Roots of Faith

On Saturday, October 21st, the Roots of Faith Congregation began the Torah Reading Cycle over again in Genesis 1:1. We are working through the annual cycle of readings followed world wide by Judah (the Jewish People). Work is still ongoing to determine the true nature of the “Triennial Cycle” that early Jewish writings claim was followed by the Jews of Palestine in the 1st centuries of the Common Era. The decision to follow the Annual Cycle was made for several reasons. The primary of which is that this puts us in sync with the Jews and puts in a good position to learn from source material that is already available from Jewish writers that have dealt with the complexities of the Biblical texts for centuries. As a start, we ordered the Hertz Pentateuch and Haphtorahs published by Soncino. These are available on the web through Levine Judaica (www.levinejudaica.com). They have excellent prices and incredible service. I have asked our group to study the Torah Readings each week and post comments on the forum about what they are learning as they work through. We want to share what we are learning as we work through. I hope to post some thoughts as well and am very hopeful that the “Audio Torah” will be in gear soon. I will begin to publish podcasts over the web in the coming weeks.

On Saturday, October 7th, I ran into a good friend of mine, which I had not seen in quite some time. We spoke briefly and I informed him of the weekly Bible study in the synagogue and gave him a card with all of my contact information.

The next night, he called me and asked me what the Jewish people were doing during this season. I told him that this was the Festival of Tabernacles or Succoth. He went on to tell me that a friend of the family was visiting from Italy and that she also studied the Jewish Roots of Christianity. He asked me if I would be willing to meet with them and we set up a time. We agreed to meet in the synagogue on Friday, October 13th. So I brought my sons, Seth and Toby, and my oldest son Ty and his wife met me at the synagogue that evening. In short order, my friend Mike, his wife Carolyn and her sister Marge brought Antonella to the synagogue.

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I have been invited to speak on the subject of the restoration of Temple Sinai synagogue. The talk will be on November 7th at 6:30 PM in Jackson Hall in St. Francisville.  For more information, please contact me through my web site.

Tom Temple, a friend of mine, recently asked me to speak to his group on Saturday, November 4th at 7:30 AM.  The subject of the talk is the New Testament translation of Mr. Robert Bordelon.  Several years ago, I met with Mr. Bordelon after his grandson informed me that his grandfather had translated the New Testament from the Greek texts and that the translation had remained in composition notebooks since the late 70s.

I agreed to type this translation and embarked upon a great learning experience.  The translation is completed, but the story of its publication is still being written.  If you are interested in hearing the story, contact me through my web site.