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March 25, 2024 – 8:50 pm | Comments Off on Why We Must Resist The Cease Fire Resolution38 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

Do We Have Free Choice

January 29, 2023 – 12:56 am | Comments Off on Do We Have Free Choice2,008 views
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Beshalach: Do We Have Free Choice
If G-d knows what we will choose before we choose it, do we have free choice? In our Torah portion we learn that G-d told our ancestors not to save Mana from one day to the next and to trust Him to provide. Some Jews …

Do You Have The Courage To Be Free?

January 21, 2023 – 9:13 pm | Comments Off on Do You Have The Courage To Be Free?521 views
courage-to-be-free

Do we have the courage to be free? As we read about our ancestors leaving Egypt, we realize that they took a huge leap of faith. In retrospect it seems simple. They left a land of suffering and bondage and embarked on an idyllic journey through the desert where food …

Why Ten Plagues?

January 15, 2023 – 3:02 pm | Comments Off on Why Ten Plagues?623 views
ten plagues innerstream.org

This week we are introduced to the ten plagues. Seven plagues appear in our Torah portion and the last three appear in next week’s Torah portion. Have you ever noticed that there are ten plagues, ten commandments, and G-d Created the world with ten utterances? What is the common link?

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The Uniquely Jewish Cry

January 7, 2023 – 9:51 pm | Comments Off on The Uniquely Jewish Cry539 views
jewish cry

Is there a uniquely Jewish cry or do Jews cry like everyone else? On the surface, the Jewish cry is no different than the non-Jewish cry. But the Torah seems to say different. There is a uniquely Jewish cry.
When Batya, Pharoh’s daughter, was bathing in the Nile River, she noticed …

The First Diaspora Jew

December 31, 2022 – 8:13 pm | Comments Off on The First Diaspora Jew807 views
diaspora jew

This week we are introduced to the diaspora Jew. Until this point, the Torah was concerned with holy people who lived in holy places (except for Abraham who lived for a while in Mesopotamia). We read about Joseph’s sale to Egypt several weeks ago, but that is not a true …

Come Down

December 25, 2022 – 10:54 am | Comments Off on Come Down668 views
come-down-innerstream.ca

Today, I want to talk to you the time Joseph instructed his father to, “Come down to me.”
Joseph was viceroy of Egypt—the only country with food in a region otherwise plagued by famine. Joseph’s brothers came to procure food for their families, and Joseph tangled with them. After several days, …

You Are Good

December 17, 2022 – 10:04 pm | Comments Off on You Are Good626 views
you are good

The Chanukah lights broadcast a simple message: you are good. Sometimes we think that if we lose our job, our relationships fail, we succumb to addiction, or are plagued by obsessions, if we are afflicted by doubts and insecurity, if we are sensitive and easily hurt, if we are manipulative …

The Modern Chanukah

December 10, 2022 – 9:34 pm | Comments Off on The Modern Chanukah3,512 views
modern-chanukah

I want to tell you about the modern Chanukah message, but first we must begin with the old Chanukah tale.
“The strong in the hands of the weak, the many in the hands of the few.” This is how our liturgy describes the Chanukah miracle. The strong are the Syrian Greek …