Mishpocha Money Matters
Beginning and Long-Range Family Finance
This course is designed to help equip newlyweds or couples anticipating marriage for budgeting and other money matters that come to bear in a marriage setting. The classical rabbis taught that strife in the home is due to money problems (Talmud Bavli, Tractate Bava Metzia, folio 59a). We hope that this course will help keep those money-related strife incidents to a minimum.
Mishpocha (מִשְׁפָּחָה) is Hebrew (and Yiddish) for "family," which is the context for the discussions which comprise this course - whether that be a family of two (a man and his wife) or a family busting at the seams with children. The range of meaning for mishpocha is a little broader in Yiddish than in Hebrew (the parent language), i.e. "the entire family network of relatives by blood or marriage, and sometimes close friends, kin, kindred, clan, or tribe." At the basest level, mishpocha means "those who pour into you and into whom you pour," deriving from the Hebrew shoresh or root שָׁפַך (to pour or pour out). For the purposes of this course, "mishpocha" refers to those living under your household budget.
Your Instructor
Brian Tice was ordained as a Messianic Rabbi by MJR in May of 2000. He obtained his B.Sci. in Bible, Youth Ministry, and Ancient Languages from Cornerstone University and his M.Sci. in Higher Education with an emphasis on Classical Hebrew Andragogy from Kaplan University. He also studied Music and Modern Languages at Kalamazoo Valley Community College, Pastoral Studies at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary, and Middle Eastern History through Tel Aviv University.
Professor Tice has taught Hebrew, Hermeneutics, Tanakh Exegesis, and Apologetics for Cornerstone University (as a Graduate Assistant) and Take Hold Ministry School. He also developed a number of courses for International Messianic Torah Institute and Messianic Jewish Rabbinate as well as teaching homeschool music and cantillation courses in the Grand Rapids area (Michigan).
Professor Tice has facilitated the Torah Schul at his home synagogue the past three years as well as serving as a chazzan and occasionally teaching from the bimah. He has also delivered the D’var Torah on the “Torah Foundations of Faith” radio program on Hebrew Nation Radio.
Professor Tice contributes to tikkun olam by working with the Willing to Wait Leadership Team, an abstinence education ministry of the Pregnancy Resource Center and ministering to the local homeless and poor. He has also volunteered with Little Mary’s Hospitality House, a camp ministry for families with children battling life-threatening or terminal illnesses, for 11 years; Habitat for Humanity for 7 years; Boys & Girls Club of Greater Kalamazoo for 6 years; and several homeless ministries.