e., they don’t do what we think they should do. That doesn’t mean they are wrong, because often we are wrong, but becoming frustrated or feeling insulted because someone doesn’t follow our suggestion is not going to accomplish anything other than arguing with each other.

When we find ourselves in an argument over how a task or policy is to be performed, I can almost guarantee that pridefulness is the root cause.

And when we are arguing or not getting our way, joy is destroyed. I mean, really? How often have you been happy when someone doesn’t do what you want them to do?

And today’s message is this simple: whether you are right, or wrong, if someone refuses to do what you suggest, leave it be.

Now, if you have administrative authority over a person (for example, you are their manager), and they refuse to do as you say, that is easy- you write the person up, then get someone else to do the job. No problem. And if they continue to refuse to do as you say, you fire them: no reason to get angry.

Allowing pridefulness to get in the way destroys any chance of joy. You can’t be happy when you are constantly feeling that people are ignoring you, and even if they are, so what? If what you suggest is good, and they don’t accept it, then the fault is on their head.

It’s like what the Bible says: In Ezekiel 3, God states that if the guard sounds a warning, and the people refuse to acknowledge it, then the guard is free of blame. But, if the guard fails to sound the warning, and the people are hurt, then their blood is on the head of the guard.

You can’t make people do what you want them to do- that is a hard word to hear, but it is true. You may provide the environment and means for them to do something, but as the old saying goes…you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.

So, going forward, if you feel yourself getting frustrated or angry because someone isn’t doing what you suggest, take a deep breath, and remember that whether you are right or wrong, God gave everyone free will to determine their own future, and not you, and not I, and not anyone has the right to interfere with that God-given gift.

In other words, hand someone the rope and let them decide to either pull themself up, or hang themself; either way, don’t let it upset you and destroy your joy.

Thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

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

We have been told that God’s promise of salvation is a free gift, which it is, and as such we can depend on it.

But can we depend on ourselves?

If you prefer to watch a video, that won’t be possible today because we are having work done on the house and my office is unavailable to me, so I cannot use my video app. You’ll just have to read this one.

God’s promises are as dependable as the sun rising in the morning, but that doesn’t mean that they come freely; even salvation, which is a free gift, requires that we do our part.

When we read Deuteronomy 28, the “Blessings and Curses” chapter, God starts off by promising us a plethora of wonderful blessings, BUT they are only available if we obey his Torah. If we choose to reject his instructions (and it is ALWAYS a choice), then his promises of blessings turn into promises of curses.

For the record: I do not believe that God actively curses anyone, but since the world is already a pretty cursed place, when he says he will curse us all he really does is take away his divine protection from the world. God doesn’t do evil things, but does allow evil things to happen to those who reject him.

As I said, even salvation- a free gift from God, provided to us by the sacrificial death of Yeshua the Messiah- doesn’t come unconditionally. We have to repent of our sins, accept Yeshua as our Messiah and, by means of his sacrifice, ask forgiveness of our sins. And then (yeah, there’s still more) we have to do t’shuvah (turning from our sins) and live our lives in obedience to God’s instructions in the Torah (not what some religion says) as best as we can.

If we refuse to do that, or if we apostatize, we will not have that promise of salvation anymore. That isn’t God reneging on his promise, oh no! We are the ones who will have reneged on God!

Now, there are some promises God makes that are unconditional, but they are few and far between. His promise to Abraham, his promise to David that the Messiah would come from his descendants (even though that promise was predicated on David’s children continuing to do as God said to do), and to Noah that God would never destroy the world by flood, ever again.

(But that doesn’t stop him from destroying us by other means!)

So, we have a clear and simple message for today: God’s promises are absolutely, 1000% dependable… but they come with a proviso! We get what he promsies so long as we do what he says we should do, and what God said we should do is found only in one place in the entire Bible- the Torah.

Judaism knows that pleasing God is not a cakewalk, whereas Christianity makes salvation sound like a Come-As-You-Are Party.

Trust me…it ain’t!

Thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!

