Abraham laughed. Sarah laughed. Ishmael laughed too. Everyone thought Isaac was hilarious.

"In his role as minister of construction and housing, Ariel Sharon, former defense minister and once Israel's most famous tank commander, oversees the government's emergency house-building program. He has drawn much criticism, at home and abroad, for planting new settlements in the occupied territories. Sharon brushes the critics aside and presses ahead with the same bluff determination that led his troops across the Suez Canal to counterattack Egypt in 1973 and plunged Lebanon deeper into chaos when Israel invaded that stricken country in June 1982.

By comparison, those old campaigns were easy, according to Sharon. Providing enough housing for the olim [new immigrants], he tells me, 'is the hardest thing I've been involved in for the past 40 years. We're building at the rate of 100,000 apartments annually, but we're about a year and a half behind time.' By paying bonuses to contractors who deliver buildings rapidly, Sharon claims to have cut the average construction time for an apartment complex from 26 to 11 months.

'Three months ago I was attacked for being a complete failure in construction,' Sharon says, smiling briefly. 'Now it's a failure because we build to much.'"

-From The Great Soviet Exodus, National Geographic, February 1992. By Tad Szulc.

I live in a ghetto of my own making. I sit all day in a house occupied by six humans and a dog in the suburbs of Saskatoon, a city surrounded by hundreds of miles of flat, open space. A day's work in this house includes: reading excerpts from a book written thousands of years ago, written in a language older than the pyramids of Egypt; studying the grammar of said ancient language; baking bread, cooking rice, beans, and oatmeal porridge; eating said food and feeding it to my (sometimes reluctant) family; bathing; tying leather boxes tightly to my body and praying to....the God who must be real. Had better be real. Or I'm dead.

Like today I made a coffee beverage to drink. It tastes good. And it helps me get through the long, drowsy afternoons. I just drank water, and I realized how thirsty coffee makes me feel.

Like yesterday I knew I had to get out, so I biked through the mist to sit on the 4th floor of the U of S library, and read books. It wasn't that great. But I liked riding my bike.

And Yasser Arafat is dying. Or recovering. And/or travelling to Paris.

And somewhere in Jerusalem, Terry Fehr is probably sleeping. And I'm here. Not there.

Soon all the old dictators will die.

I haven't much to say. Tonight I "graduated" from the canoing class that I took in the spring. So now I have my "Flatwater 1" and Canoe Trip 1" patches. Hooray!
Link time. This is a link to a blog I like reading. Check it out.

The beautiful Sabbath day is only an hour away. I'm just in the middle of some last minute cleaning, but I thought I'd do a final post of the week. Although the next two weeks will bring the uncertainties of the the Gaza vote in Israel, and presidential election in America, today the whole world can rest and leave worries for another day.

I had a good week. It's been overcast for almost seven straight days, and we got quite a bit of (now melting) snow in Saskatoon. No-sunshine isn't too cool, and I'm already feeling the effects of the "Winter Blues". But on the positive side, I accomplished quite a bit in my studies of Hebrew grammar this week. And God's in His heaven, all's well with the world. Shabbat Shalom.

"We're all one thing, Lieutenant. That's what I've come to realize. Like cells in a body. 'Cept we can't see the body. The way fish can't see the ocean. And so we envy each other. Hurt each other. Hate each other. How silly is that? A heart cell hating a lung cell."
-Cassie from THE THREE

This quote appears onscreen at the very end of the movie "Adaptation".

Good news! U2 is releasing a new album soon! The title will be "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb." Alright, I know that may be old news for some people, but I didn't hear about it until tonight. Intriguingly, the final track of the new album is reported to be titled "Yahweh." I'm curious about the lyrics for that song!

I've been a fan of U2 for years. The first U2 record I remember listening to was "Achtung Baby". I must have been 15 years old when I first got it from the public library. When I first heard the song "So Cruel", I think my spine shivered. It sounded that good.

