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March 25, 2024 – 8:50 pm | Comments Off on Why We Must Resist The Cease Fire Resolution37 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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B’haalotcha: The Individualized Collective

June 16, 2019 – 12:14 am | Comments Off on B’haalotcha: The Individualized Collective
individualized-collective-innerstream.ca

An individualized collective is a collective that doesn’t require its members to surrender their individuality before joining the collective. On the surface, this sounds patently obvious; everyone ought to agree with it, right? Wrong. In real life it is very difficult to find the balance between the two. The great …

Naso: Give Your Fellow A Lift

June 11, 2019 – 7:27 pm | Comments Off on Naso: Give Your Fellow A Lift
lift-innerstream.ca

Lift is an interesting word. In America, you give someone a lift, when you drive them to their destination. In England, it refers to an elevator. The British meaning makes more sense. A lift should lift you vertically; not transport you horizontally.
The concept of vertical lift is the subject of …

Shavuot: Ten Commandments of Parenting

June 1, 2019 – 10:55 pm | Comments Off on Shavuot: Ten Commandments of Parenting
ten-commandments-of-parenting

The ten commandments of parenting is an appropriate topic to discuss in the days leading up to Shavuot, the day we received the Ten Commandments.
On several occasions the Torah casts us as G-d’s children and G-d as our parent. It therefore stands to reason that by studying the Ten Commandments, …

Bechukoti: Retroactive Sin

May 27, 2019 – 1:03 pm | Comments Off on Bechukoti: Retroactive Sin
sin-innerstream.ca

Sin is a terrible thing. First, it tempts me, then it punishes me. Why does G-d play this elaborate game with me? Why does He allow me to sin, and then punish me for having sinned?
I am not asking why He permits me to choose. I know the answer to …

B’har: To Be Happy

May 25, 2019 – 11:32 pm | Comments Off on B’har: To Be Happy
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Happy is the farmer who learns to trust in G-d. When Jewish farmers in Israel let their fields lie fallow on the Sabbatical year, they leave their fate to G-d. How do they feed their families if they don’t plant all year? G-d instructs us not to worry about that …

Emor: Making Space for G-d

May 11, 2019 – 10:45 pm | Comments Off on Emor: Making Space for G-d
making-space-innerstream.ca

Making space for G-d is the name of the game during the season of the Omer. There are forty-nine days between Passover and Shavuot, and we enjoy and savor them all. We count each day as if it were a precious jewel as we prepare for the festival of Shavuot. …

Yom Hazikaron: We Remember

May 10, 2019 – 9:23 am | Comments Off on Yom Hazikaron: We Remember

Sweeping vista
Lifeless plane
Victory hollow
Heart of pain
 
Land mass strewn
friend and foe
Lie forever
Battle throe
 
Sand storm rising
Sinai beckons
A soul asunder
Wanders, reckons
 
Patience try
Today on high
Was it worth it
An anguished sigh
 
A rising wave
A tidal crest
We won the war
We lost our best
 
Victory sweet
A price so steep
Oh please dear G-d
My brother keep
 
Sinai captured
Fires cease
Dead, secure
A lasting peace
 
Will …

K’doshim: The Manual

May 5, 2019 – 9:15 pm | Comments Off on K’doshim: The Manual
the-manual-innerstream.ca

The manual for G-d’s creation is the Torah. Just like a manual outlines all the safe and unsafe practices for an appliance, so does the Torah lay out all the proper practices for life.  Just as a manual explains the use of every feature of the appliance, so does the …