In the book Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus, authors Ann Spangler and Lois Tverberg explore how the Jewish culture and heritage of Jesus influenced his life and ministry—and how it should influence our understanding of the Gospels.

Spangler travelled to Israel several times while researching the Second Temple Period and writing the book. Her first flight was aboard El Al Airlines, which is the preferred method of travel for many Orthodox Jews. She writes of being fascinated by the ritual and symbolism of the Jewish faith she observed even during that flight:

I tried not to stare as a bearded man three rows ahead stood up and began carefully winding a long strip of leather around his arm. He was observing a daily custom common among Orthodox Jews—binding small boxes, called tefillin, to both head and arm. These boxes, I knew, contained parchment scrolls inscribed with the ancient command recorded in Deuteronomy 6:6-8: "These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads."

As the young man wound the dark strand of leather around his arm, I could hear him speaking in Hebrew. Later I learned that he was echoing the words of Hosea 2:19-20: "I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the Lord"….

In the seat next to me was a teenage girl, piously bent over her prayer book. When she wasn't sleeping through the long flight, she was reading and praying, rocking rhythmically back and forth as she read and meditated on the Hebrew words. Later, I asked a white-haired rabbi I met in Israel about this practice, called davening. The rocking motion during prayer, I discovered, is a way of expressing that one's whole self, body and soul, is caught up with God. The old rabbi explained that the movement of the body mimics the flickering flame of a candle, calling to mind the saying that "the candlestick of God is the soul of a man."