by Eliyahu Berkowitz | f 17, 2023 | Psalms, Redemption
In yeshiva (school for Torah study), we spent an inordinate amount of time studying the laws of monetary exchanges and damages. The rabbi told us it was because the intricacies of those laws made a person smarter. That may have been true but it didn’t seem to help me...
by Eliyahu Berkowitz | f 17, 2023 | Psalms
My little boy is a font of wisdom. The other day we were having coffee. Actually, I was drinking coffee and he was drinking hot cocoa. “Abba (Dad), I don’t want to be a navi (prophet),” he said. “It would be really nice to talk to God, kind of like the best cell phone...
by Eliyahu Berkowitz | f 16, 2023 | Good and Evil, Psalms
Have you ever been bothered by the perplexing reality of why the righteous often face hardships while the wicked prosper? This enigma, known as theodicy, has long troubled humanity, from the biblical times of King David and the prophet Jeremiah to the present day. In...
by Eliyahu Berkowitz | f 12, 2023 | Jerusalem Day, Psalms, Temple
I try to avoid politics when learning the Bible, but let’s face it, David was a king, a political figure of the first degree. Jerusalem was his capital but, first and foremost, he intended it to be the permanent home of the Temple. Though King David bought the...
by Eliyahu Berkowitz | f 12, 2023 | Psalms
While I was cooking for Shabbat, my teen son came into the kitchen and stood, watching me in silence for several minutes. I knew he had something on his mind but I figured I would let it stew until he was ready to ask. “Abba, if you had a choice to receive $10 million...
by Eliyahu Berkowitz | f 11, 2023 | Psalms
“Abba, did King David really want God to punish his enemies? Is that what we should do?” My ten-year-old boy has the rare gift of asking the obvious questions that are so important and so difficult to answer. This zinger came after reciting Psalm 70: Let those who...
