Parashat Matot, Get rid of that which causes you to sin!

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This week’s reading from Parashat Matot (Bamidbar / Numbers 30:2-31:54) the Lord commands the men of Yisrael sayingנְקֹם נִקְמַת בְּנֵי יִשְֹרָאֵל מֵאֵת הַמִּדְיָנִים to assemble to make war against Midian to “avenge the children of Yisrael of the Midianites.”  The men went and made war with Midian, burning with fire their cities and killing the men but they kept the women and children alive and brought them before Moshe and Eleazar.  Moshe was angry with the military officers for keeping the women alive because they were the ones who caused the people to sin against the Lord at Baal Peor on the counsel of Bilam.  As a result, Moshe commands the people to kill the boys from the children and kill the women who have “known” a man intimately through sexual relations.  We are shown here that peace and rest with God is found in a life that is not under bondage to our own lusts and desires but in a life that is surrendered to God’s will and purpose according to the Scriptures.  Read More here.

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Duane D. Miller received his Ph.D., M.S., and B.S. Degree in Chemical Engineering from The University of Akron Ohio. He is currently a Chemical Engineering Researcher. Duane’s research expertise has focused upon functional materials development for the control, conversion, and release of process gases in Energy production technologies. His R&D interests include computational chemistry, developing novel technologies for converting biomass to fuels and studying their fundamental interactions during the chemical conversion process. His past experience includes sorbent development for pre- and post-combustion CO2 and SO2 capture, selective absorption of H2S from methane streams, O2 capture for oxy-fuel combustion, photocatalytic reduction of alcohols, NOx reduction catalysis, the development of oxygen carriers to combust fossil fuels (CH4 and coal) for the chemical looping combustion processes, and the extraction of rare earth elements using patent pending sorbents. His research expertise has focused on operando-characterization using Infrared, Raman, and UV-Vis spectroscopy to observe the nature of the catalytic active sites and reaction intermediates under realistic reaction conditions, allowing direct correlation of molecular/electronic structures with catalyst performance during Gas-Solid / Liquid-Solid Adsorption and Photocatalytic Processes with real time online analysis of reaction products using ICP-MS and mass spectrometry. His current work involves a multi-disciplinary approach to developing, understanding, and improving the catalytic gasification of coal and methane, high temperature chemical looping combustion, and the catalytic decomposition and gasification of biomass and coal using novel microwave reactor.​ He has been studying the Hebrew Scriptures and the Torah for 20+ years and sharing what he has learned. The studies developed for MATSATI.COM are freely to be used by everyone, to God be the Glory!