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March 25, 2024 – 8:50 pm | Comments Off on Why We Must Resist The Cease Fire Resolution40 views

Tzav: Fighting Evil
We are surrounded by evil; every so often, it rears its ugly head as it did on Simchat Torah—the October 7 massacre. Pure evil raped Jewish mothers, burned Jewish babies alive, mutilated their fathers, and beheaded their neighbors. Pure evil burned loving couples clinging to each other, to …

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Articles by Lazer Gurkow

Balak: Shabbat and the Week

July 14, 2019 – 1:01 am | Comments Off on Balak: Shabbat and the Week1,551 views
Shabbat-innerstream.ca

Shabbat is a twenty-five-hour break from the world. It is a wonderful time to unplug and relax. We enjoy quality time with children, family, and friends. We luxuriate in endeavors of the soul such as song, contemplation, study, prayer, and discussion. Unplugging from our phone’s constant pinging, our constant attraction …

Korach: The Selfie

June 30, 2019 – 12:11 am | Comments Off on Korach: The Selfie1,665 views
selfie-innerstream.ca

Selfie pictures are all the rage these days. There are all kinds of tricks to get just the right angle. You can get an arm extender to help you to get the best shot. I saw reports that one of the hottest sale items last year was a pocket-size selfie …

Shelach: A Talit Meditation

June 23, 2019 – 12:05 am | Comments Off on Shelach: A Talit Meditation2,286 views
talit-innerstream.ca

The Talit is a shawl that we wrap around ourselves during prayer. It has four corners, from each of which, hangs eight fringes. Everyday, before we wrap ourselves in the Talit, we separate each fringe from the others and tighten the knots that bind them to the Talit.
As we run …

B’haalotcha: The Individualized Collective

June 16, 2019 – 12:14 am | Comments Off on B’haalotcha: The Individualized Collective1,805 views
individualized-collective-innerstream.ca

An individualized collective is a collective that doesn’t require its members to surrender their individuality before joining the collective. On the surface, this sounds patently obvious; everyone ought to agree with it, right? Wrong. In real life it is very difficult to find the balance between the two. The great …

Naso: Give Your Fellow A Lift

June 11, 2019 – 7:27 pm | Comments Off on Naso: Give Your Fellow A Lift1,808 views
lift-innerstream.ca

Lift is an interesting word. In America, you give someone a lift, when you drive them to their destination. In England, it refers to an elevator. The British meaning makes more sense. A lift should lift you vertically; not transport you horizontally.
The concept of vertical lift is the subject of …

Shavuot: Ten Commandments of Parenting

June 1, 2019 – 10:55 pm | Comments Off on Shavuot: Ten Commandments of Parenting4,599 views
ten-commandments-of-parenting

The ten commandments of parenting is an appropriate topic to discuss in the days leading up to Shavuot, the day we received the Ten Commandments.
On several occasions the Torah casts us as G-d’s children and G-d as our parent. It therefore stands to reason that by studying the Ten Commandments, …

Bechukoti: Retroactive Sin

May 27, 2019 – 1:03 pm | Comments Off on Bechukoti: Retroactive Sin1,732 views
sin-innerstream.ca

Sin is a terrible thing. First, it tempts me, then it punishes me. Why does G-d play this elaborate game with me? Why does He allow me to sin, and then punish me for having sinned?
I am not asking why He permits me to choose. I know the answer to …

B’har: To Be Happy

May 25, 2019 – 11:32 pm | Comments Off on B’har: To Be Happy1,630 views
happy-innerstream.ca

Happy is the farmer who learns to trust in G-d. When Jewish farmers in Israel let their fields lie fallow on the Sabbatical year, they leave their fate to G-d. How do they feed their families if they don’t plant all year? G-d instructs us not to worry about that …