Midbar Kodesh Temple News

Let all who are hungry come and eat, let all who are in need come and share the Pesach meal. Platitudes, clichés, empty promises. Each year when we get to the Magid or storytelling section of the Haggadah, I find myself ruminating about this statement in the Ha Lachma Anya statement. The whole point of the Seder is to relive the Exodus from Egypt; to feel as if we ourselves were slaves and are now free. The message we are to take is that we know what it means to be slaves.

There is a spectacularly simple definition of Chametz, or leaven. Any mixture of the five grains, wheat, rye, oats, barley and spelt, that are allowed to sit in water for longer than eighteen minutes, begins to rise and is forbidden on Passover. So why can’t I eat rice on Passover? This is where kitniot comes in. I would like to tell you I have a good definition of the word kitniot, or what makes something kitniot, but the proverbial goal-post on this category is constantly

Back in January of 2014, I participated in one of the most fascinating of my many trips to Israel. A couple of us from the Jewish community joined over twenty evangelical pastors from the Las Vegas area on a ten day tour of Israel. Seventy percent of the time was spent visiting the historic Christian sites throughout the land of Israel. I often quip that it was like I was visiting another country, because I saw sites that I never knew existed. Many were places I had driven by