Joan Smith

Passion of Yeshua - The Crossover Project

The Passion of Yeshua

Biblical Arts, Biblical Truths, Jewish Roots of Christianity, Jewish-Christian Relations, Music /

Resurrecting the Jewish Jesus
“At the first night of Passover, the youngest person at the table asks the question “Why is this night different from all other nights?” Appropriately, the place to begin speaking of The Passion of Yeshua is to ask the question “Why is this Passion Oratorio different from all other Passion Oratorios?”
A devoted educator and mentor, he grew up with both Christian and Jewish faiths in his household. His parents were born in Iran, and he was free to examine his faith from multiple perspectives. Ultimately, he accepted that Jesus was the foretold Messiah, but this did not disavow his Jewishness. After all, Jesus was Jewish.

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Daniel Pearl Dad - The Crossover Project

Daniel Pearl News

Events, News and Updates /

April 3 (UPI) — A provincial government in Pakistan on Friday prevented the release of four men suspected in the 2002 death of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, a day after a court cleared them.
The Sindh government used the Maintenance of Public Order law to keep Omar Saeed Sheikh and three others behind bars for another 90 days while prosecutors appeal the court ruling.
Sheikh, a British native, has spent 18 years on death row after he was convicted of Pearl’s disappearance and death. Fahad Naseem, Syed Salman Saqib and Sheikh Mohammad Adil were also jailed in in the case.
The Sindh high court on Thursday commuted Sheikh’s sentence to seven years for just Pearl’s kidnapping and acquitted the other three. The ruling brought condemnation from the U.S. State Department.

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Gilad Katz e1588105530376 - The Crossover Project

Israel’s 72nd Independence Day: Cherishing, Protecting, & Celebrating the Jewish State

Israel, News and Updates /

Gilad Katz
During these unprecedented and incredibly difficult times, please allow me to take a pause from the day to day news that now seems to be a part of the new “normal”, the new everyday life. Permit me, just for a moment, to shift the conversation away from the uncertainty that we all feel today, as a result of the coronavirus crisis. Instead, I would like to share with you,
on Israel’s Independence Day, a personal enlightenment that I experienced just two years ago, when my family and I celebrated our first Yom Ha’atzmaut in the United States.

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2020 EOY Posts Cup 1 - The Crossover Project

Look what the Lord has done!

CHP, News and Updates /

He has brought us safely through a year rife with danger, fear, hostility and doubt. Yes, 2020 has been a tumultuous year. However, nothing that happened in 2020 was a surprise to our Sovereign God. We are filled with joy because our God has bared His mighty right arm and is fighting for us; He will never leave us nor forsake us. We have walked through the valley of the shadow of death and come out safely on the other side. Let us enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise in 2021!

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Chasid funeral - The Crossover Project

Everyone’s mad at de Blasio’s ‘Jewish community’ comment for the wrong reason

Events, Jewish-Christian Relations, News and Updates /

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio came under an onslaught of criticism on Tuesday night when he tweeted his reaction to the overcrowded funeral procession for a rabbi from the Satmar Hasidic sect of ultra-Orthodox Jews. The first tweet called the crowd that had in South Williamsburg, in violation of statewide bans on gatherings of 10 or more people, “unacceptable.” But de Blasio’s subsequent message sent Twitter into a spasm of rage because it began, “My message to the Jewish community, and all communities, is this simple: the time for warnings has passed. I have instructed the NYPD to proceed immediately to summons or even arrest those who gather in large groups.”

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passover pages - The Crossover Project

Please do not host a “Christian seder”

Jewish Holidays, Jewish Roots of Christianity, Jewish-Christian Relations /

I’m not suggesting you not attend a seder if your Jewish friend invites you; take that as a big compliment and be a good guest. Ask questions, learn what you can, and follow their lead. Passover is often observed with very close friends and family (or, as has happened to me on a few occasions, with distant acquaintances and strangers who have taken you in because you are far from home), and being invited is genuinely meant as an honor.

But please don’t host your own, especially if you are trying to emulate Jesus or find parallels between Jewish ritual and Messianic Christianity.

There is a trend among Christians — mostly but not exclusively Protestants — towards observing Jewish ritual in general and the seder in particular. There are books on Judaism aimed at Christians, and there is a whole movement, the “Hebrew Roots” movement, dedicated to understanding the Jewish influence on Christianity. They include both more respectful practitioners, who consult detailed books on accurate Jewish practice, as well as ones who adopt a pastiche of (often incorrect) Hebrew.

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