[caption align="aligncenter"]Christmas in Israel?[/caption] Most people in Israel, do not celebrate Christmas. The Jewish population is busy at about the same time of year celebrating Hanukkah, instead. Both are festivals-of-lights, with gift giving. One day of gifts at Christmas, and eight days of gifts at Hanukkah. My five Jewish-Mormon children wanted to celebrate both! Expensive! About 8-million people live in Israel, 6-million Jews and about 2-million Arabs. Close to 10%…

[caption align="aligncenter"]Where were the Wise Men on Christmas?[/caption] Middle Eastern Christians have a tradition of three wise men or Magi that come from the East bearing gifts for a newborn King. Even scriptures tell us of Herod the Great receiving those visitors, seeking the child "King of The Jews." Conniving Herod told them to let him know when they found him, so he could reverence the "child-to-be-king." When they did…

Here’s a delightful play on the words, not and knot. It could help see things as they were and as they are. Let’s go back about two-thousand years and look in on the Apostle Peter, living in Jaffa, along the Mediterranean, who saw a vision that he described in detail. He saw heaven opened, and a certain sheet knit at the four corners, descending. Wherein were all manner of beasts…

"Give me a hand," or "Hand it to me," are some daily expressions we use almost without thinking. The Book of Mormon has another one, "Know ye not that ye are in the hands of God?" (Mormon 5:23) The hand is a powerful metaphor in Judaic tradition. Modern Judaism, however, attempts to pull away from the literal imagery of God’s hand. Yet, when reading the Torah scroll, often a pointer…

More than 10-million people visit the Western (Wailing) Wall every year stuffing a million little pieces of paper, scribbled prayers of wishes and wants, into the cracks and seams of the ancient blocks holding the two-thousand-year-old Temple Square. So, I thought, does that mean Gentiles have a "wishing well," and Jews have a "wishing wall?" The late Rabbi Yehuda Goetz, overseeing the Wall for 26-years, revealed that the more religious…