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December 3, 2023 – 8:23 pm | 52 views

The Maccabees won the war one battle at a time. The odds they took on were impossible, but they never thought about the future escalations. Their only concern was with the battle in front of them.
Their first military skirmish was against a minor garrison of soldiers. It was not difficult …

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Antisemitism Rears Its Ugly Head

November 25, 2023 – 10:02 pm | 72 views
antisemitism

Antisemitism has reared its ugly head again. It is no surprise. Antisemitism never really went away. Our sages taught that antisemitism is an unchanging, intractable scourge. Esau will always hate Jacob.[1] The only question is how close to the surface it lies.
The story of Esau and Jacob appears in the …

Unrest in Israel

April 29, 2023 – 10:42 pm | 369 views
unrest in israel

The current unrest in Israel is not about the state of its democracy or the role of its judiciary.  As many analysts have correctly surmised, the tensions are over the direction and soul of the country. The modern state of Israel was founded by secular Zionism, which established a secular …

The Entitlement Generation

March 11, 2023 – 9:58 pm | 658 views
entitlement

The entitlement generation claims whatever they want as their entitlement. Let me tell you a story:
Tim Hortons, a coffee house chain, runs an annual contest called, “Roll Up To Win.” Customers roll back the rim of their coffee cup to see if they won a prize. This year, the contest …

Freedom of Thought

October 1, 2022 – 10:43 pm | 648 views
freedom-of-thought-innerstream.ca

Freedom of thought is a G-d given right. In communist and socialist countries, the individual is made to cede to the collective. In dictatorships the collective is compelled to cede to the dictator. But this is not what G-d intended for us humans. G-d intended for us to have freedom …

Yitro: One Heart

January 15, 2022 – 7:20 pm | 1,024 views
one-heart-innerstream.ca

When the Jewish people camped at Sinai, the Torah tells us that they were united. Rather than saying that they camped at Mount Sinai, the Torah says, he camped at Mount Sinai.[1] This draws the attention of Rashi, the eleventh century biblical commentator, who observes, “As one people with one …

B’ha’alotcha: Tithe for Israel

May 23, 2021 – 12:05 am | 924 views
Israel-innerstream.ca

Israel seems to be a recurring problem for the Jewish people. Ever since Joshua conquered the land, nations have tried to wrest it from us. Our ancestors fought recurring battles against the Moabites, Midianites, Canaanites, Amalekites, Ammonites, and Philistines. Later came the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and finally, the Romans, …

Bamidbar: Israel Is On Fire

May 12, 2021 – 11:12 pm | 2 Comments | 28,237 views
israel-is-on-fire

Israel is on fire this week and we live in an age where this cannot be denied. Footage of skies filled with rockets fired maliciously into densely populated neighborhoods, flood our social media accounts daily. Our brethren live in shelters and too many have been struck. The iron dome is …

Naso: Implicit Bias

May 8, 2021 – 11:04 pm | One Comment | 1,742 views
implicit bias

Implicit bias is the idea that we all harbor prejudices and stereotypes without our conscious knowledge. It rests on theory that since most of our actions are governed by our subconscious, implicit biases are more accurate predictors of our behavior than conscious values.
In other words, we don’t need to behave …