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What do you do when you’ve spent over a year posting a weekly commentary on how tech ideas and concepts relate to Jewish thought, and specifically the Torah reading for that week? You make a book, of course. That’s exactly how Torah && Tech came to be, and on this episode, I'll talk to the two authors, Rabbi/Programmers Ben Greenberg and Yechiel Kalmenson. Listen or read the transcript below. Leon (00:32): Welcome to our podcast, where we talk about the interesting, frustrating, and inspiring experiences we have as people with strongly held religious views working in corporate IT, we're not here to preach or teach you our religion. We're here to explore ways. We make our careers as IT professionals mash, or at least not conflict, with our religious life. This is Technically Religious. Leon (00:53): What do you do when you've spent over a year posting a weekly commentary on how tech ideas and concepts relate to Jewish thought and specifically the Torah reading for that week? You make a book of course! And that's exactly how "Torah and Tech" came to be. And today on our podcast, we're going to talk about it. I'm Leon Adato. And the other voices you're going to hear on this episode are my partners in podcasting crime and the focus of today's episode. We've got Yechiel Kalmenson. Yechiel (01:18): Hello. Leon (01:19): and Ben Greenberg. Ben (01:20): Hello there. Leon (01:21): And you've both been on Technically Religious before. So you know how this works. We begin with shameless self promotion. So Ben kick it off. Tell us a little bit about you and where people can find out more of your glorious, good thinking and work. Ben (01:34): Okay. Shamelessly. So I'm Ben Greenberg and I'm a developer advocate at Vonage. And you can find me on twitter @rabbigreenberg and/or on my website at bengreenberg.dev that's Greenberg with an E not a U and find me in general on the internet bank, Greenberg dev, dev dot two all over the place. Leon (01:54): And how do you identify religiously? Ben (01:55): Mostly identify as an Orthodox Jew. Leon (01:57): Yechiel you're next. Yechiel (01:58): Well, I'm a Yechiel Kalmenson again, um, I'm usually a software engineer at VMware currently taking family leave to be a full time dad. You can find me on Twitter @yehielk. You can find my blog rabbionrails.io and like Ben, I identify as an Orthodox Jew. Leon (02:15): Great. And just to circle around I'm Leon Adato, I'm a Head Geek at SolarWinds. Yes. That's my actual job title and SolarWinds is neither solar nor wind. It's a software vendor that makes monitoring stuff because naming things is apparently hard. You can find me on the Twitters as I like to say, because it horrifies my children @leonadato. You can also hear me pontificate about things, both technical and religious, on my blog adatosystems.com. And I also, for the trifecta, identify as an Orthodox Jew. And if you're scribbling any of this down, stop it, put your hands back on the steering wheel, pay attention to the road. Listen, because we're going to have these things in our show notes, along with all the other links and ideas that we're going to mention in the next little bit. So you don't have to write it down. We've done the writing for you. Um, now normally we dive into our topic, but because the topic is a book I'd like to go from shameless self promotion to shameless book promotion can one of you please tell me where people can get their hands on a copy of Torah && Tech. Yechiel (03:15): For sure. Well, you can buy the book at most retailers and Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Goodreads, nah Goodreads isn't a retailer. Um, pretty much anywhere where you can buy books. You can also read more about the book and about our newsletter on our website at Torahandtech.dev that's Torahandtech.dev. Leon (03:35): So diving in, I think one of the first questions, a lot of folks who were working in tech or religion have is what does it take to make a book? Like, just talk about the process of getting this book together, getting it online, selling it, editing it all the, you know, how was that process for you? Ben (03:53): It takes a lot of sleepless nights right now, Yechiel (03:55): For sure. So in all fairness, unlike other books where you sit and write it, like this book is a little different, it's sort of, it's a compilation of the year's worth of weekly newsletters. So the sleepless nights were spread out over a year of Thursday nights. When you realize a 10 o'clock "gosh, I didn't do the newsletter yet." Ben (04:14): So there, there was two things that we did when we took, we decided, okay, we have this year of newsletter content. We want to turn into a book. There were two things that we did almost the exact same time. We took all the content of the year's newsletters and put into one big Google doc, which you can imagine, Leon, it's like a bit of a messy document. And then we did the second thing, which was, we direct messaged you on Twitter and said, "how do we make a book?!" Those are the two things that we did once we had those. Yechiel (04:41): Yeah, because while we're on this subject, I do want to give a shout out the idea to actually put this in the book, came to me when I was helping Leon work on his book. Uh, "The Four Questions Every Monitoring Engineer Asks", or I did a bunch of that. Um, yeah. So over a year ago, Leon asked me to help him edit a book, which turned out to be just reading and telling Leon how awesome it was. Leon (05:02): You are my rabbinic sensitivity reader, which I know it sounds like I'm making a joke, but it really was. I am not a rabbi. Um, I've never been to Yeshiva and I was writing a book that was at least 50% Judaic content. And I wanted to make sure that I wasn't talking out of my rearend sometimes. So I needed somebody who was like, yeah, no, see that idea there? No, that's not a thing. Yeah. Yechiel (05:23): But like I said, I ended up just rubber stamping it because it was pretty good as, as it was you know, I forced myself to put comments just to justify the money you actually paid me for it, but it was good. Anyway, Ben (05:36): You sound like a city rabbinic kosher supervisor in Israel. Leon (05:40): Oh gosh. Wow. And some of you will get that joke. Yechiel (05:47): With the exception that this book was actually kosher, but yeah, but working on that book and also hearing the Technically Religious episode where you spoke about that book gave me the idea that, Hey, should maybe put this into a book. And I, I reached out to Ben about the idea and he was all for it too. So when it was time to actually do it, when we got through a year, um, we reached out to Leon. And if anyone is thinking of writing a book, I think Leon might be able to squeeze you into his busy schedule. Ben (06:12): Not through volunteering your time. Leon (06:13): Yeah. Right. No, no. I am. I mean, people who have been listening to this podcast know that, um, we are here for you, whoever, whoever the we is and whoever the, you are, we are here for you. So if that is something you want to know, I'm happy to talk to you about the process. Um, but I'm curious, did you, did you get an editor involved? Ben (06:31): I had a little bit experience putting together a book before I, when I was in, uh, working in the congregational Jewish world, both on campus in the synagogue. I put together a book when I was on campus and a particular book in the congregational world. And they were both again self published. And, uh, and I did everything. I edited my own, uh, texts. I made my own graphic design. I put together the manuscript I, I did from A to Z and this time around, I didn't want to do that again because I know that I'm not a good editor of my own content. And I know from experience the mistakes that I find and unlike something in the digital space, it is much harder to edit a mistake once it's printed and in people's bookshelves. And it's much harder to put out a version 1.01, exactly bug fixes are harder in hardcover or paperback copies. Leon (07:26): Really difficult. Ben (07:27): It's very difficult. Leon (07:28): So patching becomes a very literal process. Ben (07:31): Very little process, like print it out, another piece of paper and tape it onto the book. Uh, so this time around, I really want to make sure that we had people with us who could help us, who were not so, uh, I wanna say privileged to the text or who read it at such privilege readers as the ones who write it, the people who look at it with a more critical eye. And so we did hire, uh, people, uh, to both edit all the texts, uh, spelling, grammar, flow, style. And we actually work with somebody who specifically was not our rabbinic supervisor, Leon, somebody who didn't have extensive Jewish background or experience. Coz one of the goals of the book for us is to be accessible to those without that background. And so every time she raised a question, "what is that? What is this? How do I understand that." It was a great moment to inflect and think about, well, how do we make that better? And how do we make that more accessible? And how do we make that more understandable? So that was a critical part of the work she brought to it as well. Um, yeah, so we, and then we hired somebody to help us with graphic design and somebody to help us with the type scripting, uh, type scripting type scripting? The manuscript type setting type scripting. My mind has been too much in typescripts recently. Type setting. Like type of this book, Leon (08:51): It's a strongly typed book. Ben (08:53): It's a very strongly typed. Yes, indeed. It's got a method signature for every chapter. Uh, that is a, that was a bit of the process. And then of course they, every one of them, I mean, were offered invaluable help. Right? I think that that's true. Right? Yechiel. They all, they've made the book turn from a big, huge Google doc with a year's worth of newsletter content into something that actually could be printed and made sense and looked and looks presentable. Leon (09:23): So again, for people listening, thinking, Oh wait, no, you know, I haven't thought about making a book, but maybe that's a thing. So we're talking about, um, first of all, doing the work of the work, right? Writing the book in this case, you divided the work into 52, easy to digest pieces. Um, and just wrote a little bit of the book every week. Um, I want to remind everybody that if you write 10,000 words a day, you'll have a book. And if you write 2000 words a day, you'll have a book. And you write 50 words a day, you will have a book. Please do not think that there is some minimum requirement of word generation before you can have a book. Um, I, I'm a big believer that people who, who do writing should understand how powerful it is and share it. So that's the first piece. The second piece though, is that once you've done the work of the work and you have the book, um, you got an outside editor in this case, you got a fresh set of eyes to look at this and say, this makes no sense to me whatsoever. Um, can you clean that up? And that was your Canary in the coal mine, so to speak and also graphic design, which, um, is I think again for a lot of us, it's like, well, what do you mean? I just want words on a page and there's a cover, there's, you know, you know, art inside the book always helps to illustrate a point. You know, how, how involved was the graphic designer for all that? Yechiel (10:43): Yeah. In our case, there's no graphics in the inside the book, there's no pictures or anything or diagrams. Um, so it was just for the cover, I think, no, unless you're referring to the type setting, Ben (10:51): It was just the cover. The type setting was separate. That was a separate person to help us with that. But that also, by the way, people often don't think about those sorts of things. Like what style do you want the words to come out as? What are the, each font choice reflects a different sort of, it's almost like an interior designer for a book, you know, like you're trying to think of what kind of vibe you want to send with the fonts you choose. And then double for us on top of that was while the book is entirely, mostly in English, there are a few snippets in, in Hebrew, which are translated on the spot. So if you don't understand Hebrew. You don't have to be stumped by that. But then at the same time, the what about font and type for a non-English characters. And how do you present that in a primarily English book. These sorts of questions, which I don't think I definitely, I didn't think about before we started engaging in it and ends up being really a crucial part of it. Because if the presentation, the book isn't worthwhile, if someone doesn't enjoy holding the book and wants to read the book, they're not going to read the book and then all your efforts are essentially for naught. Leon (12:04): Right? And, and I'll underscore another point is that, first of all, just the types need consistency that chapter headings have to look the same all throughout the book and they can't look the same as subheadings and they can't look the same as whatever they should be similar. Like you said, you know, good interior design means that, uh, you know, there's a theme that I know when I go from one room to another room, it doesn't feel jarring, but at the same time, I know I'm in a different place. I'm looking at different things, but also something that people don't think about is, uh, electronic publishing, that it's not just about the printed book. It's also when you're, when you're doing an E publishing, those font choices are critically important to the conversion, into an ebook that if you get it wrong things, things don't lay out correctly anymore because the epub generator, whether you're talking about, um, Amazon's Kindle, uh, or, uh, Smashwords meat grinder or whatever it is really needs those font choices to be the same all the way through the book to know what it's doing. So having a typesetter who's aware of that and who can catch those little mistakes, say, I will tell you, it saves hours because I did it myself for the book. And it was probably the most labor intensive part of the entire book that I did because I didn't know what I was doing. Ben (13:24): You would you say it's more labor intensive than the work of the work of actually writing the book? Leon (13:28): Yeah, it was, it was, it was more, it was more error prone. I had to go back and redo the conversion to the ebook probably almost a hundred times before I finally was able to find my butt with both hands and, and get it done. So yeah, it's, it's really a big deal. Okay. So what else about the book creating process, um, was interesting to you or exciting to you or frustrating to you or whatever? You know, what stands out? Yechiel (13:57): I guess I will say don't come in with the expectation of like making a million dollars off of it. Um, Leon (14:05): Only half a million. Yechiel (14:07): Okay. Especially if you're self publishing, it's not an expensive process at all. Um, I think we got it under about $500. If we make that back, that'll be nice if we make a little more, um, that'll be even nicer, but yeah, I don't see this. Uh, I don't see us quitting our day jobs anytime soon over this. Leon (14:27): Uh, and I will second that, uh, yeah, The Four Questions has not, in fact, uh, supplemented my income to the point where it can cover my mortgage or even Starbucks and a year and a half later, uh, yeah, a year and a half later, it still hasn't paid for itself. So I it's a labor of love. The next question I have for you though, is we've talked about right, because you really have something you have to say. So what was that you had to say, what is the thing that you couldn't live without having this book around to put it into the world? Ben (14:59): I think it, for me, it's the same thing that the driving force behind the weekly newsletter, which is really the impetus for the book and the foundation of the book, which actually Leon, if I can be as audacious is also a bit of what your podcast is about, which is that the world of technology, the industry that we're in, despite what many might think is not a value neutral conversation is not a value neutral industry at that, that there is a need to have value driven conversations and ethics driven conversations in the work that we do day in and day out. And the newsletter, which really was, as I said, the foundation of the book and the book itself is our attempt to really put out that message through the authentic voices for us, which is through our traditions, through the tradition of Torah, their tradition of Judaism, but it could be in anyone's authentic voice, the same kind of idea, which is to engage in that value driven conversation. Yechiel (16:01): And the corollary to that. I think in the other direction, you know, there are some, you know, some voices in the religious side that view technology as a threat or, you know, something to be avoided or at least, you know, severely limited. Um, I think it's important for people to realize that technology just like anything else in the world is a tool, a tool that can be used for bad, but can be used for good. And it can be used to, you know, some people may feel threatened a bit, but on the other hand, it can be used to promote values of goodness and kindness and justice. And that's another point that, uh, that and the Torah && Tech, the double ampersand, which implies that both are needed Torah, you know, tech without Torah or values in general, um, can go very dangerously. But also Torah without tech is missing a way of expression. Leon (16:53): Right? I think that that one of the most powerful lessons that's come out of this podcast and also as I've been reading the book is, is that two way street that if you can accept, so let's say you're coming from a religious point of view. If you can accept that, um, Torah has relevance to technology, you then must accept that technology has relevance to Torah. And if on the other hand, you're coming at this from a technical point of view, and you're just kind of curious about, you know, how could you make that relevant to, you know, religion? Like what is that all about? If you accept that that technology has incredible relevance to religion, it helps not only as a message spreading technology, but also as a, you know, this is how you collect data and this is how you validate things. And this is how you, you know, all of those wonderful things that we as IT people do. And you say, this is valid toward, uh, a religious tradition. Then you must accept that the religious tradition can reflect back. Ben (17:50): You know, I often think about the moment of the printing press and what the printing press did as a technology to traditional communities like our community, like the Jewish community, what it did to it was not only just a print books, it radicalized the availability and accessibility of knowledge across communities and people, regardless of station life, regardless of, uh, you know, where they started from had with effort could have the ability to find a book and get the education to open that book and have access to storehouse of knowledge. And of course it began as a trickle when the printing press began, right? Because the amount of books were small, but then as years went by and the, the availability of books can greater and greater, I'll give you a great example of this is if you go to a lot of, uh, older synagogues from several hundred years ago in medieval Europe, and they're still around in Poland and Ukraine and Russia, you often find that their, the walls are covered with the prayers. And the reason why they're covered with the prayers because no one had initially had access to books. And so they would come into synagogue and they would need to know the words of the liturgy to say. And the only way they knew what words to say was by like literally going into three 60, turning around in the synagogue to follow the walls of the, of the prayers that were covered in them. And then the printing press happens. And suddenly over a period of time, a revolution occurred in, uh, in a democratic visitation of knowledge. And you could say a similar thing is happening and it's happened and is currently still happening in technology of today and what it's doing and how can we not have that double ampersand conversation of how it's impacting both Torah and how Torah is being impacted by it and how the two of them are in conversation with each other. Leon (19:47): And I can't help but think about, uh, so it's, uh, what is it now? Is it still June? I dunno. It's like the 327th day of March, as far as I can tell it's, uh, it's yeah. It's June, um, June, 2020. And, uh, so, you know, COVID is a thing that's still happening. And the joke is that in January, every yeshiva in America, every yeshiva across the world would be tell families if you have a television it's, you know, if you have technology, it's really not okay. You need to keep technology completely out of the hands of your, our students. We don't want their, their minds sullied by this technology. And by the end of February, every yeshiva on the planet was like, okay, so you just jump on your internet and go to Chrome and go to Google meet so that you can have your chevroota. The pivot to technology was like instantaneous. It was just Ben (20:38): Wish it was instantaneous. So, and I'll give you an example from our, our own lives. Uh, when our kids were in Israel, we're doing a remote learning in their schools, which was neither remote nor learning, but an attempt at doing remote learning, uh, initially was very chaotic. And the reason why it was so chaotic was a while our kids go to a state, uh, religious, uh, public school. So it's in the more modern end of the