By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz Let me tell you a story. A Jewish man is taken in captivity to a foreign land where he rises to power. Through deep insight, wisdom, and personal devotion to God, he comes to the aid of the foreign government....
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz I love kitsch spaghetti westerns. While I can finish an entire bucket of popcorn in the first half of the movie, my favorite part is the showdown: the classic face-to-face shootout that pits two men against each...
It is time for a Bible quiz. QUESTION: Who began life as the son of slaves and rose to live in Pharoah’s house? ANSWER: Everyone knows that is Moses. QUESTION: Who tricked his twin and got his father’s blessing? ANSWER: Everyone knows...
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz Many scholars place Joseph’s descent to Egypt at around 1500 BCE. The Maccabees dedicated the Temple in year 165 BCE. These two events were separated by more than one thousand years and seem entirely...
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz Western culture does not value dreams enough. I am not referring to hopes and ambitions which are plans we make when we are awake. They are dominated by reason and logic. Hopes and ambitions are lightly sprinkled...
I was the chef at a Jerusalem steak house with a modest reputation for several years. A young man came to the restaurant one day looking for a job. He had just completed a relatively expensive one-year course at a local cooking school but...
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz Israel just held its fifth election in three years. For a while now, Israel has been struggling to find a leader who can form and maintain a coalition made up of different parties, each with their own interests...
I was walking past a bulletin board and saw the strangest notice: “I lost it. I don’t know what it is or where it is. I’ve never actually seen it. Some people say that it doesn’t belong to me but I really love it. Whatever it is.” This...
Many people believe that Judaism is not ‘Messianic’, and that observant Jews are only concerned about performing commandments. But one of the commandments, as enumerated by Maimonides, is to anticipate that the Messiah will arrive at any...
Like his father Jacob who also died in Egypt, Joseph wanted to be buried in the Promised Land. But unlike his father whose body was embalmed and taken to Hebron directly after his passing, Joseph had to wait 139 years until the Jews left...
