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May 4, 2024 – 10:39 pm | Comments Off on Heal Your Fractured Self43 views

We all have two dimensions: the inner wholesome, beautiful self that is a fount of integrity, honesty, determination, and love. Then we have the outer fractured self that is filled with cravings, greed, lust, flightiness, envy, unhealthy competitiveness, bias, anger, resentment, insecurity, etc. The goal is not only to transition …

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Articles by Lazer Gurkow

Tazria: Fix Me Don’t Break Me

April 3, 2016 – 2:30 pm | Comments Off on Tazria: Fix Me Don’t Break Me3,382 views
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A Typical Exchange
With more than twenty years in the rabbinate I have seen my share of painful human interactions and have become an observer of human nature. I find that two thigs often happen when people berate each other. First, the berator comes on too strong to be heard. Second, …

Shmini: Bribe Yourself

March 27, 2016 – 12:26 am | Comments Off on Shmini: Bribe Yourself3,103 views
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The Bribe
This scene has probably played out in every family home. You are going to a wedding and don’t want to be late. But your children couldn’t care less and take their merry time getting ready. At your wits end, you do what any desperate parent does; you offer a …

Purim: The Divine Curveball

March 20, 2016 – 4:39 pm | Comments Off on Purim: The Divine Curveball2,688 views
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The Curveball
Can you believe its almost April? With the baseball season only days away, my mind turns to my non existent curveball. You see, the curveball is one of the many reasons I will never be a pitcher. My curveball just doesn’t curve. I can throw it straight, fast or …

Pekudei: Having A Bad Day?

March 10, 2016 – 12:55 pm | Comments Off on Pekudei: Having A Bad Day?2,698 views
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Looking Up
If your life is anything like mine, then you have good days and bad. Days when you feel like G-d is on your side and days when nothing seems to go right. When you are in the midst of a full blown bad day, you just want to go …

Shabbat Zachor: Memory Is A Bridge

March 5, 2016 – 8:49 pm | Comments Off on Shabbat Zachor: Memory Is A Bridge2,935 views
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Remember
Can you imagine driving down the street and suddenly realizing that you forgot where you are coming from? If you don’t know where you are coming from, you can’t know where you are going or why. Severed from the past, the present has no bridge to the future.

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Ki Tisa; Don’t Fix It

March 3, 2016 – 12:27 pm | Comments Off on Ki Tisa; Don’t Fix It2,843 views
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If It Ain’t Broke
If it ain’t broke don’t fix it, is a pithy saying from the American South The idea is that if something has a track record of success, don’t tinker with it.
Over the last few decades, the words ‘Jewish continuity’ has become a catchphrase. What can we do …

Vayakhel: Right Down The Middle

March 3, 2016 – 12:16 pm | Comments Off on Vayakhel: Right Down The Middle2,625 views
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One Long Rod
Baseball training begins this week and you know what that means. Everyone is waiting for the fastball right down the middle. Pitchers hope it will blow right by the batter and strike him out. Hitters hope to slap it right out of the ball park. Balls thrown inside …

Tetzaveh: No Name Brand

February 13, 2016 – 10:12 pm | Comments Off on Tetzaveh: No Name Brand2,924 views
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When The Ship Goes Down
Do you pay extra for a name brand? Some do, personally, I don’t. If the no name brand is of the same quality as the name brand, I am quite happy with it. The name is for others. The brand is for me. Sometimes the no …