religious spectrum. It's not an ultra Orthodox public school. It's a, what might call a modern Orthodox public school. All of the educators in the public school that teach Judaic subjects come from the other side of the road for us, literally in where we live. And the other side of the road is an it's a beautiful city with wonderful people called Modi'in Illit and or Kiryat Sefer, and Kiryat Sefer doesn't have WhatsApp, doesn't have zoom, doesn't have Google meets. And so suddenly they're being told by the misrad hachinuch by the ministry of education, that they must do these classes over a technology. They don't even know they don't have computers in their, in their homes. How are they supposed to do this yet? They did. And they learned how, and suddenly after a very chaotic period of time, we have, you know, essentially charidi, uh, morot, charidi... Ultra Orthodox educators going and conducting, with professionalism, with like suave and knowing how to run a Zoom meeting with 40 Israeli kids and not be chaotic. But how do you get from A to Z? That was a bit of a tumultuous period, but to watch that happen in real time was quite amazing. Leon (22:22): I think we're at the point where people hopefully are interested in, but I want to identify who is this book for? Like, I could see that as I was sketching out the notes for this conversation, I thought, well, maybe it's for programmers. You know, who happened to be Jewish? Who are Judaism curious? Uh, maybe it's just for credit, you know, you needed credibility on Twitter. So you could say author in your Twitter profile. On the other hand, I could also see you writing this book for religious people who happen to be in technology, or are tech curious, or maybe it's just for your spouse to say, look, honey, this is what I've been doing with my evenings. Like what, who is this book for specifically? Who's your target audience? Yechiel (23:00): I just want to start off off the bat because it probably has to be said, this book is not intended to try to convert anyone to try to proselytize. Judaism specifically does not have a tradition of trying to proselytize people. And we're pretty adamant about that. We do not, not only are we not trying to proselytize you, we do not want you. We believe that, you know, God accepts everyone. God puts everyone in the world for a reason. If everyone was the same, it would be boring. Ben (23:27): Except my next door neighbor. Yechiel (23:28): Your next door neighbor might have to change. Um, but, but yeah, so this book is not trying to convert anyone. It was just, uh, presenting one point of view of many. Um, who did we write a for? Uh, I'll admit we started off for ourselves. Um, like the project are in tech. The weekly newsletter started as just like a small project for me and Ben to keep in touch, then ran off from like we used to, we used to be coworkers. We worked together at our first job and then Ben ran off to Israel, but that was one friendship I wasn't willing to let go so quickly. So, um, we started this project as a small collaboration to help us keep in touch, which solidly grew. And as it grew organically, we discovered on our own who our audience was. And it seems like the answer is - there's no one single answer. I mean, obviously like you said, you know, programmers with their religion, with an interest in religion or ethical conversations and religious people with an interest in tech, but also people who are completely not religious. Um, people from all ends of the spectrum, people are not technical. People are not religious. We've gotten feedback from all of them. And it seems like pretty much anyone who's interested and who believes, like Ben said that tech is not a value neutral, uh, space. And who believes that values, that these conversations around values have to take place, is the intended audience for this book and for the newsletter. Ben (24:58): Yeah. You know, it's, it's interesting how this we're finding well, the newsletter cause the newsletter's been around for a lot longer. Right. So how are finding the newsletter has impacted people. And then, and then as a addition to that, or an addendum to that as the book has been published and people are now getting a chance to sort of read the book, how it's impacting people. And just this evening, a few minutes before we had our engaged in this wonderful conversation together, I had one of my regular chats with one of my sets of aunts and uncles who live out in the great Northwest of America, the great Pacific Northwest. And they are not, uh, the most engaged couple in traditional religious Jewish life. And by not the most engaged, I mean, not engaged at all. And, uh, they bought the book, uh, and I think, and I asked them and I was correct. It was the first time they ever bought a book on Amazon and the Torah category in their entire adult lives, or, you know, lives in general from Amazon or any bookstore before the world of Amazon. And, uh, you know, I told, I told my uncle, you know, the next step is you have to actually open the book after you buy the book. He said, okay, fine. I'll get there eventually. But you know, the, you know, the idea that, that people are thinking, this is an interesting subject. And so he's, you know, he's far from this field as one can be he's in the medical profession, but the, but this such technology, right, it's pervasive and it's something a lot of people think about and they get, they get hit with it from media sources, from the news, whether it's talking about facial recognition or about, uh, tracking, uh, contact tracing of coronavirus patients, our government's authorizing tracking patients through smartphones. It was just a lot of that conversation happening, particularly in this moment and this time. So this book is piquing that curiosity, I think of folks who are just kind of like, even if they're not in tech, but are curious about, you know, some of those larger questions that circulate that are integrated in the, in the world of technology. Leon (27:05): Right? And, and I think that we've gotten to a point where every new technology that comes in, a lot of people are having an automatic reaction of, "am I okay with this?" Not just, can I use this? Do I understand this? Because I think for most people they've gotten past, or they never were at a point where technology threatened them or made them feel uncomfortable. It was just a state of being it's on their phone, it's on their, whatever it is, it's a tech, right. And whether we're talking about Tik Tok or contact tracing or password management or whatever, um, or Facebook, the question isn't, how do I use this? The question is, am I okay with this? Right. And how do I use this? There are lots and lots and lots of guides out there for how do I do this, but am I okay with this? There's not a lot of guides that speak to, should I be okay with this? And it's not an, it's not an automatic yes or no for all of humanity. Right? You have to know who you are. You have to know where your, where you set your boundaries and that helps you identify, are you going to be the kind of person who's okay with it? Yechiel (28:17): For sure. And this conversation is actually what Torah && Tech is about. I like saying that we don't offer a lot of answers in Torah && Tech but we hope to start to start having you question, or we hope to start these conversations. I have had people asking these questions and discussing them and seeing for themselves, what are they okay with? What are they, you know, what values do they bring to their work? And you know, what type of people do they want to bring? What type of personalities do they want to bring to their, to their work, to their technology. Ben (28:47): Our chapters typically end with questioning back to the reader, asking the reader what they think. And we don't do that. Just rhetorically. We are also interested in what they actually genuinely think. And we want this to be a conversation. And it's actually, I think, part and parcel to our style and to the tradition that we come from, which is to answer a question with a question and to try and engage the person in. I'm not going to tell you what to think, because a there's a multiplicity of possibilities of how one could think about this, but I want you to come to what your approach to it. I want to come your answer. And I'm curious what you think. You know, just speaking personally, I'm really grateful that I work in a place where I have a manager who tolerates me answering every one of his questions with another question, and he never gets annoyed and he is not Jewish in any way, shape or form an amazing guy from England. And I think I'm the first person he's had to work with, who nonstop, only answers his questions with questions. And I'm grateful that he loves it. And we engage in this great discourse together. But we do the same thing in our book. We always leave readers with questions more than answers. Cause it's the, what was the, I forget exactly who, but there was a scientist who credited his, Speaker 3 (30:03): It yeah. Isador [Isaac] Rabi. He was a Nobel prize winning physicist. Ben (30:08): Leon you're just the font of knowledge. Leon (30:10): I've quoted him before. And he said, he said, I use this in a talk. I gave actually in Tel Aviv. Yechiel (30:15): In fact, you use it in your book as well. Leon (30:18): Uh Oh, it is in my book. That's right. He says, you know, um, more than anything, my mother made me, made me a scientist. Uh, he said that, you know, every other kid in Brooklyn would come home and their parents would say so, did you learn anything? My mother, no, not my mother not my mother. What did you ask any good questions today? Ben (30:34): I, I I've heard that quote so many times, and yet I still say to my kids, every time they get home, what'd you learn today? It's like, I can't absorb it. Leon (30:42): Right. You'll get there. Ben (30:44): They'll get there a Nobel prize because of me, because I didn't ask that question, Yechiel (30:47): They'll get it in their own rights. Leon (30:49): Right. They'll earn their own way. So, but that does lead me to an interesting question, which is, um, what are some of the comments that you've gotten back if you, if you end every post weekly post, and now every chapter in the book with a question, what are some of the interesting feedbacks that you pieces of feedback you've gotten over time? Anything that stands out in your mind? Yechiel (31:09): Actually, one conversation that was pretty interesting started in, uh, uh, in response to one of the issues of the newsletter that was put out. Um, this was actually like most newsletters. Like there's I know there are, Torah like we choose like a thought from the Parasha related to tech or current events or whatever it is. This one I decided to have just like a stream of thought, the stream of consciousness, um, about, about the culpability of AI, artificial intelligence, and specifically people who write it. Um, so let's say if I program and an artificial intelligence and it goes ahead and does some damage, how responsible am I for the actions of this program that I wrote? And I did it in the, like starting the style of a Talmudic discussion. Um, there wasn't much in the way of answers, just like raise different possibilities, um, look at, you know, why, why it would apply, why it wouldn't apply. Um, it was more of a stream of consciousness. I really hoped it made sense when I fired it off. Um, but actually that one was the one who got the most comments back. People like actually engaged in that conversation. And they're like, you know, people raised different possibilities, different analogies that I had missed. Um, it was a really enjoyable conversation, Leon (32:26): Probably about a year and a half ago. I had a conversation on a different podcast, um, the on-premise podcast, uh, which is part of gestalt IT, and there, again, there'll be links in the show notes. And, uh, the conversation was about bringing your whole self to work, whether or not it's okay. Whether there are certain things about ourselves that we should just leave at home, you know, as, as some people say, you know, you know, if you've, if you've got this thing going on, leave it on the door, leave it at the door. And we talked about whether that was even possible. Um, and for me being part of that conversation, the, you know, the elephant, the kippah wearing tsitsus draped elephant in the room was my Judaism. Like, can I leave my religion at the door? And what does that even look like? And at what point does, does keeping a lid on it means suppressing essential, important parts of myself, Ben, to your point, you know, it's part of our tradition to answer questions with questions that is part of the way that we analyze ideas. It's part of the way that we debate concepts. And of course in it, we do that. How much of that can I leave to the side before I stopped being me at all and become either offended or suppressed, not depressed, but although it could be that too. So I guess this is a two part question one, are you able to bring your whole selves to your job right now? Have you always been able to do that? And what was it like working on a project where that was so fully true that doing Torah && Tech allowed you to be every ounce of the programmers that you are, and also every ounce of the Jews that you are. So, you know, again, have you always been able to do that and what was it like working on this book? Ben (34:12): So I I'll start, I guess. And I think that, uh, to answer that question, it's kind of, to me, it feels like a bit of walking on a tightrope and, uh, I do make an effort to bring my whole self to my work. And in some ways I'm grateful for the unique circumstances that I'm in, which is that I happen to work in an international company with a very large R&D office in Israel. And so everyone in all the other offices across the company have become, acculturated to, uh, well, Israel and Jews are not one and the same. That is true. That's a very important statement to make. And Israeli Jews are not the same as Jews from other parts of the world. That's also true and there's a great diversity, but nonetheless, it is people who live in places where there are no Jews at all. So who become acculturated to working with Jews. And so that's helpful. And, you know, and not only just Jews, right, Leon, but also kippah wearing Jews, you know, observant Jews in the Tel Aviv office. And so they get to interact with them and they come and visit here in the pre pre days before the crurrent days, they would spend time with that and, and be attuned to the sensitivity of kosher restaurants, things like that. So that's part a and part B is yes, that's all true, but you also don't want to be harping on it all the time and you don't want it, You have to always be sensitive a little bit of being mixed up SIM like a little bit of like, uh, yes. Being there, but also pulling back a little bit and, and making sure you don't take up all the space in the room and it's all about you and your uniquenesses and sort of your, your unique needs and sort of your, your, your unique perspectives, because it might come as a surprise, you know, especially, you know, somethings depending on how great your feeling about yourself, other people are also unique and they also have unique perspectives and they also have unique place that they're coming from, and they also want to contribute those unique things. Right. And so like leaving some space, leaving some oxygen in the room and, you know, and again, not to stereotype, definitely not to stereotype or to generalize, but sometimes we, as a people can take up a lot of the air in the room and to, and to let others have some of the air to breathe and to speak as important. Leon (36:35): My coworkers who are listening to this podcast are probably nodding. So, so ferociously that they're going to get, put a Crick in their neck. They require a neck brace after they're done Yechiel (36:46): I'm in a different situation. Of course, I work in the States and New York, um, and having been on the receiving end of workplace proselytization. And like I said, Jews specifically do not like proselytizing. I try not to have specific religious conversations at work other than with the few other religious Jewish coworkers I have. Um, of course when it comes to like things that will affect my work, I'll have those conversations up front, you know, things like Shabbat or kosher lunches or things like that. So, you know, I'll definitely speak up. And actually there's a whole chapter in the book. Um, your guide to working with your observant coworker, which I had a lot of fun writing. I wrote it when I switched teams and had to have all those conversations over again and decided that it would be helpful for others. Um, but conversations around that go beyond that. It's like the kind of conversations that we have in Torah and tech that I try not to bring up at work as much as possible. And in that sense, like you said, the newsletter and then the book we're away for me to express that part of myself, which I really enjoyed, Ben (37:49): You know, there's a larger conversation to be had here as well, that sort of transcends the workplace. So I just recall a couple of incidents where, uh, on the speaking circuit in conferences, and you would get some guidelines about what to say what not to say, how to, how to speak in the most successful ways. And all the advice overwhelmingly was incredibly on point was incredibly helpful and I think was, uh, necessary to make sure the space was maximally, welcoming, and accessible to a diversity of people from all backgrounds... Except when it comes to people with religious sensibilities. And I would actually add to that religious slash cultural sensibilities because, you know, coming again, uh, from Israel, uh, there's things like, so one of the guidelines to concretize, what I'm saying, uh, from one conference in particular was trying if you make a mistake or you're trying to say something that you should avoid something, don't use the oft-repeated term of like, God forbid, God forbid you should do that because there might people in the room who don't believe in God, and that could offend them to say, God forbid. And so whether one is a religious or not in Israel, that is one of most common expressions amongst everyone in the country. Even if the die hard, most ardent atheists will say, God forbid, it just it's part of the lexicon. It's just part of the cultural sort of dichotomy. So you're trying to get maximum welcoming as possible, but in doing so, you're not thinking about, or you're not at all elevating as part of the consideration, those people who come from either religious backgrounds or come from countries that are not Western European countries and, and how to think about that, how to actually make space. And, you know, I heard this by the way, from a colleague of mine, a previous former colleague of mine who comes from very different backgrounds, you know, from a Muslim background and she's an amazing person. And she often talks about that as well, about how, yes, maximally diverse places means there's maximum diverse or Western Europeans and, and, and, you know, Northeastern Americans. And what about everyone else in the world? Like from North Africa or from the middle East, or from Asia who are not Western Europeans or North Eastern Americans and, you know, what do you, what do you do about that and how do you, and how do you, uh, raise up the diversity and the ability for all people to come to this space, even if they're not, um, German or French or British. Leon (40:16): So this has been an amazing conversation. There's a lot more, I think we can go into with everything hope. Uh, hopefully I'll have a chance to have you back and talk about specific chapters, but before we wrap up, uh, one more opportunity for shameless book promotion, where again, now that we've heard about it and we are champing at the bit, and we can't live another minute without this book in our lives, where can we find it? Yechiel (40:37): Um, so yeah, so, like I said, in the beginning, um, you can buy it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, uh, on your Kindle, on your Nook, on any, on most other retailers. Um, what I forgot the first time around was that if you do not live in North America or in a primarily English speaking country, a Book Repository, I'm told by Ben, is the go-to and it's on there too. Uh, we will have all those links in the show notes. Um, and of course you can also go to TorahandTech.Dev to order the book and also to sign up for the newsletter. So you can get a sneak preview of volume two, which will be coming out in about a half a year. Ben (41:13): Yes. Leon (41:14): Not only can you, you ought to, you should, Ben (41:17): You're encouraged to, and you get a ToraandTech.dev. You can find, uh, the table of contents. So you get a sense what's in the book and on Amazon and the other retailers you'll find sample chapters as well. So you can really get a fuller idea of what it's like. And that website as Yechiel mentioned his Book Depository, which if you're living anywhere in the world where English books are harder to come by, it's a great place to go to get your English books. You might not get them for a few months, but you can order them. And eventually they get shipped to you. Josh (41:50): Thanks for making time for us this week, to hear more of Technically Religious, visit our website, http://technicallyreligious.com, where you can find our other episodes, leave us ideas for future discussions and connect with us on social media. Leon (42:04): Ugh! We still need a tagline for this episode. Ben (42:06): Can we just go with "Buy our Book? Yechiel (42:08): I guess that works for me.

