Category: Blog

The Talmud (Tractate Makkot 23b) recounts that there are 613 mitzvot in the Torah; of these, 248 are positive mitzvot (things we must do) and 365 are considered negative mitzvot (things we must not do). The following list of the 613 mitzvot is from one of our greatest scholars, Moses ben Maimon, or Maimonides, who…

Jewish marriage is the coming together of a man and a woman, following those laws established in Torah, in a manner that honors God and in such a way that they are recognized by the Jewish community. Marriage, we must understand, has a divinely appointed purpose which is why the Christians refer to it as…

A Christian article, but worth reading. An Article by David B. Sloan Recently the Logos Bible Software blog posted an excerpt from David Instone-Brewer’s book Moral Questions of the Bible: Timeless Truths in a Changing World that argued that “Jesus criticized polygamy as a warped version of the lifelong committed relationship of a one-plus-one marriage.”…

This article is written from a Christian perspective not a Jewish one, but is worth reading. An Article by David B. Sloan It is often said that the Bible defines marriage as “a lifelong commitment between one man and one woman,” meaning that polygamy is unbiblical.[1] But the Bible offers no such definition and has…

The Cowboy Hat is the most iconic and recognized clothing accessory in the world.  No matter where I go, wearing a cowboy hat is sure to mark me as part of America’s Western culture.  Sure, there are a few places outside of the U.S. where cowboy hats thrive, but even when they put their own…

The Shannon number, named after the American mathematician Claude Shannon, is a conservative lower bound of the game-tree complexity of chess of 10120, based on an average of about 103 possibilities for a pair of moves consisting of a move for White followed by a move for Black, and a typical game lasting about 40…

The word “bu” of budo (martial arts) is written with the Chinese character for “stop” within a character signifying two crossed halberds meaning to stop conflict. Since karate is a budo, this meaning should be deeply considered, and the fists should not be used heedlessly. Youth is justice and vigor. Vigor is stimulated by bu…

FIRST, since karate is a martial art, you must practice with the utmost seriousness from the very beginning. This means going beyond being simply diligent or sincere in your training. In every step, in every movement of your hand, you must imagine yourself facing an opponent with a drawn sword. Each and every punch must…

Master Gichin Funakoshi, the founder of Shotokan karate, laid out the Twenty Precepts of Karate (Niju kun), which are there as a guide for all karateka to follow and adhere to. These principles form the foundations of Shotokan karate. These twenty principles were based heavily on Bushido and Zen. The principles allude to notions of…

Founder of Shotokan Karate-Do Gichin Funakoshi was born in Shuri, Okinawa, in 1868. As a boy, he was trained by two famous masters. Each trained him in a different Okinawan martial art. From Yasutsune Azato, he learned Shuri-te. From Yasutsune Itosu, he learned Naha-te. It would be the melding of these two styles that would…