Balak 5768 - July 11, 2008 |
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My Garbage Blues--A Curbside Meditation
By Levi Jacobson
Does the gentrification of household waste in an elaborate disposal system have implications on our spiritual lives? |
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Everything Happens For "The Reason"
By Yisrael Pinson
I get into a car accident. My car is totaled, my day is ruined, my insurance premium is going up. I am upset at myself, I'm angry at the world... |
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Marriage Without Anger
By Yisroel Susskind
The single greatest challenge faced by couples is how they handle their anger. How does one deal with the inevitable disagreements in marriage, without becoming angry? |
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The Rat
By Chaya Sarah Silberberg
"On one very cold night I was shivering so hard, and I felt that I was freezing to death. All of a sudden I felt a little bit of warmth..." |
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The ABC's of Developing Our Spiritual Resources
By Dr. Miriam Adahan
From early in life, we are told, "We don't hurt the people we love." So it is difficult to trust that the hurts G‑d inflicts on us are out of love. |
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The Parshah in a Nutshell
What Balak is about: a frightened king and a greedy prophet, a sword-wielding angel and a talking donkey, curses transformed into blessings and a messianic prophecy, a plague provoked by pagan debauchery and a zealot who saves the day.... |
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Calling Moses
By Yanki Tauber
Do we surrender to the anti-truth of arbitrary happenstance, or do we embrace the divine calling of purposeful engagement? The difference looks a lot smaller than it is |
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A Lonely Nation
By Shimon Posner
Am levadad yishkon, a nation dwells alone. In ways we can't always appreciate that dwelling is a benefit to us and to the world. History attests to that, even as it does not explain it... |
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Close Your Blinds
By Elisha Greenbaum
We live in an age of revelation; privacy is passé. All the more reason to recall Balaam's vision of the goodly tents of the Israelite camp... |
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The Showdown
By Lazer Gurkow
On one side stood Moses, the greatest prophet of all time. On the other side was Balaam, the far-famed soothsayer. At stake was the most critical question in all creation: Does G-d care about good and evil? |
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The Evolution of Pleasure
Based on the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe
What attraction could the idol Pe'or, and the particularly repulsive rituals associated with it, possibly hold for the Israelites who succumbed to its influence? |
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Matters of Light and Depth
By Melody Masha Pierson
I bought the paints, the brushes, a book, some canvases, and the table easel, went home and cleared off the dining room table and set everything up. There it sat for about two weeks. I walked by it. I peered at it. I arranged it. I examined it... |
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Trade-Offs
By Tzippora Price
This was the first time I had ever come to the Western Wall with a family member. In the past, I had only come alone. But now I had brought my daughter with me, and a deep sense of comfort welled up in me... |
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Safe Swimming
By Chana Lewis
Young children have difficulty discerning danger, so it is wholly the adult's responsibility to protect and establish preventative measures to assure their safety... |
