September 6, 2025

Life in the Land: Sufganiyot

My favorite doughnuts are the jelly-filled and cream-filled. I also like blueberry cake doughnuts! So one day I’m walking through the famous Jerusalem Market, Machane Yehuda, and I see a corner shop with trays of a Jewish dessert called, sufganiyot. I immediately thought, “Doughnuts! Yum!” but then I’m told that sufganiyot are different from doughnuts.

The Hebrew word, sufganiyah (the singular form of sufganiyot), essentially means “sponge” and refers to the airy texture of the fried dessert. I’ve heard and even read attempts at differentiating between a sufganiyah and a doughnut, but for me it amounts to a difference without a distinction though a few Jewish flavor combinations of a sufganiyah may be new to you like the ones filled with lychee cream, halva or the savory ones filled with shawarma.

Israelis especially enjoy sufganiyot at Hanukkah whether they purchase them at local bakeries or make them at home. In the 1920s the Israeli Labor Federation declared sufganiyot the official food of Hanukkah, and along with other fried foods, such as latkas (potato pancakes) and schnitzel (thin, boneless cuts of meat), they remind the Jews of the miraculous multiplication of oil in the temple during the time of the ancient Maccabees.

Which sufganiyah do you want to try?

– Daniel McCabe

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Our New Community Seminar Series for Fall 2025

We still need a few more to register for our Fall seminar before we can launch! You’ll not only profit from it, but you’ll really enjoy it! Register and invite others to join you.

Topic: “The Greatest Biblical Archaeological Discoveries of All Time”—our weekly multimedia presentation will cover such finds as the Dead Sea Scrolls, Hezekiah’s Tunnel, the Pilate Stone and more.

Teacher: Dr. Daniel McCabe, MACE, ThM, DMin—Executive Director of Shalom Y’all Ministries, former Instructor at the College of Biblical Studies and Pastor of Cullman Bible Church

Location: Golden Corral at 1720 Cherokee Ave SW in Cullman, Alabama

Time: Mondays, 6:00-7:15 pm, starting September 22, eight weeks

Cost: Free—you can attend the seminar without purchasing a buffet or you can choose to enjoy a meal before, during or after the seminar. All ages are welcome to attend.

To Launch: We need a minimum of 10https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt7GBTksUYY people to sign up for the seminar before we can launch, so please let us know of your interest by clicking on the attached link.

Trivia (Answer below)

Approximately how many Jews living in Israel today have accepted Jesus as the Messiah?

A. 200

B. 2000

C. 20,000

D. 200,000

The Apostolic Fathers: Clement of Rome, part 3

I bet you couldn’t tell me even one thing that John Tyler did during his presidency. Did you even know that the United States had a president by that name? I’m one of those who did because my high school football team played the Lions of John Tyler High School every year, but John Tyler only became president because William Henry Harrison died thirty-one days into office after catching pneumonia at his inauguration.

So I wouldn’t be surprised or the least bit offended if you didn’t know the name of Clement of Rome. History variously lists him as either the second, third or fourth bishop of Rome with Peter being usually listed as the first. Apart from a questionable account of Clement’s martyrdom which claims that he was tied to an anchor and thrown into the sea, not a lot is known of his personal life unless, of course, he is one and the same with the Clement mentioned by Paul in Phil. 4:3 who labored alongside him. Paul’s letter to the Philippians almost certainly originated in Rome, so it’s a reasonable possibility.

Some argue that Clement was a Roman Jew connected with the distinguished Flavian family, the dynasty of three emperors—Vespasian, Titus and Domitian—and thus with the imperial household within which Christianity found an early foothold, according to Phil. 4:22. Most sources date Clement’s time as bishop to approximately 92-99 A.D., perhaps even a little later, and during those years he wrote a letter to the church at Corinth. Showing knowledge of Paul’s earlier correspondence with the Corinthian church in which Paul addressed serious internal problems, including sexual sin, the misuse of spiritual gifts and infighting, it’s both ironic and heartbreaking that decades after Paul’s first letter, Clement addresses ongoing problems in the church, particularly internal division centered around the deposition of the church’s elders by a younger faction.

All this leads to the truth that if sin is left unaddressed, it will not right itself. May we humble ourselves in the face of our own personal and church challenges and consider others more highly than we do ourselves so that we may find a personal peace that secures for us a reputation of godliness rather than a reputation for being selfish and power-hungry.

– Daniel McCabe

Scripture Study: The High Priestly Prayer of John 17, part 3

Having prayed for Himself, Jesus now prays for His disciples. He says in v. 6, “I have manifested Your name to the people whom You gave Me out of the world.” Jesus is thinking of His eleven disciples, but also of every other disciple in His day who received Him, those whom God had elected and entrusted to Jesus “whom You gave Me out of the world.” Jesus manifested the Father’s name to those people. “Yours they were, and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.”

