Goldwork for the Golden Calf
Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought such great sin upon them?” Aaron said, “Let not my lord be enraged. You know…
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Browsing Tag: culture
The Sacrifices Between Revelation and Ascension
So do you ever read the Bible and think to yourself, how much blood did Moses throw anyway? No? Maybe it’s just me. Book research can take you along a…
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A Wedding in the Desert
Jewish weddings even today follow traditions thousands of years old. Still, a modern wedding, no matter how strictly observant, will not be the same as one from Biblical times. So…
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Yavapai Dances
Among our time travelers is a sibling group (Zach, age 10, and twins, Helena and Yelena, age 9) who are one quarter Jewish and one quarter Native American, from the…
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A Gay Old Time
Every single society ever has had members who fall in love with people deemed the wrong gender for them (or it’s a society that doesn’t place those restrictions on relationships)….
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Turquoise
A sky blue gemstone found in only a few places in the world. Including Egypt and Arizona. Turquoise is a blue-green copper-aluminum phosphate mineral much associated with ancient Egypt…It is…
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Voices in My Head
Hearing voices in modern culture is almost always diagnosed as some sort of mental illness. Ditto seeing things that aren’t there. Some cultures and religions may have a different take,…
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How to Speak Like a Baptist
Two of my point of view characters are siblings Phoebe and Malcolm. Their dad, Irving, has (non-practicing) Jewish parents. Their mom, Pam, is Baptist. Pam is black and grew up…
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Baptist Church Life: Houston and Beyond
This post contains foundational research which I use in the followup, How to Speak Like a Baptist. The Baptist Faith Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing believers only…
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The Mosquito Fleet of Galveston
Galveston and Galveston Bay is a long-standing shrimping area just south of Houston, Texas. The rich marine resources of Galveston Bay and offshore waters were as important in the development…
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The Morning Watch
Instead of using modern hours and minutes, the Ancient day was broken up into descriptive chunks of time. The nighttime was made up of several nightly watches. For more on…
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Exodus Timekeeping
My time travelers, naturally, think of time in hours and minutes. One of them even has a digital watch. But how do the Ancient Egyptians—and more specifically, the Hebrews allegedly…
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Sing! Sing a Song
I am looking for songs or sung prayers that might have existed in the pre-Exodus period. To be used by my characters in the weeks before and after leaving Egypt….
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Tribal Banners
Each under the banners (or flags or standards) of his father’s house. What does that mean? When I think of banners used when marching, I think of soldiers marching off…
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I Call to You: Jonah’s Prayer
In my search for prayers and songs original to Tanakh, but earlier than The Song of the Sea, my Rabbi suggested I look at Jonah’s prayer from the belly of…
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God Language
In Judaism, God has many names. Some are quite ancient, others not so much. And many stem from the fact that we are not allowed to say God’s true name…
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Phoebe’s Hair
One of my viewpoint characters is Phoebe, a 12 year girl from 1995 Arizona with a black mom and a European Jewish dad. Her, her mom, and her older brother…
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