JOSEPH FINALLY reveals himself to his brothers, unable to continue his deception any longer. His brothers had returned to Egypt to buy more grain, bringing Joseph’s only full brother, Benjamin, with them as he’d ordered. But when Judah pleaded for Joseph to allow Benjamin to return to Jacob, Joseph was overcome with emotion and told them who he was. Jacob and the entire family entourage returned to Egypt and settled in the Nile delta, a land set apart from the native Egyptians who had a strong dislike of “Asiatics,” who they called “sand-dwellers.” We discuss the significance of Joseph’s silver cup. Did he really practice divination, or did he just say so because that’s what his brothers expected from Egyptians? We also explain why the difference in the number of Jacob’s household—70 in English Bibles, 75 in the Septuagint—is significant; the translators of the Masoretic Hebrew text deemphasized the divine council worldview because it offers scriptural support for Jesus’ claims of divinity. Our latest book Veneration is now available for Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader! Click here and find out why readers rate Veneration 4.7 out of 5, describing it as "a must read" that "opens up…the Bible’s hidden mysteries." Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org. The Gilberts’ book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available for a special price (better than Amazon!) at the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com). Sharon's last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon's Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon's website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com. Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

ALL OF us have had a wilderness experience of one kind of another. For Joseph, much of it was spent in prison cells. Two years after interpreting dreams for the baker and cupbearer for the king of Egypt, Joseph is summoned to make sense of a pair of disturbing dreams for the pharaoh. You know the story: God showed the king that seven years of plenty would be followed by seven years of famine. Pharaoh placed Joseph in charge of storing up grain for the lean years. We discuss the reason that God allowed Joseph to endure years in a foreign land. It was more than just saving his family from famine; this was God’s long game to set Israel apart from its pagan, Semitic-speaking neighbors. Our latest book Veneration is now available for Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader! Click here and find out why readers rate Veneration 4.7 out of 5, describing it as "a must read" that "opens up…the Bible’s hidden mysteries." Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org. The Gilberts’ book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available for a special price (better than Amazon!) at the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com). Sharon's last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon's Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon's website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com. Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

