Jonathon’s story – part 5

And then… Judas took over as our captain, just as Father told him to. We fought many battles, so valiantly and fiercely that the enemy began to fear us. So Judas played the part. He put on armor and flashed a huge sword, so that he looked like a giant! And the enemy believed it. […]

Jonathon’s Story – part 4

Meanwhile, back with the Maccabees… We took several more cities, and knocked down the pagan altars. Israel was beginning to follow the Torah again. My Father walked with his head high, proud to lead the people back to righteousness. I remember one day he was planning an advance on a city with Judas, and a […]

Jonathon’s Story – part 3

The story continues… I began loading the donkeys again. I was getting good at that. But unlike our trip to Jerusalem, I was very excited about this trip. We were going to nearby Gophna. There was a smaller number of soldiers there. We had one goal. Remove the enemy, and help the people begin following […]

Jonathon’s story – part 2

The Maccabee story continues…   The towers were strange and the large stone walls were defended by Greek soldiers.  The beautiful city of David had been destroyed and rebuilt.  It looked like a scary fortress, rather than the city of Elohim.  A pagan altar at the end of the street and strange smells made me […]

Jonathon’s Story – part 1

Our tale of the Maccabees begins….   My name is Jonathan.  I have four brothers, Simeon, Eleazar, Joannan, and Judas.  When I was young, terrible times came to our people.  We were told we could no longer obey the precious Torah of our fathers.  A strong and mighty, but desperately wicked king named Antiochus Epiphanies […]

Chanukah

chanukah

Our home is in full gear getting ready for Chanukah. We are planning the treats we will make and counting down the days. There has been some controversy about Chanukah because it is not listed as a biblical feast. The “miracle” of the oil cannot be substantiated with historical evidence. The nine candle menorah is […]

Torah portion copywork

As many of you have already noticed, we have a new ebook! You can find all the details here. We are pleased to make available several free resources on our site. But since this site also provides a supplementary income for our family, we are also offering some products at a small charge that offer […]

Our India box

We had a delightful time this afternoon making an “India” box. We will put our change in it, and then send the money to GCGM orphanage in India.     We started with a box from dishwasher detergent packs. Then the kids drew pictures of things that make them think of India. We have tigers, […]

Always learning

My late father in law always said that the day you stop learning is the day you die. We must keep actively involved in the learning process. We must constantly check what we thought we knew. We must be humble enough to admit when we learn we were wrong. It is always amazing to me […]

Our school – blow by blow

We have recently changed things up a bit in our school. This change came about mostly because Doug and I sensed that too much was falling on me, and I needed a bit of relief. We needed the kids to take more responsibility and work more independently. So when I saw a friend of mine […]