V. 7, “Now they know that everything that You have given Me is from You.” Jesus revealed the Father to them. They have believed. They have followed Him even though they are far from perfect people. We know, for example, that Peter during a crisis of faith will deny Jesus three times in Caiaphas’s courtyard. None of these people are perfect, but they have dedicated their lives to following Jesus, except for Judas, of course, and they know that everything is ultimately from the Father.

Jesus continues, starting in v. 8, “For I have given them the words that You gave Me, and they’ve received them and have come to know in truth that I came from You, and they have believed that You sent Me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours.” This doesn’t mean that Jesus didn’t care for the rest of the world, but only that in this specific prayer, in this specific moment, He is uttering words for His disciples.

V. 10, “All Mine are Yours and Yours are Mine and I am glorified in them.” Jesus will pray for the unity of His followers soon, but here He gets to the basis for their unity in describing the unity that He has with His Father. Jesus is inextricably linked with the glory of the Father, yet while He walked around on earth, He didn’t receive the divine glory that was rightly His, and that’s the fault of mankind. That’s our fault, not His. But He’s looking forward to that glory which He will share again. While He was on earth, He revealed the truth from the Father to His disciples, and His disciples did receive it. They belong to Him as much as they belong to God the Father.

Next, Jesus says in v. 11, “I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world and I am coming to You now.” In a couple of days He’ll no longer be in the world, so He’s anticipating what’s coming next. He basically says, “I’m as good as out of it now because of what’s going to happen in the next couple days.” But the disciples are still in the world. They still have a mission and a life here for years or perhaps even decades following the departure of Jesus, and so in several of the chapters leading up to this chapter, He is getting them ready for the very hard life and ministry that they’re going to face. They will be rejected by the world at every turn, but they will be stalwart and loyal to the mission that they’ve been given by God, and they will testify to the Messiah, Jesus Christ, for the rest of their lives. I believe this to be Christ’s main concern here in these chapters and in this High Priestly Prayer.

“They are in the world,” v. 11, “and I’m coming to You, Holy Father, keep them in Your name, which You have given Me that they may be one even as We are one.” Notice Jesus’ request here, what He wants for them and, by extension, what He wants for us as well, meaning all believers in the church. But, of course, specifically for what He wants for the eleven disciples, that “they may be one even as”—look at the comparison here—“even as We are,” the Father and the Son. He wants for the disciples the perfect unity of the Father and Son, an unbreakable unity. He desires that Peter, James, John and all of the disciples be so united and so one that it would produce success and effectiveness in their ministry as they testify to the glory of God in the years to come. Can you imagine having a unity with believers that’s of the same type that Jesus has with the Father? That would be transforming. It would transform all our relationships!

– Adam Keim

My Favorite Places in Israel: #6, Tower of David

“[Sabinus] did himself get up to the highest tower of the fortress Phasael, which had been built in honor of Phasael, King Herod’s brother, and called so, when the Parthians had brought him to his death” (Josephus, The Wars of the Jews, 9.2).

Today’s entry of my favorite places in Israel is the Tower of David, which, funny enough, has nothing to do with David. Perched on the western side of Jerusalem’s old city, the remains there actually belong to Herod’s palace. Stout stone towers mark the site, and it is unmistakable as you walk anywhere near it.

Byzantine Christians began calling the structure “David’s Tower” in the 5th century AD when they mistook it for the legendary king’s own palace. But this portion of the city was not yet settled in David’s day. Instead it is where Herod dwelt in the New Testament era and where Jesus was examined separately by both Pilate and Herod during his trial.

The remains of the most notable tower on the northeast corner of the ruins are from Herod’s original construction. That tower he named Phasael in honor of his brother. Today the grounds house the Tower of David Museum – a stop which is well worth your time (as well as your entrance fee)!

The museum is a walk-through tour of different eras in Jerusalem’s history. Not only are you walking through Herod’s old palace itself, but you are learning about Jerusalem’s life in chronological order. There is even an augmented reality virtual tour available so you can “see” Jerusalem as it was at Herod’s palace through time. On several nights the museum is part of a fascinating light and sound show. Learn more and plan your visit at https://www.tod.org.il/en.

You can scale to the top of a rebuilt tower that rests on the base of Phasael, and from there you can take in a wonderful panoramic view of Jerusalem’s entire old city. Nearby, be sure to drop in on my favorite coffee shop in Israel – the Christ Church Coffee Shop. How I long to return there to enjoy a latte or Turkish Coffee and to sit at one of the streetside tables, watching Israelis and pilgrims alike meandering through the enchanting city!

– Adam Keim

Answer to the Trivia

C. 20,000