IF THE Bible had truly been edited to make the apostles, prophets, and patriarchs look better, chapter 38 of Genesis would have disappeared long ago. This week, we discuss the unseemly episode of Judah’s relationship with his daughter-in-law, Tamar, by whom he fathered Perez, an ancestor of Jesus. We also discuss the history of the period to explain the timeline between Abraham and the Exodus, which is variously described as “four hundred years” (Gen. 15:13, Acts 7:6), “the fourth generation” (Gen. 15:16), and “four hundred and thirty years” (Ex. 12:40-41, Gal. 3:16-17). How do we reconcile the 400/430 year discrepancy, and how do we square that with four generations (Jacob > Levi > Kohath > Amram > Moses), since Levi was an adult before Jacob and his family followed Joseph to Egypt? Here’s the best answer, courtesy of Answers in Genesis: In Abraham’s day, Egypt included the Levant, modern Israel, Lebanon, and western Jordan and Syria. So, the 430 years began with Abraham was called from Harran because he was in “Egypt” almost as soon as he crossed the Euphrates. The 400 years began when Ishmael, his son by Hagar the Egyptian, mocked and persecuted Isaac. The “fourth generation,” of course, refers to Moses, counting his great-grandfather Levi as the first generation after Jacob.

Here is our timeline, based on this logic: Amorite kingdom of Babylon founded — 1894 BC Abraham born — 1951 BC Abraham arrives in Canaan — 1876 BC Isaac born — 1851 BC Isaac marries Rebekah — 1811 BC Hammurabi becomes king of Babylon — 1792 BC Jacob and Esau born — 1791 BC Abraham dies — 1776 BC Hyksos take over Lower Egypt — c. 1750 BC Isaac dies — 1671 BC Jacob arrives in Egypt — 1661 BC Jacob dies — 1644 BC Joseph dies — 1590 BC Ahmose drives Hyksos out of Egypt — c. 1550 BC Moses leads the Exodus — 1446 BC Joshua leads the Conquest — 1406 BC Our latest book Veneration is now available for Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader! Click here and find out why readers rate Veneration 4.7 out of 5, describing it as "a must read" that "opens up…the Bible’s hidden mysteries." Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org. The Gilberts’ book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available for a special price (better than Amazon!) at the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com). Sharon's last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon's Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon's website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com. Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

JOSEPH APPEARS to have been something of a spoiled brat. Either he had no self-awareness at all or his self-image was so inflated that he didn’t care what his brothers thought of him. The story of Joseph’s brothers selling him into slavery is a reminder that even in times of trouble, God has a plan, and He brings His plans to fruition through flawed and imperfect humans. We also discuss the history of the chiefs and kings of Edom, including the interesting reference to one “Shaul of Rehoboth on the Euphrates” who ruled Edom sometime before the rise of the kingdom in Israel. Check a map — the Euphrates is a long way from Edom! Who was this Shaul, where was Rehoboth, and did he rule a kingdom that included much of modern Jordan and Syria? Here is a link to the book Derek mentioned, Edom and the Hyksos by David J. Gibson. Our latest book Veneration is now available for Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader! Click here and find out why readers rate Veneration 4.7 out of 5, describing it as "a must read" that "opens up…the Bible’s hidden mysteries." Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org. The Gilberts’ book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available for a special price (better than Amazon!) at the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com). Sharon's last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon's Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon's website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com. Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

JACOB WAS not exactly an ideal father. His reaction to the rape of his daughter Dinah by the prince of the city of Shechem is puzzling. Genesis chapter 34 shows that he didn’t say anything when learning of Dinah’s humiliation, or while his sons Simeon and Levi, two of Dinah’s six brothers by their mother Leah, plotted revenge against the city of Shechem, slaughtering the men after deceiving them into being circumcised. Jacob’s concern was not for Dinah or the murdered men, but for himself: “You have brought trouble on me by making me stink to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites. My numbers are few, and if they gather themselves against me and attack me, I shall be destroyed, both I and my household.” We also discuss Jacob’s reunion with his brother Esau, the spiritual significance of the city of Shechem (and its patron god, Resheph), and the deaths of Rebekah’s nurse, Deborah, Jacob’s wife, Rachel, and his father, Isaac. Our latest book Veneration is now available for Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader! Click here and find out why readers rate Veneration 4.7 out of 5, describing it as "a must read" that "opens up…the Bible’s hidden mysteries." Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org. The Gilberts’ book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available for a special price (better than Amazon!) at the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com). Sharon's last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon's Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon's website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com. Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

FEEDING THE dead was an integral part of the world in which Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived. We’ve previously discussed Abraham’s distress at not having an heir to provide for him in the afterlife; this week, we explain why Jacob’s father-in-law, Laban, was so upset about losing his teraphim, the small idols that represented dead ancestors who had to be summoned to a meal every month with a necromancy ritual called kispum. We also discuss Jacob’s separation from Laban, his encounter with angels along the Jabbok River, and his wrestling match with the Angel of God, another manifestation of Christ in the Old Testament. Here’s the link for the book by Dr. Michael Heiser we mentioned during the program, Supernatural: What the Bible Teaches About the Unseen World - and Why It Matters. Our latest book Veneration is now available for Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader! Click here and find out why readers rate Veneration 4.7 out of 5, describing it as "a must read" that "opens up…the Bible’s hidden mysteries." Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org. The Gilberts’ book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available for a special price (better than Amazon!) at the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com). Sharon's last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon's Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon's website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com. Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

PORTALS AND contact with the spirit realm are at the heart of this week’s Bible study. First, we discuss Jacob’s dream during his journey from the Negev to Haran in northern Mesopotamia. We’ve heard the term “Jacob’s ladder,” but the underlying Hebrew word reveals that what he saw was more likely a ziggurat—an ancient Mesopotamian pyramid that represented a stairway to heaven. We explain the connection between Bethel, “House (or Temple) of God,” and the stone idols later worshiped all over the Near East called baetylia by the Greeks and betyls by modern archaeologists. (Join us at Petra next spring and we’ll show you a few hundred of them!) Then we discuss the tricking of the trickster, as Jacob’s uncle Laban deceives him into taking his eldest daughter, Leah, as his wife in exchange for seven years of labor. To marry his younger daughter Rachel, Laban demands another seven years’ work—and then tries to keep Jacob even longer because he realizes (through divination, a forbidden practice) that he’s being blessed by God through Jacob. Our latest book Veneration is now available for Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader! Click here and find out why readers rate Veneration 4.7 out of 5, describing it as "a must read" that "opens up…the Bible’s hidden mysteries." Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org. The Gilberts’ book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available for a special price (better than Amazon!) at the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com). Sharon's last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon's Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon's website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com. Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

ISAAC IS a transitional character in the Bible, serving mainly as the bridge between Abraham and Jacob. We discuss the stories of Isaac’s adult life—his lie about Rebekah to the king of Gerar and how how Jacob received the blessing that Isaac had planned to give Esau. While it’s hard to reconcile the deception of Rebekah and Jacob, we must remember that Esau thought so little of his birthright that he sold it to Jacob for a bowl of stew (Gen. 25:29-34). Our latest book Veneration is now available for Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader! Click here and find out why readers rate Veneration 4.7 out of 5, describing it as "a must read" that "opens up…the Bible’s hidden mysteries." Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org. The Gilberts’ book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available for a special price (better than Amazon!) at the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com). Sharon's last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon's Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon's website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com. Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