I don’t like being lied to, do you? I suspect that you don’t, yet it is really difficult to know when someone is lying to us, especially when they are good at it.

Do you know the most difficult type lie to recognize? It’s the one that comes from someone who honestly thinks they are telling you the truth!

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

One of the most destructive lies that has been told to both Jews and Christians for nearly two millennia is this: Jesus created Christianity.

This lie has kept Jews from wanting to even hear anything about Jesus, and has kept Christians from knowing the truth about who Jesus is and what he really taught.

The reason this lie has been able to be so successful over all these years is because it has been passed down from one trusted source to another: we hear it from our religious leaders, from our parents, friends, relatives, and “biblical scholars”, who learned it from those who learned it from those who…well, you get the idea.

If you are wondering what these tremendous lies are, I don’t have the time to do that completely here- I suggest you invest in your eternal future (and a few bucks) to get my book (it’s available through the website or on Amazon):

But, since I did bring up the topic, let me give you a few of the major ones.

First off, Yeshua (that’s Jesus’s real name) never created Christianity. He was the sinless lamb of God, meaning that in order to be sinless he had to be 100% Torah observant, 100% of the time. Christians are told they should follow in the footsteps of Jesus, but taught that Jesus did away with the very laws he obeyed. So, how can a Christian be like Jesus when they reject the way he lived? The lie is that Jesus did away with the law- if he had, that means his “followers” would, by definition, be lawless and can never be saved.

Another lie is the idea of the Trinity being biblical: the truth is that it was fostered by a man named Tertullian, sometime in the middle of the 2nd Century. This lie has been one of the main issues with Jews and Christianity: if you have three divine entities- the Father (God), the son (Messiah), and the Holy Spirit- all being the same thing but in separate identities, well, whether you like it or not, you have three. Three-in-one or one-in-three, the operative word here is “three”. And three divine entities is not monotheism, it is polytheism. As such, no self-respecting, God-fearing, Torah-observing Jew would want anything to do with it.

And that is concurrent with the way Christianity was formed- not by God, or by Yeshua, but by men.

There are 6 main sects within Judaism, and they are all founded on the Torah (given by God) and the rules of Halacha (the Way to Walk), many of which are outlined in the Talmud (a rabbinical commentary on the Torah). Despite different ways to obey the Torah, we are all Jews obeying the Torah.

But since Christianity is not a biblical or God-created religion, the number of differences in how to worship are vast. Remarkably, when I asked Google how many different Christian religions there are, this is what I got:

There are  more than 45,000 Christian denominations worldwide. These denominations represent a wide range of beliefs and practices within the Christian faith. While there are three main branches – Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, and Eastern Orthodoxy – the vast number of denominations reflects the diverse interpretations and expressions of Christian faith throughout history and across different cultures.

Wow! Talk about confusion. The one thing that we all know is that God never changes- he is the same today as he was yesterday, and he will be the same tomorrow. So, if he never changes, then the way he wants us to live, worship, and treat each other never changes either, right? Well, then, how can there be so many different ways?

You may say we Jews also have different ways to worship, but that isn’t the same because we all have the same foundation for our beliefs- the Torah.

But Christianity rejects the Torah (well, OK- they kept the 10 Commandments, but even with that they changed the first commandment, editing out the part about God saving us from Egypt), so what foundation do they have?

It ended up being the letters written from Paul, which often quote from the Tanakh (that is the “Jewish Bible”) but are so convoluted and misinterpreted that it has, as we see, led to such confusion and disagreement that there are literally thousands of ways that Christians have been told God says how to worship him.

Sorry, but that isn’t the unchanging God I know.

Look, as I said, there are too many lies and too long a dissertation to cover this topic completely here, so please consider buying my book. I am not trying to get on the NY Times Bestseller List (although that would be fine with me!), but my entire reason for this ministry is to give people what they need to know in order to make an informed decision about where they will spend eternity.

That book is going to help you decide wisely, and what do you have to lose except living a lie?

Thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers, Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

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