Then I went on a short term missions trip in the summer of '99, a program called Street Invaders. I remember being in a room in the Apostolic church in Moose Jaw with Adam Moore and Israel. It was the last day of the mission, and I was waiting for my family to pick me up. Adam was saying to Izzy, "You've got to listen to this," and he played the "Joshua Tree" record. And I remember, later that morning, Izzy sitting at the piano, playing the chords for "Running to Stand Still." I headed home, knowing that I needed to listen to U2. To buy their albums. To find out everything that I could about them.

That's probably one of the most important and life-changing lessons I learned on the whole mission trip.

Here's a neat little story from the Midrash Rabbah.

Based on Genesis 12:14,
"And it came to pass, when Abram arrived in Egypt..."
And where was Sarah? Abram had locked her in a chest. When he arrived at the gates of Egypt, the tax officers said to him: "What are you transporting in this chest?" Said he to them: "Barley."
Said they to him: "You're carrying wheat!"
Said he to them: "So charge me the tariff for wheat."
"You're carrying peppers!"
"Take the tariff for peppers."
"You're carrying gold!"
"Take the tariff for gold."
"You're carrying silks!"
"Take the tariff for silks."
"You're carrying pearls!"
"Take the tariff for pearls."
Said they: If he didn't have something truly precious, he would not accept whatever we ask for. At that moment they said to him: "You're not moving from here until you open the chest and show us what's inside." As soon as he opened it, the entire land of Egypt glowed from Sarai's radiance.

-Midrash Rabbah

"Rabbi Tarfon says: The day is short, the task is abundant, the laborers are lazy, the wage is great, and the Master of the house is insistent." -Ethics of the Fathers 3:20

"Then He (Yeshua) said to His disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest." Matthew 9:37-38

A few years ago I won an award in a contest put on by the Saskatoon Public Library. It was for this poem, inspired by this passage from Matthew:

Harvest Field Rag

Awake ye patrons of good will,
Where ye here slumbering lie;
Let's see your mercy manifest,
For pity's not worth a dime

Come out, come out, wherever ye are,
Bless these bleeding children of men
If ye have two coats, give one away,
And the sun will shine again.

Oh, let your love be made full,
And make your joy complete;
For the Kingdom of God can't come to earth,
When the workers of the harvest field sleep.

By Joel Paul

So here's the poem, for all the world to read. I haven't written much poetry since then. Back then, I was able to collect four whole poems that I considered respectable enough to enter in the contest. Maybe one day the Spirit of God will inspire me to write poems again....

Anyway, I found that teaching from Ethics of the Fathers (or to my Hebrew readers, Pirkei Avot) during Sukkot, and I noticed immediately that it bears a remarkable resemblance to what Yeshua said in Matthew.


Our little dog, Eddie, was barking at the newly-fallen snow this morning. So cute. He hasn't seen snow since we got him last spring. Maybe he's never seen snow.

Residents of Jerusalem may have seen the first rainfall of the new year a few days ago, but in the city of Saskatoon, Canada, we're in the middle of the first snowfall of the year. It's beautiful.

Last night I watched the film "Life is Beautiful" with my family. It is by far one the best films I've ever seen. It's in Italian. I love watching foreign films, and letting the exotic sounds of other languages tickle my ears.

it's rosh chodesh tonight.
i hope the western skies are clear
so i can see the moon.
i want to see the moon.

it'll be one year ago tonight that i stood on a mountain-top in the Golan and looked for the moon with an odd collection of Messianic, Jewish, and Karaite Israelis. i didn't see it. but these people did. after they saw the moon we built a giant bonfire beside the old Syrian bunker on top of the mountain, in a recreation of the signal fires from Jerusalem to the Diaspora in ancient times.

I don't want to stay the same as I am now. When I grow up, that is. I was meditating and walking at the same time last night, and sin in my life was revealed. Unless change occurs, I could totally turn out to be a tyrannical husband and father, a weak man that flies into rages at the drop of a hat. I can see the sinful tendencies in my life, and I hate it. I HATE SIN! I know I have new life in Yeshua, but the fact is that I'm still living in this weak, sickly body of flesh.