WE REACH the end of Abraham’s time on earth this week. We discuss the death of Sarah, Abraham’s purchase of the cave of Machpelah, the marriage of Isaac, the birth of Esau and Jacob, and the short-sightedness of Esau in selling off his birthright for a bowl of beans. Our latest book Veneration is now available for Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader! Click here and find out why readers rate Veneration 4.7 out of 5, describing it as "a must read" that "opens up…the Bible’s hidden mysteries." Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org. The Gilberts’ book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available for a special price (better than Amazon!) at the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com). Sharon's last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon's Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon's website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com. Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

HE SURVIVED the destruction of Sodom, but Lot didn’t seem very happy about it. This week, we discuss the aftermath of the fiery destruction of the cities of the plain, which also leveled Jericho, according to archaeologists. Lot and his daughters retreated into the hills and lived a hermit-like existence in a cave overlooking the eastern shore of the Dead Sea. Their isolation led to the incestuous creation of the nations of Moab and Ammon, longtime enemies of Israel in the centuries that followed. Then we discuss Abraham’s deception of Abimelech, the king of Gerar, and one of the stranger events in the Bible, the binding of Isaac. Why would Abraham agree to God’s test, to the point that his knife was out, ready to “slaughter”—a Hebrew term (shachat) used elsewhere in the Old Testament for human sacrifice—his only son by Sarah? Here is the timeline Derek mentioned during the study. Bear in mind that these dates are not universally accepted and mainly show the sequence of events. * Amorite kingdom of Babylon founded — 1894 BC * Abraham arrives in Canaan — 1876 BC * Destruction of Sodom — 1852 BC * Isaac born to Sarah — 1851 BC * Isaac marries Rebekah — 1811 BC * Hammurabi crowned king of Babylon — 1792 BC * Jacob and Esau born — 1791 BC * Abraham dies — 1776 BC * Hyksos (Amorites) rule Lower Egypt — c. 1750 BC * Jacob arrives in Egypt — 1661 BC * Ahmose drives Hyksos out of Egypt — c. 1550 BC * Moses leads the Exodus — 1446 BC * Joshua leads the Conquest — 1406 BC Our latest book Veneration is now available for Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader! Click here and find out why readers rate Veneration 4.7 out of 5, describing it as "a must read" that "opens up…the Bible’s hidden mysteries." Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org. The Gilberts’ book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available for a special price (better than Amazon!) at the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com). Sharon's last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon's Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon's website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com. Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

This week we're discussing a story from Jamel Brinkley's award-winning debut collection, A Lucky Man. Plus, we answer more ridiculous NaNoWriMo questions, and we check out Amazon's Kindle store to see how many coronavirus-themed books have popped up already (short answer: so many!). If you like the show, and would like more Book Fight in your life, please consider subscribing to our Patreon. For $5, you'll get access to three bonus episodes a month, including Book Fight After Dark, where we read some of the world's weirdest--and steamiest!--novels. We've also recently begun a new series of Patreon-only mini-episodes called Reading the Room, in which we offer advice on how to navigate awkward, writing-related social situations. How do you talk to a writer whose work you like after a reading? How do you promote your own writing without annoying people? Should you force your spouse or significant other to read your work? We've got the answers to these and many other pressing questions.

THE DESTRUCTION of Sodom and Gomorrah was not about alternative lifestyles—and yes, it really happened. This week, we discuss Abraham’s encounter with God and two angels at the Oaks of Mamre near Hebron, a more likely reason for God’s judgment on Sodom, and we explain why the angels warned Lot to “escape to the hills, lest you be swept away”—and why Lot’s wife really was turned into a pillar of salt. Links you’ll want to explore after hearing this episode: DigSodom.com, the website of the team excavating ancient Sodom (Tall el-Hammam in Jordan)PowerPoint presentation on the excavations at Sodom by Dr. Steven Collins, Dean of the College of Archaeology at Trinity Southwest UniversityAnother SlideShare presentation on the dig at SodomArchaeological architect Leen Ritmeyer’s page on Sodom, including his reconstruction of the city gate where Lot sat as a judge.Derek’s interview with Dr. Phillip Silvia, Field Supervisor and Director of Scientific Analysis for the Tall el-Hammam Excavation Project from Trinity Southwest University. Share this episode around — archaeology is cool! Our latest book Veneration is now available for Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader! Click here and find out why readers rate Veneration 4.7 out of 5, describing it as "a must read" that "opens up…the Bible’s hidden mysteries." Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org. The Gilberts’ book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available for a special price (better than Amazon!) at the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com). Sharon's last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon's Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon's website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com. Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Matthew 28:6 (ESV) That’s the beginning of our study on the Resurrection. We look at texts from the Old and New Testaments to explain that Christ’s resurrection is the template for what is in store for all who have accepted him as Lord and Savior. From Genesis through Revelation, history is anchored to one overarching theme: Whose children will be raised up at the last trump. Scriptures cited in this study: Job 19:25-27 Psalm 82 Isaiah 24:21, 26:13-27:1 Ezekiel 39:11 Matthew 27:45-54, 28:1-10 1 Peter 3:18-21 1 Corinthians 15 (especially verses 35 through 55) Revelation 20:1-15, 21:1 Our latest book Veneration is now available for Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader! Click here and find out why readers rate Veneration 4.7 out of 5, describing it as "a must read" that "opens up…the Bible’s hidden mysteries." Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org. The Gilberts’ book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available for a special price (better than Amazon!) at the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com). Sharon's last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon's Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon's website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com. Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

WE SET aside our chronological reading order this week to look at scripture about the Passover and Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. We explain why these events were more than symbolic; they were acts of war in the spirit realm. We discuss the specific entities targeted at Passover, explain the Amorite kispum ritual, the reason Jesus rode a donkey colt into Jerusalem, why the time and place of the Transfiguration were important in this sequence of events, how the Parable of the Tenants explains the supernatural conflict, and how baptism and the Lord’s Supper fit into the history of this long spiritual war. Here is the Bible verse Derek referred to that mentions the reshephim: He gave over their cattle to the hail [Barad, a Canaanite demon] and their flocks to thunderbolts [reshephim]. Psalm 78:48 Our latest book Veneration is now available for Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader! Click here and find out why readers rate Veneration 4.7 out of 5, describing it as "a must read" that "opens up…the Bible’s hidden mysteries." Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org. The Gilberts’ book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available for a special price (better than Amazon!) at the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com). Sharon's last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon's Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon's website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com. Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

ABRAHAM’S DISTRESS at being childless was caused by his concept of the afterlife. In the Amorite culture that dominated his world, it was believed that one’s quality of life after death depended on your descendants performing a monthly ritual to provide your food and drink. We explain the Amorite kispum ritual and why Abraham’s servant Eliezer was not necessarily from Damascus. According to scholar Nicolas Wyatt, the Hebrew phrase hû dammešeq was “a scribal gloss, explaining what was felt to be a damaged text, since the meaning of mešeq was lost until the Ugaritic texts were found [in 1922]. It may be translated ‘that is, Damascus,’ but is an ill-directed attempt to explain an obscure term, and should be omitted. Ben mešeq, ‘son of the cup,’ alludes to the elder son’s ritual duties at the obsequies [funeral rites] of his father.” We also discuss God’s covenant with Abraham, which was sealed with a ritual that’s strange to our modern eyes: Abraham cut in half a heifer, a female goat, and a ram, added a dove and a pigeon, and waited for God to send a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch between the pieces of the sacrificed animals. In Abraham’s day, this ritual would have been a common thing (although the pagan Amorites would have sacrificed a donkey). Finally, we discuss God’s promise in Genesis 15:5 that Abraham’s descendants would be as the stars of heaven, and why that didn’t just mean “numerous,” but that they would someday be restored to the divine council alongside the angels. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. (1 Cor. 15:51-52, ESV) [T]hose who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. (Luke 20:35-36, ESV) Our latest book Veneration is now available for Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader! Click here and find out why readers rate Veneration 4.7 out of 5, describing it as "a must read" that "opens up…the Bible’s hidden mysteries." Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org. The Gilberts’ book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available for a special price (better than Amazon!) at the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com). Sharon's last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon's Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon's website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com. Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

A WAR fought near the Dead Sea nearly 4,000 years ago is the focus of this week’s study. After Abram arrived in Canaan and settled near Hebron, his nephew Lot was captured by an army from Mesopotamia that had come to put down a rebellion by the king of Sodom and his allies. We discuss the meanings of the names of the rebel kings, the possible identities of the kings of the east, and the significance of the Rephaim tribes defeated by the kings of Mesopotamia. We also discuss Melchizedek (malki-tsedeq, "my king is righteous" or "king of righteousness"), the king of Salem, who greeted Abram upon his return from rescuing Lot and the other captives from Sodom. Was he the incarnate Christ, as some believe? We think not, but it’s a question that’s still debated after 2,000 years, and we note the link between Jesus and Melchizedek in Hebrews chapter 7.
 The historical details provided by the Bible are consistent with the political situation in Mesopotamia in the early years of the reign of Hammurabi of Babylon, who may be the Amraphel of Shinar mentioned in Genesis 14. About 30 years into his reign, Hammurabi went to war with Elam, driving that kingdom out of the plains of Sumer, and then turned on his southern neighbor, Larsa (Ellasar), for not supporting Babylon in its war against their Elamite overlords. So, the events of Genesis 14 took place after Hammurabi ascended to the throne of Babylon but before his war with Elam. Chronologies of Mesopotamia variously date Hammurabi’s reign to 1848-1806 BC (High Chronology), 1792-1750 BC (Middle Chronology), or 1728-1686 BC (Low Chronology). The High Chronology fits best with the timeline of the Bible, which places Abram in Canaan by 1876 BC Note that since we studied this chapter in January of 2015, we’ve changed our minds about some things. Specifically: * Amraphel of Shinar may have been Hammurabi of Babylon * Ellasar most likely refers to the city-state of Larsa, a rival of Babylon that was conquered by Hammurabi around 1763 BC * Tidal of Goiim was probably a leader of the Gutians, a barbaric people from the mountains of northwest Iran * Sodom and the cities of the plain were not located southeast of the Dead Sea, but northeast, within sight of Jericho and Mount Nebo, at an archaeological site called Tall el-Hammam. To find out more about the evidence for identifying Tall el-Hammam in Jordan as ancient Sodom, log on to www.DigSodom.com, and listen to Derek’s interview with Dr. Phillip Silvia, part of the archaeological team excavating at Tall el-Hammam. Our latest book Veneration is now available for Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader! Click here and find out why readers rate Veneration 4.7 out of 5, describing it as "a must read" that "opens up…the Bible’s hidden mysteries." Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org. The Gilberts’ book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available for a special price (better than Amazon!) at the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com). Sharon's last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon's Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon's website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com. Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

