Parsha in 60 Seconds

 

Within Judaism there are so many ways to think about scripture and who or what makes a person Jewish.  It is true that I myself have a very unique perspective of Judaism and I try to be as biblically based in my thinking as I can be.  Meaning, I don’t always just except a tradition because it has been done for generations.  I am a critical thinker and I love to know the roots of our (The Jewish Peoples) beliefs.

I also want to be completely open with my audience and tell you that I believe Yeshua is the messiah.  I know that just this small fact may scare people away from using my program but I want to be honest and let you know that the intentions of Parsha in 60 Seconds and of the TrankBros youtube channel is academic and entertainment.   With that said, I invite people of every belief to engage in respectful conversation that encourages many to speak out about the specifics within their many views of Judaism as a whole.

My friend who lives near the chabad center in the Richmond district of San Francisco told me he was invited to be a part of a minion while he was wearing a “Jews for Jesus” shirt.  He asked if the fact that he believes in Jesus as the messiah would be an issue and to his surprise the answer was no, but you can speak to the Rabbi later about it.  I think that it was so cool they even asked and that they treated him just like any other Jewish human being.  What I am use to is the immediate shunning I often get when I tell them for the first time that I am a Jew for Jesus.  It seems every Jewish person I meet has one somewhere in the family and they are treated like the black sheep.  Not nice, not healthy, not cool.

Parsh60.com was created to encourage people of all faiths to first enjoy reading Tanach.  A fun little history of why I made the show, it all started because I was going to be teaching/reading the weekly parsha and I was looking for a good summary so I could quickly and without boring anyone to death present the material in a way that my generation and younger can tolerate.

I spent weeks searching on youtube for anything that might help.  I found some stuff from the chabad.org site which was very informative and was even playful.  Their parsha calendar is top of the line and they have several great Rabbis who create content.  I also found a cartoon called “G-D Cast” that uses the talents of many Jewish artists and they tell the stories of the Parsha in a fun 3-5 minute cartoon.  I seriously love their work and wish more of the larger Jewish community would get behind it.

These things were still not exactly what I was looking for. 

1.         Something short (1minute)

2.         No bias (no interpretation, straight from Tanach, fyi = not easy)

3.         Fun and engaging for most ages

4.         Current (using recognized images of today)

5.         Encourages further reading of the Bible

So I took all the aspects of a show I was looking for and an experiment for a one-time presentation of a Parsha in 60 Seconds turned into a huge mini series that has become very successful in driving young people to further their Jewish studies.  It has been a fantastic conversation starter on YouTube and Facebook and though I am very open to discuss my own views of Jesus and How I think he fits into Torah as a parallel to every major character in history I have allowed all views to be represented in proper and respectful dialogue.

In October, I got a message from one of our fans asking me to kick out anyone associated with Jews for Jesus or Messianic Judaism.  Accusing them of infiltrating Jewish pages and trying to make people fall away from Judaism or at least their version of Judaism.

My Response: Sorry, but our page is for all people, Jews, Muslims, Christians, Atheists, Jews for Jesus, anyone is free to share what they think. Also anyone is free to disagree. Unless people are making threats or using foul language at one another I wont delete their opinions no matter how much I disagree with them.

I all fairness, I have received a lot of messages from many sides asking similar things against their opposition.  The answer will always be no, because  I believe in fairness and equality and that people have the ability to also think critically and hold many different opinions while maintaining respect for those who disagree.   There are already to many “Anti” pages out there that swamp us with inverse propaganda against any idea or people group that they just don’t understand.  Being a hater is easy but learning to love your enemy can take a lifetime. 

It is my hope that everyone who encounters the Parsha even if it shorter or longer than 60 seconds, will make it their personal commitment to love their enemy and fall deeper in love with our creator who loved us first.

Shalom from the creator of Parsha in 60 Seconds,

Sean Trank

 

Beautiful Blessing

May the LORD bless you and guard you –

יְבָרֶכְךָ יהוה, וְיִשְׁמְרֶךָ

May the LORD make His face shed light upon you and be gracious unto you –

יָאֵר יהוה פָּנָיו אֵלֶיךָ, וִיחֻנֶּךָּ

May the LORD lift up His face unto you and give you peace –

יִשָּׂא יהוה פָּנָיו אֵלֶיךָ, וְיָשֵׂם לְךָ שָׁלוֹם

-The Aaronic Blessing (Numbers 6:23-26)