"...consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Messiah Yeshua. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace." Romans 6:11-14

Sin is not my master anymore. My master is Yeshua, the Messiah of the world. So although I'm in a mortal body, I offer my body to You, Yeshua, as an instrument of righteousness.

Latest sourdough news: today I made....sourdough banana bread. Folks, it is seriously delicious. That's all. Out.

Last night I went to Forest Grove Church for their "House of Worship" event for college-age folk. I had a fine time. I've rarely been to church services in the last year, but it was an over-all positive experience for me. I was almost floored when Dale Kary started the service by reading from Psalm 27, after I just finished reading it every morning for the 40 days preceding Yom Kippur. I was also pleased to discover that most of the songs we sang were right out of the Bible. POWerful. "Praise Yahweh, O my soul."

Yeah, I haven't gone to a Christian church for a service in a very long time. I don't mean to say that I've lost contact with the Christian community, just that I haven't been attending their services. I don't know if I could have said this a year ago, but I can call myself a Christian; a Christian who loves Torah. Christ is the focal point of my entire life, and I totally want to identify myself with His followers. On the other hand, I've gotta say that 'The Church' is totally uncool in my books. I mean the established 'Christian Church' that is totally unconnected from the headship of Christ, regardless of what their statements of faith may say. But I love all the genuine believers in Christ, and I can call them my brothers, even if they do eat pork and call Sunday "Sabbath". The Holy Spirit will teach them all things when the time is right. Yahweh is teaching all of us what it means to be Christ-followers, and we all in turn can teach one another.
Talk to me people...

This is from Chabad.com

"On Simchat Torah, the Torah wants to dance, but lacking the physical limbs with which to do so, it employs the body of the Jew. On this day, the Jew becomes the dancing feet of the Torah."
— The Lubavitcher Rebbe

Ana Yahweh, Hoshiyah Na! Please, Yahweh, save now!

The Eighth day is almost here. I've been baking bread, grinding grain, and washing dishes since before the sun rose. I also went to the Johnson's house and practiced with Kiffy, Collie, and PD, so that we can play some tunes tomorrow. We ended with a rousing bluegrass rendition of "Big Chick". Spiritual content? Slim, perhaps, but high on the fun metre. Chag Sameach ya'll.

Now go beat some willow boughs.

i wanna go to nebraska.

conversation in/about the sukkah...

my cousin jordan: why are you doing this?
me: because it says to in the Bible
jordan: i've never heard of anyone doing what it says in the Bible
me: yes, not many people do what's written in the Bible, but it's fun!
cousin jessica: i'd like to do it!

i saw beavers today, in the beaver creek
i drank nettle wine in the Johnson's sukkah
and did i mention "i wanna go to nebraska"?

"He will hide me in His sukkah on the day of evil; He will conceal me in the concealment of His tent; He will lift me up on a rock." Psalm 27:5

Brother Yehudah, I will tell you of a marvelous sight I saw yesterday: Dozens of Israelis, young and old, dancing, waving lulavs, singing YAH's praises, eating, drinking, laughing, rejoicing, and all in a giant wooden sukkah built in a clump of aspen in the middle of the Canadian prairie. I saw the goodness of Adonai yesterday.

Chag sameach! It's Sukkot, and our Father has brought us once again to this season of rejoicing. I slept in my family's sukkah on the first night, although the temperature was somewhere below zero. It's a mitzvah, and I can't let the weather get in my way, can I? Sukkot in Saskatoon. This is the second Chag haSukkot I've experienced. Last year I was in Jerusalem for the Chag, so this time around it's a new adventure entirely.

In other news, I went to Batoche this week, site of the final battle of the infamous 'North-West rebellion' of 1885. Lessons learned: "Progress" is stupid, and bloody; Batoche is still a really beautiful spot; and Brad Topping looks like Louis Riel. Kind of.