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March 16, 2024 – 11:20 pm | Comments Off on Purim: A Nation United41 views

The die was cast. King Achashverosh granted Haman a genocidal license against the Jewish nation. Mordechai was one of the first to learn of the plot and he appealed to Queen Esther for help. Esther explained that it was dangerous even for her to enter the king’s chambers unbidden. Mordechai …

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Articles in Sh’lach L’chah

Heroic Struggles of Ordinary People

June 10, 2023 – 11:55 pm | Comments Off on Heroic Struggles of Ordinary People404 views
Heroic struggles

Heroic struggles are for ordinary people. Extraordinary people have no struggles. They are brilliant and gifted. Their hearts aflame with love; they are humble, kind, generous, and pious. They melt with ecstasy at the mention of G-d, and they tremble with fear at the specter of sin. They follow all …

My Business With G-d

June 22, 2022 – 11:24 am | Comments Off on My Business With G-d1,920 views
talit-innerstream.ca

Every morning before I don my talit, I contemplate my business for the day. By tradition, I separate out each of the thirty-two strings that constitute the tzitzit—fringes on my talit. The purpose is to ensure that they are not entangled or knotted and that they are all intact. However, …

Shelach: The Behavior Mirror

May 29, 2021 – 11:55 pm | Comments Off on Shelach: The Behavior Mirror899 views
mirror

The mirror can be brutally honest. It reveals our beauty and our ugliness. It is not a good idea to stare in the mirror all day, but every so often it is good to take an honest look in the mirror.
When the Jewish people were in the desert, they found …

Shelach: To Smile or To Cry?

June 13, 2020 – 11:51 pm | Comments Off on Shelach: To Smile or To Cry?1,391 views
smile-innerstream.ca

The Torah relates a fascinating human-interest story about people who couldn’t help themselves and had to satisfy their curiosity. As is often the case, when we chase down our curiosities, they turn against us.
It had been more than a year since the Jews had left Egypt, and they were anxious …

Shelach: A Talit Meditation

June 23, 2019 – 12:05 am | Comments Off on Shelach: A Talit Meditation2,268 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 …

Sh’lach: Bad News

June 3, 2018 – 12:07 am | Comments Off on Sh’lach: Bad News2,357 views
bad-news-innerstream.ca

Why is bad news so ubiquitous? Wherever we turn we seem to hear another piece of bad news. This one has cancer, that one broke an arm, another lost his job, and another’s home was flooded. Why is there so much bad news?
The truth is that there is much more …

Sh’lach: The Tetris Effect

June 11, 2017 – 12:08 am | Comments Off on Sh’lach: The Tetris Effect2,320 views
tetris-effect-innerstream.ca

My Tetris Effect Moment
On a recent trip, I was waiting for an airport shuttle to take me to my hotel. When a white bus pulled up with the words “Homestead Hilton” painted on the side, I entered the van. To my chagrin I discovered that there are two Hiltons in …

Shlach: Gradual Growth

June 25, 2016 – 11:13 pm | Comments Off on Shlach: Gradual Growth2,839 views
growth-innerstream.ca

The Struggle
In Canada and the US, this is the season of liberty as both celebrate Independence Day this week. Canada won its independence peacefully, but for the US it was a long struggle, one that proved beyond doubt that all growth is gradual.
The Colonists’ principle complaint against Great Britain was …