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May 27, 2023 – 11:40 pm | 60 views

The kohen (priest) plays many central roles in this week’s Torah portion. Primary among them is the priestly blessing. G-d endowed the kohen with the power to confer blessing. It is a potent power. Imagine holding the keys to another’s fortune and happiness. If you choose, you can endow them …

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Articles in Shoftim

With G-d’s Help

August 31, 2022 – 5:01 pm | 608 views
With G-d's Help

The Torah tells us to appoint judges and guardians at the gates of our cities. The city’s gathering place was usually at the gates, making it the fitting place for the courthouse and police station. However, Jewish scholarship has long maintained that there is a parallel teaching here. We are …

Shoftim: The Individual

August 10, 2021 – 9:53 pm | 584 views
individual-innerstream.ca

Today I want to talk to you about the individual. When nations go to war, they institute mandatory drafts. Wartime drafts are different from peacetime drafts. In peacetime drafts, soldiers are eligible for all kinds of exemptions. During war, everyone must serve. Exemptions are rare.
In Jewish law, however, it is …

Shoftim: Ending Racism

August 15, 2020 – 11:00 pm | 1,048 views
racism-innerstream.ca

Racism is a social scourge that has taken many forms of expression throughout the ages. At its heart racism is rooted in the medieval caste society—the feudal lords and the surfs. If you were from noble extraction, you were considered inherently superior. If you were a serf, you were expected …

Shoftim: A True Enemy

August 31, 2019 – 11:05 pm | 1,211 views
enemy-innerstream.ca

A true enemy attacks you because he wants to destroy you. You did nothing wrong, you didn’t offend him, molest him, or steal from him, yet, he attacks because your existence bothers him.
The Torah tells us that when the enemy attacks, we must not fear him even if he appears …

Shoftim: City of Refuge

August 11, 2018 – 11:00 pm | 1,938 views
refuge-innerstream.ca

The Torah tells us that in the messianic era when the land of Israel will expand beyond the borders enjoyed by our ancestors, it will become necessary to designate three more cities of refuge to provide sanction for inadvertent killers. When a Jew killed another inadvertently, the Torah allows the …

Shoftim: Guard Your Integrity

August 19, 2017 – 11:12 pm | 2,310 views
integrity-innerstream.ca

Integrity
The Torah tells us to post judges and guardians at the gates of our cities and “Eradicate evil from amongst you”.[1] We are taught that this rule applies not only to the city but also to the person. Every person is like a city; our limbs are the citizens, our …

Shoftim: Parenting

September 3, 2016 – 11:19 pm | 2,328 views
good parenting - innerstream

The Oys of Parenting
If, as the Torah says, humans are similar to trees, then parenting is a lot like gardening. You can read about it in books, but you don’t know what you are doing until you get your hands dirty.
I don’t know of a single parent that learned to …

Shoftim: The Honest Court

September 3, 2016 – 11:07 pm | 2,782 views
court-ruling

Define Honesty
A tour group visited a court house and watched the court in session. The guide showed them the judge, jury, prosecutor, defense counsel and witnesses. “You see,” said the guide, “it takes many people to turn the wheels of justice.” At that point the prisoner called out from his …