timbarbaho@msn.com
http://watch.pair.com/pray.html
Date: March 12, 1999
The recent postings on the Hebrew Roots Movement have had both postive and negative effects. On the negative side, these reports have incurred the wrath of some HRM leaders which have been named and various of their adherents, whose responses have ranged from vitriolic epithets to calumny to threats of litigation against those who have challenged their teachings. A positive result has been to exorcise these false teachings from the safe refuge afforded them by certain evangelical ministries into an open forum where examination and legitimate debate can occur.

On February 2, we posted an article by Richard Engstom titled MIDRASH: THE CAMEL'S NOSE, which was a refutation of AN EXPLANATION OF MIDASH by Jacob Prasch of Moriel Ministries.

On February 21, Mr. Prasch published his response, which we hesitated to post because the ad hominem attacks rather overpowered the discussion of issues.

However, on March 9 we received the following response from Richard Engstrom, which also contains the full text of Mr. Prasch's letter of February 21.

To publish this composite seemed an appropriate way to present some of the HRM issues under debate in a fair and balanced context.
For reference, the original articles are posted on the Internet:
EXPLANATION OF MIDASH by Jacob Praschhttp://www.cw.co.za/moriel/midrash.htm

MIDRASH: THE CAMEL'S NOSE by Richard Engstromhttp://watch.pair.com/midrash.html

Also relevant to the discussion of Midrash is Vicky Dillen's recent report.
Part VIII explains how Midrash, which is based on the belief that the Torah holds interpretations that are accessible to and may be deciphered by the sages alone, led to Gematria or numerology. This system of interpreting the presumed numerical equivalence of letters of the Hebrew alphabet has been exported to Christianity as the popular Bible Codes.
TO EMBRACE HEBREW ROOTS VIII: GEMATRIA & NUMEROLOGYhttp://watch.pair.com/HRgematria.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~