About

In the Hebrew Bible, a formal gathering of all the tribes is referred to as ”the assembly”.  These assemblies usually coincided with the Feast days of the Jewish liturgical calendar.  The Hebrew word that we translate as “the assembly” is qahal.  In the Septuagint, the Greek word used to translate qahal is ekklesia, the same word we translate as “church” in the New Testament.

These qahal were a time for everyone to travel to a chosen place, where they, as a community, would meet God.  Powerful things happened at the qahal.  The “Ten Commandments” were given to Moses, who presented them to the qahal of Israel at Mt. Sinai.  The fiery column of the angel of the LORD led the qahal across the nighttime desert.

David describes the ceremonial beginning of a qahal in Psalm 68.

The ancient qahal was not a place to be shy.  It was not a spectator event.  The entire assembly participated and shared.  And they expected that God would do likewise.

So this blog is a virtual qahal, an assembly where those things that are perhaps difficult, embarrassing, or just plain not fun to voice will be voiced, and I hope that for you, the reader, this will be more than a spectator event.