Digging with Darren

I would like to hear about your highlights for this year’s Shavuot, especially from you who attended the FFOZ Conference in Hudson. Leave me a comment with a special memory to share with others!

One exciting thing about the conference was the re-release of Paul Philip Levertoff’s Love and the Messianic Age, a chasidic-orthodox insight into the message of the Gospel in relation to a chasidic frame of reference, drawing from some of the deepest of mystical texts within Judaism. It was released in hardback (a first for FFOZ) under a new publishing arm of FFOZ called Vine of David (which I will have to discuss at a later date). It is a small book, but packed with a lot of punch. Therefore, they simultaneously released a study guide (which is actually larger than the book) in which Daniel Lancaster and others break down concepts that appear within the text and try to guide the uninitiated reader into a working knowledge of the principles Levertoff uses to explain his discourse. Unless you are extremely familiar with rabbinic works (especially chasidic ones), I suggest you acquire the book and study guide as a set. Lord willing, I hope to publish a full review of the text in the days ahead.

I failed to mention the final session of the FFOZ Shavuot ‘09 conference, which was taught by Daniel Lancaster. This was probably the biggest “aha!” moment at the conference for most attendees and ended with a long, standing, round of applause.

Daniel took a long, 2-part session to go into great detail and offer up an almost air-tight case for the proper interpretation of the terminology and analogy of the book of Hebrews (particularly chapters 7-10).

He first set his teaching up with three arguments typical of Christian theology & interpretation based on the book of Hebrews. With each of these, he presented the problems associated with such a perspective with an expression with Talmudic sentiments, “This is a difficulty.” Of course, he stated that the goal was to be able to reach the actual Talmudic statement, “There is no difficulty here” (for which he did—at least in my estimation).

He specifically addressed issues such as how to resolve phrases that seem to negate the Mosaic covenant, overthrow the Aaronic priesthood and the belittle the function of the Temple service.

His second part systematically worked through each of these “difficulties” and resolved them to what appears to be great satisfaction. Lord willing, I’ll be cleaning up my notes over the next few days and posting them. However, I believe Daniel is planning on posting a full, 30-page article (I am pretty sure I heard) on this teaching in the next Messiah Journal (which we all eagerly await!).

Thank you FFOZ for all of your hard work and diligent study, and for sharing it with us.

The FFOZ Shavuot 09 Conference in Hudson, Wisconsin ended yesterday afternoon, and it was sad. We left Wisconsin this morning and are on our way back to Arkansas. The conference was really great and everyone involved did such a great job. It was difficult to leave. We made so many great new friends. I want to thank everyone who took the time to say hi and let me know that you knew me from diggingwithdarren and we were finally able to meet face to face. I look forward to getting to know you all better, soon.

Also, Lord willing, I will be posting notes and overall thoughts from the conference over the next few days. Many blessings!

Again, this year, we are spending Shavuot with FFOZ at their Shavuot Conference in Hudson, WI. We got in just a couple of hours before sessions began last night and were in a whirlwind to get settled before the first session.

The theme for this year’s conference is the Beit HaMikdash (The Temple). Boaz Michael opened up the conference with a discussion of the significance of Psalm 84 in relationship to the Temple as a segue into the next session, lead by Joseph Good of Hatikva Ministries. Mr. Good will be leading the bulk of all of the sessions this year, as his knowledge of the Temple is encyclopedic. His past and current work with the Temple Institute are a testimony of his extensive knowledge on the subject. (On a side note, he mentioned last night that he was going to have to go next week to tell the constituents of the Temple Institute that their placement of the new bronze Laver is incorrect. Do you know anyone else respected enough in this area to be able to do that? Wow…)

Mr. Good gave us roughly a two-hour introductory session last night an an orientation to the minute details involved in Temple Research. I was fortunate to meet a few people from Mr. Good’s congregation a few years ago, and their description for listening to his teaching is probably the best I have heard. They said it’s like drinking from a fire hydrant. This is definitely the case. At the end of the session last night he asked, “Does anyone have any questions?” to which the response was a hearty round of laughter. We all knew that there was no time to ask all of the questions that were necessary and we would just have to make due and try to take as many notes as possible.

Lastly, I am also looking forward to hearing another speaker which I haven’t heard in a while. Grant Luton, from Akron, OH, is scheduled to speak as well this weekend. My family and I were privileged to spend time with his family and congregation a few years back and enjoyed ourselves immensely. We look forward to this time as well. I’ll try to keep you posted here and there. Blessings!

This is a recent video from Toby Janicky of FFOZ. This is teaching #8 in a series called “Mishlei Musings.” (”Mishlei” is the Hebrew name for the book of Proverbs.) This episode is called “The Fruit of Humility.” It would have really helped me if I had watched this before we went into Passover, per my last post.

I got into a discussion the other night with a friend of mine in regard to the biblical perspective of alcohol. With Purim coming up, this has been a hot topic.

In Christianity there are a wide range of beliefs in regard to alcohol. I grew up in a particular denomination that demonized it, while I know of some liturgical denominations that are prone to abuse.

As I was doing some quick scouring of the net in regard to alcohol from a biblical perspective, I came across this interesting blog post on the FFOZ site that I thought I would share in relationship to beer verses wine for Havdallah. Here’s the article:

http://ffoz.org/blogs/2007/07/hoppsy_havdallah.html

Considering that moderation and responsibility are a given, I’m curious to know your thoughts on the topic, especially if your perspective has changed with your religious maturity. Please leave me a comment with your thoughts on this.