GOD BEGINS a new phase of His plan to redeem humanity in this week’s study, as Abram is called from his homeland to journey south into Canaan. We explain again why Abram was not from Ur in Sumer, but from a town near modern Sanliurfa in southeastern Turkey. As you can see on a map, travelling to Canaan by way of Harran makes no sense. And beyond that, there are other cultural reasons that point to Abram’s northern Mesopotamian origins. We also discuss the significance of two of the key sites in the early years of Abram’s life in Canaan. Shechem was a city sacred to the ancient Amorite god Resheph, the plague-god and gatekeeper to the underworld known in the time of Jesus as Apollo, and Sodom, which we’ll explore in more detail in a few weeks, was very possibly the center of a cult devoted to Baal-Peor—which may have been another incarnation of that fallen angel. Articles you might find interesting: “Why the Midrash Has Abraham Thrown into Nimrod's Furnace” — Back story on the origin of the story that Nimrod threw Abraham into a fiery furnace. “Abraham and the Merchants of Ura” by Cyrus H. Gordon, the article that gives the scholarly evidence for Abraham’s northern origins “Abraham’s Real Roots” — Derek’s article for All Pro Pastors, which summarizes the arguments against putting Abraham’s home town in southeast. To find out more about the evidence for identifying Tall el-Hammam in Jordan as ancient Sodom, log on to www.DigSodom.com, and listen to Derek’s interview with Dr. Phillip Silvia, part of the archaeological team excavating at Tall el-Hammam. Our latest book Veneration is now available for Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader! Click here and find out why readers rate Veneration 4.7 out of 5, describing it as "a must read" that "opens up…the Bible’s hidden mysteries." Join us in Israel this year! We will lead another tour through the Holy Land October 12-25, 2020, with an optional four-day extension to the mysterious megalithic sites on the island of Sardinia to investigate the links between Sardinia and Israel. For more information, log on to SkyWatchTV.com/IsraelTour. Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org. The Gilberts’ book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available for a special price (better than Amazon!) at the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com). Sharon's last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon's Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon's website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com. Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

BEFORE WE pick up the story of Abraham, some context: When God divided the nations after the Tower of Babel incident, He placed them under the supervision of “sons of God,” angelic beings who were charged with carrying out His will while supervising His creation. We explain why understanding what happened at and after Babel is crucial to understanding the long supernatural war depicted in the Bible, not to mention the state of our fallen world today. Articles mentioned in this week’s study: “Deuteronomy 32:8-9 and the Old Testament Worldview” by Dr. Michael Heiser (overview; link opens PDF document)“Deuteronomy 32:8 and the Sons of God” by Dr. Michael Heiser (academic paper; link opens PDF document)“God vs. the Titans” by Derek P. Gilbert“Babel, the Abyss, and the Gate of the Gods” by Derek P. Gilbert“Abraham Was Not from Ur” by Derek P. Gilbert Our latest book Veneration is now available for Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader! Click here and find out why readers rate Veneration 4.7 out of 5, describing it as "a must read" that "opens up…the Bible’s hidden mysteries." Join us in Israel this year! We will lead another tour through the Holy Land October 12-25, 2020, with an optional four-day extension to the mysterious megalithic sites on the island of Sardinia to investigate the links between Sardinia and Israel. For more information, log on to SkyWatchTV.com/IsraelTour. Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org. The Gilberts’ book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available for a special price (better than Amazon!) at the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com). Sharon's last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon's Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon's website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com. Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

LEVIATHAN AND BEHEMOTH are featured this week as God uses them to illustrate the difference between Him and Job. While these creatures are described as possessing almost unimaginable power, they are as pets to our Lord, who made them just as He made us. We discuss the nature of Leviathan and Behemoth (and no, we do not believe they were a whale, giant squid, hippo, elephant, crocodile, or dinosaurs) and their parallels in pagan religions such as Tiamat, the Canaanite sea-god Yam, the Sumerian Bull of Heaven, and the “calf of El.” We cite a couple of extrabiblical texts, specifically 1 Enoch 60:7-10, 24 and 2 Esdras 6:49-52, which describe the ultimate fate of Leviathan and Behemoth, which is to serve as food for the pious (compare to the feast after the war of Gog and Magog in Ezekiel 39:17-20; also Revelation 19:17-18). These help to understand what Jewish religious scholars thought about Leviathan and Behemoth before the arrival of Jesus. Finally, we note that Job’s repentance at the end of the book is not the kind his friends encouraged; they wanted him to admit some unconfessed sin, whereas God accepted Job’s repentance for demanding an answer for his suffering. Our latest book Veneration is now available for Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader! Click here and find out why readers rate Veneration 4.7 out of 5, describing it as "a must read" that "opens up…the Bible’s hidden mysteries." Join us in Israel this year! We will lead another tour through the Holy Land October 12-25, 2020, with an optional four-day extension to the mysterious megalithic sites on the island of Sardinia to investigate the links between Sardinia and Israel. For more information, log on to SkyWatchTV.com/IsraelTour. Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org. The Gilberts’ book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available for a special price (better than Amazon!) at the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com). Sharon's last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon's Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon's website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com. Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

GOD ARRIVES on the scene to respond to Job’s complaints, and boy, does He bring the thunder. Literally. Speaking from a whirlwind, which is an image that had been co-opted by the fallen elohim to represent the Mesopotamian storm-god called Addu or Hadad (i.e., Baal). In fact, there are multiple references to the spirit realm and its rebellion in Job 38. God establishes His unequaled status in all Creation by reminding Job that he wasn’t there when God “laid the foundations of the earth” and “determined its measurements” while “all the sons of God [angels] shouted for joy”. God also mentions the chaoskampf (“struggle against chaos”) in verses 8-11, which are more than a description of God separating the land from the sea; this is a reference to a well-known story in the ancient Near East in which a warrior god subdues the forces of chaos represented by the sea or a sea-dragon (called Leviathan and Rahab in the Bible). We’ve encountered this already in Job 7:12, 9:13, and especially 26:5-13. (Go back to GHF #250 for a deeper dive into the chaoskampf). Our latest book Veneration is now available for Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader! Click here and find out why readers rate Veneration 4.7 out of 5, describing it as "a must read" that "opens up…the Bible’s hidden mysteries." Join us in Israel this year! We will lead another tour through the Holy Land October 12-25, 2020, with an optional four-day extension to the mysterious megalithic sites on the island of Sardinia to investigate the links between Sardinia and Israel. For more information, log on to SkyWatchTV.com/IsraelTour. Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org. The Gilberts’ book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available for a special price (better than Amazon!) at the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com). Sharon's last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon's Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon's website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com. Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

ELIHU CONTINUES his rebuke of Job, refuting the older man’s arguments and then encouraging him to repent. As Elihu concludes his discourse by describing the thunder of God’s voice and the “golden splendor” of His “awesome majesty”—a hint of what’s to come when God arrives in a whirlwind in chapter 38. Join us in Israel this year! We will lead another tour through the Holy Land October 12-25, 2020, with an optional four-day extension to the mysterious megalithic sites on the island of Sardinia to investigate the links between Sardinia and Israel. For more information, log on to SkyWatchTV.com/IsraelTour. Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org. The Gilberts’ new book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available now! For a special price (better than Amazon!), log on to the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com). Sharon's last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon's Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon's website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com. Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

JOB DELIVERS what is essentially his closing argument, recalling the days when his life was blessed, a respected member of the community, contrasting it with his current situation as one who’s mocked and despised. He asserts his innocence again, and issues another plea for a hearing. And then chapter 32 opens with a new character entering the scene: Elihu, a young man who’d been listening silently to his elders, unloads on Job and his friends. He’s angry at Job for justifying himself before God, and angry at his friends for accusing Job of sin without being able to answer him. Join us in Israel this year! We will lead another tour through the Holy Land October 12-25, 2020, with an optional four-day extension to the mysterious megalithic sites on the island of Sardinia to investigate the links between Sardinia and Israel. For more information, log on to SkyWatchTV.com/IsraelTour. Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org. The Gilberts’ new book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available now! For a special price (better than Amazon!), log on to the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com). Sharon's last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon's Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon's website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com. Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

A DRAGON in the Bible? Yes! And we see it here in the Book of Job. What’s more, we see a connection between this primordial enemy of God and the spirits of the Nephilim. Even before God created the heavens and the earth, He subdued Chaos—variously called Leviathan, “the deep” (the abyss; Hebrew tehom), the sea (the Canaanite sea-god Yam), or, as here in Job 26:12, Rahab, “the fleeing serpent.” We also discuss the creation account of Job 26, which tells the story of the original chaoskampf, the struggle against Chaos (see Job 26:12-13). We also talk about the true meaning of “the north,” the personification of Sheol and Abaddon, and why “the dead” of Job 26:5 does not refer to deceased humans. (It’s another reference to the Rephaim, the spirits of the Nephilim.) Other biblical references to God’s victory over Chaos: Genesis 1:2 (Tehom [“the deep”]) Job 7:12 (“sea monster” or “dragon”) Isaiah 27:1 (Leviathan, “fleeing serpent,” “twisting serpent,” “dragon”) Isaiah 51:9 (Rahab, “dragon” or “sea monster”) Psalm 74:12-14 (Leviathan, “sea monsters” or “dragons”) Psalm 89:9-10 (Yam [“the sea”], Rahab) Proverbs 8:27-29 (Yam [“the sea”], Tehom [“the deep”]) Note that Hebrew tehom is essentially a cognate (same word, different language) for Tiamat, the Sumerian name for the primordial chaos-dragon. Join us in Israel this year! We will lead another tour through the Holy Land October 12-25, 2020, with an optional four-day extension to the mysterious megalithic sites on the island of Sardinia to investigate the links between Sardinia and Israel. For more information, log on to SkyWatchTV.com/IsraelTour. Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org. The Gilberts’ new book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available now! For a special price (better than Amazon!), log on to the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com). Sharon's last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon's Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon's website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com. Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

JOB’S FRIENDS grow increasingly accusatory as we go through the book. This week, we hear the final speeches of Zophar and Eliphaz, who have gone from gently reminding Job that God punishes the wicked to accusing their miserable, suffering friend of mistreating the poor, widowed, and homeless! We speculate on the role of the accuser (“the satan”) in provoking their aggressive responses to Job, discuss the title of God in these chapters, the Almighty, and again contrast English Bible translations based on the Masoretic Hebrew text with the Septuagint version produced by Jewish religious scholars a thousand years earlier. Join us in Israel this year! We will lead another tour through the Holy Land October 12-25, 2020, with an optional four-day extension to the mysterious megalithic sites on the island of Sardinia to investigate the links between Sardinia and Israel. For more information, log on to SkyWatchTV.com/IsraelTour. Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org. The Gilberts’ new book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available now! For a special price (better than Amazon!), log on to the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com). Sharon's last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon's Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon's website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com. Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

