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March 25, 2024 – 8:50 pm | Comments Off on Why We Must Resist The Cease Fire Resolution36 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 in Parsha Insights

In The Moment

June 4, 2023 – 8:25 pm | Comments Off on In The Moment349 views
in-the-moment-innerstream.ca

Do you tend to live in the moment or in your head? When we go on vacation, we always see people experiencing beautiful vistas through the camera’s lens. They want to record the moment for posterity. But they are inside their head, not in the moment. To be in the …

The Kohen

May 27, 2023 – 11:40 pm | Comments Off on The Kohen325 views
kohen

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 …

Follow The Money

May 13, 2023 – 10:59 pm | Comments Off on Follow The Money498 views
the money

One of the most popular antisemitic tropes is that Jews are all about money. But is there perhaps some truth to this? After all, when the Jewish census was taken, Moses didn’t count people. Instead, he counted money. He told each Jew to donate a half silver coin, and he …

Charity Without Poverty

May 6, 2023 – 11:04 pm | Comments Off on Charity Without Poverty521 views
charity without poverty

Can there be charity without poverty?
The world is on a warpath to eradicate poverty. Many billionaires, and wealthy developed countries, are investing heavily in poorer countries and hope to eradicate poverty by 2030. If that happens, the question is, what will happen to charity? Will it become a thing of …

Unrest in Israel

April 29, 2023 – 10:42 pm | Comments Off on Unrest in Israel448 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 …

Every Jew A High Priest

April 24, 2023 – 10:10 pm | Comments Off on Every Jew A High Priest475 views
God's Space innerstream

Did you know that every Jew is a High Priest? I don’t say this tongue-in-cheek. According to the great commentator Rabbi Yakov Bal Haturim, this is precisely what G-d meant when he told our ancestors at Sinai, “You will be for me a kingdom of priests.”[1] Not only priests but …

Because I Said So

April 14, 2023 – 12:37 pm | Comments Off on Because I Said So383 views
because-i-said-so

Because I said so, was a common refrain when I was young. We knew that we were more competent than all adults combined, and we constantly challenged our elders when we were instructed to do something. When the explanation was above our pay grades, their response was often, “Because I …

G-d Is Calling

March 19, 2023 – 12:17 am | Comments Off on G-d Is Calling2,844 views
G-d is calling

When things happen to me, good or bad, I often think that G-d is calling. It is a mantra that I took up in life. It reminds me that nothing is random. Everything happens for a reason. G-d is calling to tell me something. It is either good or bad, …