May 16, 2010
Posted on May 16, 2010 in Events | 0 comments
Today begins this year’s Shavuot conference at Beth Immanuel in Hudson, WI. Outside of Passover, this has been the highlight of our year for the last three years. This year is no exception. We arrived Friday afternoon and were able to enjoy Shabbat with the Beth Immanuel community and some of the people who came early for the conference as well. It’s been great to see familiar faces and experience the unique dynamic of Beth Immanuel, and be challenged by Daniel Lancaster in person.
This Sabbath was extra special in that we got to experience both a Bar Mitzvah and a Bat Mitzvah. It was wonderful for our children to be able to experience this.
Well, tonight starts the conference, and I look forward to everything that will be shared. I’ll try to post every now and again about what’s going on.
Mar 31, 2010
Posted on Mar 31, 2010 in Miscellaneous | 0 comments
Invariably our family misses some days Counting the Omer each year. This year we decided to challenge both our family and our community in not missing a single day of Counting the Omer. To aid us in keeping track of this for our family, I have created a wall chart and stickers to cut out and paste (or tape) on to each day as it is counted. I have posted it here for your use. There are two PDF files. The first is the chart and the second is the stickers.
Please let me know if you and your family get some use out of it.
Counting the Omer Chart 2010
Omer stickers
Jun 8, 2009
Posted on Jun 8, 2009 in Miscellaneous | 0 comments
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!
Jun 2, 2009
Posted on Jun 2, 2009 in Miscellaneous | 0 comments
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.
Jun 1, 2009
Posted on Jun 1, 2009 in Miscellaneous | 0 comments
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!