JOB’S UNDERSTANDING of the afterlife was a reflection of the culture around him, which was dominated by the Amorites who controlled the ancient Near East from about 2000 BC to 1400 BC. They believed that the dead depended on the living to feed them to sustain them after death. But even with that, Job knew that his Redeemer lived, “and at the last he will stand upon the earth”—and that Job would see that day with his own eyes, a clear prophecy of the resurrection of the dead described by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:35-55. We discuss the ancient Near Eastern view of life after death, the significance of sacred mountains and tells, dolmens, and the Rephaim in the context of Job’s complaint. Here’s the link to the free online and audiobook editions of The Star that Astonished the World by E. L. Martin, an analysis of the astronomical and prophetic evidence that points to September 11, 3 BC as the actual birth date of Jesus. Join us in Israel in 2020! We will lead another tour through the Holy Land October 12-25, 2020, with an optional four-day extension to the mysterious megalithic sites on the island of Sardinia to investigate the links between Sardinia and Israel. For more information, log on to SkyWatchTV.com/IsraelTour. Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org. The Gilberts’ new book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available now! For a special price (better than Amazon!), log on to the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com). Sharon's last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon's Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon's website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com. Derek's new book Bad Moon Rising: Islam, Armageddon, and the Most Diabolical Double-Cross in History is now available! Get an unbeatable deal on the book at the SkyWatchTV Store. Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

JOB CONTINUES his lament this week, openly wishing that he could hide in Sheol until God’s anger was past. In response, Eliphaz the Temanite accuses Job of guilt, asserting that God only punishes the wicked, something that we know is true, but judgment doesn’t always happen when we want it—right now, in the physical realm, where we can see it. Furthermore, we can see with our own eyes, as Job did, that bad things happen to good people. We also discuss a messianic prophecy, a reference to the divine council (Job 15:17—the “holy ones” are probably the Watchers; see Daniel 4:13, 17) and what may be a reference to the dolmens of the Jordan River valley (the “heaps of ruins” in Job 15:28). Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org. The Gilberts’ new book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available now! For a special price (better than Amazon!), log on to the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com). Sharon's last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon's Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon's website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com. Derek's new book Bad Moon Rising: Islam, Armageddon, and the Most Diabolical Double-Cross in History is now available! Get an unbeatable deal on the book at the SkyWatchTV Store. Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

JOB FINALLY vents, declaring that he must speak freely since his effort to forget his complaint has failed. In chapter 10, Job addresses God in forceful language, accusing Him of being unjust and demanding answers for his suffering. Then Job’s second friend, Zophar the Naamathite, responds and offers little comfort. Zophar asserts that Job is guilty and deserving of God’s punishment—in fact, probably deserving of worse than he’s already suffered. Job replies that everyone knows God is sovereign and accuses his friends of speaking falsely for God. Contenting to assert his innocence, Job addresses God directly, pleading with God to hear his case. Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org. The Gilberts’ new book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available now! For a special price (better than Amazon!), log on to the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com). Sharon's last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon's Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon's website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com. Derek's new book Bad Moon Rising: Islam, Armageddon, and the Most Diabolical Double-Cross in History is now available! Get an unbeatable deal on the book at the SkyWatchTV Store. Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

JOB REPLIES to the rebuke of Eliphaz and brings up some interesting points for our study this week. While admitting that God is just and all-powerful, the suffering Job still maintains that his complaints are justified. We see another reference to the divine council in Job’s mention of “the arrows of the Almighty (Shaddai)” and “the terrors of God.” Then we discuss Job’s anguished question, “Am I the sea(-god) [Yam], or a sea monster [tannin; i.e., a dragon] that you set a guard over me?” (Job 7:12) This is a reference to Genesis 1:2 and God’s taming of the forces of chaos, a theme to which Job returns in chapter 9, and which we’ll see in depth later in our study of this book. Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org. The Gilberts’ new book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available for pre-order now from SkyWatchTV! Log on to the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com) for more information. Sharon's last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon's Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon's website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com. Derek's new book Bad Moon Rising: Islam, Armageddon, and the Most Diabolical Double-Cross in History is now available! Get an unbeatable deal on the book at the SkyWatchTV Store. Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

THE DIVINE COUNCIL worldview is clearly reflected in the ongoing discourse of Eliphaz the Temanite, as he mentions the "Holy Ones," an epithet used elsewhere in the Old Testament for the Watchers (Daniel 4:13, 17). We also discuss the hidden meaning of the “sparks” in Job 5:7, the bene resheph or “sons of Resheph,” and the significance of the Canaanite plague-god Resheph (hint: Resheph was called Apollo by the Greeks and Romans). Question: Which god did Eliphaz serve? Was he a pagan? We assume it was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but Job lived between the time of Noah and the birth of Abraham and God had not yet revealed His name to humanity. That happened hundreds of years later with Moses on Mount Sinai (Exodus 6:3). So, assuming Eliphaz served the same God as Job, he would probably have known Yahweh as El Shaddai, a theory supported by Eliphaz’ reference to “the Almighty” (shadday) in Job 5:17. We also discuss other nouns such as “affliction,” “trouble,” “injustice,” “destruction,” and “famine,” because those were often considered to be demonic entities in the ancient Near East. This is a great exercise in trying to get inside the head of someone who lived more than four thousand years ago on the other side of the world, although admittedly somewhat speculative. The takeaway: Eliphaz rebuked Job for blaming God for his troubles, which Eliphaz appears to think are Job’s fault for being insufficiently devout. Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org. The Gilberts’ new book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available for pre-order now from SkyWatchTV! Log on to the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com) for more information. Sharon's last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon's Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon's website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com. Derek's new book Bad Moon Rising: Islam, Armageddon, and the Most Diabolical Double-Cross in History is now available! Get an unbeatable deal on the book at the SkyWatchTV Store. Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

THE FRIENDS of Job are to be commended for giving up so much of their time to commiserate with him in his suffering. However, their understanding of the cause of his suffering is incomplete. At least they were more encouraging than Job’s wife, who advised him to “curse God and die.” We discuss the divine council reference in Job 2, the nature of Satan (or “the satan”), the location of the home of Eliphaz the Temanite, another clue that Job lived somewhere in what later became Edom (possibly near Petra), Job’s wish that he’d never been born, a veiled reference to the spirits of the Rephaim in Job 3:14-15, and Eliphaz’s description of what sounds like sleep paralysis or night terrors when he was visited by Pachad, a demonic spirit called “Terror.” The book Sharon mentioned during the program, A Commentary on the Book of Job by Rev. Jonathan Kelsey Burr, published in 1879, is available for free from Google Books. Click here to download the PDF or add it to Google Play Books. Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org. The Gilberts’ new book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available for pre-order now from SkyWatchTV! Log on to the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com) for more information. Sharon's last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon's Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon's website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com. Derek's new book Bad Moon Rising: Islam, Armageddon, and the Most Diabolical Double-Cross in History is now available! Get an unbeatable deal on the book at the SkyWatchTV Store. Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

JOB HAS become a symbol for patient suffering in the face of overwhelming adversity, but there’s a lot more to his story than that. This week, we begin our study of one of the most fascinating books of the Bible. We discuss the historical context of Job, the significance of Job’s probable homeland east of the Jordan River, our glimpse at the workings of the divine council, and the role of the satan in the council—because Satan wasn’t a proper name in the Old Testament. Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org. The Gilberts’ new book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available for pre-order now from SkyWatchTV! Log on to the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com) for more information. Sharon's last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon's Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon's website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com. Derek's new book Bad Moon Rising: Islam, Armageddon, and the Most Diabolical Double-Cross in History is now available! Get an unbeatable deal on the book at the SkyWatchTV Store. Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

AFTER THE construction of Tower of Babel, the descendants of Noah spread across the earth. This week, we discuss the descendants of Shem, since it’s from his line that the Lord brought forth His Messiah. We also discuss the days of Peleg, whose name means to cleave or divide. What caused the breakup of the land masses of the earth in ancient times? Was it linked to the punishment of the Watchers who descended to Mount Hermon and were punished by being thrust down to Tartarus (2 Peter 2:4)? Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org. The Gilberts’ new book Veneration: Unveiling the Ancient Realms of Demonic Kings and Satan’s Battle Plan for Armageddon is available for pre-order now from SkyWatchTV! Log on to the SkyWatchTV Store (www.skywatchtvstore.com) for more information. Sharon's last novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon's Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon's website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com. Derek's new book Bad Moon Rising: Islam, Armageddon, and the Most Diabolical Double-Cross in History is now available! Get an unbeatable deal on the book at the SkyWatchTV Store. Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

THE TOWER of Babel was not at Babylon. It was at a place that was at least as important in the spiritual sense: Eridu. The Sumerians remember Eridu as the first city, where “kingship” was lowered from heaven, and, most important, it’s where the oldest and largest ziggurat in Mesopotamia was located. That was the temple of the god Enki, the E-abzu — the “House of the Abyss.” It was believed that Enki sent the gifts of civilization to humanity with the apkallu, the Mesopotamian Watchers, angelic beings who were later banished to the abzu by the chief god Marduk. Of course, that’s a twisted version of the biblical account in which the rebellious Watchers were imprisoned by God in Tartarus (2 Peter 2:4; Jude 1:6). We explain why Babel should not be confused with Babylon, discuss the identity of the historical character the Hebrews called Nimrod, and speculate on why the Tower of Babel was so offensive that God personally intervened to stop it. Here is a link to Derek’s article on Babel, an excerpt from his 2017 book The Great Inception. And here is a link to the translation of the poem Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, which we think holds clues to what really happened on the plains of Shinar. Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org. Sharon's new novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon's Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon's website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com. Derek's new book Bad Moon Rising: Islam, Armageddon, and the Most Diabolical Double-Cross in History is now available! Get an unbeatable deal on the book at the SkyWatchTV Store. Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

THE NATIONS of the world have their origins in decisions made in the years immediately following the Flood. This week, we discuss the table of nations and briefly summarize the migrations of the descendants of Shem, Japheth, and Ham. We also explain why Babel was important to Nimrod, a prelude to next week’s study on the Tower of Babel. Download these studies directly to your phone, tablet, or iPod! Get our free mobile app for iOS and Android. Links to the iTunes App Store and Google Play are on the main page at www.GilbertHouse.org. Sharon's new novel Realms of Fire is available for Amazon's Kindle e-book reader! The print edition should be available this week. For more information, see Sharon's website, www.sharonkgilbert.com, or www.TheRedwingSaga.com. Derek's new book Bad Moon Rising: Islam, Armageddon, and the Most Diabolical Double-Cross in History is now available! Get an unbeatable deal on the book at the SkyWatchTV Store. Click here for the complete archive of our New Testament Bible studies to date, and click here for the Old Testament studies to date. Or go to www.spreaker.com/show/gilbert-house-fellowship for all of the audio.

Amazon is paying tons of money on research to get you reading more. I wonder if clickbait like this would work. Sponsor: Missional Wear - the gift shop for reformed theology enthusiasts! Links How to Pronounce Arduino The psychological tricks Amazon's Kindle plays on you Man Accidentally Performs Yoga Pose, Is Possessed By Horde Of Demons 135: Abstracting Parenting with Gamification Ways to Contact Us Chat with the listener community in Slack: slack.techreformation.com Visit our website to search for past shows and topics Shout out at us on Twitter at @techreformation! Hosts David Mikucki Ryan Tankersley Review us on Apple Podcasts and recommend us on Overcast, or even better - share Tech Reformation with a friend! Music used by special permission of Matthew Parker. Check him out on SoundCloud and iTunes!

Screw The Commute Podcast Show Notes Episode 006 Daniel Hall 01:06 Tom's introduction to Daniel Hall 02:43 Who is Daniel Hall and what does he do 06:55 Tips on working your own business when you're the boss 10:36 As the boss, you MUST stay involved 12:30 Daniel's recommendations for starting 16:16 Getting screwed in business 19:03 Daniel went to a nude beach in Austin, Texas! (Austin????) 20:14 What's the worst part of working for yourself and what you should do 22:07 How to publish your blog to Amazon's Kindle platform 24:04 Sponsor message 24:45 A typical day for Daniel 29:00 Parting thoughts for us "screw" balls 31:34 Daniel was a Tom Antion mentee *** Resources mentioned in this podcast *** Screw The Commute - https://screwthecommute.com/ Real Fast Results - http://realfastresults.com/ Daniel Hall Presents - http://www.danielhallpresents.com/ Hippee Hollow in Austin, Texas - http://www.hippiehollow.com/ Publish your blog to Kindle - http://www.danielhallpresents.com/getcode Internet Marketing Training Center - https://imtcva.org/ Tom Antion on Daniel's podcast - http://realfastresults.com/38 I discovered a great new headline / subject line / subheading generator that will actually analyze which headlines and subject lines are best for your market. I negotiated a deal with the developer of this revolutionary and inexpensive software. Oh, and it's good on Mac and PC. Go here: http://tinyurl.com/ows2wu5  

TechCentral — In this episode of the TechCentral podcast, Duncan McLeod chats to Simon Dingle, former technology journalist, long-time podcaster, speaker and technologist, about his new book, In Math We Trust, about the world of cryptocurrencies. The book, available in bookstores around South Africa and on Amazon's Kindle, is a quick, three-hour read about the emergence and rise of bitcoin and other forms of crypto money. In the podcast, Dingle explains why he believes the current system of fiat currencies in ripe for disruption. He talks about how money gets its value, why crypto money has inherent advantages over the world's current monetary systems and how governments will find it hard to control and regulate. He explains why bitcoin is likely to maintain its lead as the world's preeminent cryptocurrency, why we shouldn't worry too much about the amount of electricity bitcoin mining consumes and whether crypto money has any downsides. It's a fascinating discussion ... don't miss it!

Millions of people use Amazon's "Kindle" reading device to download their favorite books.  When you visit the Kindle Store, you will discover an amazing array of romance genres:  historical romance, Amish romance, paranormal romance, Western romance, and many more.   In the Old Testament, the book of Ruth is given to us as a story of "redemptive romance"-- a romance story that not only transforms Ruth's life-- but ours too.  In this opening message, Pastor Ryan Day unpacks the critical background information you need to know before studying Ruth.  ~Introduction to Ruth 

Monday! Hopefully the day we all dread hasn't been too bad for you. We have some interesting news bits for you today: Apple is now accepting trade-ins of older Apple Watches Watch out, Apple! Google Chromebooks are already eating your lunch in the education market, and now Google and Acer have teamed up for the low-cost Acer Chromebook Tab 10 tablet. Can Apple beat it with a lower-cost iPad expected to be announced tomorrow? Use an iPad with a PC? The Microsoft Edge browser now runs on iPad, so you can send web pages from your iPad or iPhone directly to your Windows PC Apple's "original content" for streaming TV won't arrive until next March, and they're working on upbeat, optimistic content Amazon's Kindle app for iPad now supports Split View and a new continuous scrolling mode --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tangible-tech/support

Carl Pullein returns to Multinewmedia to talk about the second edition of his book, Your Digital Life, now available on Amazon's Kindle e-book store and Apple's iBookstore. Carl and Chase talk about the P.A.C.T. model for increasing and sustaining your peak productivity in the modern digital world. Whether you're a content creator or a business person who relies on technology for your productive work, Carl and his book offer a wealth of valuable information.

Andy Weir, the author of the hit science fiction novel "The Martian," talks with Recode's Edmund Lee about his new book, "Artemis." Set in a city on Earth's Moon in the late 2080s, "Artemis" is a crime caper that centers on a smuggler named Jazz, a young woman who moved to the Moon from Saudi Arabia. Weir explains how "The Martian" became an accidental hit thanks to Amazon's Kindle platform, but also why crowdfunding isn't the future of all media — he wrote "Artemis" with a traditional print publisher already on board. Plus: How Weir writes diverse characters, why he never visited the set of "The Martian" movie and when humans will live on the Moon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From first-timers to veterans, novelists to photographers, BookBaby have helped thousands prove that it doesn’t take a traditional publishing deal to bring a dream to life. You can do it yourself. Publish your book worldwide on Amazon's Kindle, iPad, Barnes and Noble's Nook, and many more. Founder/CEO: Steven Spatz talks about how you can do this and much more with BookBaby. Demonstrating an extraordinary commitment to empowering the independent writer, full-stack self-publishing service provider BookBaby has taken the initiative to produce the largest survey ever conducted in the publishing world, designed to identify and reveal the methods of successful independent authors. Self-published authors can now enjoy the best of both worlds: Maximizing reach and profits through the benefits of Amazon’s Kindle Select promotional tools, while making the most of BookBaby’s own industry-leading worldwide digital distribution. Steven loves to hear from authors, editors, and publishers in the BookBaby community with tales of publishing trials and triumphs. To tell him your story, write to steven@bookbaby.com.    

Adrian Ingram is only 21 years old and already makes a $4,500 a month from publishing books on Amazon's Kindle store. In this episode he openly shares how he got into kindle publishing, how he outsources the entire process and what his college friends are up to, while he travels the world and hangs out in Thailand.  If you want to check out the course Adrian is a member of and where he learned how to make money with kindle books take a look at K Money Mastery which he has been a paid member of for the past two years. You can listen to episode 84 on iTunes here.  Adrian Ingram - FB One of Adrian's books: Shipping Container Homes Another Example: Gardening Books The course Adrian is a paid member of K Money Mastery(please use my link if you end up signing up for the course if you want to give me credit for referring you) Adrian recently created his own course called Freedom Publishing ​ Find Writters from: EpicWrite.com Make Covers from: Fiverr.com Johnny's 1st Book: 12 Weeks in Thailand Johnny's 2nd Book: Life Changes Quick 

Have you ever thought about becoming an Author or do you have any idea for the next best-selling novel that you just haven't gotten around to writing? If so, this episode is for you! On this episode I am sharing my secret sauce used while creating my very own e-Book - DeCLASSifed: The Fall of the Middle Class and Rise of the Internet Entrepreneur. After you listen to this episode you should have the right mindset and know exactly how to go about and creating the novel or book that you've always wanted to write. If you've never thought about becoming an author and earning income off your work, this is not for you! #NewClassRising #021 @Hector_Avellan [TweetThis] Hit Me Up Follow-me: @Hector_Avellan The Blog: http://NewClassRising.com

Author James Houston Turner's new Talanov thriller is out and is already #1 on Amazon's Kindle list. The book is November Echo. James talks with Larry Matthews about the book, about the real Talanov, and his writing.

A new era in how we do these podcasts begins! tetrisdork, Racattack, Sketch, Don East, and Dragonpiece launch the very first episode of The [Real] Scratch Pad's Official Podcast, The ScratchCast, with friend-of-the-blog Ryan Mead! On the docket: tetrisdork's Anime Weekend Atlanta trip, Racattack's review of My Life Me, news about DC Nation and Barnes & Noble's spat over DC's deal with Amazon's Kindle store, Steve Jobs' death, and TANGENTS! GLORIOUS TANGENTS!Free Royalty-Free Music By DanoSongs.comDownload Podcast

Barnes & Noble introduces a new rival to Amazon's Kindle.  Costco reports strong earnings.  And a BBC documentary uncovers Apple's religious appeal.

Here's a special fiction edition of the DSD Podcast.Dan O'Shea reads Steve Weddle's "Missed Flight." If you like Dan's reading of "Missed Flight," check out his reading of another Oscar Martello story, "Walkaways," which you can find at Seth Harwood's CrimeWav. And check out Dan's site for his own stories.The story "Missed Flight" appeared at Beat To A Pulp here.Also, we've announced the new book for the DSD book group. More info here.The DSD collection TERMINAL DAMAGE, containing "Walkaways," is available at Amazon's Kindle store and at Smashwords. AS ALWAYS:You can get the FREE podcast by1. Right-clicking on the title up there at the top (or, if you have one of those Apple computers, whatever you people do)2. Visiting the iTunes music storeor3. Visiting the Feedburner pageor4. Click here

If you've given any thought to Linux, I'd like to recommend a couple of books to you. One is for those who want the basics and not much more. The other is for those who want to know everything. Would you like the Windows Explorer to open to a specific drive or directory each time you use it? I'll tell you how. PC Magazine has released a new utility that improves how traceroute works. In Short Circuits, why I love the Kindle but hate Amazon's Kindle policies, a new way to buy Mac software, and some Mac Air models that will tempt you.

Lead singer James Hart of rock band Burn Halo talks with Eric Olsen. At 6:30, BC Sr. Music Editor Josh Hathaway joins Lisa McKay, Phillip Winn, EO to talk about Amazon's Kindle... and maybe music and sports and anything else that strikes our fancy.

Here are the show highlights for episode #31 of the Geek News Daily podcast for August 28, 2008. * Microsoft says a 120GB Zune is coming * Opentape invites the RIAA to play whack-a-mole post-Muxtape * The WB comes back to life as a Hulu competitor * AT&T adds two international data plans for the iPhone, still expensive * iPhone 3Gs outnumber 1st Gen iPhones * iPhone Dev Team releases PwnageTool 2.0.3 to jailbreak 2.0.2 firmware * Amazon's Kindle gets $100 discount in Chase promotion * Network notary system thwarts man-in-the-middle attacks * Google Suggest finally makes its debut Cool Links of the Day: Wii Balance Board controls Roomba & Treadmills used to play WoW Host: Jeremy "pcnerd37" Bray

This week we discuss Amazon's Kindle, a revolutionary device that could change the way we read. See NotesinSpanish.com to pick up the accompanying transcript/worksheet.

Let us help you get your book available on Amazon's Kindle. It's the new revolutionary way to sell books!!